Tuesday 5 August 2014

Steel Pulse - Ku Klux Klan

After listening to 'Clint Eastwood' from over at John's excellent Ballistic Wax blog I decided I had to post this.

Reggae was always synonymous with punk around 1977-78. You would often see reggae support bands, and reggae music played in the intervals. Apart from there being some very good reggae songs, another reason why it was played at punk venues like 'The Roxy' was due to there being a limited availability of good quality punk songs being released.

Steel Pulse were an English band from Birmingham who were often around the punk scene and this for me is one of their best singles, 'Ku Klux Klan' has excellent lyrics and is an outstanding song. The b-side is a dub version of the same song, I was never keen on this and always felt it was a little lazy, but plenty of people really like dub, so who am I to criticize.

Band: Steel Pulse
Label: Island
Year: 1978
Tracks:
1. Ku Klux Klan
2. Ku Klux Klan (Dub)

Ripped from glorious scratched vinyl:


If you like this then you have plenty of choice, this one for their classic debut album at £3 its a bargain, you wont find the dub version on any of these albums, but obliviously Ku Klux Klan is on just about all of them:
Handsworth Revolution
Handsworth Revolution

If you want to sample there different types of music then try this one:
Sound System: The Island Anthology (2CD)
Sound System: The Island Anthology (2CD)

If you want to hear the reggae music played at the Roxy then get this one:
Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown: the Soundtrack to London's Legendary Roxy Club December 1976-April 1977
Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown: the Soundtrack to London's Legendary Roxy Club December 1976-April 1977

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I believe that by 1978 Reggae was well on the downhill slide, the most inventive & exciting period being 1969-75.
Re Check 39 by Clint Eastwood, during that time DJ's such as Trinity, Dillinger et al,were all doing the exact same style & using the tired rehashed rhythms over & over.
I have about 1,500 reggae singles in my cupboard & still play them.
Again, just my personal opinion, Cheers !

John Spithead said...

Another great selection, Gary. I loved this record when I was a young punk and - years later - when we moved to Brum, I remember being really excited (to the absolute bafflement of my friends) when we went over to Handsworth Park one day - with me rattling on about Handsworth Revolution.

Then when Mrs Spithead started working in radio, (and I used to spend a lot of time at home sampling Birmingham's fine combustables, if you catch my drift) I was in the middle of a rather smoky afternoon when the 'phone rang and someone asked for her. I told the caller that she was at work and they said, "Could you tell her Steel Pulse rang."

Now, I was a bit taken aback by this, and I said to the assorted stoners who were round our house something like, "Fuck, that was Steel Pulse!" and no-one seemed either surprised or bothered. It's a bit like that, Brum.

Punkzer0 said...

Hi Longcigarette, thanks for your comment. from what I have heard of the older material, I tend to agree with you. Although I always liked Ku Klux Klan and a few other from the late seventies.

Any plans to post those 1,500 singles?, I wouldn't mind hearing some of them

Punkzer0 said...

Hi John, nice little story, I will post a few more reggae songs some time soon. by the way i also got hold of Dr Alimantado, excellent.

Unknown said...

Yeah I'll get to posting some, have to get a new usb turntable first though. :(

Punkzer0 said...

I look forward to hearing some of your choices