Gavin B.

I'm not including any music by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh or Bunny Wailer because the purpose of my list is to give thanks and praise to some of the musicians beyond the nexus of the original Wailers whom most reggae fans are already aquainted with.

From around 1975 until 1985 I was an avid collector of roots reggae, dancehall, dub and other reggae sub-genres like ska, rock steady and bluebeat. During that period I hosted a reggae music radio show in Boston and made several trips to Jamaica in which I'd filled an empty duffel bag with the lastest reggae 12" singles to play on my radio show.

I lost interest in contemporary Jamaican music in the mid-Eighies for several reasons:

• The rise of the slackness deejay style marked the decline of socially conscious reggae music. The phonomenal success of Yellowman's profane and sexualized content of his toasting had a big influence on hip-hop artists like KRS One, Tupac and Notorious Mr. B.I.G., but Yellow's misogynistic themes were hard to take for someone like me, who also listened to agit-prop post punk groups like Au Pairs, the Bush Tetras and the Gang of Four. The slackness style eclipsed the conscious toasters like U-Roy, Big Youth and I-Roy.

• The gunned up sleng-teng riddims coming out of Jamician dancehalls were replacing the off tempo, one drop drumset style which was the innovation of Carlton Barrett who defined the reggae drum riddim in the Upsetters (Barrett also played several years with the Wailers).

• The final straw for me was the introduction and subsequent overuse of the ubiquitous Casio synthesizer by reggae producers which made nearly every reggae tune sound like the latest Flock of Seagulls single. It spelled the end of the organic sound of roots reggae and since then reggae lost it's musical compass. Reggae music producers over the past 20 years, have used the pulverize cycle on the Cusinart blender to make reggae music sound like generic, pop oriented Worldbeat music.

I have a digital collection of nearly 10,000 reggae songs from the golden era of the Seventies and Eighties. Of those songs I rated about 700 songs (about 7%) as five star (*****) and over the next few weeks I'm going to post about a hundred of those songs. The songs I post will be in no order of importance or quality because they all have significance to me as great musical statements.

All of these songs are available on You Tube and if you have a You Tube Downloader you can easily convert the YouTube flash videos into MP3 files to listen to on your digital jukebox or portable digital music player. YouTube Downloader - Software to download and convert YouTube video




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__________________
There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

Gavin B.

Country Boy - the Heptones This is one of my favorite roots tunes in which the Heptones criticize a rude boy who grew up in bush country and moves to Trenchtown and gets himself in trouble by falling into the company of urban gunslingers and drug dealers. This is the original Channel One 1974 pressing of Country Boy is very hard to find and the most heartfelt version of the song that the Heptones recorded many times during their careeer.



African Blood - Congo Ashanti Roy I found this song on a 1994 collection of Bill Laswell produced reggae songs called On U-Sound Crash Mix. I don't know anything about the history of the song but Congo Ashanti Roy is half of the legendary Congos vocal duo along with Cedric Myton.



The Border - Gregory Isaacs Gregory is best known for his silky smooth renditions of lover's rock but throughout his careeer he wrote just as many sufferer's tales and roots conscious songs as love songs.

The Border is a sufferer's tale about a rastaman on the lam from the law. Gregory was writting from experience and he did more time in Jamaica's harsh General Penitentary than just about any other reggae singer.

This song was recorded sometime in the late Seventies and he's backed by the Revolutionaries a collection of various musicians that played as the Studio One house band, most notably Sly and Robbie. But Sly Dunbar isn't drumming on this cut... On the drum-kit for this session was Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace whose crisp, elegant, and riddimatically complex drumming makes him my favorite reggae drummer. The Tamlins are singing the sublime harmony parts on on the chorus of the song.

__________________
There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

Dr_Rez

Great thread. Heptones are a fantastic band. When I have the time ill add some more to your list

The other day I got to see the Wailers perform an electric/accoustic set of Exodus! Also going to see 10 Ft Ganja Plant soon. Nothing better than a live show.

__________________
*Best chance of losing virginity is in prison crew*
*Always Checks Credentials Crew*
*nba > nfl crew*
*Shave one of my legs to pretend its a girl in my bed crew*

Gavin B.

