Vivien Goldman – Rebel Musix, Scribe on a Vibe (book)

Rebel Musix, Scribe on a Vibe: Frontline Adventures Linking Punk, Reggae, Afrobeat and Jazz brings together the extraordinary music writing of Vivien Goldman, one of the pioneering journalists who documented punk, reggae and the wider counterculture from inside the movement.

Beginning in 1975, the collection follows Goldman through a period when musical boundaries were collapsing and new cultures were being created in real time. Punk collided with reggae, dub fed into post-punk, hip-hop began to emerge, and musicians across London, New York, Jamaica and Africa were finding new ways to challenge both music and society.

Goldman was there for much of it. Her subjects include Bob Marley, Fela Kuti, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Dennis Brown, Ornette Coleman, Curtis Mayfield and George Clinton alongside The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Slits, The Raincoats, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Richard Hell, Public Enemy, Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt and Can. Rather than observing from a safe distance, Goldman wrote from within these scenes, developing friendships with many of the artists and bringing an unusually personal perspective to her journalism.

Across more than four decades of writing, Rebel Musix captures the connections between punk, reggae, Afrobeat, jazz, funk and the cultures that grew around them. It is both a history of radical music and a document of an era when music journalism itself could be adventurous, political and unpredictable.

A substantial 441-page collection with original cover artwork by legendary Ghanaian artist Lemi Ghariokwu, Rebel Musix, Scribe on a Vibe is essential reading for anyone interested in punk, reggae, post-punk, Black music, independent culture and the people who helped redraw the musical map.