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Madness March 2025 Pre-Show
152 Plays20 days ago
IT HAS RETURNED and this time Checkered Past is going WAY BACK to do a very Old School bracket! In the pre-show for the upcoming bracket, Rob, Celine and Joey start with a little poo talk before diving into all the songs that didn't make the cut. What is the tournament this time? Did Rob cut the wrong songs? Will the listener be enraged?
Vote your predictions here: https://challonge.com/thetrojanwar
Hosts: Rob, Celine and Joey
Engineer: Joey
Editor: Cutman
Theme Song: OAO by Mad Bomber Society
Skassociate Producer: Chris Reeves of Ska Punk International
Special Thanks: Mega Michi and Adam the Ska Mailman
Merch: www.checkeredpast.ca/merch
Patreon: www.patreon.com/checkeredpast
Hear this episode's Playlist!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to HEP THE TROGEN WAR!
00:00:00
Speaker
In the spring of 2025 came classic Scott to Edmonton. Checkered Pass took the music from the genre and put it to the pod, and came up with this bracket and called it, HEP, HEP, HEP, HEP, HEP, THE TROGEN WAR!
00:00:35
Speaker
What up, Checkerheads? Welcome to Checker Pass, the Skycast with Celine and Rob, the show where a mountain-standard time and a wonderful world, beautiful people. It's all relative to the size of your steeple. Explore the history and impact of a different band each episode. Hope to bring in new fans along the way.
Rob Marley and Solemn Daud's Humorous Introduction
00:00:50
Speaker
I'm Rob Marley, and this is my sister and co-host, Solemn Daud. Whoa, Solemn Daud?
00:00:57
Speaker
Yeah, instead of Clement Dodd, I added an E in there. That's fun. So it's Silemon Dodd. Why did did Marilyn Manson get involved in the intro? Cause there's a song called Wonderful World, Beautiful People. It's a Jimmy Cliff song. Okay. And then it made me think of Marilyn Manson. Speaking of which, this is our co-host with the most toast, Joey Cliff. Joey Cliff. That's fun. Yeah, that's fun. You can get it if you really want. That's that's a Cliff song, right? That's a Jimmy Cliff song.
00:01:27
Speaker
Yeah, you got it. like I got one of them.
Rob's Funny Family Anecdote
00:01:30
Speaker
The theme's relevant to today's episode. Yeah. ah Yeah, it's a very exciting day. um So I don't know if you have the pick it up song, but I have a quick pick it up before we get into serious music. I did not put it in. That's okay. There it is. where we left now um began i' um when we Nice.
00:01:49
Speaker
So I teased you before that I have a poop story. um So before potty, I have a poop story. You're teasing us. I was teasing you. Yeah, because you didn't have one and I did. So I had to tease you about it. ah So fun fact, my son has had what I will call an itchy anus for weeks now. That sucks. And my first thought was He has a little baby hemorrhoid, right? I was like, oh, he's got a little hemorrhoid. Ariane thought, no, I think he's got worms. I was like, oh, he's scooting around. I mean, kind of. So took him to the doctor.
00:02:32
Speaker
Doctor was trying to do an exam on him, but wasn't having it, as you can imagine. No eight-year-old once had to put both dead. I would like it either. Me either, yeah. Doctor was being friendly. He was doing his best. Doctor was doing his best. And then was like, here's requisitions for some tests. And I looked up online, I was like, oh, the worm test is like scotch tape. You're supposed to put some stickiness around the bum, and it's supposed to pull off worms or whatever. I was like, I can make it happen.
00:03:02
Speaker
So I bring the requisitions to the whatever the precision labs and they are like, OK, here's your scotch tape test. And then here's two bottles for um for stool samples. And I was like, oh, that's part of this. I see. Have you ever had to take a stool sample? No, no. And I'm sure one day it will have to be a nightmare. Oh, my God. and like I can imagine it would be a nightmare doing it for yourself, but doing it for your child. Holy smokes.
00:03:31
Speaker
Now, let's let's add to the fact that he had some diarrhea recently. yeah So there were a lot of fits and starts in terms of getting it done. And plus, there's a lot of rules about it. But anyway, we ended up having to ah what you have to do is you have to spread some like saran wrap over the toilet and then poop into the saran wrap. no Yeah, that makes more sense. again yeah Yeah, it was.
00:03:57
Speaker
pretty loose ah So no shout out to my wife Arianne who I was I was like stealing myself to do it I was like I'm gonna I'm gonna do this I got everything ready and I was like I'm good and she's just like screw it I'm doing it and she just gets in there with a spoon just scooping it in there and just going for it and got it done. ah Please tell me you threw out the spoon i don't know where it went i don't know oh i lost track ofeal spoon but
00:04:29
Speaker
I whipped that to the lab so fast it made me like, I was like, I'm out of here. and just that when What day was that? Yesterday. Okay, because I feel like we, me and mom definitely didn't help by like getting him so many treats at the movie theater. yeah my Pizza, chocolate, popcorn. That's the theater experience. that totally bob It definitely didn't help the poop situation, I can imagine.
The Jamaican Ska March Madness Bracket
00:04:54
Speaker
but anyway um that's my that's my big update and do you know oh wait you don't know you don't know it was just yesterday so next time we record i'll have a i'll let you know if i have worms and then i have to check past because that's the that's the second thing the doctor said if it tests positive you and your wife have to get tested because it's like lice kind of hey yeah which lasts for inside your intestines And it's actually around the bumhole, but ah oh ah Will does call it butt lice. So yeah, so it makes sense. It's kind of funny. yeah but bun So there'll be more butt lice updates as we go along anyway, so this is. the
00:05:34
Speaker
Wonderful. Anyway. What a great story. A great story. Let's go on to the. And there was actually some literal picking it up. That's right. The offspring would be so proud. Yeah. So if this is your first time listening to the podcast, that's what we talk about. We always spend about five minutes talking about poop.
