Symarip – Skinhead Moonstomp
Symarip
Listen/Download – Symarip – Skinhead Moonstomp
Greetings all.
I should probably start by making it clear that the smooth, shiny head you found staring back at you when you pointed your browser at this page is in fact my own.
When my five year old asked me why I was bald, I told him I fell down and knocked it all loose.
The fact of the matter is that I have divested myself of hair in a show of solidarity with my wife, who just completed chemotherapy and is at home, recuperating.
It was easy for me. I just strolled into the discount barber shop (how can you possibly foul up cutting all of someone’s hair?) and said “Buzz me.”, which they did, much to my (7 year old) son’s surprise (he thinks I’m weird).
The biggest shock for me was not the ‘style’ itself, I dig the ease of short (or non-existant) hair, but that my scalp was suddenly exposed to the elements. I’m already up where the air is thin, and it’s cold. I fully expect to fall asleep on a park bench and wake up with a crown of frost on my dome.
That said, as I was ruminating on things to be blogged, I was struck by inspirado, and remembered that I had something apropos sitting in cold storage, and what better time to drop a skinhead reggae anthem than when I should have suddenly been rendered thus.
I first heard ‘Skinhead Moonstomp’ way back in the Two Tone era, when I picked up one of those ’20 Reggae Classic’ comps that Trojan put out to capitalize on how many of the ska and rock steady killers were then being repopularized by modern bands.
Symarip, a group that also recorded as the Pyramids (dig the inversion), The Bees, the Seven Letters and later Zubaba, recorded for a variety of labels (including Blue Beat, Attack, Treasure Isle and Trojan) between 1967 and 1971.
They laid down ‘Skinhead Moonstomp’ (itself basically a cover/reworking of Derrick Morgan’s ‘Moon Hop’) in 1969 (the version I have is an early-80’s UK pressing) and it quickly became an anthem for the skinhead movement in its early days when it was multi-racial, and concerned mainly with music and style, before ultra-right wing politics found its way into things.
The intro to the record is an homage to the opening to Sam and Dave’s ‘I Thank You’ and it opens up into a hard-charging dance floor party.
It’s a great, upbeat, good-timey record and a fitting send off to my locks.
I hope you dig it and I’ll be back later in the week.
Peace
Larry
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Themocracy
not a bad look, didn’t think it was you at first
and it’s a great way to show your solidarity.
FWIW, the bald/beard thing is a good look for you. I’ve often thought about doing it myself, but I feel like my head is probably too lumpy.
My single biggest fear was that the hair would come off and I’d be left with a head that looked like 20 pounds of ground sirloin.
Fuck cancer, man. Taken too many I knew. Sympathies.
More beautiful than ever.
There is something about this track that I just love and have done ever since I heard it on the soundtrack to GTA 1969. Well played for pulling up such a positive track for what’s got to be a really difficult time.