Punky Reggae Party: Scritti Politti & The "Sweetest Girl"

Welcome to the first episode of “Punky Reggae Party” a special audio documentary series of the Ska Boom podcast that focuses on the historical origins and impact of reggae on popular music that will explore the phenomenon of punk and post-punk bands adopting the sounds of reggae The convergence of punk with reggae and ska in the late 70's and early 80's resulted in some significant musical developments leading some punk and post-punk bands in England to experiment with the sound of reggae and dub in particular.Reggae was natural for punks to mine as inspirational fuel, just as earlier rock ‘n’ roll eras adopted ideas and energy from blues and R&B. And chances are quite a few English punks had more than a few scratchy Trojan 45s in their record collections and a love of reggae in their blood. One of the earliest and most interesting collisions of punk and reggae has to be the Scritti Politti song "The Sweetest Girl," which Rough Trade label head Geoff Travis described at the time as a “game-changer.'” Please note: The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, and news reporting.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices