CONSUMER PRODUCT #1

My wife Krispy found this stocked on a shelf next to the Malta Goya. She wondered out loud what Reggae Red could possibly taste like. I mentioned since it is not green it won't have that sweet and smoky Ganja flavor. That and I never heard of Chubby Brand soda. She mentioned since I'll drink out of a toilet bowl that I should try it first. "No way! That swill looks like radioactive drain-off."



My wife gave in to curiosity and tossed it into the cart. Later while unbagging the groceries back at home Krispy twisted off the cap. She took a big sip and made a rotten egg face. So I asked her what does Reggae taste like. Answer-concentrated #5 Red Dye.

Hey...I'm leery of anything that requires a doctorate in chemistry just to be able to read the list of ingredients. At least the sugars natural.

AND IN THIS CORNER...

Very cool concept. Four big producers put the metaphorical gloves on and go head to head in the ring for a heavy weight sound clash. Instead of a left right combination, or an sneaky uppercut, these producers slug it out with top draw talent. Marquee names like the Bobo Righteous Buju Banton are pitted against Ghetto Realists like Vybz Kartel. Wild picks like the recently escaped from the asylum, Elephant Man or the ravishing beauty, Ce’Cile also fill out the talent roster. (Ce’Cile always fills out beautifully!) It is a riddim fisticuffs of dancehall killers. It is a virtual who’s who two-disc 32 tune extravaganza. Over in the red corner are the producers Skatta and Ward 21. Their opponents over in the blue corner are Arrows and South Rakkas Crew. It’s an equal match to my ears. Even though I’ve heard all these Riddims before, I haven’t heard ‘em necessarily by these stars. The Capleton cut, Fireman Anthem, by the South Rakkas Crew I have already, but I’m not complaining. A great tune never gets played out. In fact every tune lands hard. Every Riddim leaves a welt, but what stone cold knocked me out was the $0.99 cent price tag at Ernie B’s! There is no excuse not to pick this up.



Okay if I had to choose a loser, I would go with the Skatta Riddims which is interesting because it was their Ce'Cile tune that caught my eye/ear in the first place. (and my imagination!) The glove in the air winner would have to be the South Rakkas Crew but only by a small technicality.

LINVAL THOMPSON'S 12" RULER!

This Blood and Fire set captures the best of Linval's time at the microphone. Trojan put out even bigger set.

Love a tune but it seems to end right after ya press play? That is the beauty of these producer collections; they include the extended mixes if they are known to exist. With this disc you get twelve 12" disco mixes. Sweet.



Now Linval was a heavy weight roots singer of thanks and praises. Just like his good friends, Johnny Clarke and Cornell Campbell. And like them the radio found room for one more. So Linval charted one hit after another but something was missing. You can eat off of respect. You cant pay the bills with a pat on the back, so the voice and face behind such Rasta anthems like “Don’t cut of your Dread Locks” and " Jah Jah the Conqueror" figured change had to happen. The real cha-ching landed in the bank accounts of the producer and label bosses and that is the change he knew had to happen.



So he put down the microphone and got behind the scene. He fronted the session money and scored an international deal with the then fledgling Greensleeves Record Co. Oh yeah, the smooth singer turned out his fair share of chart toppers working from behind the console. Proof is right here in these grooves.
Of the three different producers highlighted by the 12 inch Ruler series Linval was the most Roots traditional. His style was still a heavy vibed deep bass and drum driven riddim affair. I don’t think he was ready to throw out his arms and embrace the new sound. Soon enough though, that new sound was gonna kill everything that came before it. This disc collects some of last artifacts of Reggae's first golden age. (the second golden age is still going on!)


For instance…take the Eek-A-Mouse track “Do you remember”. This cut sounds so radically different than the Junjo Lawes produced Roots Radic backed Wa-Do-Dem album. Sure nobody could cop Eek’s unique SingJay rub-a-dub, now or then, but the grove guided by Linval’s hand almost tones down the “holy shit do hear this guy flow’” factor. Recorded after the Junjo production but somehow less modern. Know what I am trying to say? Do not get me wrong though… I have never met a Thompson sung tune or a production I didn’t like. In fact this Easy Star Records set continues documenting the Thompson
touch.


Golden. Check the big talent that came looking for Linval's guidence.



During the year 2009 Linval dropped this disc of new roots anthems out of nowhere. Listening to this is like the last twenty never happened. Okay with me...cause that would make me 25 years old again. And yes I would live it completely different given a second time around!



Makasound and Tad's share the responsibilities of putting out this release. I guess Tad's has the North American rights and Makasound the European dibs. Either way, very sweet hearing Linval voice a fresh batch of tunes.

GUSSIE'S 12' RULER!

