Favorite Reggae Songs & Albums

sister nancy - bam bam is absolutely brilliant but i know nothing about it.

dr alimantado's best dressed chicken in town (from about 76?) is some lee perry related thing which is pretty good.

max romeo's chase the devil is famous for being sampled on the prodigy's out of space. thats not bad either.

um, can't think of anything else.

So, assuming we're talking CDs. Most great early reggae artists didn't make full albums, just singles, so comps are generally the way to go. Even most products sold as "albums" are just compilations. Good comps I've found are THE ROOTS OF REGGAE: ROCKSTEADY and SKA editions. They are well mastered and have great tunes. A good starting point. I got a few of the Trojan Records mini box sets and they have great tunes, but the sound quality is not as good as I had hoped. Not bad though. There are a ton of qualtiy Lee Perry records floating around out there and he also has a boxed set, which is pretty good although it might be kind of a pricey starting point. Also, the early Bob Marley stuff is great. I love to buy "truckstop" Bob Marley tapes because they always contain the early stuff, which most "truckers" wouldn't favor over his later stuff, but its fantastic. Prince Buster, Desmond Dekker, Toots and the Maytals, The Paragons (of "The Tide is High" fame), Justin Hinds, The Skatalites, all very worth checking out. Black Uhuru is one of the later great reggae artists. SINSEMILLA, RED and GUESS WHOS COMING TO DINNER are my favorite albums of theirs. Steel Pulse is also good sometimes.

Anyway, here's a CDNOW link to one of the ROOTS OF REGGAE series that I was talking about:

http://www.cdnow.com/cgi- bin/mserver/SID=153642343/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/artistid=RO OTS+OF+REGGAE+2%3A+ROCK+STEADY+%5C+VARIOUS/itemid=365435

Good luck hunting. Just remember to listen before you buy if at all possible.

The Ethiopians' "Original Reggae Hit Sound", Junior Byles' "Beat Down Babylon" and Max Romeo's "Open The Iron Gate", both produced by Lee Perry, and also I-Roy's "Don't Check Me With No Lightweight Stuff" for some toasting.

I don't know so much about ska or dub, so these may be a little obvious, but the compilation "Club Ska '67" and (for dub) Augustus Pablo's "King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown" and Lee Perry's "Super Ape" are all very good.

Reggae lyrics don't really have that much appeal to me but the music, when it's in the pocket, is ace.

Prince Far I has an excellent voice by the way.

steve

Still, I like it. I don't have much, but I really dig a few things. Peter Tosh's "Equal Rights" is great. So is "Slave Driver" by Bob Marley; in fact, all of Catch A Fire is great, excellent melodies & good pop songs. I'd actually call the singing on the "Slave Driver" chorus a Great Pop Moment, per another recent thread. Scientists's _Dub In The Roots Tradition_ on Blood & Fire is my favorite dub record, the perfect blend between pop structure and mixing board experimentation. I like it even more than the King Tubby stuff I have.

Best album-length reggae album I know is the Harder They Come soundtrack. That album has such a unique vibe, and all the songs are great.

King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown - Augustus Pablo (one of my favorite albums of all time)

East of the River Nile - Augustus Pablo

African Dub parts 1, 2 & 3 - Joe Gibbs (first 2 very minimal, part 3 almost baroque dub)

Scientist meets the Space Invaders - Scientist

Keith Hudson - Pick a Dub

Of course loadsa Lee Perry, esp: Kung Fu Meets the Dragon, Super Ape, Revolution Dub and Roast, Collie, Fish & Whopper with Cheese.

Mad Proffesor dup chapter 1 (i think it is) also very wild.

So I gravitate more to the dub side. I like Peter Tosh, i don't have much time for Bob Marley (which always seems to amaze people - maybe it's because you can't walk by any coffeeshop in town without hearing ol'Bob and that for more than 25 years). Although once you get past the godawful 'No Woman No Shite', 'Exodus' et al. he can be pretty decent.

Now on to The Congos...can someone please explain their appeal? I once owned their "classic" album and it sounded like the Dread Smurfs Sing the Praise of Jah.

Can't stop listening to A Thing of the Past by Phyllis Dillon at the moment. Just gorgeous, I particularly love the swooning, understated horns.

-- mark emsley, Tuesday, 13 March 2001 01:00

must have been on one of my first ever posts that (ie that plug for site thing before i learnt the error of my ways) .. innocent times.

extra reggae albums of late i have liked :

lkj in dub - linton k johnson
the dennis bovell reissues have been kind of fun - though rather varied.
heavy manners - prince far i (the 4 trojan albums on 2 cds)
big youth - screaming target (love this)

and more for the more recent side of things :

prince fatty - survival of the fattest
pama international