SKANK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (18)
By:
December 1, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… ska records! PLAYLIST HERE. Series edited by Josh Glenn.
Truth and Soul (1988) was the first Fishbone albums I heard, a Molotov cocktail of genres all detonating in the same barroom. “Ma and Pa” sits dead center in that blast radius: an infectious, horn-popped groove hiding a bitter custody battle.
The narrator is a kid watching his little sister get yanked between parents. His plea — “Hey Ma and Pa, what the hell is wrong with y’all?” — is direct. Frustrated. Helpless. He’s trying to keep it together for the child in the middle, even as the whole thing collapses. Fishbone wraps that fury in a sunny ska shuffle, the kind of beat you could dance to without realizing you’re dancing through a courtroom drama.
“Ma and Pa” is also the last time you can clearly hear Fishbone’s ska roots before they evolved into the full-fledged funk metal of 1991’s brilliant The Reality of My Surroundings. You can feel the shift brewing — thicker guitar tone, denser arrangements, an undertow pushing against the bounce.
My favorite track on Truth and Soul is actually “Slow Bus Movin’ (Howard Beach Party),” a pointed, furious slice of anti-racism inspired by the 1985 murder of Michael Griffith — a Black man chased onto a highway to his death by a white mob in Howard Beach, Queens. It was all over the local news when I was a kid, and to hear an L.A. band sing about it oddly hit home. That song seethes; “Ma and Pa” simmers. But you can’t deny “Ma and Pa” distills Fishbone’s early genius. It’s a Trojan horse: party horns on the outside, gut-punch truth on the inside. The verses snowball with each repetition, the groove holding steady even as the emotions spiral.
Fishbone didn’t just blend genres; they mashed up emotional registers too. “Ma and Pa” is proof you can dance to a tragedy, and maybe even need to.
SKANK YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Lucy Sante on Margarita’s WOMAN COME | Douglas Wolk on Millie’s MAYFAIR | Lynn Peril on Prince Buster’s TEN COMMANDMENTS | Mark Kingwell on The [English] Beat’s TEARS OF A CLOWN | Annie Nocenti on Jimmy Cliff’s MISS JAMAICA | Mariane Cara on The Selecter’s ON MY RADIO | Adam McGovern on The Specials’ GHOST TOWN | Josh Glenn on The Ethiopians’ TRAIN TO SKAVILLE | Susannah Breslin on The [English] Beat’s MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM | Carl Wilson on Prince Buster / Madness’s ONE STEP BEYOND | Carlo Rotella on The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ THE IMPRESSION THAT I GET | Rani Som on The Bodysnatchers’ EASY LIFE | David Cantwell on Desmond Dekker’s 007 (SHANTY TOWN) | Francesca Royster on Joya Landis’ ANGEL OF THE MORNING | Mimi Lipson on Folkes Brothers’ OH CAROLINA | Alix Lambert on The Specials’ TOO MUCH TOO YOUNG | Marc Weidenbaum on Dandy Livingstone’s RUDY, A MESSAGE TO YOU | Heather Quinlan on Fishbone’s MA & PA | Will Hermes on The [English] Beat’s WHINE & GRINE / STAND DOWN MARGARET | Peter Doyle on The Skatalites’ GUNS OF NAVARONE | James Parker on The [English] Beat’s SAVE IT FOR LATER | Brian Berger on The Upsetters’ RETURN OF DJANGO | Annie Zaleski on The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ SOME DAY I SUPPOSE | Deborah Wassertzug on The Bodysnatchers’ TOO EXPERIENCED | Dan Reines on The Untouchables’ I SPY FOR THE FBI.
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