Sticks and stones may break yer bones but these words are kickin’ my ass up and down the keyboard. I juss can't get to the point. This should be an easy one too…I remember hearing most of these hits when they had that new hit smell. What does a new hit smell like? It kinda smells like Napalm in the morning. You know…incendiary. That Shabba tune was making big waves on regular radio. Even the music channels on the idiot box were showing the Mr. Loverman video in heavy rotation. So here goes before I over bake this post…

Augustus Gussie Clarke cut his teeth in the music biz cutting dub plates but he soon moved on to sit in the big chair. That of a music producer, and this big chair obviously sat well with him because he is held responsible for unleashing two monsters of the age, I-Roy’s Gussie Presenting I-Roy and Big Youth’s Screaming Target. Both made massive impact on the DeeJay scene. Both pressed by England’s Trojan Records. After a few earlier false starts for everybody involved, these true debuts proved the doubters wrong. That feat of sonic engineering came near the beginning of the Seventies, but as the decade disappeared year after year into becoming the 1980’s, Gussie’s rep kinda took a step back.


Big Youth's 1972 Screaming Target changed forever how my ears heard music. Oh course this happened to me in the early 80's. Hey I was 9 years old in 1972.


My wife's favorite chanter of verse and rhymes. I don't wanna scare any of my readers but at somepoint I used to wear a similar suit. Wonder how I didn't get gunned down! That was that New Jack Swing era of the 90's.

Then the “Me Decade” changed everything. The 1980’s started with brand new sounds. Brand new digital technology and most of all, the Casio Drum machine; it shook the world of riddim up. The island would never be the same. Deejays popped up everywhere. Everybody a DeeJay now and they are all spouting off the same rhetoric over the same preset beat. Natural selection weeded out the imitators quick enough. Left standing were a cast of young upstart producers and a whole new generation of fast talkers. They easily filled the big chairs. And they filled the charts with hit after hit. They all had fresh faces to promote. The emerging Dancehall style was becoming the new musical language spoken. Business JA style would still be as lawless as ever. Some things never change, but this sudden shift in musical taste must have caused some gray dreads to the Roots Rockers.



Gussie was now a seasoned professional, which meant he no longer had street level player cred. Gussie should have gotten trampled under that mad rush of talent and technology but no, he was completely reinvigorated. Gussie was old news no more.
Gussie helped a lot of the roots era singers’ transition over to the digital dancehall side. The Eighties were now in full swing. He made sure that the Dennis Browns and the Gregory Isaacs were not the last decade’s chart leftovers. With an updated re-cut of The Mighty Diamonds tune “Bodyguard” Gussie reintroduced the harmony trio to whole new generation. And without causing any disrespect to their original take. Never a stranger to new talent, Gussie is responsible for two of the international breakout Shabba Ranks best full-length releases, Mr. Maximum and Rapping with the Ladies. Both records were big world wide sellers for Greensleeves and both can found on their Reggae Legends series 4 CD box set. Later on that very welcomed into my home set.



This 12’ Ruler is dancing with your lady Dancehall. I say that due to the good balance of the playful male too female duets. This Gussie comp is still perfectly suited for a festive Friday night though. Ironically Mr. Gregory Isaacs, the King of Lover’s Rock, his included tunes are more of social politics and not of affairs of the heart. No overtly offensive slack tunes either.



I stumbled across this VP Records release long after I bought the Greensleeves disc. It's VP's version of the above record but with a few tunes switching places. Most notably for me is lead off tune by The Mighty Diamonds! I never get sick of hearing "Pass the Kutchie". That is a big big smile tune.

RANDOM NONSENSE

A question to those individuals who might stop by my humble little blog-is Jetstar Records defunct? For that matter, the amazing Reggae boutique label Blood and Fire outta Merry Ole England hasn't pushed anything new on us in quite some time. The lights still on in their website but it is awfully quit inside. That would be a shame, cause those guys put out only best chronic compared to some of the skunk other labels sell. Blood and Fire were eye to eye with Pressure Sounds and Soul Jazz for hand picked photo packed deluxed remastered grooves from yesteryear. Super rare 45's would reappear like magic. Intersting... all the labels mentioned are/were Brit powerhouses. Of course England's Greensleeves is sitting safe and cozy within the VP Records empire. Global domination but to this listeners ears-it is a good thing.

Thank you too those four brave souls of discerning taste that publicly admit to following my big mouth blog. Hey you are laughing with me...right? And not at me?



