It's you, that I'm talkin to... Pt III

As the third-wave ska scene began to wither, I found myself drawn more and more to the first and second wave artists. Bands like the Specials, Bodysnatchers, Madness, The (english) Beat, and the all time greatest ska band ever, The Skatalites!

Ska became less of an obsession, and more of a part of a larger musical tableau(wow that sounds pretentious!). Ska became the music you played when you were either really happy already, or needed to be. Like reggae, but without the sleepy overtones. I had less and less common friends interested in ska overtly, but had a broad enough selection to choose from that innocuous and timely songs could be played depending on the company I kept.

All the Goodwill suits and skinny ties left my wardrobe, as I literally and figuratively grew out of them. And I never could find a Pork Pie hat that fit my big ol' MacDonald head. But if you put on a good song with horns and heavy reverb vocals, I'll still skank to beat like it's 1997.