In Defense of Ska Ep 112: Stranger Cole

Stranger Cole doesn't recall a time before he started singing and writing music; it was always a part of his life. As a teenager in Jamaica in the early 60s, he took several of his songs to record producer Duke Reid, who liked his songwriting, but not his voice. He had Eric Monty Morris sing Stranger's song "In and Out The Window." After the song became a hit, he let Stranger sing a few of his songs. The next two, "Rough and Tough" and "When You Call My Name" (With Patsy Todd) were also big hits. These songs are STILL well-known songs from this era.

The hits kept on coming for Stranger with "Uno Dos Tres" (With Ken Boothe), "Bangarang" (The first recorded-reggae song), Yeah Yeah Baby (With Patsy Todd) and many more.

This week we are honored to speak with Jamaican ska icon, Stranger Cole. We talk about his vast and fascinating history with music, which includes playing with The Skatalites, performing at the Sombrero Club (featured in the 1964 BBC documentary, This Is Ska), working with Duke Reid, and how he stumbled into singing the first reggae song. 

We also talk about his move to Toronto, Canada in the 70s, where he opened the Kensington Market record store Roots Records. We talk about the recording of his debut LP, "Forward" In The Land Of The Sunshine, and we ask what it's been like traveling all over the world in recent years, and getting backed by young and eager, ska-studious bands wherever he travels. 

He also explains how doing "rewinds" makes for a better live show. 

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If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.

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