Here's a little bit of elaboration on last night's Hippies vs. Punks post dealing with the Rasta-Punk symbiosis. It's from Simon Reynold's Totally Wired: Post-Punk Interviews and Overviews; it's an excerpt of his interview with Ari Up, who died a couple of years ago, of The Slits:
People go on about Rastas recognizing an affinity with punk rock -- as renegades against Babylon. But was there really a kinship? Wasn't it more one-way -- punks identifying with Rastas?
The musicians in reggae did see it, but the black youths who went to these blues parties were very strict into Rasta. They hated punk because they thought it was devil worship! The make-up, the dyed hair, the miniskirts. That's where I developed my attitude that I had later in Jamaica: they had to deal with me, they had to accept me. You know why I got away with it mostly? Because I was dancing the hell out of their blues parties! Back then it was more like African dancing, not dancehall stuff with hip movements and sexy movements. Back then the style was 'steppers' -- leg movements. I was such a good stepper! Everywhere we went in the whole of London there were only three or four top steppers, and I was one of them, stepping in a circle. All you see is weed smoke and a big wall of people surrounding, no one in the middle, just us steppers. That helped me survive as a white girl with her locks out and a mini. Nobody could tell me shit because I was such a good dancer.
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