Roots of The Specials

Desmond Dekker was a Jamaican singer/songwriter and musician considered a pioneer in the ska, rocksteady and reggae genres. Together with his backing group the Aces, he had one of the earliest international reggae hits with "Israelites" (1968). Other hits include "007 " (1967), "It Mek" (1969) and "You Can Get It If You Really Want" (1970).

Little Hurricane is a blues-rock act principally comprising Anthony "Tone" Catalano, and including various other musicians.

Malvina Reynolds was an American folk/blues singer-songwriter and political activist, best known for her songwriting, particularly the songs "Little Boxes", "What Have They Done to the Rain" and "Morningtown Ride".

The Dead 60s were an English ska punk band from Liverpool. The band's sound is a mixture of punk rock, ska, dub and reggae. They have taken influences from artists such as King Tubby, Jackie Mittoo, Gang of Four and A Certain Ratio.

Clement Seymour "Coxsone" Dodd was a Jamaican record producer who was influential in the development of ska and reggae in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond.

The Pioneers are a Jamaican reggae, soul and rocksteady vocal trio, whose main period of success was in the 1960s. The trio has had different line-ups, and still occasionally performs.

"Maggie's Farm" is a song written by Bob Dylan, recorded on January 15, 1965, and released on the album Bringing It All Back Home on March 22 of that year. Like many other Dylan songs of the 1965–66 period, "Maggie's Farm" is based on electric blues. It was released as a single in the United Kingdom on June 4, 1965, and peaked at No. 22 on the chart. Dylan only needed one take to record the song, as may be heard on the exhaustive 18-disc Collector's Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966, which includes every alternate take recorded during Dylan's 1965–1966 sessions but only the one version of "Maggie's Farm". A live version of the song recorded in Fort Collins, Colorado was included as the opening track of Dylan’s 1976 live album Hard Rain.

Save Ferris is an American ska punk band formed circa 1995 in Orange County, California, United States. Their name is a reference to the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In 1995, the band began to perform underground venues in Southern California. In 1996, the band won a Grammy showcase award for best unsigned band and a contract with Epic Records. Their album It Means Everything from 1997 was their first full-length album. By 1999, the band moved from ska-pop into pop-punk. After a hiatus, in 2017, Save Ferris released the Checkered Past EP.