Ska Boom - An American Ska & Reggae Podcast
Ska Boom - An American Ska & Reggae Podcast is hosted by Marc Wasserman, author of Soul Salvation: A Gen-X Love Letter To The English Beat and Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History published by DiWulf Publishing.
Wasserman helped to found Bigger Thomas -- the first ska band from New Jersey -- in 1988 and had a front row seat to watch the growth of American ska. Ska Boom is the audio companion to his books.
The podcast explores the impact of ska and reggae on popular music and features interviews with key ska and reggae musicians, audio documentaries about the history of ska and reggae and special episodes based on news and developments in the world of ska.
Ska Boom - An American Ska & Reggae Podcast
Soul Salvation - A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat: Blockhead
Welcome back to the Ska Boom podcast! This season is called Soul Salvation and its the companion to my new book “Soul Salvation – A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat."
Through the book and this podcast I’m telling the story of the Special Beat Service album which embodies both the brilliance and the bittersweet end of the English Beat whose songs served as a soundtrack for thousands of Gen Xers like me.
The book and this podcast is my tribute to the band’s final, triumphant act – which initially was largely overlooked – and how their music and the love of a young woman changed me forever.
This week I’m focusing on the band’s keyboardist David “Blockhead” Wright whose melodic contributions added so much to the songs on Special Beat Service and have been overlooked and under appreciated.
I interviewed Wright for my book and his perspective was invaluable in giving me an insider’s view on the band and the songs on the album. The audio from that interview is part of this episode.
My new book Soul Salvation : A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat is now available from DiWulf.com and from Amazon globally.
The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.