Friday and whatnot #11 |Now is the time edition

In heavy times, light music can feel inauthentic. Not everything has to be serious, but chill songs can still have meaningful messages as well.

At its core, the black and white checkerboard pattern, ever present through the 2-Tone and later ska genres (and shoes, jackets, shirts, backpacks, insides of the wrist tattoos), is a symbol representing the bringing together of black, white, and other races in the scene. A lesson we still need to keep learning.

I relate a lot to the lyrics of today’s selection in that they are anti-fascist, pro-unity, anti-police, and 30+ years old.

Toots & the Maytals “54-46 Was my Number”

I didn’t know this wasn’t an original Sublime song from 40oz to Freedom until I was about 20, but I’m glad I figured that out. This sample always caught my ear in Evidence’s “The Cold Weather” and it was why I always thought the Flo Rida song on The Peanuts soundtrack sounded familiar. (I have a kid, but I’m not ashamed of liking the movie myself.)

Get your hands in the air, sir!
And you will get no hurt, mister, no no no
Toots & the Maytals

The Special AKA “Racist Friend”

It pretty hard to not have a Specials song in a post about 2 Tone ska, black and white things, and/or rude things. I was going to go with “Gangsters”, thinking it had some topical lyrics. “Can’t fight corruption with con tricks / They use the law to commit crime”. But, as it turns out, that song is about a hotel manager holding a guitar hostage for damages from another English band when The Specials were on tour with The Clash. Well then.

There is no mistaking this one fits today though. You’ll notice they are referred to as The Special AKA, their moniker earlier on in their careers and then later after some lineup changes as well.

If you have a racist friend,
Now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end
The Special AKA

The Selecter “Big in the Body, Small in the Mind”

This band will show up along side The Specials, Madness, and The Beat in pretty much every article, documentary or story about the two-tone ska era. It’s for good reason too, just listen.

Lyrics have a bit of a Woody Guthrie feel to them? It’s because they are Woody Guthrie lyrics.