Rockin' Steady

It was only a matter of time before I wrote a blog about reggae.
I post a few times a week on facebook different reggae songs/albums I want people to listen to and I don't think anyone has ever done it.

So I'm going to blog about my favorite reggae songs and or albums.


First off I will start with I have claimed to be my favorite song of all time: "2am" by Slightly Stoopid.
I know it's huge to claim this as my favorite song of all time instead of just my favorite reggae song but, fuck dude, I seriously can not stop listening to this song ever since I first heard it around May of last year.
Alex had just introduced me to the Expendables and so when I was checking them out I saw Slightly Stoopid's name on the Expendables myspace or something and I can remember hearing them a while back but nothing of theirs really stood out to me but I decided to check out their page any way.
"2am" was the third song on their play list and I was seriously floored from the first 12 seconds right when the horns come in. They have a really repetitive melody but accompanied by some rocking ass drums and a chill ass bass line and a dope ass keyboard I seriously fell in love with the song.
Before even hearing the rest of it I went and checked iTunes to see if they had it. I downloaded the song before hearing the entire thing and have never regretted it.
It's perfect.
Well, maybe not perfect. I can do without the Jamaican accent the dude singing uses but it's nowhere near enough to put me off of the song.
The song is 5 minutes long and I've listened to it over 120 times on iTunes (my most played song) plus I would say a close 50 times my original 'Rock Steady' CD I made in the early summer, plus another 25 or so times on my new iPod that I got since Crewmas, so let's call it 175 plays.
That's 875 minutes or 14.5 hours of one song. And I don't plan on stopping there.
I've loved EVERY second of it.

Speaking of the Expendables, they are pretty cool too and I'm going to throw 2 of their songs on this list: "Sacrifice" and "Bowl for Two".
Alex introduced me to them when I visited her up in Chico last April. She was driving us to breakfast and asked me if I had heard of them before. I can remember her being a little shocked when I said that, with me being a huge fan of reggae and ska and punk rock (the three types of music fused into the Expendables).
The only song she played for was "Sacrifice" and I wasn't too sure of it at first. It kinda starts off with that little echoey guitar part and then once it finally gets into the verses it has the up-strokes and the signiture bass line of any reggae song and it didn't really take me as anything special.
Until the chorus came.
Even more chill then the verse and the background vocals just being so fucking soothing made me....feel happy?
I was blown away again. I don't know if it was because I had just an amazing night with Alex and she and I were driving to a gaurenteed tasty breakfast on a gorgeous warm morning, but the chorus made me feel amazing. That's the only way I can describe it. The song is super chill, except for the 75% into the song they have a crazy solo, but the chorus just makes you happy, at least for me.
But it wasn't just that time. Every time I listen to this song I think back to that amazing morning and it just does wonders dude.
The second song I found on my own when I downloaded their discography shortly after my trip to Chico.
It's off of the same CD, "Gettin Filthy" and it is actually the song right after "Sacrifice"; it's called "Bowl for Two".
I don't like it because I'm some major stoner who's only reason for listening to reggae music is an excuse to get high, but because it's super chill and keeps the happy mood flowing from the previous song.
The song is a reggae/stoner love song about how dude packed a bowl and wants to smoke it with this chick.
That's all.
But the music is the best part. The Expendables could release an instrumental version (kareoke version would suffice) and I would love the song that much more.
It's super chill and when I hear it I associate the color blue with it. Don't as me why, but when I hear it I just fucking see blue: A blue pipe, blue pot, a blue room, a blue fan spinning. Totally weird.
The best part of the song is the solo though. It doesn't care all crazy and intense and distorted like in "Sacrifice" but keeps the chillness of the song. And during the solo is this awesome mini scale the dude does that never fails to put a smile on my face when I hear it.
And the line "So please don't run away when my ganja's all gone" cracks me up every time.


This next song I tell everyone that they need to listen to it once in their life. At the very least. And you fucking need to.
It's called "Why, Why, Why?" by a little [sorta] local band known as the Steady-Ups from Sacramenty. They made one AMAZING album and then split it up. The only reason I heard about them was from my 'Specials' station on Pandora and this was the first song I heard. The second it was over I tried to find it on iTunes. Didn't have it. Looked for it on any torrents. Didn't have it. There wasn't even a makeshift music video on youtube for me to play just to listen to the song! So I checked Amazon.com to see if they had it and thank fucking gosh they did. I bought the entire CD with out even hearing another song on the album. Luckily the rest of the album owns, too, but "Why, Why,Why?", track number 12 rocks my world every time I listen to it.
Amazingly chill song with killer ass lyrics about racially equality and making the world "color blind" with love. Classic.
But there's this mesmerizing guitar part that comes in during the second verse that is perfect. That's the only way to describe it. And then during the dub-style breakdown it comes back.
Seriously, you NEED to listen to this song and you won't find it anywhere online to listen to it for free so hit me up. I 100% garuntee you will not bee dissapointed.