It has been a couple years since I have become a used CD dealer on Amazon. Independantly busted. My dream is to segue that endeavor over into a new and used online Reggae CD shop. I do not call that conducting business-that 9 ta 5 would be a pleasure. Problem is I still have not sold one Reggae CD! I have sold tons of rock-n-roll noise. Second hand stuff I come across at yard sales or basement finds. My biggest seller to date was a double disc greatest hits of Julio Iglesias! Now I've even listed a few brand new Horace Andy and Burning Spear CDs cheaper than wholesale juss ta see wha would happen. Nothing! Damn hippies are illegally downloading instead. Lol. I wholesale thru a few distributers but all the Reggae I buy ends up in my personal collection. My local competition is huge. They will buy a hundred copies of Marley's Legend at a time. Me? Like my blog, my buying power is humble. Hey, I am not greedy, I juss wanna move enough high grade riddims ta support my music habit. Otherwise it's like getting high off my own stash!



Ever notice how many people misspell Reggae?

MORE TRIBUTE

Okay... I sorta rushed my Gregory Isaacs tribute to the presses. When Sugar Minott left behind his earthly possessions, I took too long to respond. I spent more time researching and listening than actually typing. In the mean time some beautiful pages were written in the man's memory, so I decided that my two cents were worth just that; two cents. So I pushed delete. But with the Cool Ruler I relied on the what came quick off the top of my head and did my research after the fact.

Apparently what came off the top my head was wrong. Ernie B's didn't even have a CD copy of Extra Clasic. New or used. Although, they did have a few original copies in vinyl. Amazon listed a few copies of the Trojan CD edition for big bucks. Crazy. I wonder who holds the copyrights now? African Museum? Did Gregory Isaacs even own his African Museum record and publishing company by this point? Extra Classic is the Cool Ruler's best singles from 1975/76. This is way to important to be outta print. Hey suits are ya listening?

While I was loitering around Ernie B's online store, I came across this...



This seems to be a good thing that is catching on. VP Records in conjunction with their Greensleeves divsion gathers together four usually impossible to find records from a particular artist and then box sets 'em. This series of Reggae Legends releases is out to restore lost musical masterpieces from their collective catalogs. The trend so far is releases from the mid 80's to the mid 90's. That lost generation between the classic roots era and now. And at a nice price ta boot! I'll rave about the Cocoa Tea set at a later day. When I do, I will rave up the Shabba Ranks boxset from them as well.



I am not gonna lie to ya, Mr. Isaacs did his fair share of throw away tracks, but his uniquely languid approach could make light weight lyrics turn out heavy vibed. It was his gift.

Tonight my turntable belongs to Mr. Gregory Isaacs

Damn good thing my daily position in life is not that of a blogger. Umm, what has it been? Almost a month? My family would of starved! This morning while I was trying to look interested and upright sitting on those hard wooden benches at the traffic tribunal, my mind was drifting on soft lovers rock riddims. It was two stiff hours before my wife’s name was called. She pleaded guilty to speeding and asked for leniency with her good driving record. I was busy running my blog over in my head. Today would be the day I finish up those “book reports” and 12-inch rulers posts I started. Sadly, not to be…



…A tiny blurb in the BBC News caught my eye; “ Reggae star Isaacs dies aged 59.” What?! Mister Gregory Isaacs passed away after battling lung cancer.



He was correctly nick named Cool Ruler. The Lovers Rock phenomenon is basically his creation. And if you argue against that theory at least I know you will agree that he perfected it.



Don't have any Cool Ruler in your CD selection to spin? This Trojan collection is great place to begin. I believe it is still being issued. I know the Cool Ruler Virgin Lp is long outta print. Extra Classic rolls up to the starting line with the smoking Dread anthem "Mr. Cop." That tune is a Lee Perry production filled with the Black Ark sound. One classic after another till ya reach halfway thru, and "I'm alright (loving pauper)", greets your ears. That tune should send shivers. Trojan fills the last half with the B-side dub versions. All killer cuts. A 5 outta 5.



The heavy roots era is when Isaac’s star shone super nova bright. Not that the 80’s decade gave him a cold shoulder, because he dropped his biggest seller, “Night Nurse” in 1982. This record's relaxed vibe will take you to the warm waters of sunny beaches even if your stuck in the middle of nowhere. So metaphorically get sand between your toes and sip a cup. Soak it in.

Every couple of years the Cool Ruler makes a small comeback. Maybe he drops a new record. For the most part, they're all good. Maybe he even does a greatest hits tour. It was about that time and I figured he would be gracing a festival somewhere close this coming summer.



Speaking of those best of hits discs, it seems like every Reggae record company under Jah's blue sky has pressed a version of their own Gregory's Greatest. Same goes for Dennis Brown. Be wary, there appears to be infinite number of duplication. So buy wise.



Tonight my turntable belongs to Mr. Gregory Isaacs.