I finally understand UB40, the band of "Red, Red Wine" and "Kingston Town." It's rocksteady. Their "Wear You the the Ball" is a cover of the 1967 original by The Paragons.

The successor to ska, rocksteady dominated the Jamaican music charts for a brief, but glorious two-year period commencing around the summer of 1966. Its lazy, lilting rhythm provided the perfect backing for the island’s most soulful acts to excel and this is reflected this collection, which gathers together some of the most enduring recordings from the era, performed by an array of Rocksteady legends.

I have this new found smarty pants status care of the Trojan Rocksteady Box Set that came in the mail last week, the above quote taken from the label's website. This is the second of these Trojan Box Sets I have now, the first being the Ska set, vol. 2, which I picked up by chance last August at Borders in Burlington, Vt. For about 25 bucks they give you 50 tracks of 1960's Jamaican local pop, crackling masters of raw basic off-the-beat.

Apparently the summer of 1966 was so hot in Jamaica that the fast pace of ska was undanceable and a slower beat was created. If I had thought about UB40 before this, I would have said this kind of thing from a review at www.rollingstone.com - blind as I was to rocksteady: "While celebrating the spiritual links between R&B and reggae, UB40 reaffirms its impressive fluency in both genres." It is really this other genre altogether that UB40 leans on - grown out of ska and its R&B roots from Jamaican bands listening to late night US radio in the late 50's, the predecessor to reggae.

Sometimes, like on Lyn Taitt and The Jets instrumental cover of the "To Sir with Love" theme, it pushes the bounds of loungy irony, but, like anything you would hear on Danny Finkleman, it predates the pop culture of irony. Bands with names like The Uniques, The Versatiles, Desmond Dekker and The Aces or The Melodians may seems gently naive while the Ethiopians and tunes like "Dreader than Dread" by Honey Boy Martin signal rasta and reggae but the music is both familiar and fresh behind the 35 years of wear the masters do seem to have suffered.

No Doubt, the most successful of the third wave US ska bands, is as respectful of the roots of its music without being as tied to covers as UB40. Its 2001 CD, Rock Steady, with the hits "Hey Baby" and "Hella Good" takes its title from the final track, a loping, steadfast and respectful expression of the style. For a genre that lasted only two years on one poor island, it beats the hell out of much that we have to put up with from the pop recording industry now.

[Cross-posted to STG]