Vaughan Mason and Crew, Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 51st edition of Throwback Vibez (2025), we recollect and reflect on “Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll” by Vaughan Mason and Crew.   

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 51^st edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2025), we recollect and reflect on “Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll” performed by Vaughan Mason and Crew.

Four words: “Bounce, rock, skate, roll.”  Word.  Vaughan Mason and Crew are best known for one song: “Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll”. PERIOD.  The funk collective was led by the late Vaughan Mason (1950 – 2020). The irresistible “Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll” was released as a single in 1979 when disco was still, disco-ing. The album, also titled Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll arrived in 1980. Mason, Gregory Bufford, and Jerome Bell composed it. “Bounce” was a one-hit wonder for Vaughan Mason and Crew, though it only modestly impacted the pop charts (number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100).

First and foremost, “Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll” thrives off an infectious groove. Ooh-wee is that groove potent to the nth degree! Also potent is the fat yet active and athletic bass line. You can hear the similarities to the bass line of the bigger 1979 cut, “Good Times” by Chic.  Beyond the drums and bass, the rhythm guitar packs a mean punch too.  The section to beat on “Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll” is the chorus, excerpted above.  Still, Vaughan Mason throws in some ‘rolling’ lyrics in the verses.  “Roller skaters celebrate the disco way / Give your feet the freedom / Let’s bounce today,” Mason sings, continuing, “Roller skaters one in front / And one behind / Bounce left, bounce right / It’s disco time.” The second and third verses are patterned similarly.  “Sexy ladies strutting their stuff so well / Laid out in the latest styles casting a spell,” Mason sings regarding the ladies in the second verse. In the third, he comments about the music: “This funky kinda music / Oh, it makes you wanna move / Roller skaters one in front and one behind / Bounce left.” A novel song, “Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll” embraces roller disco, which was popular in the 1970s.  The classic is a popular source of sampling.

Vaughan Mason and Crew // Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll // Brunswick // 1980

Vaughan Mason and Crew, Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 51 (2025) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Brunswick; AcatXlo, OpenClipart-Vectors, Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Speedy McVroom from Pixabay]