You're wondering now
January 21, 2021 2:34 PM Subscribe
You're wondering now (Andy and Joey) what to do (The Specials) now you know (The Skatalites) this is the end (Isaac et Nora).
Just seems like an appropriate song today for some reason.
The YouTube comments section for the Andy and Joey version is worth taking a look at for the multiple comments by people sharing their stories of personal connection to the song and musicians, including one by Joey's grandchild.
Just seems like an appropriate song today for some reason.
The YouTube comments section for the Andy and Joey version is worth taking a look at for the multiple comments by people sharing their stories of personal connection to the song and musicians, including one by Joey's grandchild.
Isaac et Nora is definitely my fav...
posted by jim in austin at 3:42 PM on January 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by jim in austin at 3:42 PM on January 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
I have had the honor to see the Skatalites live back in the heyday of whatever 2nd/3rd wave of ska we were on in the early 90s and it was one of the most insane concerts I've ever been to.
MeFites who know my history with music and going to some really wild shows will know this is really saying something. I've seen Ministry and Pigface and Gwar. I've jumped off of speaker stacks. I've had industrial artists spray blood on me doing stupid things on stage. I've seen rather too many musicians naked on stage.
The lineup that night was Bad Manners, Dave Wakeling and the Special Beat Service and The Skatalites, which is a hell of a lineup right out of the box.
Dave Wakeling was solid and ok, but the antics for Bad Manners were totally insane like something out of a Pirate Corp$ comic full page panel.
That big fat smooth bastard Fatty Buster Bloodvessel was running around barefoot in surf trunks throwing buckets of water and ice on the crowd, doing belly flops and slides across a soaking wet stage like some kind of deranged walrus and even crowd surfing on an actual longboard and singing while people held up the board and passed it all over the orchestra pit dance floor at The Palace in LA.
Then he made the horrible mistake of taking a flying leap of a stage dive and the whole crowd basically said "Wait no stop oh shit" and parted for him like Moses and the Red Sea so he did a hell of a belly flop from stage height onto the wet dance floor with a thunderous belly clap and slid right into a bunch of people knocking them all over like bowling pins all with a mic in his hand and barely missing a beat.
And then the Skatalites came on and the whole band came out dressed to the nines looking tweedy, scholarly and very grey and proceeded to play the best ska I will ever hear in my life.
The energy went from manic and punky and instantly slowed down into a very intense, super groovy and posh vibe and the whole place just blew the fuck up and started jumping and dancing on the very first beat and measure. This might have been the first time I'd ever personally heard or witnessed anything close to a big swing band and the sound and presence of all that brass and electric strings was like a soft kiss and slap across the face at the same time.
And the Skatalites are up there grinning their damn faces off with a whole lot of mutual respect and admiration for how much us young hipsters were into it and were obviously having a really good time.
In the space of the first song everyone was so deep in the pocket and dancing and jumping that the already steamy-hot temps seemed to ramp up 20 degrees and we were rapidly running out of oxygen.
I've been to a lot of good raves and dances parties and this show still probably tops all of them with the sheer number of people and percentages and scale of "Everyone - every last mofo in the place - is dancing and grooving super hard right now."
I remember dancing and just gawking at Roland Alphonso and Lester Sterling and feeling like they just gave me my first hit of really pure drugs or something, like everything I'd had before that point from what I knew as ska was a damn lie, like I was being heavily schooled by a bunch of really cool grandparents and I didn't know a damn thing and I knew it.
I remember Roland looking down at me and nodding and winking at my super white teenaged ass while ripping up that sax and seeing and feeling that he loved it, seeing all of us younger kids and young adults just eating it up. A little unspoken "Yeah, kid, that's the really good shit. I see you."
Holy shit I miss live music so much. I would go on a month long hunger strike if it helped it return sooner. My soul is so dry.
posted by loquacious at 5:00 PM on January 21, 2021 [35 favorites]
MeFites who know my history with music and going to some really wild shows will know this is really saying something. I've seen Ministry and Pigface and Gwar. I've jumped off of speaker stacks. I've had industrial artists spray blood on me doing stupid things on stage. I've seen rather too many musicians naked on stage.
The lineup that night was Bad Manners, Dave Wakeling and the Special Beat Service and The Skatalites, which is a hell of a lineup right out of the box.
Dave Wakeling was solid and ok, but the antics for Bad Manners were totally insane like something out of a Pirate Corp$ comic full page panel.
That big fat smooth bastard Fatty Buster Bloodvessel was running around barefoot in surf trunks throwing buckets of water and ice on the crowd, doing belly flops and slides across a soaking wet stage like some kind of deranged walrus and even crowd surfing on an actual longboard and singing while people held up the board and passed it all over the orchestra pit dance floor at The Palace in LA.