00:05:57
Speaker
Very excited for you, you're probably like, oh wow, this this podcast is gonna talk about old Jamaican Ska, that's my favorite Ska. Oh, five minutes of poop talk. Well, I'm not recommending this to any of my friends. ah This is Madness March. All month long, we are doing a March Madness style bracket to pit 32 classic Jamaican Ska songs in head-to-head battle to determine once and for all the greatest Ska standard of all time.
00:06:20
Speaker
The votes will be opening next month and you can check the bracket at Shalone's, actually no, the votes will be as of record, as of record. ah So I'll be opening up the bracket right away and it's at shalone's.com slash the Trojan war. ah very much tro It's a good one. Yeah. It's a very good one. Also the, the playlist is up. If you're on shitty, shitty Spotify, Spotify is it owned by meta?
00:06:46
Speaker
Oh, it's just like they're just giving money to every kind of fascist and shit person. Are they? So we have nothing. Also they're cutting. Wait, because YouTube may be okay? Hold on. Hold on. There's no way YouTube may be okay. They changed and the last time they changed they made it so you had to have like a thousand streams to get any kind of payment on your song?
00:07:05
Speaker
Now they're changing it, so you have to have a thousand month monthly listeners to get any kind of. tam And yeah, they don't know. Basically, none of the bands that we have even on the show have like a thousand monthly listeners like that. They'll have a breakout song that probably has like 10,000 listens or something. Yes, exactly. So yeah, that sucks. Yeah. So it's but either way, you know what? I am. um I am a YouTube music gal. YouTube. So my I can't cano go my Google.
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah. Owned by Google. Yeah. um And what is it? Is Google a little better than metal? No. That's all mag seven. Anything mag seven related. It's the same thing. They just don't have a guy guy. Like meta's got a guy who we can be irritated at. Google is just like a faceless entity we have to be mad at. Honestly, I've been watching a lot of like travel Hong Kong videos and like that shits the future and like Hey, if I have to learn yeah Cantonese. Yeah. can I have very good news for you about Hong Kong. They all speak English. Sick. It's an English colony. It was an English colony, man. So, you know, I actually didn't know that
Jamaican Ska History and Influences
00:08:12
Speaker
colonialism, right? Yeah. damn Damn. I'm like, just let China be the superpower.
00:08:18
Speaker
that's where i'm at yeah but honestly yeah let of after after their last big ai explosion whatever that thing is that yeah we'll see also also we all know that they're not saying it's good i was sick of the other thing we all know the current superpowers going down the fucking tubes it's only going to take so long Canada? Well, we'll go along. We go down with the ship. Canada's like a soup or power, not like a super power. Canada's the violin player on the Titanic. Were we talking about Ska? Yeah, Jamaican Ska, another colony.
00:08:53
Speaker
The, the it very relevant the match-ups are based on the order of Jamaica. yeah Yeah. All right. Here's how it's going to work. Today's the pre-show. We'll be discussing the key players and the tracks that I ended up cutting week one into the CPSC crew.
00:09:11
Speaker
We'll do the matchups in round one in rapid succession, basing it only on the first one to two minutes of the song. Then we'll be bringing on guests for weeks three to five, all the way through the finals, limiting half the tracks each week until an ultimate winner is crowned. In the event of a tie, we'll just go to Discord.
00:09:25
Speaker
I should have been just doing that. I don't know why I don't just do that. I'll just go to Discord directly. So what is Jamaican Sky you may be asking? Well I can't believe it took us over three years to talk about it. It was formed in Jamaica in the late 1950s by combining the local sounds of Mento and Calypso with the R&B and Jump Blues imported by American soldiers in the aftermath of World War II.
00:09:45
Speaker
Thanks to DJs and sound system operators such as Prince Buster, Cox & Dodd, and Duke Read, the style was brought to the forefront by hiring local musicians to create a style that was definitively Jamaican, which coincided with the liberation of the country from the English in the early 60s.
Ska to Rocksteady Evolution
00:10:00
Speaker
This culminated in the release of Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop in 1964 that exploded internationally, becoming Jamaica's first commercially successful song. Studios on Orange Street, such as Studio One and Treasure, became hotspots for local bands to record.
00:10:15
Speaker
with slower soul music becoming more popular in the U.S., the Ska sound slowed to create rocks steady in the late 1960s before slowing further to the more African-forward reggae by the 1970s. Many Jamaicans began immigrating to the U.K. in the 1960s, including the legendary Duke Reed, who founded Trojan Records and imported numerous Jamaican releases that exploded in popularity, creating the crossover hits that we are talking about today, hence why we are calling this the Trojan War. Don't tell me. Hell yeah.
00:10:44
Speaker
Yeah, so basically there's no real, if you look at the bracket there's no rhyme or reason to it. I based it mostly on like what were crossover hits in the UK for the most part, um plus some like bigger songs like I just kind of mesh mashed it together. um Normally I have some kind of rule set for making these and this one it was a little bit more of a hodgepodge.
00:11:08
Speaker
It's not going to be exclusively Jamaican artists either. There will be some English artists because some of the people came over to record with Trojan. Plus, it's not just Trojan records. It's everything. um I didn't want to just stick to them. I wanted to have all of the Jamaican ska songs together. And it's like standards, basically yeah trying to call the ultimate ska standard is I guess we're looking for. This list of songs absolutely fucks.
00:11:35
Speaker
Like as a playlist, it's so fucking good. Like how are we going to ever choose? i It's going to be hard. I've listened. I've honestly like I think every time we've done the bracket, like I'll listen to the playlist like when it gets close, but I've already listened to the playlist for this whole like.
00:11:51
Speaker
three or four times i'm just happy it's not all real big fish will i sneak a real big no i don't know i know they're not this is so far from what they are here get out of town. So let's do it this is all songs that i cut basically.
00:12:14
Speaker
uh that were in contention but i went with another song instead or decided that this artist wasn't you know relevant enough to be a part of it but robs flops right the robs robs that's So let's start by talking about Byron Lee, who is like one of the OG Ska guys and the Dragonaires. He actually was a Mento artist, then became a Ska artist, then became a Calypso artist. So he's done it all. fresh Is he a Freshmaker?
00:12:46
Speaker
Yeah, I'm curious as to what ah like I'm pretty men i'm aware of. wood What's a Mentos? Yeah, what's a Mento? I'm aware of what Calypso is. I just don't really know what Mento is. What's a Mentos? Jer can point out Mento like nobody's business. Every time they're like, oh, this has a real Mento flavor. I can't pick it out. It's really hard for me. But I think it's one of those things if you know, you know.
00:13:07
Speaker
OK, but it's it's like a pre-scaw kind of sound. Yes, it was. Oh, wicked it is the Caribbean. And it just says if you know, you know. Yeah, it's an ass-jare. Yeah, ass-jare. It's the Caribbean sound and like because it's not Jamaican. I want to say trindadian. It's trindadian. Is it steel drums?
00:13:26
Speaker
I don't believe so. You said it's not clip though clip. No, it's not. So they added clips or admin to. Oh, yeah. Those two genres came in. OK. That all kind of came together. But yeah, I think Mentos Trinidadian, but it's like it's from the Caribbean. Yeah. OK. So this was a very early hit ish in Jamaica that I didn't include just because it's kind of it's pretty it's pretty like I wouldn't consider
Byron Lee's Musical Journey
00:13:50
Speaker
it Byron Lee's best efforts, but it's like it was big when it came out. This is a cover of Over the Rainbow. Oh.
00:13:58
Speaker
It's not, it's no, um the guy with the ukulele, that great Hawaiian man. Nope, this is a whole band. Rhoda is?
00:14:08
Speaker
So you can hear how this is like, still based on the R and&B. Yeah, very much R&B. Kind of thing, as opposed to like the full Ska, so this is like, we're prepping it. It's a little modern for me. Yeah, yeah this recording quality is too high quality. I like things with a little grip. Yeah.
00:14:33
Speaker
What is that? is they It's such a little yeah short horn. Is it a horn? Yeah, yes it's like a very short. It's like they're doing a short. Oh, that's it. Was it a keyboard? It might have been a keyboard of some sort. It was a keyboard, I think. likeling Not a short horn. Really short note. Like a little cornet. Yeah, I thought they were maybe like stifling the note.
00:14:57
Speaker
I don't know. That's fun, though. That's a fun version of that song. Right. It's kind of cool. I'll never listen to that again. OK, let's get to it. Let's get to it. I'd be bopping. I'm sure I at the time that you would have been at the saw cop. You would have been twisting at the saw cop to that. That would have been good. Yeah.
00:15:14
Speaker
Alright, let's get to the big one. Prince Buster. He kicked it off, right? That's right. I had so many Prince Buster options. I think I went with the right one. It's not one step beyond. I wasn't going to do that. I wasn't just going to take a winner from the previous bracket. Do you have Prince Busters on the list?
00:15:30
Speaker
Or do you? Oh, yeah, you of course. yeah I was like, this we I went with a baby sometimes you're crazy. Sometimes you're crazy. Sometimes I'm crazy. Sometimes I'm crazy. This time. No, I went with a big one. I went with in the bracket. It's the one where the guns don't argue. It had to be. Right. Yeah. But this is where the band Madness got their name. It's a song called Madness by Prince Buster.
00:15:56
Speaker
Well we'll be a little closer to Ska. It's still pretty rock and roll, but that's more Ska. This is a good time. It's so good. Also nobody toasts like Prince Buster.
00:16:23
Speaker
had to be done. It had to be done. I'm just like... Who's they? yeah I just like a lot of times when we listen to the kind of older stuff, I just sort of like look at it in the context of the time. But I'm really trying to like...
00:16:48
Speaker
transport my astral self to like standing in a club while this music is going on and it would have been so fucking sick it would have been like like while then everyone dancing yeah like when this was new that would have been so fucking sick Yeah, right.
The Scatalites' Contribution to Ska
00:17:07
Speaker
And everybody's dressed up like that was like the thing in like the old Jamaican dance halls is like, yeah, you had to get you had to like wear the suits and everyone was wearing like dresses and stuff. And it was like an event like you went to go like hang out. It was cool. Yeah, that's right. Plus all the people in the dance hall like after show like hall parties still have that energy. Like when you go to like a dance hall hall party, it's like people are fucking dressed up. But only at 2am, at like 5 or 6am, then they have no clothes on, right? That's the way it works. Yeah. All right. We haven't even talked about the scatalites yet. I have definitely brought a scatalite song onto the bracket. It's one of the big ones. But for this purposes, I've put a few different scatalite songs that were like, because the thing is, is that
00:17:57
Speaker
sometimes the scatalites would be on a song and not call themselves that because they were the ah house band or it goes under the name of one of the members. Like it gets kind of confusing a little bit as to what a true scatalite song is. um this is ah This is one of Don Drummond's songs that is a scatalite standard that I didn't put onto the bracket and people might be mad about this one. ah But this is the classic Eastern Standard Time.
00:18:22
Speaker
I'm pissed. Fucking pissed off. Oh yeah. It's not my time. Were they the first Ska-pun band name? Yep. Had to be, right? Had to be. Had to be. Started off early. Yeah. Let's not break Jesus into it though, you know? 60 years of Ska-puns. Easter. Oh. but Jesus. Eastern, not Easter. Eastern.
00:18:47
Speaker
Easter standard time. Yeah, that's the pun. Yeah. It's a Christian reggae band. Easter standard time. You guys can have it. You guys can have it. Reese, if you're listening.
