Etymology of "Ska"

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU
Sat Jun 11 05:29:20 UTC 2005


On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 00:42:11 -0400, Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:

>On Jun 10, 2005, at 7:39 AM, Fred Shapiro wrote:
>>
>> "The 'Ska' hits London --but they call it Blue Beat ... Towards the
>> end of the fifties the Jamaicans got keen on rhythm and blues,
>> particularly a record called 'No More Doggin' sung by Roscoe Gordon.
>
>The name is actually _Rosco_ Gordon, without a final "e." No More
>Doggin' was released in 1952. However, according to the All Music
>Guide, this record was not released in Jamaica till 1959.
>
>> They got hold of
>> this beat, cheered it up a bit, added some cute lyrics and called it
>> Ska -- an onomatopoeic word for the sound the guitar made.
>
>Further according to the AMG, "[S]ka ... took its name [from] the sound
>of this particular [piano] shuffle, [called 'Rosco's Rhythm'], as it
>sounded being played on an electric guitar (ska-ska-ska)."

According to the liner notes of the CD anthology _This is Reggae Music:
The Golden Era 1960-1975_, three other R&B releases from '59-'60 shaped
the sound of ska: Fats Domino's "Be My Guest" (1959), Wilbert Harrison's
"Kansas City" (1959), and Rosco Gordon's "Surely I Love You" (1960). But
Gordon should get primary credit for popularizing the shuffle rhythm.

Another theory about the origin of "ska" is that it was shortened from
"skavoovie", the cryptic greeting of bass player Cluett Johnson -- his
group, Clue J and His Blues Blasters, is credited with the earliest ska
instrumentals.  But I once read an interview with the group's guitarist,
Ernest Ranglin, disputing this story.


--Ben Zimmer



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