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What R&B and blues were to The Beatles and the Stones, reggae was to Johnny Rotten and The Clash: kindred rebel music. Pioneering U.K. journalist Vivien Goldman noted this in her September 1977 Sounds feature story "Jah Punk: New Wave Digs Reggae." Earlier that year, she'd played a pre-release pressing of The Clash's version of Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves" for Bob Marley and Murvin's producer, Lee "Scratch" Perry. Initially startled but then impressed, Marley immediately recorded "Punky Reggae Party" with Perry, who also oversaw The Clash's next single, "Complete Control."

These weren't isolated incidents: As Goldman notes, Rotten told a Capital Radio interviewer that when he was beaten up that year in the street, he played Dr. Alimantado's righteous outsider anthem "Born for a Purpose" to cheer himself up. A son of Jamaican parents, DJ Don Letts -- future member of Clash splinter group Big Audio Dynamite -- played reggae and dub at the Roxy, a nexus for England's early punk scene. British reggae band Steel Pulse toured with The Stranglers; Aswad did the same with Eddie and the Hot Rods.

In her article, Goldman attends a Rock Against Racism benefit featuring Billy Idol's Generation X opening for the Cimarons, England's first reggae group. After the gig, Gen X bassist Tony James dreams of applying the echo, spaciousness and sudden dropouts of dub to punk; shortly thereafter, "Wild Dub" -- the chaotic and radical instrumental B-side of their second single, "Wild Youth" -- does exactly that, blueprinting nearly every sonic tick that will soon define post-punk.

Here then is a late '70s/early '80s sound clash of the reggae that inspired punks, early punk appropriations of reggae sounds and spirits, punk cover versions of reggae tunes, reggae-derived post-punk, and Grace Jones turning Joy Division even more extreme.