00:19:20
Speaker
Also Don Drummond is the trombone player. That's why it's a his song. Because it's a trombone forward. Crazy trombone. Yeah, I cut it off with the solo. but i mean Classic romp. Don Drummond, one of the best, plays the trombone like a motherfucking riot, which is poorly. He would be forgetting that part of it.
00:19:41
Speaker
here's here's someone that's more associated with reggae but uh was that big ska guy at some point this is bob marley and the whalers which is peter tosh and bunny other guy bunny whaler i don't know but yeah they' all they're all whalers right robert marley robert marley yeah Good ol' Bobby Marr. That's what I used to call him. um I have a Whaler song obviously on the bracket, ah but I went with One Love because the classic version of One Love it was recorded much later, and but this was still from their early days and I thought it would be cool to listen to it. so was I like don't even remember the early version of this song.
00:20:24
Speaker
It's crazy that Bob Marley broke out so huge, Abe. Totally crazy. Huge, you huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge,
00:20:38
Speaker
one Reggae wouldn't have exploded internationally if it wasn't for Bob Marley.
Bob Marley and the Whalers' Transition to Reggae
00:20:45
Speaker
You accept that. Peter Tosh must have been pissed. yeah wellknown fact i'm actually one of ah bar marley's children that's I also our coffee and guitar company. Aren't we all possibly Bob Marley's children? yeah There's only one one, right? This song, this version of this song is very different from like the classic, but quote unquote classic version. Yeah.
00:21:10
Speaker
um Because they were a lot more like the Jackson Five, I would say, originally, where it was like all three of them harmonizing. Right. And then Bob Marley was kind of like the solo singer. Yeah. I found out a crazy thing that like the Jackson Five had like a reunion, but it was like that it never aired because it was the day before 9-11. I just knew that too. I think we walked we were must have been watching. We lived together. Isn't that crazy? All of them got together and did a reunion show. Yeah. The day before 9-11. And it just, but now yeah. yeah yeah nine ten and So the Jackson five caused 9 11. It was too much. It was too much. It was too much for the world to handle. It doesn't melt steel beams. I'm telling you, telling you that. And they knew it and they knew it.
00:21:59
Speaker
Okay. um Oh, here's ah here's a person that's definitely on the... bra Okay, I had to think about a lot of songs for good old Desmond Decker, who's not Ska, I guess, Rocksteady, right? But definitely in the vein of what we're talking about. But Desmond Decker had hit after hit, after hit, after hit. And I think I went with the right choice because it was so big in the UK. I went with Israelites on the on the bracket.
00:22:25
Speaker
um but this was this was a close second this was the one i was like oh am i gonna am am i gonna catch strays for not having this one in um because this song fucking rips this is they won't be straight they'll be right at you yeah this is a fucking good song lou oh it's so good i i also believe you made the correct choice but hot damn this is a good one
00:22:55
Speaker
I was legit sad when Desmond Decker died. Like legit sad. Like that bum me out. Yeah. Real bummer.
00:23:11
Speaker
This is getting close to reggae already almost. Yeah. Definitely more in rock steady still, but it's getting there.
00:23:30
Speaker
Just badass song stuff, dude. Just loonin' and shootin'. Fuckin' gods. Ricky's. Yeah. That's what he's talkin' about. Loonin' and shootin'. Loonin' and shootin' in his Chantytown.
00:23:44
Speaker
Desmond Decker yeah ah used to get in so much shit because they used to say like he was promoting gang violence. But just like all all these guys were all the Scott guys were just like, no, don't do that. Rudy, don't do it. That's what all the songs are about. They're like, Desmond Decker was the ice cube of his generation. Yeah. Yeah. Social commentary read between the lines.
00:24:10
Speaker
It is pretty funny to be like, hey Rudy, all of these cool things we're talking about, don't do it. Nope. It's cool stuff. It's cool to sing about it, but it's not cool for you to do it. Okay, let's listen let's listen to a ah straight up skylight song. This is the song that they wrote about the liberation of Jamaica from the English. This is freedom sound. Dang.
00:24:56
Speaker
people play this song. You know what I mean? yeah Oh yeah.
00:25:03
Speaker
Somebody's got a stack of vinyls in their planes. yeah This type of music. These catalytes were very good at their instruments. Yeah. yeah
00:25:18
Speaker
Trombones and saxophones. From like other music at this time, like they're more musician-y. Yeah. Yeah, because I guess rock and roll would have been really taken off around the same time, right? Or a little bit earlier, it would have still been very rock and roll, which was not really a musicians music, I would say.
00:25:39
Speaker
It's kind of crazy. I feel like the only instrumental songs they really like are like reggae, rocksteady, you know, ska. I feel like I don't really listen to any other instrumentals of any genre. Something like electronic music can be... It's got to have a little something something. That's true. It's got to have at least like one word. They usually have a phrase or something. Yeah, like... To the D-A-N-C-E. One, two, three, four, five. That's how we make it right.
00:26:09
Speaker
That sounds good. yeah But yeah, I need like I need that one one word. Yeah. How about that? But I don't need I don't need a word in Scott and Reggae. Oh, it can just be. Yeah. Just be. Yeah. I feel like in this genre. Yeah. But not third wave. No, they they need singing with no vibrato. Yeah.
00:26:34
Speaker
All right, let's go into some ah some more ah bands that do a lot of ah like harmonies. This is a John Holtz band. And the song that I picked from this this group called The Paragons was obviously tied as high because of Blondie, but also because it's just ah the original is just such a it's such a jam. um But this is another one of their more well-known songs ah called Blackbird Singing.
00:27:08
Speaker
That's a fucking killer start for a song. Up my alley.
Rocksteady's Bass and Reggae Influence
00:27:15
Speaker
We're in that Rocksteady vein. They turned up the bass. Yup. That's how you know you're getting into reggae territory. Yeah, as the bass got turned up. Horns down, bass up. That's the big difference between Scott and reggae.
00:27:29
Speaker
That's a lot of pressure on And the drummer literally is just playing side-stick and kick drums. like face the The rhythm section for Rocksteady and Reggae has to be so fucking locked in because it is amazing but uber simple. like So simple that if it's not dead on, it's trash. Yeah.
00:28:07
Speaker
also i find the bass in rocksteady and reggae is uses that old jazz thing like it's the notes they're not playing yeah like they're just all they use a lot they use space a lot very effectively in all this traditional like scone reggae stuff like the bass players lots of pauses and whatnot that are really like yeah it's it's so sick like if you listen to like especially if once you get into dub like then then it's like basically three notes like realistically the bass player is playing three notes and sometimes one yeah it's just about the rhythm of playing it not as much about the actual melody of what you're playing yeah the feel it's all in the feel all in the feel
00:28:51
Speaker
ah Before we hit the break I got, speaking of dub, ah good ol' Scratch Perry had a band called the Upsetters and before he became the reggae dub king of the world, he had a ska band and they had some they had some pretty, they had some jams. ah This was one of the bigger ones that I didn't put in there, it's Dollar in the Teeth.
00:29:15
Speaker
Makes me want a root beer. Dollar and teeth? No, because we keep talking about the dub. Oh, yeah. and The A and dub. Just ah just a mama with cheese? Hell, yeah. I feel like I called A and W the dub. I call it all it the dub all the time. I call it the dub. I'm sorry, Americans, that your A and W sucks butts, because our A and W is fucking sick. It's good. Depending on location. The one in your house is good. The one on white is not good. No.
00:29:44
Speaker
No, that one is sus. It's like the worst one. This is a banger. Yeah, this is groove.
00:29:59
Speaker
That's fun. Yeah. What's that, the little thing with the stick and the thing? the yeah the j yeah that's a thing ribbed thing and it's Like that Kurt plays sometimes yeah on stage that metal round thing with metal round thing Yeah, looks like a cheese grater. Yeah kind of Kind of a nice little sound Yeah, all of these sounds are nice little sounds.
00:30:26
Speaker
but do do good to but dig good good Also, I feel like um between all of these songs and all of the songs in the bracket, we've pretty much covered every ska bass line. Yeah. Because after this, they're just taking these bass lines and making them more intricate, basically.
00:30:47
Speaker
ah The song I do have in the bracket for the upstairs was Return of Django. That song is good. Alright, let's take a break. When we get back, we got some more old ska songs to listen to.
00:31:09
Speaker
Welcome back to Checkered Past. This is the Madness March 2025 pre-show, The Trojan War. And we talked about him before. This is a a gentleman named Jimmy Cliff, who people may know from movies. um And- Is he an actor too? Was he an actor as well, or was he just in movies? Harder they come, harder they come, sorry. Oh, um well that, yeah, that's his song, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and he's in it. Okay. And he's, yeah, he's, he, he I believe he is the,
00:31:39
Speaker
main dude in that. Yeah. Starring Jimmy Cliff. Confirmed. Plus a whole bunch of other people. The harder they come is, ah yeah, classic scob gangster movie, I guess. Best way to put it. So the the song I put in there was ah um like the not the not the song the harder they come but uh the you can get it if you really want it i think is yeah probably the most famous one so i just kept it simple so it went with the the famous song but uh this one i was considering because it's very skyy this is wonderful world beautiful people it's all relative to the size of or your steeple yeah it's not your final fault that you're always wrong
00:32:23
Speaker
Oh, isn't something about something about on your knees? I don't know. For some trees. I'm going to use something. Can't spell your own shit on your knees. This is very good.
00:32:41
Speaker
Thing in the clip, really, Tambo to sing it. Uh, very polished studio recordings from Jimmy. Yeah. Yeah. I always thought of his peers. I like, I always thought Jimmy cliff stuff sounded like, uh, like the production sounded closer to like seventies funk almost. Or a Motown. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely has a Motown production, especially with the strings and whatnot. Yeah. And the Tambo. Yeah. Yeah. The Tambo. Love that Tambo.
00:33:18
Speaker
Who'd have thought that a bunch of little symbols on a plastic half moon thing could like transform a song like that?
00:33:36
Speaker
Hell yeah. So good.
00:33:46
Speaker
I like that, but I am glad that we've mostly moved to horns rather than strings. Yeah. Scott sound a lot different if it was all if it was all strings, you know. Yeah, that'd be really different genre. Yeah. Yeah. Then we'd all sound like bandits of the acoustic revolution. I guess. or I guess. I don't know. I don't know. Who am I? Music. All right. Here's another guy that. Yeah, that's what we're talking about.
00:34:15
Speaker
uh here's another guy that i had a lot of choices on uh but i yeah joey since joey is here i had to go with monkey man i had to sorry i couldn't keep it out of contention that's understandable but also i'm kind of mad that pressure drop is not in there. but yeah I also was considering 54 46 was my number. Which is also fantastic song. ah But yeah, Toots and the Maytals man. Holy shit. That's yeah that's close to one of my absolute all timer favorite like
00:34:49
Speaker
Ska groups, classic Jamaican Ska groups, just i think that's so good. I mean, yeah, I feel like the world agrees. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's because it bridges the ska and the rock steady like it's like it hovers in between the two. And yeah, it's just incredible. So but yeah, this is pressure drop didn't make the cut. Sorry.
00:35:13
Speaker
This song is like probably in my top like 15 songs of all time even. but all But like every version of it, like there are many, many versions of it and just the song in general is so fucking good.
00:35:29
Speaker
So soulful? Yeah. The AgriLite's version is very good too. Very good. And the specials version is really good. That like boss reggae beat is just so good. Hell yeah.
00:35:55
Speaker
I love, one of the things I love about kind of this era of reggae is they're very clearly pulling from Motown, but like, it's not as perf, like the harmonies aren't as dead on as like Motown, so it just yeah makes it sound a little bit more, just just has a little more grit. A little more like a live feel. Yeah, yeah.
