my late-90s experience in one song

Sunday Music: Dr. Israel’s Rancid Remix

It’s the middle of 1998. Grunge is dead, alternative is officially an “alternative to what” joke, and the bands that broke and haven’t broken up yet need to reinvent themselves. 

Weezer is on hiatus after Pinkerton flopped (and I am very sad about this, because I loved those first two albums, and I’m also blissfully ignorant of what they’ll do next). 

Green Day has a massive hit in “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” which is everywhere, including in the next to last Seinfeld episode, and despite being demo’d in the Dookie sessions, the song is very much not dookie, making a kerplunk of royalty checks into their bank accounts that continues presumably to this day. 

Which brings us to Rancid. 

Life Won’t Wait comes out in the summer of ‘98. Op Ivy in ‘88 was basically birthing the sound of the ska scene that was having its moment in ‘98. Rancid hinted, plenty of times, in their ability to own that style, and even had breakout hits with “Time Bomb” and “Ruby Soho.” 

I think we all expected them to go there. But Rancid dug deeper into roots rock, and way into reggae, without ever losing the anthemic punk rock they were already known for. There weren’t really hints of Bosstones here (no disrespect, because the impression I want you to get is I loved them too). 

Post-touring, Rancid took some real time to record the album. They went to Jamaica. They befriended Buju (thanks to some Jamaican friends of mine, Til Shiloh was permanently playing in our circles). They befriended, in the truest Joe Strummer-influenced sense, all sorts of global writers (including Vic Ruggiero, but that’s already in another post). 

And, they met Dr. Israel.

Dr. Israel was a Brooklyn-based reggae, drum and bass, and electronic artist, aka not a punk in any traditionalist sense of the word. Rancid featured his vocals on the song “Coppers,” and then, gave him the opportunity to remix the track, which he did later that year. 

London you gonna find them

New York, LA back to Kingston

All I see is youth fightin'

All I see is you fightin'

“Coppers” is about power balances. It’s about lost kids. It’s about what to do with kids being kids. And it was way bigger than what was going on in the punk and ska scene. A tiny portion of my friends even knew there was a new Rancid record, but everybody was plugged into rap. 

1998 music mostly had a sheen on it. We’re in “The Boy is Mine” and “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It” and “How’s It Going To Be” (they seriously grammatically called the song that?!) times. Sheen. Not grime.    

Easy, you know it ain't easy

Got to make a decision

Got to learn to say no, no, no

When Dr. Israel’s remix of an otherwise massive sounding rock, reggae, dancehall track opens with a BDP-tight drum break, and the Stetsasonic “Go Brooklyn” - I mean, it still just punches me in the gut. It knocks the wind out of you. He somehow bridges everything, pulls at all the sentimental heartstrings, and leaves the dirt all over it. 

How can a song sound like your friends? Like life? Like what came before and what’s coming after? A time machine in a track. In time and totally out of time, all at once. 

There’s no sheen, just an energy. Gilman meets Brooklyn. Rapturously captured. 

The music industry is brutal. Dr. Israel never quite made it big, and this is just a random track out of a broader underground catalog for him now. But one I still regularly return to.  

Because the “Coppers (Brooklyn Version)” feels like the late ‘90s to me. The way those years actually felt, not the way the Billboard charts look. It sounds like our cars, like my friends, like all the frustrated and excited energy we had. 

How a song can bottle all that up, even when - still - barely any one knows it - this is why we listen to music in the first place. 

Enjoy. Both versions below. Happy Sunday. 

Ps. “One day we’re gonna find it, New York, LA, back to Kingston.” That’s how I remember it. Sometimes I hear “London” and sometimes I hear “one day.” Same with the “all I see is you/youth fighting” bit. It’s all there, I’m convinced.