"Roots Radicals" is a song by the American punk rock band Rancid. It was first released as a single in 1994. The song was re-recorded and released as the first single from its third album, '' ...And Out Come the Wolves''. The song reached number 27 on the ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks. The b-side, "I Wanna Riot" was originally featured on the

Epitaph Records Epitaph Records is an American independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most acts signed to the label were punk and pop punk acts, while there are many post-hardcore and emo bands ...

compilation ''

Punk-O-Rama Vol. 1 ''Punk-O-Rama'' was the title given to a series of ten compilation albums published by Epitaph Records. The first volume was released in 1994, the second in 1996, and the rest annually from 1998 to 2005. The albums included artists from Epitaph's ...

'' (1994), and a slightly different and longer version of "I Wanna Riot" with the

Stubborn All-Stars Stubborn All-Stars are an American, New York City-based ska band led by King Django, front man of Skinnerbox and owner of Stubborn Records. In 1994, Django assembled Stubborn All-Stars for a studio session which resulted in the four-song ''Old ...

was later featured on the '' Beavis and Butt-head Do America Soundtrack'' (1996).

Track listing

#"Roots Radicals" – 2:47 #"I Wanna Riot" – 3:06

Song information

The song is a tribute to

Roots reggae Roots reggae is a subgenre of reggae that deals with the everyday lives and aspirations of Africans and those in the African Diaspora, including the spiritual side of Rastafari, black liberation, revolution and the honoring of God, called Jah ...

, a subgenre of

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

music known for political radicalism. Specifically, the band is acknowledging that "the roots, the reggae on my stereo" to which the band listened during their teenage years influenced their later work. The title lyric and the line "you know I'm a radical," refer to the

Jimmy Cliff James Chambers OM (born 30 July 1944), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, t ...

song " Roots Radical, which features the chorus, "I'm a radical, I'm a roots radical". One of the repeated

verse Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry * Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...

s references

Desmond Dekker Desmond Dekker (16 July 1941 – 25 May 2006) was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group The Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard), he had one of the earlie ...

, one of the most successful roots musicians. The song also draws inspiration from

Bunny Wailer Neville O'Riley Livingston (10 April 1947 – 2 March 2021), known professionally as Bunny Wailer, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and percussionist. He was an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. ...

's "Roots, Radics, Rockers and Reggae" and

Stiff Little Fingers Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977 at the height of the Troubles, which informed much of their songwriting. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star (named after the De ...

version of that song, "Roots, Radicals, Rockers and Reggae". The "60 bus", which is mentioned in the beginning of the song, refers to a transit route that runs north from downtown

Campbell, California Campbell is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Campbell's population is 43,959. Campbell is home to the Pruneyard Shopping Center, a sprawling open-air retail complex which was in ...

along Winchester Boulevard to Santa Clara. The "43 bus," referenced in the song, is the defunct AC Transit 43 line which ran from El Cerrito Plaza, through Albany, Berkeley and Oakland to the Eastmont section of Oakland. The lines "''All the punk rockers''/''And the moonstompers''" references the

Symarip Symarip (also known at various stages of their career as The Bees, The Pyramids, Seven Letters and Zubaba) were a British ska and reggae band, originating in the late 1960s, when Frank Pitter and Michael Thomas founded the band as The Bees. The b ...

track

Skinhead Moonstomp "Moon Hop" is a 1969 single by Derrick Morgan. Backed with the Reggaeites' "Harris Wheel", it reached #49 on the UK Singles Chart. The British Afro-Caribbean ska and reggae band Symarip covered "Moon Hop" as "Skinhead Moonstomp"; whilst unsucces ...

, and alludes obliquely to the band's extensive

skinhead A skinhead is a member of a subculture which originated among working class youths in London, England, in the 1960s and soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in th ...

fanbase. Another line from "Roots Radicals" provided the name for '' Give 'Em the Boot'', a series of

Hellcat Records Hellcat Records is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. The label, an offshoot of Epitaph Records, was started as a partnership between Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, the owner of Epitaph, and Tim Armstrong of Rancid ...

compilations albums.

References

1995 singles Rancid (band) songs Songs written by Tim Armstrong Songs written by Lars Frederiksen 1995 songs Songs written by Matt Freeman Epitaph Records singles {{punk-song-stub