Desmond Dekker Is Dead, The Music Lives On

Ska comes in waves.

My brother, Jordan, who turns 35 today, was one of the key players in the Canadian ska/mod revival of the early 90s, and co-founded Stomp Records, which celebrated the 2-tone style, that most upbeat of music, with several important compilations. His band, The Kingpins, went on to release several great albums (and in a new incarnation just toured China).

But the presiding spirits for his generation extended well beyond the brilliant, eccentric Bobby Beaton and Me Mom & Morgentaler, back, of course, to the original ska/mod revival of 1980 (The Second Wave) when The Specials, The Selecter, The Beat, and Madness, made ska the sincere rocksteady sound of Thatcher's bleak streets.

But one of the presiding reggae spirits for their generation was Desmond Dekker.

Rather than the visionary Bob Marley, whose fame sadly came to eclipse Dekker's, it was Desmond's "Rude Boy" persona - prefiguring almost every stance and trope in gangsta rap today - that helped tp set the world skanking in the 60s - perhaps reaching its height of zeitgeist greatness with hits like "007" and "Israelites".

Sadly, this musical innovator, this genius, has died suddenly in the UK.

Bibliography:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5018910.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/music/muze/index.pl?site=music&action=biography&artist_id=8003

http://www.answers.com/topic/kingpins-2

http://www.theselecter.net/

http://www.thespecials.com/

http://www.twistandcrawl.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ska

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