Reggae

[tulsehill charlie]

go deh, Con!

[Con Murphy]

[Steel Pulse] playing WOMAD Sunday 29th, please go see them and report Des. :)

As are Toots and the Maytals. They really know their target demographic at WOMAD, don't they?

[Des]

Looking forward to Toots & Maytals & Steel Pulse although the latter might not be quite up to those heady political 'Handsworth Revolution' days.

[Rob Hall]

I'm minded to go home and dig out my vinyl copy of Aswad's "Live and Direct" and give it a spin tonight.

I like reggae but I was never into it in a big way. While at college I hung out with a couple of guys who were massive reggae fans, and I was interested enough to buy the stuff that Junior Murvin and Rico recorded for Island around that time (76?). But, as someone has already said, there's good and bad reggae as much as there is any kind of music. Nowadays the reggae beat is everywhere - Manu Chao wouldn't have a career without it - but, to my way of thinking, reggae will always be primarily Jamaican.

[Adam Blake]

"Even the dog that piss against the wall of Babylon shall not escape this judgement"...

[Ted]

"Even the dog that piss against the wall of Babylon shall not escape this judgement"...

Cow never know the use of im tail til the butcher cut it off.

[garth cartwright]

The Blood&Fire compilation Darker Than Blue:Soul From Jamdown 1973-1980 features superb renderings of Gypsy Woman, Baltimore, Why Can't We Live Together and others. A great introduction for soul fans who want to check out "roots".

I was a mad reggae fan through the 80s/90s to the point of rewriting the Clash song about Hammersmith Palais to Brixton Academy whenever i attended dancehall gigs there. I stopped attending almost a decade ago as i stopped hearing engaging new albums - Xterminator was the last producer of note (for me) - and the gigs were horribly, dangerously overcrowded.

But i would go see Burning Spear anywhere - he remains a master leading a great band.

[Charlie]

It might be my memory playing tricks, but didn't "Ramjam" Rodigan and Charlie once regularly have shows on the same night (possibly even a Saturday) on Capital? Golden days...

I changed times at Capital so often, I've forgotten most of the people I was sandwiched in between, although I do remember Nicky Campbell, Mike Allen, Paul McKenna and Dr Fox.

Earlier, at BBC Radio London in the 7o's, I was always on Sunday lunchtime, and for most of the seven years, was followed by Reggae Time, which was presented by Steve Barnard and then Tony Williams, who were both Jamaicans. When one of them went on holiday, a young white English actor called David Rodigan deputised, and although it confused me to think like that, it was obvious he knew far more about reggae and was a more communicative broadcaster than either of the authentic Jamaicans.

One by-product was that an increasing number of Jamaicans, turning on the radio early while waiting for Reggae Time, discovered my show and to their amazement found somebody was playing old R&B records that they hadn't heard since they were back on the island. One of them was Errol Dixon, who had made records himself in the early days of ska. Errol made contact and came round to my house with 78s by Amos Milburn, Rosco Gordon and a funny song called 'But Officer' that I had never even heard of.

A few years earlier, I had worked on a series called The Story of Pop for Radio One with producer Tim Blackmore, and when he became head of music at Capital Radio in 1979, he called to ask if I knew anybody who might be a good presenter for a reggae show. I suggested David and he got the gig. A year or so later, I wound up at Capital too, and there must have been some moment when David and I were back-to-back, but I can't pin down when that might have been.

I can't get my head around the idea of somebody not liking any reggae at all - it's all so varied and different. I still love what Johnny Nash did with it, Hold Me Tight, Stir It Up and especially I Can See Clearly Now, one of the great records of all time.

[Des]

Oh yeah those Johnny Nash tracks are classics.

Anyone mention the great Jimmy Cliff? Surely one of the masters for me.

Charlie - have you written any volumes of autobiography yet? I would love to hear about your radio career before I knew about you.

[Ted]

I was a mad reggae fan through the 80s/90s to the point of rewriting the Clash song about Hammersmith Palais to Brixton Academy whenever i attended dancehall gigs there.

Thats interesting, because like a lot of people my age the cut off point for me was the beginning of the digital reggae in 85. I stuck with it for a bit but after a while I was ground down not so much by the endless versions of Casio riddims as by the gun talk and slackness. The first time I heard a sample of a machine gun used as a breakbeat it was genius - by the third time it was getting tiresome. As was the often foul sexism of MCs like Admiral Bailey.

85 is a really significant date for reggae because as well as producers finding that they no longer needed to hire musicians, reggae retreated to the dancehall after its internationalisation (mainly due to Marley) in the late 70s. The consumers of this form of reggae basically wanted music to lie around getting stoned to while feeling slightly militant - Black Uhuru anyone?

Reggae reclaimed itself from Babylon, but in the meantime Jamaica had changed, with the gun election and Reagans war on drugs eliminating the ganja industry. (Which of course was promptly followed by Jamaica becoming a staging post for cocaine). The resulting musical form was incredibly inward looking, unquestioning to the point of actually celebrating
some of the things that were going wrong in Jamaica. As well as being brutally brilliant dance music.

