The unassuming looking guy above is Don Letts, a DJ, filmmaker, and musician, and, this is important, the person most responsible for turning UK punks onto reggae. He was the DJ at the Roxy in London when they they were booking a lot of punk bands. At the time (1976-77), there was very little new punk on vinyl, so Letts played what he knew, reggae. The common thought was that reggae was another sort of rebel music, thereby allied with punk. In the overall scheme of things all of that matters, but the real reason for this post is to hep you to Letts's documentary about punk rock, Punk: Attitude. Someone just posted the whole thing on YouTube and it's probably the most definitive take there is on the subject.
Letts was there, as a participant and observer, but it isn't just his version of history. In the film he nabs interviews with a who's who of punk affiliated personalities. In just the first few minutes there's John Cale, David Johansen, Wayne Kramer, John Sinclair, Glenn Branca, Thurston Moore, Jello Biafra, and Henry Rollins. It's a chronological verbal history, dotted with rare footage, and it is thorough. If the link below is dead, which is often the case when full-length videos are posted, just do a search at YouTube and you're bound to come up with some teasers. Regardless, it's worth laying out the dough because the DVD comes with another disc of short docs, among them one on women in punk, and another excellent take on the West Coast scene.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Punky Reggae Party mp3 at Pixie Radio 12" Jamaican pressing
Video:
Don Letts interview at Red Bull Academy "The cultural revolution of two spliffs and one beer, told by the man who unified punk and reggae" (Text version below)
Visit:
Don Letts - Interview at Red Bull Academy
Don Letts at Wikipedia
Don Letts - Radio show at the BBC
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