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Here we are with a cut-out-and-keep guide to God’s own
music, with some essential selections to bring on Jah thunder and lightning.
Reggae purists and trainspotters will have you believe that the very best tunes
are only to be found on rumoured-to-exist 7” singles (and they’re very often
right), but this is that old devil one-upmanship rearing its ugly head. Fact is
that only two copies of whichever single they’re on about were ever pressed.
One is currently being used as a hubcap on a push-cart back a yard (that’s
Jamaica, but you knew that), the other is, surprise, surprise, in their
collection! |
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Robert Nesta Marley |
By the time of the punk explosion in the mid-70s reggae had
moved from a very local form of music, known only to the Caribbean community
worldwide and a small group of cognoscenti (that’ll be some mods and skins
then), to a global presence – thanks to a certain Robert Nesta Marley (who
does not pop up on this list, although his earlier, Lee Perry produced
recordings are well worth seeking out). However, in terms of production it
remained essentially a cottage industry (albeit a fairly large cottage), with
well-known producers, backed by a pool of session musicians, handling (and
stamping their identity on) a stable of artistes. It had also moved on from the
generally good-time nature of rocksteady and ska to a more ‘spiritual’
phase, heavily influenced by the Rastafarian faith. Lyrics dealt more and more
with the problems of the here and now, of the ‘sufferers’ in the ghetto, and
global injustice, than getting mashed up inna dancehall (Although social
commentary had always been a major element in Jamaican music).
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| It was,
therefore, a fairly natural progression that many of the musicians and fans on
the British punk scene were drawn to the reggae world-view. On the one hand,
they could identify, even on a superficial level, with the plight of the
dispossessed, while on the other, those of them who’d grown up in London,
Manchester, Liverpool or Birmingham (the only cities at that time with a
sizeable Afro-Caribbean presence), might well be as familiar with the world of
sound-systems and blue parties as they were with the works of the Stooges (or so
many of them might later claim). |
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