Then he made the horrible mistake of taking a flying leap of a stage dive and the whole crowd basically said "Wait no stop oh shit" and parted for him like Moses and the Red Sea so he did a hell of a belly flop from stage height onto the wet dance floor with a thunderous belly clap and slid right into a bunch of people knocking them all over like bowling pins all with a mic in his hand and barely missing a beat.
And then the Skatalites came on and the whole band came out dressed to the nines looking tweedy, scholarly and very grey and proceeded to play the best ska I will ever hear in my life.
The energy went from manic and punky and instantly slowed down into a very intense, super groovy and posh vibe and the whole place just blew the fuck up and started jumping and dancing on the very first beat and measure. This might have been the first time I'd ever personally heard or witnessed anything close to a big swing band and the sound and presence of all that brass and electric strings was like a soft kiss and slap across the face at the same time.
And the Skatalites are up there grinning their damn faces off with a whole lot of mutual respect and admiration for how much us young hipsters were into it and were obviously having a really good time.
In the space of the first song everyone was so deep in the pocket and dancing and jumping that the already steamy-hot temps seemed to ramp up 20 degrees and we were rapidly running out of oxygen.
I've been to a lot of good raves and dances parties and this show still probably tops all of them with the sheer number of people and percentages and scale of "Everyone - every last mofo in the place - is dancing and grooving super hard right now."
I remember dancing and just gawking at Roland Alphonso and Lester Sterling and feeling like they just gave me my first hit of really pure drugs or something, like everything I'd had before that point from what I knew as ska was a damn lie, like I was being heavily schooled by a bunch of really cool grandparents and I didn't know a damn thing and I knew it.
I remember Roland looking down at me and nodding and winking at my super white teenaged ass while ripping up that sax and seeing and feeling that he loved it, seeing all of us younger kids and young adults just eating it up. A little unspoken "Yeah, kid, that's the really good shit. I see you."
Holy shit I miss live music so much. I would go on a month long hunger strike if it helped it return sooner. My soul is so dry.
posted by loquacious at 5:00 PM on January 21, 2021 [35 favorites]
Damn, that was a great story. Thanks.
posted by biogeo at 5:10 PM on January 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by biogeo at 5:10 PM on January 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
The Skatalites are a very very special band, totally agree loquacious, they had a presence that was beyond any of the other two-tone bands I ever got to see.
that song was always the last song on every mix-tape, and every mix-cd.
posted by th3ph17 at 6:52 PM on January 21, 2021
that song was always the last song on every mix-tape, and every mix-cd.
posted by th3ph17 at 6:52 PM on January 21, 2021
I have that compilation from the Skatalites video. Shanachie Records, 1997. Doreen Shaffer, the singer on that rendition of You're Wondering Now, also appears with The Slackers covering Our Day Will Come (originally by Ruby and the Romantics).
posted by axiom at 7:21 PM on January 21, 2021
posted by axiom at 7:21 PM on January 21, 2021
Loquacious, there is something just so perfect in the moment when a musician locks eyes with us on the floor. For my money, the best, most perfect I've ever seen is the lead singer of the Japanese ska-punk band Kemuri. I've seen them several times, and been on the receiving end of his frighteningly intense, but overwhelmingly positive stare more than once, where he just looked down and saw how damn much I was enjoying the show, and the little smile on his face and the little wink he gave was like, "oh, yeah, you enjoying that? Well, how about THIS," and just ramping things up more and more.
Honestly, I'm pretty happy that he's the lead singer of a ska-punk band. If he wanted, he'd make a fantastic cult leader instead.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:18 AM on January 22, 2021 [2 favorites]
Honestly, I'm pretty happy that he's the lead singer of a ska-punk band. If he wanted, he'd make a fantastic cult leader instead.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:18 AM on January 22, 2021 [2 favorites]
Thanks for that Skatalites story! I saw the Specials a few years back and while the band was still terrific, the venue and audience were mostly shit.
posted by aspersioncast at 6:10 AM on January 22, 2021
posted by aspersioncast at 6:10 AM on January 22, 2021
This will always be the theme song to the hilariously bad but still very enjoyable "Death in Paradise" to me.
posted by dominik at 8:22 AM on January 22, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by dominik at 8:22 AM on January 22, 2021 [3 favorites]
dominik, my wife absolutely adores that show, which boggles my mind, but I’ll sit and watch it with her, if only because they have some fantastic music playing throughout the show.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:44 PM on January 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Ghidorah at 4:44 PM on January 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
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