Rub A Dub Sound - Sugar Minott The hypnotic groove of Rub A Dub rocked dancehalls from Kingston to Sav La Mar in 1980. The muscular drum and bass of Sly and Robbie drives the riddim of this Sugar Minott song



Under Mi Sensi - Barrington Levy Like Rub A Dub Sound, Under Mi Sensi is a riff driven song with a mezmerizing drum and bass line. Recorded in 1984, Under Mi Sensi is one of the most sampled songs in the history of reggae. It's a killer riddim.




Peace and Love in the Ghetto - U-Roy - This the first single by a reggae toaster I ever purchased and it's still my favorite. It came out in 1977 under the imprint of the newly founded Virgin Frontline label which was founded by British air travel tycoon Richard Branson. There's a lot of Studio One players on the song. Horsemouth Wallace's distinctive drumming drives the riddim and it's a version of the popular Dennis Brown song, the Man Next Door which is sung by Ken Boothe and Judy Mowatt. You can find this song and 8 other smokin' toasts by U-Roy on Jah Son of Africa, perhaps the greatest deejay album ever to come out of Jamaica.

Gavin B.

Hail Mi Idrin - Ina Kamoze - When I visited Jamaica in 1984 Ina Kamoze was being hailed as an inheritor of the roots conscious legacy of the the recently deceased Bob Marley. Ini recorded Hail Mi Idrin and about a dozen stellar tracks at Sonic Studios with Sly and Robbie. I love Kamoze's chilled out minimalist approach and the spacey dub sounds on the cut. Ini Kamoze never lived up to his early expectations but his first album the self titled Ina Kamoze is a reggae classic.



Dance In A Greenwich Farm- Cornell Campbell - Cornell Campbell was a big star in Jamaica but never broke through as an international star. His smooth falsetto voice reminds me a lot of Smokey Robinson. Dread In A Greenwich Farm is typical of of the the long string of hit records during his collaboration with producer Bunny Lee at King Tubby's studio in the Seventies. There about a two dozen Cornell Campbell songs from his Bunny Lee/King Tubby period that are seriously dread. You can hear those tracks and others on the 2 CD Natty Dread Anthology recently reissued on the indie label Sanctuary.



Gunman - Michael Prophet Gunman was Michael Prophet's commentary on the violence by gun and machete wielding possies who caused a great deal of violence leading into the 1980 Michael Manley vs. Edward Seaga presidential election. Michael Prophet wrote this song after a gang of gunmen rousted him out of bed one morning wanting to know who he was voting for in the presidential election. Most Rastafarians were supporters of Manley but as a group they steered away from the partisan fussing and fighting that dominated the Jamaican political world throughout the Seventies and early Eighties.

__________________
There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

Gavin B.

Uptown Ranking - Athena and Donna This song by a pair of female vocalists blew my mind when I first heard it in 1978. The Joe Gibbs production on the single bubbles along while Athena and Donna throw down their seriously dread lyrics. It's an amazing cut. I love the lyrics which I posted below the video.




Lyrics to Uptown Ranking
Make It Up - Junie Lodge Junie Lodge has been called the Diana Ross of Jamaica, but take my word for it, Junie is a whole lot better than Diana the diva. This song got a ton of dancehall play in 1980. Her winsome and elegant vocal on Make It Up established her as a major star in Jamaica in the Eighties.



Mi God Mi King - Papa Levi This is one of the fastest reggae toasts ever recorded. Shortly into the song Papa Levi starts rapping in double time and his blazing speed outclocks any rapper or toaster I've ever heard. It was recorded at Taxi Studios with Sly and Robbie in 1984. One day when I had nothing better to do I translated and wrote down the amazing lyrics to Mi God Mi King and they're provided below the embedded You Tube video below.



Lyrics to Mi God Mi King

__________________
There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

Gavin B.

Ganja Smuggling - Eek-A-Mouse The charismatic Eek-A-Mouse has a completely unique singing and deejay voice. A lot of his singing sounds sounds influenced by Middle Eastern musical modalities of singing. Ganja Smuggling was released in 1982 and was produced by Henry Lawes and mixed by King Tubby and Prince Jammy at King Tubby's Firehouse. The Roots Radics lay down the riddim track and it's Eek's own epic saga of working as herbs smuggler.