So I stopped buying the records and returned to my scratchy Delroy Wilson 45s

Cheers
TW

[Alastaw]

were we all in the same record shops
-I came to reggae the same way

Marley on the radio, mikey dread at the clash , Junior Murvin and the ska thing - but yes oh yes Shine Eye Gal is a trouble to a Man and Dennis brown for more romantic times..

Still remember first time at Jah Shaka Sound System and buyingmy first pre at Daddy Cool in Brewer St - Tapper Zukie and feeling the door knob throb with bass and get 10 seconds on the turntable and then "You want it?"

And no one has mentioned "Do you remember the days of Slavery" - Burning Spear, Childen of the Rainbow by ASWAD and MOST importantly listening to Reggae Rockers on Radio London!!!!!!!

[c hristian]

the reggae spirit and that reggae back beat can't help but get under my skin. I personally think it has just a little something to do with those who grew up along the coast. I also go with the heartbeat theory.

But in my experience, there is simply NO OTHER genre of music that will unite young and old, black and white, people of all cultures on the dance floor as will a good few reggae songs.

Hip Hop might do the same for some, but usually it's got an angrier edge, and a bit faster (depending on the song, of course).

So in terms of making all feel "as one" on the dance floor, I vote for GOOD reggae. (there is much that is very mediocre, of course.)


I second the Nash and Cliff stuff.

Also, do you all know about Nyabinghi Reggae a la Ras Michael, Sons of Nuru, and the like? TALK about some hypnotic groove, collective spirit stuff! This subgenre is one of my personal faves. An example of this that you may know is "Bongo Man" - Jimmy Cliff.

But you know, it's a lot of drums, which is perfect for the dance floor, but if you don't like a lot of drums..

[c hristian]

I would love nothing more than to hear a great , in-depth interview with Chris Blackwell, about how he sold Bob Marley, and in turn, Reggae to the white world. He marketed Bob like a rock star, basically, but I'd love to know what that means, exactly, and what else was done, as Bob doesn't look like Mick Jaggar.

One of the most satisfying albums that I own is called "Dub Side of the Moon" by the Easy Star All Stars. In case you haven't heard of it, it is the entire Dark Side of the Moon album, each track done in some style of reggae.
I could (and many times do) listen to this over and over and over again.
As a matter of fact, I was DJing a 9 hour gig, and in the last hour, for something different, but continuous, I played the entire album from start to finish. (not something I normally do, but in that last hour, I was basically playing for myself, and the few people that were still around, who, incidently, were fascinated by the album. They were all listening.)

But yes, like many, I had to make an extra effort to enjoy some dancehall. Wow, talk about repetitive stuff! A lot of it is like a machine gun, I've always thought. That said, I've found quite a bit of dancehall that I do like, and will be up for playing. It's usually the not-typical dancehall that I enjoy. And of course, if the lyrics contain negative content about homosexuals or women, then it's automatically off my playlist, heart and mind.

I remember in Nov of 85, it must have been. I was 13 then, and we would normally spend our Thanksgiving Day (US) on Cable Beach, in Nassau Bahamas. That vacation, you heard that incredibly incessant casio rhythm EVERYWHERE YOU WENT! ON every jitney, in every shop. BANG! The same sleng teng rhythm! Wayne Smith, for 20 30 minutes. Relentless.
It was the subject of much discussion then between me and my friend whom I brought with me to the Bahamas. To this day, all I have to do is start going "beh ne ne ne ne ne" (with 1 tone carried until those last 2 notes) when ever I see him, and that will immediately bring up our vacation time together.

I myself started to search the song out , not knowing what it was, about 10 years later, just to see if I could, more than anything else, and to know more about it than I did when I was 13. Didn't know how to describe it with a straight face to a record clerk though. Found it again, when I bought one of the History of Reggae Box sets out, when I first started DJing.
Now I don't mind it so much. Shoot, I even enjoy it for 3 minutes! Brings back an earlier, simpler age, as any primitive casio song would for me, now.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleng_Teng

[Neil Foxlee]

"an Italian reggae singer called (I think) Albarosi"
- it's Alborosie, and he's Sicilian, so don't you be getting his name wrong.

Check out his single/video "Kingston Town" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSk_VpXb4Vo - rated by Rodigan as the tune of the year, as you may already know. He's got loads of singles out and is making a big impression in Jamaica, as did the German Gentleman before him.

Interesting to note that Alborosie sings "Sippling down down..." - 'sipple' means 'slide', cf Max Romeo's "Sipple out deh", the JA title of 'War in a Babylon'.

[Neil Foxlee]

c hristian

So in terms of making all feel "as one" on the dance floor, I vote for GOOD reggae. (there is much that is very mediocre, of course.)

Check out Nasio Fontaine (see my posts under Best of etc) - much of his stuff is very danceable. His most recent album is Universal Cry (Greensleeves), which IMHO is a classic of mainstream international reggae. The vibes are just right.