Essential First-Wave Ska Starter CDs

There's a certain kind of list-style memoir that seems to be pervasive on the internet, usually titled something like, "Things I wish I could go back in time to tell myself," where people, purportedly in their elder years (though realistically probably 22-year-old for-hire web writers) wax rhapsodic about how they wish they could tell their teenaged selves how beautiful they were, or to start saving money, or to spend as much time as possible rolling around in clover flowers, or things of that nature. What would I go back and tell my teenaged self? I was a totally unattractive and awkward-looking teenager, so I would never go back and tell myself how adorable I was (unless future-me is much kinder than present-me). I did save money, so no advice needed there, and my hay fever would've made rolling around in any kind of flowers ill-advised.

No, if I were to go back and give some advice to my 16-year-old self, it would've surely been "Put down the No Doubt record and go get yourself some Desmond Dekker. If you must listen to Reel Big Fish, please also listen to Prince Buster. And while you're at it, if you're going to play Bob Marley's Legend album on repeat for weeks on end, take a break for at least an hour a day and listen to some of The Wailers' early ska work. By the way, nice glasses."

Like many people my age, I was sort of ska-crazy in the early and mid-'90s, but I thought I was being really old-school if I delved into two-tone (second wave) ska. I think that 16-year-old me genuinely had almost no idea that first-wave ska even existed, let alone what it really sounded like. And that's okay - at least I got there eventually. But I'm thinkin' that if I were to go back and give myself a list of things that I "wish I'd known when I was younger," I'm thinking it would be a list of essential first-wave ska starter CDs. Oh, and also a bottle of hair gel, because I was like 22 before I got my frizzies under control, y'all, and I could've saved myself much anguish.