Greensleeves Records

2017

We kick this mix of with a re-dub of Earl Zero’s 1979 hit “Please Officer”. Greensleeves got Lloyd 'King Jammy' James back on the controls in 2017 to remix a bunch of his old classics, and this one with Augustus Pablo really stood out to me. 

Jammys

1979

Earl Zero began singing with Earl “Chinna” Smith in the group “Rush It”, but didn’t really get any traction until his solo records started coming out in the mid 70s. He may be best known as the guy that got writing credits on Johnathan Richman & the Modern Lovers’ 1977 proto punk hit, “Egyptian Reggae”, which was a straight lift from Earl’s “None Shall Escape Judgement”. Punk subversively introduced reggae to a great many white folks back then, myself included.

Roots Man Records

1978

As far back as I know, Jamaican singers and deejays have shown a clear fondness for choosing military ranks as part of their stage names. Admiral Bailey. Captain Barkey. General Degree. General Levy. Colonel Mitie. Major Cat. The list goes on. Most obscure among these might be the rank of “Field Marshal”, traditionally the highest rank possible, that originated with Germanic tribes in the Middle Ages. In reggae, there is a Field Marshal Haye, a Field Marshal Kenterus, and this dude, Clive Field Marshal - who chose to put his first name in the front of the military rank for some weird reason. This track appears on his 1981 album Poor House Rockers, which he recorded in NYC for the Wackies label. There’s been a lot of Wackies digital reissues as of late, which is great for me, because I missed buying almost all of this stuff in the 80s.

Channel One

1980

This is a 4-song stretch on the Pick Up The Pieces riddim. It begins with The 1976 Dub Channel One version, then goes into Pat Kelly’s “It’s A Good Day”. Then we hear the original “Pick Up The Pieces” by The Royals - a sublime piece of Roots reggae. All three of these were recorded at Ernest Hoo Kim’s Channel One studio (maybe even on the same day!). Royal’s lead singer Roy Cousins has a beautiful voice reminiscent of early Burning Spear. 

Earthquake

1985

This label has a dope logo.

Uhuru

1974

The Royals were a Jamaican roots reggae vocal group formed in 1964 by Roy Cousins, initially under the name The Tempests. The members of the group were all co-workers at the Jamaican Post Office. They recorded in the mid-1960s for producers including Duke Reid, Lloyd Daley,  Coxsone Dodd - then later with Joe Gibbs.

ROIR

1982

I follow the above three original with DC Punk legends The Bad Brains - their “Leaving Babylon” being my introduction to this riddim from their first cassette in 1982 (which also happens to be the greatest Punk record ever made).

Island Records

1977

Speaking of punk meets reggae, The Clash’s 1977 cover of this compelled myself and thousands of other Punks to go looking for the original by Junior Murvin. First recored at Lee Scratch Perry’s Black Ark Studios, this melodica-heavy dub version by Augustus Pablo & The Upsetters was only released later, on a rarities compilation. This was a bigger hit in the UK and the US than it ever was in JA, likely due to major label promotion.

Wackies

1979

While we’re down here at this slow rootical tempo, why not run a tune from Sonia Abel and Claudette Brown, aka The Love Joys, two cousins from Brixton who relocated to The Bronx in the early '80s. They hooked up with Lloyd “Bullwackie” Barnes to record their 1982 debut, Lovers Rock. This song has a spooky, moody vibe and that signature Wackies production which I suspect was sort of intentionally lo-fi, before being intentionally lo-fi was cool.

Greensleeves

1979

The Wailing Souls went by many names since they began in the 1960s, recording with Coxsone Dodd, Lloyd Daley, and Jospeh Hoo Kim to name a few. This was recorded in 1981 with Henry "Junjo" Lawes and the Roots Radics band. Despite the almost-embarrassing Bob Marley mimicking going on, this remains one of my favorites of theirs. I think I had it on a compilation in the late 80s and it just stuck in my brain.

Joe Gibbs Records

1978

George Nooks covers Little Roy’s 1974 classic of the same name. Joe Gibbs at the controls. I tend to prefer George’s version because he sings a bit more on beat than the original.

 Errol T Records

1978

Dillinger on the same riddim.

Studio One

1968

OK... enough of this slow roots, let’s pick things up with a rare tune by Saxophonist Karl Cannonball Bryan, released on the Treasure Isle label in 1968. Karl was a session regular in those days so he rarely got top billing and only released a small handful of instrumentals. Now based in Toronto, he is still playing – touring with the Skatellites and other groups.

Big Shot

1973

Errol Dunkley, at around age 16, with Joe Gibbs, laying down a simple plea to these triflin’ hoes in 1968, around the time Rocksteady was peaking, give or take. For more niceness from this dude, check out his classic, “Black Cinderella", on my "Six Gun Sound" mix.

Studio One

1971

This is one of those stomping Rocksteady riddims that I can’t understand why it never blew up. This Coxsone Dodd arrangement with Delroy Wilson & Dennis Alcapone came out on Studio One in 1972. Delroy got his start making Prince Buster records inna Ska style with Lee Perry, with tunes like “spit In The Sky” and “Prince Pharoah”. There is another really interesting version of this I came across on Youtube that Kieth Hudson produced, that claims to be 1969 but I’m pretty sure it came out closer to 73, as it sounds very different.

