Well this has been a shitty week. First we lost Scott Walker, and now Ranking Roger has joined the great band in the sky too. The Beat were such an underrated band, despite having a bunch of hits and being consistently great over three albums they seemed to be a little in the shadow of The Specials and Madness. But they were just as good as them — often better — and Roger was such a big part of their appeal, adding flavour and spice to their punky-reggae stew.
My favourite things they did was their 12″ singles where they stretched out into more dubby directions. Like this gem which was on the b-side of “Too Nice To Talk To.”
Download: Psychedelic Rockers (Dubweiser) – The Beat (mp3)
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no argument there – the 12 inch extendeds were great.
but is rankings dob right? it would make him 15 when he started which isnt really too young but young enough?
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He was on the cover of The Face magazine when he was 18…
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Totally overshadowed by the Specials at the time, but some terrific songs. The 12′ of Stand Down Margaret a particular fave of mine.
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