00:36:18
Speaker
Probably because it was recorded live. Oh, yeah. Like whenever they recorded this Jamaican ska stuff, it was like one taking her out. Like, yeah, you got like 30 minutes to get your track out. It was all singles, almost no albums. Right. So it was just like, yeah, let's let's get A side. Let's get B side. And then I got another guy coming in. He's got to do it, too. And the ska lights are like, oh, we're learning this song right now. or Yeah. the Baba Brooks Band or whoever was present at the time. Yeah, there's like whatever studio musicians were there. Motown had like it's in studio people, too. But like I know that the recording process at Motown was like rough. Like it was so perfect. Right. To get everything to sound so good as opposed to Stax would probably be more aligned with like the Jamaican stuff because Stax was a little bit was the grittier version of Motown. A little rougher around the edges. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if
00:37:10
Speaker
like those studio musicians they had to if the song wasn't recorded already did they do homework or did they just go in and like literally like learn the song instantly and then record it like that's apparently so apparently they just learned it yeah like ah a lot of the time they just learned on the spot because they were such good musicians yeah they would like be like yeah i got it so i mean a lot of it is like because the beats are all similar it's like oh we're doing a beat that's like this if you know that type of music yeah you'll yeah understand like the patterns and yeah but like that there's a fact of the future thing you know like watch me for the changes and it's in whatever like it's that's probably kind of the same deal i would imagine if you're that good of a musician
00:37:55
Speaker
Yeah, and that's why blues follows the same patterns, too, so that like blues musicians basically can play with anybody. Yeah. um Same thing. I guess jazz is like the opposite. It's like, well, there are no rules anyway, so you just come in and do whatever you want. Yeah. All you have to do is know the rules enough to break them. Yeah. So it's what you're not playing, right? Yeah. Anyway, I think Toots is going to go far in the bracket. That's my that's my guess. I bet. Oh, yeah.
00:38:20
Speaker
All right, we're going to go on to a guy that I actually don't remember what song I picked from from Derek Morgan. That's in the ah that's in the main bracket. But he is also one of the guys that has a lot of kids and they all have a band called Morgan Morgan Heritage. Yeah, that's why there's like six or seven of them in a band together.
00:38:39
Speaker
um But he is ah he was the big inspiration for a lot of skinhead reggae. So he's he's definitely one of the forefront members of this. So this is his song moon hop. Is it possible that the song in the bracket is something about skinhead, something or other? Because there was a song that I hadn't heard that. Oh, this is good.
00:39:11
Speaker
Yeah, this is basically like fast forward 40 years and we're at the AgroLights. Yeah. And this was cribbed pretty huge for um for the skinhead moon stomp.
00:39:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, the song I had was Housewives Choice. Housewives Choice was the song I pick, which is his beef song with Prince Buster. That's fun. Because they hated each other. Because they hated each other. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. think the band got them? Hell yeah.
00:39:52
Speaker
That is like quite the fry. Yep. Quite the vocal fry. So it has a little bit of edge. Yeah, that's that fucking rule. Which I was assuming maybe why the skinheads liked it so much. Probably. It's a little faster. Yeah. Yeah. Also got the stomp. It's a Scott guy. They have heavy boots. Yeah. They got to do a stomp. If they can't stomp, they're not interested. Those skinheads, as far as I know. Can't stomp, won't stomp. Exactly.
00:40:23
Speaker
You just can't stomp it. ah and so the nexts So here's the next Scatalytes adjacent ah song that I have queued up um because David Ansel Collins was a band we talked about way back in the day with the Techniques episode. ah So Techniques and David Ansel Collins are both on the bracket. Didn't queue any of their music up because We already did an episode on them. Go back and listen to it. It's really good. That's where. Oh yeah. we Honestly, go back. That has the craziest stories. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The voodoo spliff. Voodoo spliff is like the best, best reason to go back and listen to that episode. Yeah. um
00:40:59
Speaker
but ah So Dave Collins also, or Dave Barker, sorry ah hooked up with Tommy McCook's Supersonics, which is a splinter group from the Scattle Lights. And they recorded a song called Funky Funky Reggae that Madness cribbed pretty hard from. So let's listen to that song. And this is so early they didn't even know how to spell reggae yet. sha cut but get but Because it's R-E-G-G-A-Y.
00:41:48
Speaker
Damn, that's good.
00:42:00
Speaker
we're all just grooving yeah it's so good
00:42:24
Speaker
Jesus Christ, that's good. Yeah, that's good stuff. Hot hot damn. ah Don't watch that, watch this. Yeah. yeah As I say, they're always telling us what to watch and what not to watch. They're right though. Like they're not incorrect. yeah No, I was watching that other thing and then I was like, whoa, I shouldn't be watching that. Don't i't watch that, watch this. I gotta watch this other thing over here.
Simmerip and Skinhead Culture
00:42:47
Speaker
um Speaking of the Skinhead Moon Stomp, there was a band called Simmerip and they were from England. ah They were all expats from Jamaica that went over and recorded with Duke Reed when he went over there. um the The name Simmerip is like, if you spell it backwards, kind of looks like pyramid because they used to be called the pyramids.
00:43:06
Speaker
um it's a very weird honestly that's just one of the dumbest names i've ever heard that's like i can never spell that correctly but uh good for them they had a big hit they had the skinhead moon stomp it's a big song right like good for them um They're a bit of a one-hit wonder. I know like the skinheads would be so mad at me for saying that, but they had the one big song, so that's on the bracket. um But you know they knew what they wanted. they All their songs are about skinheads, and so this is another song that they recorded called Skinhead Girl.
00:43:54
Speaker
That is some chill shit.
00:44:08
Speaker
Just fucking standing there in your suit, smoking 5% cannabis because it was the sixties and they didn't have 30% yet. yeah fucking enjoying this shit god damn neat neat they'd be saying something like that right probably maybe yeah especially in jamaica calling people dadios yeah
00:44:44
Speaker
Oh yeah. Simmer it. So good. So this is obviously like a tale for another time, but like when did when did white supremacy go into skinhead culture?
White Supremacy in Skinhead Culture
00:44:56
Speaker
Because it obviously didn't originate. England.
00:44:59
Speaker
Yeah, just English. Oh, yeah. The National Front ah infiltrated the skinheads. Yeah. That was like and i'm like... I'm sure there's a big story, but I'm like, that's not how it started. No, that's pretty much it. That's like the whole story pretty much. So it's just interesting. I'm like, when did that happen?
00:45:15
Speaker
Yeah, because like it was so we can talk about it. Sure. We got time. The the what happened was, you know, the Thatcher era kind of kicked in and in the 80s. Right. And so that was a lot of people who are like laid off, a lot of working class people were just like super frustrated with, you know, the culture or whatever. And and like not having a job and the economy and all that stuff.
00:45:41
Speaker
So the the skinheads were obviously working class, right? And then the National Front, a bunch of skinhead or a bunch of racist, right? A bunch of Nazis. Yeah. Basically, we're like, oh, all these skinheads, they're all agro. They're all pissed off. They're all like disenfranchised. Yeah, disenfranchised. We can easily influence them.
00:46:03
Speaker
And so that's basically what happened. They just kind of infiltrated their ranks, splintered them off of all the black people and created the white supremacists that we know today. Like it was it was pretty calculated. A lot of it was time and place. There was a calculated effort from the Nazis. Well, I hope but like the racist skinheads here, like that's not very punk rock that a fucking you got manipulated by the government. Well, no, that's your origin. That's kind of the thing, though, is like it's like the national front came in and appropriated skinhead culture, which then splintered off because it was like people like, I mean, Nazi punks fuck off was a pretty early punk rock song. Right. So like it literally was created and then was shunned from both punk and Scott slash reggae. Right. Yeah. Pretty quickly. yeah Right. And then it became its own culture in the U.S. as like the skinhead punk
00:47:00
Speaker
thing, right? Yeah. I mean, also they have a but I feel I'm Yeah, in the UK, they had a different kind of music though, right? Because like, always started to like, right off in the early 80s. Right. And it was not black friendly, honestly. Yeah. Like old school. I remember having old school OA compilations like just cause you get cheap punk compilations from the music store or whatever. And I, I never really got into it really, but I always felt kind of weird about it in the same way that listening to black metal, that you don't know where it came from. You know what I mean? Like like do your homework. Yeah. Yeah. For every, for every the business, they're screwdriver, right? Like you have to like figure out who's who.
00:47:40
Speaker
All right, let's move along. There's a band called the Pioneers and they're important because they had a lot of their songs ghostwritten by Jimmy Cliff. um But they're a vocal trio similar to like the Paragons or Bob Marley and the Wailers. Their big hit was Train to Scaville.
00:47:59
Speaker
um But I would say that the song that I, or sorry, ah not Train to Scoville, I got that wrong. It's Longshot, Kick the Bucket. That was, and ah that's such a big hit. That's a big skinhead hit. I had to include that one. ah But this is Let Your Yabbie Yeah, which they recorded much, much later. ah And so let's listen to that one. Also written by Jimmy Cliff.
00:48:30
Speaker
You can tell Jimmy Cliff how to say in this song. Well, yeah, it started with strings. Like, I feel like if it's huge production with strings, then it's Jimmy Cliff. Yeah.
00:48:53
Speaker
Let your be yeah, your noby no be no.
00:49:05
Speaker
Consent. Yeah.
Bob and Marsha's Overlooked Gem
00:49:24
Speaker
So next up, ah Bob and Marsha was a vocal duo. They recorded some rock steady songs. this The big song for them was Young Gifted in Black. um But this is another very awesome song that I i think it's not as popular, but I think it's better. And personally, I feel like I should have put it in. But I was like, I got to go with the hit. Like when I was choosing out to.
00:49:47
Speaker
yeah But this is a really good song. So if you don't get in black, that's on the pie Piper whole man This is a fucking banger. So let's listen to this
00:50:12
Speaker
Lady singing. We've only really had harmonies. Yeah. So far. first It's ah locals it's a male dominated genre. That's for sure. We'll we'll say that. Although the big first hit was Millie Small and she's on the on the bracket for sure. My boy lollipop is there. I love that song so much.
00:50:34
Speaker
I hope I meet someone who goes by the name lollipop someday so I could be like my boy lollipop. You know, that'd be fun.
00:50:49
Speaker
yeah this is a jam is that yeah it's so whistling or a flute i think it's a flute sounds like whistling oh it's just so light that's a flute oh that's a flute yeah that's a really good wizard yeah impressive whistling yeah
00:51:07
Speaker
But yeah, man, that song is so good. But yeah, Young Gifted in Black is just like a bigger song. um But I'm happy with it in the bracket. When it came along in the playlist, I was like, I was first of all, I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot all about this song. And then when I got like two thirds of the way through the song, I was like, how do I know this song so well? Like, I don't even know where I heard it so many times. Young Gifted in Black was the original Young Bunny. Yep. Yep.
00:51:35
Speaker
Uptown ranking is in the press uptown rankings in the in the bracket too, and that also has a female vocalist in it. um Yeah, I think we snuck a few in there. um It's few and far between. I'm not going to pull punches on that. For the most part,
00:51:51
Speaker
Almost all of them are are people of color. Almost all of them. That's something. Except for one very honest one. Except for one. And he's coming up. And and he's coming up today. It's just like the states in voting. We're allowed, we can, we're okay if it's a black man, not if it's a fucking woman of any kind though.
