Reggae

[Des]

Am I the only one who is indifferent to quite a lot of reggae?

I love Ska and Bluebeat. I love dub reggae. But there's an awful lot of 'roots' and lover's rock that I never found at all interesting. Even Bob Marley left me cold most of the time.

Anyone else admit to not being over-fond of Gregory Isaacs? Was Peter tosh?

[John Bainbridge]

I once asked my younger brother, who I've always thought to be more musically clued-up than me, if there was a time before he trusted his own critical faculties, and assumed something must be goos because it was popular.

"Yeah," he said. "Reggae." (He's a man of few words.) "I thought I ought to like it because of the Clash, but ..."

And indeed, he did have quite an eclectic collection of reggae records. Played just the once, I guess.

Me, I can take Bob Marley, but that's about it. And I just can't get away with all this dub Mad Professor stuff, where the rules appear to be: "Turn everything down except the bass; put on lots of echo; run all the other faders up and down at random; collect the money."

[NormanD]

Hey, with me there's three of us. Let's rent a church hall every Tuesday evening, sit in a circle:

"My name's Norman, and I'm a Reggaephobic....

"I'm getting into dub a lot more recently and I think Gregory Isaacs has an absolutely sweet voice (not to the extent of rushing out to buy anything).

"I have an old collection of ska / BlueBeat 45s, but the mid to more recent period leaves me dead cold.

"Marley's ghost has been over-sold countless times, and there has been no great successor.

Thank you for letting me share."

[Con Murphy]

Hey, with me there's three of us. Let's rent a church hall every Tuesday evening, sit in a circle:

"My name's Norman, and I'm a Reggaephobic....

I'm not sure I'd be welcome. The first record I recall buying was Jamming by Bob Marley. I remember bewildering my peers by actually liking Black Uhuru rather than just liking the idea of reggae because, as John says, the Clash liked it (never could stand their version of Police and Thieves. Hearing Junior Murvin's original a couple of years later felt like having aural cataracts removed).

And when I was forced through various circumstances to sell off a goodly proportion of my record collection about 15 years ago, I couldn't bring myself to part with even one of the dozens of Jamaican "pre"s I'd bought at Dub Vendor over the years. Whether it be the old-skool skank of Lord Creator, Dennis Brown's nasal, coke-addled croon, Gregory Isaacs' sultry lovers' rock or the scattergun dancehall vibe of Michael Palmer, it was staying.

Must admit I've lost touch with what's going on in reggae over the years, but I still possess an inbuilt positive reaction to any time I hear that off-beat rhythm. I guess, in short, you either love it or you hate it. And I love it.

[Gordon Moore]

i refer you to my posts on Dark and Dubbish etc. I like it, as long as it's dark, forget the happy trashy...

[Des]

I still possess an inbuilt positive reaction to any time I hear that off-beat rhythm.

Learning West African drumming really brings home to me the similarity to reggae off-beats and therefore the African origins of the music. Which is nice.

[Gordon Moore]

Talk about not being happy. Here I am, listening and watching the pouring rain in the conservatory, watching it bounce off my wonderful deck and what should I be listening to, but Chantey by Tangle Eye, (courtesy of Ritchie). Now that is happy reggae beats, and then the blues, oh man...

edit: I played it again real loud, with me playing my reggae back beats on my electro acoustic (a Tanglewood as chance would have it) and dancing around the conservatory. I must be going mad, but what a way to go. (I have to admit a couple of fine tots of Oban helped, hehe hic)

[Dayna]

I like the things I've heard with Raggae mixed in, but I don't know that I'd sit & listen to it for long by itself.

I remember when Bobby McFarren; Don't Worry Be Happy, was so popular. It was kind of a funny song to laugh at, I guess.
But he was a white guy from Canada. Wasn't he?

[Philip Ryalls]

Roots reggae was on fire for a time in the late 70's to early 80's, around the time of the rock against racism tours. On the scene were UK bands such as Aswad (at the time of their Showcase LP) and Misty In Roots and visiting JA acts such as the Gladiators and the Twinkle Brothers. Sugar Minott on TOTP etc..