The next ones straight away from straight reggae and fall into dub.
Dub isn't really everyones favorite kind of reggae, it's more psychadelic and not all of it is good. Jon, for one, HATES when I play dub and makes fun of it all. But these are some worthy dub songs checking out by a group called Scientist:
"Fall in Love with Dub"
"Beggers Dub"
"Sunny Place Dub"
"Don't Rush the Dub"
"Reconnaissance"
"Forgive them Oh Jah!"
"Miss Know It All"
These songs are super legit. Scientist is like the Rolling Stones of dub; not all songs rock but, fuck, do they have a ton of albums.
I've got a ton of dub songs, let me know if you want any good ones.



Now I'm going to talk about what I've declared as my favorite album of all time.
It's "Signing Off" By UB40. It's their debut album released in 1980 and incorporates a ton of dub fused reggae. Each song on the album is killer and the entire album has the highest number of plays after "2am".
But before I get into the songs I just want to say that the CD is also kinda sentimental to me. My mom got it from our good friend Andy Green back when I was a little dude and she said that she remembers dancing around their kitchen with me while it played. At this point the album had already been out 8 years but Andy being the bigger reggae nut then me blasted it non stop apparently.
And in turn so did my mom. She LOVES this album and I know my brother can remember all the times when she was cooking dinner and it would be on and she would be dancing around the kitchen, glass of wine in hand, raving about how much she loves it, especially the third track "12 Bar". Not only is the album fucking phenomenal but it takes me back to when I was a kid almost every single time I play it.
And I'm going to play it for the rest of my life, too. Dancing around my house with my little baby in my arms slowly introducing them to the wonderful world that is reggae.
Nostalgia aside, the album is genius. EXTREMELY political and the entire album is comprised of everything you'd expect from a reggae album.
[the only thing that's ever made me sad about this album was one night, right before Alexandra left for Italy, she and I were kicking it on my bed and I put it on and I asked her what she thought about it and she said, "Eh, it's not my favorite". Well Alexandra, that's not going to stop me from bumping it for years to come]
The first track "Tyler" is a true story about Gary Tyler who was accused of shooting a 13 year old white kid while on a school bus. Gary Tyler was sentenced to death at the age of 17 but they soon revoked that and gave him life. The worst part about it is that there is no hard evidence proving him guilty. All the facts show that he was in fact innocent but as the chorus says "Tyler is guilty, the white judges said so" just proves how fucked up the judicial system is to a black teen in Louisiana back in the 70's.

The next mentionable song is the second track, "King". It's an ode to Martin Luther King Jr. and the legacy dude left behind. But at the same time they are questioning the lost direction he left behind.

Their biggest hit off the album is "Food For Thought" is about the Ethiopian famine in Africa. The song came out loooooong before Live Aid so these cats get full credit for that movement. Kudo's UB40.

They also have a handful of phenomenal instrumental songs on the album; "25%", "Adella", the self titled track "Signing Off" and in my opinion UB40's greatest song "12 Bar"
Holy cow does this song rock. I might be a bit biased her when calling it their best song, it certainly not only my favorite of their songs by also my moms.
She always puts this song on blast. And rightfully so! This song is so damn infectious that you can't help but bob your head and dance a little wherever you are when it comes on.

Each song has over 60 plays on my iTunes.
the album is 66 minutes long.
that's over 72 hours on my iTunes alone plus all the times this CD has blasted throughout my house and will be blasted when I get my own place (sorry Alex).

Listen to the album.
Buy it.
If you don't wanna buy it I'll burn you a copy.
But trust me, if you like reggae in even the slightest you'll love this album.




So that's about it.
I know I'm leaving out a ton of other shit: Bob Marley, Prince Buster, all those old reggae pioneers and I'm not slagging any of them off, but these are the ones that when I heard them totally impacted me.



One Love,
Ras Pat