Some Songs Considered - Posts Tagged 'sanctuary records'

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A daily music blog of memories, analysis, criticism, and ramblings - soundtracked by rock, pop, hip-hop, indie, etc.

Written by Brian Wall

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February 5, 2010

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

“King of Ska” – Desmond Dekker and the Cherry Pies
(Words/music: Desmond Dacres, available on The Definitive Collection, Sanctuary 2005)

When reggae music started to gather steam in the mid-to-late part of the 1960s, Desmond Dekker was right in the middle of things. By the end of the decade, Dekker wrote one of the most iconic tracks of the time period (“Israelites”) and found commercial success with several other tracks (including Jimmy Cliff’s “You Can Get It If You Really Want”). However, as early as 1964 Dekker declared himself “King of Ska.” Recording with the Cherry Pies (later known as the Maytals, reggae icons in their own right), Dekker seized the throne. While the music sounds dated to the mid-1960s, lyrically Dekker sounds more like a battle rapper than a young reggae star. “I am going to burn your skin like a blazing fire” he declares in the song’s contrasting section, giving his proclamation of power some more teeth to it. If nothing else, it foreshadows the unforgiving nature that made “Israelites” its urgency.

While I can’t refute Dekker’s royal lineage, I will always consider my friend (and frequent SSC commenter) Kevin to be “Ska Royalty” in my world. I met Kevin in college and to this day I’ve never met someone with a more complete knowledge of a genre both in its contemporary form and its historical roots. I’m pretty sure he was introduced to me as “Ska Kevin” and he certainly lived up to the name (all the while possessing one of the most open minds to non-ska music as well). Today is Kevin’s birthday and he’s currently coping with the “Snopocalypse” blanketing the mid-Atlantic region, so I send warm happy birthday wishes along with this post.

More on Desmond Dekker: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: desmond dekker | jimmy cliff | the maytals | 1964 | 1960s | 2005 | sanctuary records |

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January 25, 2010

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

“First of the Gang to Die” – Morrissey
(Words/music: Morrissey and Alain Whyte, available on You Are the Quarry, Attack / Sanctuary 2004)

I remember going to my college orientation, and as an awkward teenager I carefully treaded through a weekend of introductions and attachment. Near the end of the weekend, we were waiting for something – course scheduling, perhaps, but I can’t remember exactly – and were in a classroom in one of the academic buildings. This was when Comedy Central still played Saturday Night Live reruns, so one was on while we waited for whatever we were waiting for. Morrissey was on singing “Glamorous Glue,” a fairly typical Morrissey single (even if I only knew him via the Smiths – a recent discovery for me within that year). Still, one of the people sitting there looked up, directed her friends to the “weirdo” on TV, and returned to whatever they were discussing. At that point, I was ready to go home to enjoy the rest of my summer working and listening to weirdoes on my discman.

I share this story because I feel like it frames how I approached You Are the Quarry when it came out. By the end of time as an undergrad, I established a group of people who indulged my weirdo-heavy musical tastes. When You Are the Quarry came out, I took notice mainly because it sounded as strong as much of his other material even a dozen years later. “First of the Gang to Die,” a song drawing on Morrissey’s adopted hometown of Los Angeles, sounds particularly focused and polished. Most importantly, Morrissey sounds the same as he did in 1992 (and, in many ways, in the 1980s as well), his voice dancing through the guitars to the front of the mix. I’m sure if 2004 Morrissey was playing on the TV that day during orientation, he might have been dubbed “that old weirdo” compared with the pompadour-ed ‘Moz from the early ‘90s, yet it wouldn’t have mattered. If anything would have changed, I would have fixated on the music rather than dwelled on the difference between myself and a stranger. Then again, were I 21 and not 18 during that moment, I might have just said hi to a few other people in the first place.

More on Morrissey: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

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