00:52:10
Speaker
yeah all right It's how It's how it feels. Yeah, sorry. ah Dandy Livingstone is next. Message to you Rudy was going to be in the bracket. Of course it was going to be in there. But this was another very big song for him much later, like 10 years later almost. um This is Suzanne Beware the Devil.
00:52:51
Speaker
This is pretty good.
00:52:55
Speaker
I like Dandy Livingstone because he's like... He's got a very like got chill harmony. You know what I mean? Yeah, everybody else is like kind of got like more soulfulness, but
00:53:22
Speaker
we're in the 70s now so it's like production is yeah generally better yeah i was gonna say this is like reggae yes yeah yeah we're in reggae now we're in reggae territory we've been crossing a lot of rocksteady but by 72 reggae is reggae is here yeah for sure and it's here to stay yeah uh but yeah that song's great Alright, we're gonna close it off. I got one more. We gotta talk
Judge Dread's Unique Position in Ska
00:53:52
Speaker
about him. He has not been played on this fucking podcast yet. Which is crazy. He's been parodied. He's been parodied so many times. This is a white dude from the UK.
00:54:07
Speaker
um who was obsessed with Ska and Reggae and Rocksteady and decided that he was just gonna record his own Ska and Rocksteady stuff. ah He became really popular in the UK and then this was in the early 70s. This was before like Ska bands kind of started picking up and he Apparently, the urban legend is that when he first went to Jamaica, he shocked everybody because they found out he was white because they all thought he was a black guy. OK, I don't know if that's true. I don't know about that. I heard the same thing about Dr. Ringding. Yeah, I heard the same thing about Dr. Ringding, but like.
00:54:45
Speaker
I think it's a bit of a stretch. But this is a guy, his name is Judge Dredd, and he's been mentioned so many times on the pod. His name comes from a Prince Buster song. His songs, his big songs in the UK were all sequels to Prince Buster songs. Prince Buster had a song called Big Five that had a whole bunch of like dirty um ah double entendres in it. And so Judge Dredd made Big Six, Big Seven, Big Eight.
00:55:10
Speaker
Big six is on the big six is on the bracket because that was the biggest of the of them all. But big eight is the one that I have wrote a song parody that has come up on this podcast more than a few times. Yeah. Yeah. So now we get to finally hear if everyone's like, what the hell is Rob talking about when he's doing this? and Well, that's because I'm referring I'm parroting this song. This is Judge Dred's Big Eight.
00:55:40
Speaker
there's no way that's a black is the rob song i can't believe he did three sequels yeah he's like motherfucker i'm making this song a franchise
00:56:13
Speaker
I just hear Robert doing it. Me too. I can't not hear Rob singing it.
00:56:25
Speaker
Yeah, I just hear it in Rob voice. You should up the bacon Jamaican, Rob, when you do it. Yeah. Either that or we should just put together a fucking instrumental for him and he should do a cover.
00:56:38
Speaker
just bo tone yeah
00:56:43
Speaker
I don't know who would think that is a black person. singing ah Again, it's the urban legend. I also don't think that that was true. But like, anyway, this is the one white guy that is on the bracket. I don't think he's going to win. I think the deck is stacked a little bit against Judge Dredd, but yeah he did have a lot of sky hits in the UK in the early 70s.
00:57:11
Speaker
what What can I say? He was there. He was doing the thing. Is he is he pretty fly? Is he pretty fly for what? I want you to be the judge. Yeah. yeah oh All the girlies say it, I guess. Honestly, he's pretty fly for a white guy.
00:57:25
Speaker
Selene, Ska Daddy Meter, Judge Dread. Okay, where's your phone? Show me. Okay, I'm looking them up right now. Young, Judge Dread Peak. Judge Dread. No, I'm just going to get so much dread, Ska Guy. Ska Guy. Because I'm just going to get Keith Urban. Oh my God.
00:57:46
Speaker
his middle name was minto uh no um like a five i guess yeah that's the classic is that the pick is that the picture of him holding his suit yeah yeah that's the that's the judge dread classic he's kind of doing that smile uh from the I don't even know what it was from one of the covers of one of those UK live like dance craze albums. There's like a really dumb looking guy on the cover. He kind of looks like that. But yeah, it had to happen. He had to he had to compete. But I don't know. We'll see. Maybe he makes it to the finals. What do I know? Everyone just loves his jokes. They just get they can't get enough of it. He's very silly.
00:58:35
Speaker
ah So that brings us to the end. That's it. That's the end of the pre-show. Are you excited for the Trojan Door? Yeah, I think it's going to be good. Yeah, I think I'm going to learn all the songs on bass just because like I think it's just going to be like a self challenge for myself. I feel like that's like a solid. If I learn all of these songs on bass.
Excitement for the Trojan War Bracket
00:58:54
Speaker
That's like a solid knowledge of Ska history, musically, I feel like. If you can play Monkey Man, you can play too much pressure. So yeah. Yeah. And I can't. Once you got it, you got it all. That brings us to the end. So thanks for listening to Checkered Past. Hit us up on Instagram, Twitter, Blue Sky, YouTube, and TikTok at checkeredpastpod or send us an email at checkeredpastpod at gmail.com. To support the pod and get bonus content, including a full length and unedited video of this episode, sign up for the Checkered Head Patreon at patreon.com slash checkeredpast.
00:59:24
Speaker
We also have merch available at checkeredpass.ca. This episode is edited by Cutman and engineered by Joey. it been um Special thanks to Chris Reeves, Megamichi, and Adam the Scum Mailman for making this podcast happen. Thanks also to Keelan for all his work on the podcast episodes. The Checkered Pass theme is OAO by Edmonton's own Mad Bomber Society. Voting is now officially open on how you think the bracket will progress at shalange.com.
00:59:50
Speaker
<unk> slash the Trojan War. Next week is TBD, and so until next time, I'm Rob, Celine, and Joey. And in the mortal words of Prince Buster, madness, they call this bracket madness.