Government Land Horace Andy Government Land is Horace Andy's musical demand for land reform in Jamaica. It was a big hit for him in 1977. It was produced at Harry J.'s has an all-star studio group consisting of Jah Malla, Horsemouth Wallace, Leroy Sibbles, Michael Taylor, Andy Bassford, Privy Dread, Augustus Pablo, Bobby Kalphat, Bernard Touter Harvey, Tommy McCook, Don D. Junior, Charles Bashford, Dirty Harry, Scully Sims, Horace Hinds, and Sylvan Morris.

Horace has acheived international noteriety as one of the vocalists for the crossover trip hop and dub group, Massive Attack. Horace sings lead such Massive Attacks songs as Spying Glass, Man Next Door, and One Love.



A Song- Pablo Moses A Song was recorded in Jamaica using the island's finest session players and then remixed in London in 1980. It comes from an album with the same title and it established a cult following for Pablo Moses in Europe, South American, Canada and the USA. He backed off the reggae scene for several years but he's begun to tour again in Europe, Africa and South America where he draws large crowds. Pablo maintains a frenquently updated page at My Space with great jukebox of his tunes.

This is not the original version of A Song but a "live-studio" version recorded a few years ago. I've never seen the album A Song either in compact disc or digital music file form, probably because the original master tapes are lost or destroyed. If you ever come across it let me know and I will pay you a hefty finder's fee for the entire album. My vinyl copy got worn out about 20 years ago.

__________________
There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

Dr_Rez

Gavin B you are awesome. Keep it rollin.

__________________
*Best chance of losing virginity is in prison crew*
*Always Checks Credentials Crew*
*nba > nfl crew*
*Shave one of my legs to pretend its a girl in my bed crew*

Gavin B.

UK Ska Hits


Carry Go Bring Come - Justin Hines and the Dominoes Justin Hinds and the Domino's Jamaican smash Carry Go Bring Come mashed up sound systems in the UK way back in 1964 and may be the earliest song with a Rastafarian message. Hinds has recorded the song dozens of times and it is one of the foundation songs of ska.



Red Red Wine - Tony Tribe The original of Red Red Wine by Tony Tribe was played at a much faster tempo than the UB40 version. It was another UK ska hit that got a lot of play in UK dancehalls during the first wave of ska.



Pressure Drop - Toots and the Maytals Another early ska hit that folks in the UK are probably already familiar with. This version is a beautifully restored and resmatered version of the 1972 original single.

Gavin B.

Nancy Reagan - Blue Riddim Band The most unlikely success in the history of the Reggae Sunsplash was the appearance of the Blue Riddim Band 5:45 in the morning on August 8 1982. It was unlikely because Blue Riddim Band was an all-white band from Kansas singing a song about Nancy Reagan. I was operating the video camera that was doing the pan shots of the crowd in this video and I was stunned at the enthusiastic reaction of the mostly all Jamaican crowd. Look closely at the crowd shots and you'll see an estatic Winston Rodney (aka Burning Spear) skanking away to the music. He was good friends with the band and was larely responsible for getting BRB as performers at Sunsplash.

I have the original single and dub version of the song which really smokes. The former members of BRB won't allow me to file share Nancy Reagan, but I can email an MP3 copy of it to anyone on the Music Banter Forum upon request. It's a seriously dread song.



No Vacancy - Sugar Minott Sugar Minott's populist cry for jobs in Jamaica was a monster hit in the island in 1982. No Vacancy refers to no job vacancies and it's a suffer's tale about humiliating state of poverty that exists on the island.

The lyrics are in the militant stylee and Sugar lays down the line with these lyrics:



Slave Market - Gregory Isaacs Soon Forward is a crucial album in the history of reggae music. It's 1979 and reggae was standing at the crossroads of roots conscious, dub and dancehall styles and this album pulled it all together into a collection of songs that stand up to the test of time. Slave Market is a sufferer's tale from that album and Gregory sings it with a winesome but firery vocal. Sly and Robbie do drum and bass with most of the Roots Radics on other instruments. Note Horsemouth Wallace's brilliant off riddim Niahbingi tribal style hand drumming on this cut. It was recorded at the Taxi studio and released the Virgin owned Frontline label in the UK and the USA.

__________________
There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt