Zine Archive: The Beat // July 1983 « Shimmy Shimmy
Before The Beat magazine turned into a fully-fledged, full colour glossy magazine, it was a proper black-and-white one page one dollar newsletter. It was started in 1982, by C.C. Smith and Roger Steffens – who is the world’s foremost authority on Bob Marley (and has the most amazing memorabilia collection, including an amazing Bob bead curtain). It was the only reggae/african/world music dedicated magazine in the US, and sadly shut its press last year.
I have this copy of July/August 1983 issue, which features an interview with Lee Scratch Perry, talking his usual nonsense:
My name is King David, I love to fling stone. Right? My papa is King Solomon Emperor Haile Selassie I the black gorilla king, Super Ape right? He can change into a lion, a monkey, a leopard, any thing. He has the power to do anything, right? He is the capricorn right? He is the sagittarius right? He’s the every-fucking thing (p17, interview with Doug Wendt)
Aside from the Scratch feature, there are some amazing adverts for different reggae shops, mostly in California, complete playlists from Steffens’ Reggae Beat International radio show, on KCRW, columns like ‘Collector’s Corner’, ‘Reggae Ramblins’, an interesting piece addressing whether ‘reggae really wants commercial success’ and the chronic mishandling of reggae as a business, a comic strip based on a rasta called Ducky Dred, a feature on Chicago reggae bands, and this reggae game, for the hardened reggae stoner: Roll up 3 spliffs and start here!
My favourite outtakes from the issue:
