Funky Friday - Top Ska and Reggae tunes to get you dancing - My Playlist from the Robert Elms show

 Today I had the honour of being asked to do the Funky Friday slot on The Robert Elms show. As I am more of a Punk and Reggae man than a Funker, I chose some rather old school Ska and Reggae tracks. I was a tad overwhelmed with the response. One listener emailed Robert to say that she'd been having an awful time and it had made her smile and made her realise she could get through her problems. There was a great response on Facebook and Twitter, so I put together a playlist of Ska and Reggae songs, starting with mine and Roberts choices. I am not entirely surprised that Roberts choices would have appeared on my list had he picked them or not, they were top choices. To me Ska music is part of the core DNA of London.  Here is my skanking playlist to get you dancing

If you want to listen again to the show, forward to 03:04:10 for my selections. I can recommend the slot on Style Council and Bananarama as well. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08tqck2

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My Top 5 Reggae tracks of all time

1 - The Harder they come - Jimmy Cliff. Great track from a great film. The film would be in my all time top 10 as well






2. Dirty Pieces of Silver - Misty in Roots - A great track from a great band. Most underrated. First saw them at the Stonebridge Park Rock against Racism gig. In my opinion the best British reggae band




3. Stop that Train - Clint Eastwood and General Saint. A joyous track from the Greensleeves label. If you want a great introduction to reggae cehck out the Greesleeves Sampler album, featuring this track





4. Vietnam - Desmond Dekker. People always associate Desmond, The Grandfather of Reggae with his hit "The Israelites". I think Vietnam is a much better track.




5. Africa Must Be Free Dub - Augustus Pablo. The man is a genius. This is a album to chill out and Enjoy.






My first musical love is Punk rock. The other genre of music I spent much of my teenage years listening to and I still love is Reggae. I've always felt that the genre never got the recognition it deserved. Anyway if you love reggae music, hope you liked my selection. If you don't - check these tracks out and maybe you will !