Studio One

1969

While we’re kicking around on the Studio One side of town, why not include this great Sound Dimension cover of Young Holt Unlimited. Sound Dimensions were the house band at Studio One and featured an epic lineup that included Ernest Ranglin, Boris Gardiner, Cedric Brooks, Karl Bryan and Vin Gordon, to name a few. The original instrumental was a cover all it’s own, of Barbara Acklin’s “Am I The Same Girl”, but over time, the instrumental has eclipsed the vocal.

V.P. Records

1999

Leave it to Sly & Robbie to figure out a way to mix Atlanta snap music with Studio One. This Mr Vegas tune came out in 2007 and strikes a great balance between the two. Also pretty cool how much Vegas can sound like Tenor Saw when he’s on the right type of track.

Scotch Bonnet

2018

Glasgow label Scotch Bonnet is all about taking throwback reggae sounds and reinvigorating them with fresh production. This is a perfect example of this, where they took one entire Super Cat song and just boosted everything, with new drums laid on top and plenty of SFX. It keeps the original intact but sounds dope in my headphones. Respek.

Hit Bound

1993

A nice tune on the Stalag riddim. From what I can tell, Super Chick released only a handful of 7”s around 1980-82, and then poof! She was gone forever.

Volcano

1981

Byron Letts aka Toyan or Ranking Toyan was a great deejay in the early days of Dancehall whose name pops up in a lot of tribute shout out cuts later on. He got his start with Socialist Roots and Romantic HiFi and eventually joined up with Henry “Junjo” Lawes’ Volcano Hi-Power Sound System. He recorded with a ton of producers but his fame started to fade in the mid-80s. Junjo moving to Brooklyn didn’t help things either, especially as he got locked up for a stretch for his association with some Brooklyn drug gangs back when we still called them “posses”. Toyan was murdered in JA in 1991, joining a shockingly long list of reggae deejays and producers who have died by gun violence, including Junjo himself in London in 1999.

Joe Gibbs

1977

This Joe Gibbs production was a big hit for Dennis Brown in 77, and sparked a few more tunes on this riddim, including the Prince Mohammed tune that follows. 

Joe Gibbs Records

1978

Prince Mohammed was the stage name of George Nooks before he decided to focus more on his singing and returned to his given name. George has had a long career as a singer, releasing mostly Gospel reggae these days.

Clocktower

1974

Anthony "Bunny Rugs" Clarke is best known as the lead singer of Third World, though he got his start as the singer for Inner Circle in the late 60s. He also made solo records from time to time, including this groovy cover of William De Vaughn that Lee Scratch Perry produced in 1975.

Ariwa

2014

A pair of modern dub recordings. The first is from Mad Professor, from his 2014 LP Dubbing with Anansi. 

Jah Warrior

1999

French group Natural Tribulation features a Kenyan Singer, Empress Black Omolo, who is based in The Netherlands. This came out in April of this year.

Randy's

1969

Great cover from Lloyd Charmers and The Hippy Boys, an Upsetters off-shoot backing band who released this in 1970, the same year as the Meters original.

Massive B

1995

My man Max Glazer from Brooklyn’s Federation Sound recently had NY legend Bobby Konders on his Red Bull radio show to talk about his recent release Bobby Konders Presents: Massive B Legacy, Vol. 1. Bobby released SO MANY club hits in my days as an active club DJ, including this joint on the Taxi riddim from Junior Reid. It was clear from Max’s interview that Bobby was holding back a lot of his hits for future editions of this legacy series. Bobby was a huge influence on me as a kid, and I learned a lot about reggae from hearing him spin on Sundays on NY radio and in clubs, where he was equally adept at wrecking shop with Dancehall, House, or Hip Hop - depending on his mood. He lived in my hood and was even kind enough to bring me up to his apartment once to bless me with some vinyl, which was a serious thrill for me.

Digital B

1991

Two 90s, classics from when I was earning my stripes playing dancehall in Brooklyn. This riddim originated as the Rocksteady tune “Love Is not a Gamble” in 1967, but was renamed the General riddim after Dillinger’s 1976 recording. It’s arguably Ninjaman’s best record ever IMO. When Jules Gayton and I were doing our Soul Sunday Lounge party at Don Hills around 1995 or so, Jules would always play it before I could even remember I had brought it, which would low key frustrate me to no end LOL. 

Digital B

1992

Shabba’s tune on the General riddim was  absolutely massive, helping cement his reign for almost a decade.

Ranch Records

2017

Two tracks from two different eras on the Darker Shade of Black riiddim.  Red Fox from this year and Super Cat from 1985. 

Wild Apache

1985

I know I already put a Super Cat track on this mix, but I could listen to him all damn day.

Studio One

1970

The original 1969 version from Delroy Wilson, later covered by Wayne Wonder and mixed into Buju’s massive “Bonafide Love” tune in 1992.

Treasure Isle

1967

A nice cover of Tyrone Davis’s hit from 1969 by The Godfather of Rocksteady, Alton Ellis. Ellis began his career as an R&B balladeer with early tunes like “Muriel” (1960), before he got on board with the growing ska wave in JA. And the rest is, you know, history.

Live And Learn

1983

One last vocal from Gregory Isaacs, from his 1978 “Cool Ruler” album. The Channel One band is in full swing here, with Sly & Robbie laying down the foundation and Ansell Collins killing it on keyboards. 

Karrot Kommando

 2021

Big up yourself for reading all this! And thanks for listening.