There is still an occasional good gig - Mighty Diamonds in Islington a few years back, Israel Vibration and Culture at the Astoria and Burning Spear at Womad but I feel it is mostly a revival scene now, as is a lot of the contemporary post-punk music.

There is a good Rough Guide by Steve Barrow and some excellent re-issues on Blood & Fire and Pressure Sounds. I bought one recently called "Life goes In Circles" with Jacob Miller in full flow on "Ghetto On Fire".

Studios and producers were important on the JA scene - Studio One, Treasure Isle earlier on, Black Ark/Lee Perry, Bunny Lee, Channel One, Junjo Lawes later. It is all fully explained in Steve Barrow's book.

[Chris Walsh]

Bit of a coincidence, but I'm releasing a reggae record next month, that features the daughter of one of the sex pistols on vocals for one track.

It's called Prince Fatty 'Survival Of The Fattest' - anyone heard of him?

[Gordon Moore]

You tryin to tell me that the Sex Pistols actually had sex?

Fliipin 'eckkers like.

[matt]

Good music transcends these labels and ways of talking. With all styles and genres there is plenty of dross...the joys of seeking, and finding, the gems is always worthwhile if you have the time.

I thought I knew reggae until about 2000 when I started trading and exchanging out-of-print titles many of which have now found re-issue through labels such as Blood and Fire, Pressure Sounds and more recently Auralux, Motion and the like.

Do yourself a favour and pick up the recent Singerman budget compilation from B&F

[Jamie Renton]

Just reviewed the Prince Fatty CD for Straight No Chaser, it's a real charmer of an album, a soundtracck for the summer to be sure, with contributions from reggae vets Little Roy & Dennis Alcapone (the latter seent me a message via MySpace!) b.t.w. Chris: Any chance of 15 mins from you at the DJ Relay on 21st? I enjoyed your last set, especially the Japanese avant brass tune!

I 1st got into reggae through Marley's Exodus album, got it the day it came out .. yes, I'm an old git! My 14 year old self really took to side 1, with its songs of struggle. Then, a few months later, I fell totally, hopelessly (& of course, unrequitedly) in love & suddenly side 2, especially 'Waiting in Vain' was the one that made sense.

That was it, I was hooked on reggae: roots, lovers, dub, vocal trios, DJs, Gregory, Dennis, Junior Delgado ... you name it, I skanked in a totally embaressing fashion to it! How much did I love reggae? friends started calling me "Ranking Renton"

I followed the music through to the digital age too ("Under mi sleng teng / mi under mi sleng teng ...) though my heart was always more into collecting old Studio One singles.

Somewhere along the line me & reggae parted company, round about the time it all seemed to be ragga DJs spouting 7 shades of hate. But guess what? recently (now that Andy Kershaw's moved from Sunday night), I've started listening to David Rodigan's show on Kiss. Rodugan's an aging white bloke who knows & loves reggae music & has the respect of the Carribbean community (kind of like an anti-Tim Westwood) & boy does he play some sweet reggae music. There's this duet featuring Ritchie Stephens & Maxi Priest, an Italian reggae singer called (I think) Albarosi, the latest from Jah Cure ... I'm back in love with the reggae beat & fortunately Rodigan's on so late that the kids aren't up to laugh at my embaressing attempts to dance to it.

One love, one heart, one destiny

"Ranking" Renton

[Adam Blake]

There's crappy reggae and there's great reggae. A lot of lovers is a real drippy drag, it's true. Boring! And I don't care how impeccable the rhythm sections are. But it's horses for courses. I had some great nights in the late 70s going to see Misty In Roots (when they were still Rastafarian Fundamentalists) and Prince Far-I and Creation Rebel and New Age Steppers and all that Adrian Sherwood crowd that grew out of the end of punk that championed reggae. Essentially the tokers... I know this is a family show and we're not supposed to, um, conDOne anything, but a few puffs of some genuine Jamaican ganga helps to put a lot of reggae in perspective. (That's if you can find any, of course.)

Just say, hmmmm.... maybe...

[Adam Blake]

P.s I went to see Burning Spear a couple of years ago at the Hammersmith Palais and he was FANTASTIC! Anyone else go to that?