The last 30 of the top 100 Rocksteady tunes will be featured as individual posts on this blog.
My Number One – The Paragons (Paragons Production)
Back at number 48 in the list was Memories By The Score by the Paragons. My Number One was on the flip side of this on it’s original release on Supertone, and in the UK on Island. For my money it’s an even better tune with a great flow to the lyrics and of course a wonderful lead by John Holt…how can two tunes back to back be so great? There was only one other issue on Supertone, this was another stunning double sider; Man Next Door/Left With A Broken Heart, it’s a shame the Paragons didn’t release more independent productions in the late 1960’s.
My Number One is on the Westside CD; John Holt – Memories By The Score.
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Digikiller records move onwards and upwards with the first three 7″ releases from a promised series of Leggo Sounds reissues. Trevor Douglas of Leggo Sounds was producing from the 70’s to the 90’s. The first two of these issues date from 1986 and the third, the in demand Youths Get Tricked, from ‘95. We’re looking forward to the next instalments already.
In a welcome return to the Sleng Teng theme that’s undoubtedly going to run for the next few months Gold Shop Records have just put out another three Shinehead reissue singles on the African Love iimprint. The pick of the bunch being the mighty Know How Fe Chat on … (do I really have to say it?) …Sleng Teng.
Strangely enough these releases aren’t showing up on the Gold Shop web site but Deadly Dragon have got them so they’re definitely out and about.
ALM-7-012 Shinehead – Know How Fe Chat/African Love Sleng Teng
ALM-7-004 Shinehead – Who The Cap Fits/Version (Tempo)
Just as Greensleeves/VP come out with a compilation of big sides from Jammy’s pre digital days Pressure Sounds take it to another level by re-issuing the (relatively) obscure 1981 dub LP Prince Jammy Presents: Strictly Dub.
Jammy produces and mixes with Sly & Robbie in the studio alongside the likes of Bobby Ellis, Deadly Headly Bennett and Winston Wright. The tunes are mostly classic rhythms like Shan Kai Shek, Baba Boom, Ali Baba played in a modern style. This is good as you’d expect.
The sleeve illustration below is from the original issue. Pressure Sounds have not released any information about the re-issues cover yet. Strictly Dub is released on April 12th on CD and LP.
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Chapter 2
1. Old Country Dub
2. 42nd Street Dub
3. 271 Utica Dub
4. Bronx Fashion Dub
5. Strictly Dub
Bonus CD only tracks
1. Mother Dub
2. Dis Dub Rule
At the same time as this release Pressure Sounds are also issuing a classic Jammy’s tune on 7″:
Time Is A Moment In Space – Wayne Smith/Life Is A Moment In Space – Prince Jammy
as usual this will come in heavy Pressure Sounds vinyl with a picture sleeve. This is also on the forthcoming Greensleeves/VP set witout the version/dub.
We’ve been busy “borrowing” from Limonius’s work for Trash And Ready recently so when I saw this on youtube recently I had to give it a mention:
There are a couple of websites that feature lots of Limonius work including Wilfred Limonius – the archive and art-jahguidance both are good but unfortunately alot of the graphics on these are not the best quality or are quite small. Hopefully we’ll see a fitting web tribute to the man sometime soon.
With all the talk of a Sleng Teng silver jubilee it would be easy to sideline the productions Lloyd James was responsible for prior to 1985. Well neglect at your peril – Jammy may not have been as prolific as some but in the late 70’s and early 80’s he was responsible for many truly great tunes.
The latest effort to present these for the discerning public is a double CD/LP effort (yes – and download!) from Greensleeves/VP as part of their Most Wanted series titled Jammy’s From The Roots (1977-1985). There will be plenty of familiar tunes here but even some of the obvious ones are not easily available at the moment so this release is definitely welcome. The only duplication of note is with some releases on the Pressue Sounds catalogue but there isn’t a huge amount and hopefully what there is will encourage further investigation and not put people off buying. Jammy’s From The Roots is released on 30 March.
Track list: Disc 1
1. Fally Ranking – Johnny Osbourne
2. Tonight Is The Night To Unite – Black Uhuru
3. Give The People What They Want – Sugar Minott
4. Conscience Speaks – Black Crucial
5. Jah Ovah – Johnny Osbourne
6. Youth Man – Noel Phillips
7. Please Officer – Earl Zero
8. Pablo In Moonlight City – Augustus Pablo
9. Love Tickes Like Magic – Junior Delgado
10. Jah Will Be Burning – Hugh Mundell
11. It A Go Dread – Barry Brown
12. Time Is A Moment In Space – Wayne Smith
13. Jah Gave Us This World – Travellers
14. Natty Dread At The Controls – U Black
15. Name Of The Game – The Fantails
16. What A Great Day – Lacksley Castell
Disc 2
1. Mr. Marshall – Natural Vibes
3. Last Train To Africa – Prince Alla
4. Collie George – Frankie Jones
5. Willow Tree – Black Uhuru
6. Jah Do Love Us – The Jays
7. Higgler Move – Junior Reid
8. Liberation – Junior Delgado
9. One Big Ghetto – Half Pint
10. Foreign Mind – Frankie Paul
11. Africa We Want To Go – Dennis Brown
12. Children Of Israel – Frankie Paul
13. Boom-Shack-A-Lack – Junior Reid
14. Mr. Landlord – Half Pint
15. Do Good – Frankie Paul
16. They Fight I – Dennis Brown
Mel Cooke profiles Freddie McGregor’s 1982 smash hit Big Ship in the Gleaner today. Regular readers of DanceCrasher will know that I’m a bit of a fan of these short articles from Cooke, this one live’s up to his usual high standards and as always the only complaint is that your left wanting more.
Andrew and Jayman of the The Who Cork The Dance website do a great job in making available old soundtapes to download, their commentries on the sounds and deejays really help to put the recordings into context too.
They’ve gone a step further with their recent focus on Killamanjaro which has an exclusive interview with the founder of the sound Noel “Papa Jaro” Harper. Though the interview is all too short he does talk about founding the sound in 1969 and it’s heyday in the 1980’s and is a fine read. The feature concludes with a whole heap of classic Jaro tapes to download. Go there.
Here is the audio and some pictures of the last Rewind Mi selectah! (see below for some videclips).
This was a superb night – many thanks to the guest selectors Alan McKay and Ras Digby who both put in faultless sets and made for a night that those who raved with us won’t forget in a hurry.
The audio is in two parts. Part one is Tim P followed by Alan McKay, part two is Ras Digby. The minidisc gave up after around an hour of Ras Digby’s set which was a bit of a disaster as the Ras played one of the best sets we’ve ever heard from him, still, something is better than nothing…
Many thanks to the mighty Chris Platts for the pictures.
Part 1:
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There is a nice but all too brief mention of Junior Lincoln of Bamboo records fame in The Gleaner today, this relates to Lincoln’s suggestion that Jamaican emigrants to the UK were a major force in the development of the music back home. It would be great if it’s writer, Mel Cooke, could give Junior a proper feature sometime.
My Number One – The Paragons (Paragons Production)
Tracklist:
Disc 1
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