‘Walking down the road
With your pistol in your waist
Johnny you're too bad
Walking down the road
With your ratchet in your waist
Johnny you're too bad
You're just robbing and you're stabbing and you're looting and you're
shooting
Now you're too bad
You're just robbing and you're stabbing and you're looting and you're
shooting
Now
you're too bad…’
Those lyrics from the
song ‘Johnny Too Bad’ by Jimmy Cliff, from the seminal 1972 film ‘The Harder
They Come’ sum up the lifestyle of the ‘rude boy’ perfectly.
The term originates
from 1960s Jamaican street culture and has a strong association with ska music
with ‘rude’ being a slang term for ‘mischievous or obscene’
The
original ‘Rudy’s’ were at the forefront
of a Jamaican youth cult where crime and violence were part of daily life. That
lifestyle was documented in many a song like the one above.
With
immigration to the UK from the West Indies beginning in the late forties with
the arrival of ‘The Emperor Windrush’, a second generation became firmly
established in British life, slowly assimilated into the street cultures of
white youth and by the mid 1960s, a few young black faces were evident on the
Mod scene.
The sub
culture that grew from that became known as ‘Hard Mod’ whose dress code was a
more paired-down, less flamboyant style, teamed with shorter and shorter hair
and this evolved into the world of the Skinhead. Ska and Jamaican ‘Blue Beat’
was the music of choice for those involved as was the dress styles of the ‘rude
boys’ displayed by Black youth on council estates around the main cities of the
UK.
Skinhead was
a tough, often intimidating, working class cult, with younger kids often copying
elements of their older brothers/uncles look, smart ‘Tonik’ two piece suits for
example, but then adapting it with the details borrowed from their black
neighbours. So, slimmer trousers, which showed off plenty of sock, became the
norm, as did the ‘stingy’ brim pork pie hat. Boots were the normal day-wear, for
that industrial job you had, with brogues and loafers being sported for the
evening dance.
A memory
burned forever in my mind is of three, smartly dressed chaps, two white, one
black, cutting across my estate in what would have been 1970, clearing a path
through us gawping younger kids, all drooling at the clothes they had on.
Sheepskin coats, highly polished shoes, red socks and candy striped long collar
Ben Sherman shirts among the finery on display,
The late
1970s saw interest in this look once again, with ‘Two Tone’ revival led by the
likes of The Specials, Madness and The Beat.
Once again
hordes of youngsters began dressing like their forebears and once again, they
made a permanent mark on British culture.
At Delicious Junction we are very proud to say that the one and only Neville ‘Original Rude
Boy’ Staple from The Specials has chosen our very own ‘Rude Boy’ tassel loafers
as his footwear of choice; what could be better than the ‘original rude boy’
wearing our very own ‘rude boy!
Like all
things, styles may have changed slightly over the years but essentially our
shoes retain the same ethos as the back in the late 60s and it’s good that they
can be still be seen on the high streets of Britain today.
Our ‘Rude
Boy’ loafer is the best selling shoe in our range and no doubt it will continue
to remain a part of British culture for a long time!
Til the next
time
KTF!
Del x
.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
