Jamaica was at a dangerous and combustible spot as the 1970s rolled in, beset by class disparity, crushing poverty, increasingly barbed friction between the country’s two political parties, and violence that amounted to open warfare in the streets, all of which fermented and came together creatively inside the island’s maverick music industry, resulting in what was undoubtedly Jamaica’s greatest pop music era, the era of true roots reggae.
Poised to export all this to the rest of the world was Chris Blackwell‘s fledgling Island Records imprint, which grew in time into a major player in the rock market, but back then, it was all roots. This two-disc set mines Island’s impressive ’70s Jamaican catalog, and if not everything collected here is necessarily an “anthem,” there’s a nice balance between the known and the unknown, with iconic cuts like Burning Spear‘s “Marcus Garvey,” the Congos‘ “Congo Man,” and Junior Murvin‘s “Police & Thieves” brushing up against lesser-known tracks by Pablo Moses, Ras Midas, Hosbah Lawrence, and others that have seldom, if ever, been compiled on CD before, all of which makes this a nice introduction to the true Golden Age of Jamaican pop music.
Tracklist:
CD1
1. Burning Spear – Marcus Garvey [03:21]
2. Inner Circle – Tired Fe Lick Weed in a Bush [03:06]
3. Third World – Freedom Song [03:39]
4. Ras Michael, the Sons of Negus – None a Jah Jah Children (No Cry) [03:15]
5. Burning Spear – Old Marcus Garvey [04:04]
6. Righteous Foundation – Going Back to Ethiopia [03:20]
7. Max Romeo – One Step Forward [03:35]
8. Junior Murvin – Police & Thieves [03:53]
9. Jah Lion – Soldier and Police War [04:09]
10. Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – Three in One [03:37]
11. Justin Hinds & the Dominoes – Fire (Is a Desire) [03:36]
12. Burning Spear – Lion [03:10]
13. Junior Murvin – Tedious [04:42]
14. Dillinger – Natty B.Sc. [03:26]
15. The Congos – Congo Man [06:17]
16. Rico – Africa [03:19]
17. Third World – 96 Degrees in the Shade [03:43]
18. The Upsetters – Rastaman Shuffle [07:45]
19. Althea & Donna – Uptown Top Ranking [03:12]
20. Trinity – Real Ranking [03:13]
CD2
1. The Congos – At the Feast of Passover [03:57]
2. Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – Soul Fire [03:55]
3. Jacob Miller – Forward Ever [03:13]
4. Steel Pulse – Prodigal Son [03:33]
5. Hosbah Lawrence – Gold Spoon [05:50]
6. Justin Hines and the Dominoes – One Bird in the Hand [02:50]
7. Pablo Moses – Dubbing Is a Must [04:50]
8. Cool Meditation – Cool Meditation [03:05]
9. Toots & the Maytals – Famine [03:12]
10. Errol Walker – In These Times [04:39]
11. The Meditations – Life Is Not Easy [08:34]
12. Zap Pow – Roots Man Reggae [05:54]
13. Joe Higgs – Sons of Garvey [04:02]
14. Ijahman – Jah Heavy Load [05:17]
15. Wailing Souls – Feel the Spirit [05:01]
16. The in Crowd – Marcus Garvey’s Back in Town [06:25]
17. Inner Circle – We ‘A’ Rockers [03:21]
Media Info:
Bitrate: 320 kbps
Channels: joint stereo
Samplerate: 44100
Encoder: LAME 3.99
MPEG-1 layer 3
MUCH Peace n luv to all my friends at 1337x and blazinseedboxes
ENJOY!!
**tyvm and all due respect to exy for the source and all those who care enough to share
