reggae according to bob marley

[black ark]

bluepixl mentioned that he'd rather listen to bob marley than the beatles and my only thought upon reading that was:

HELL YEAH!

EVERY ONE of bob marley's songs sound different from each other. they all have their own unique feel. i have been severely disappointed with almost all other reggae including steel pulse and some older bands. jimmy cliff is pretty cool... some of this stuff is so bad that it's kind of emarrasing to lump marley in with the rest...

i'm with ya on the marley, bluepixl... is there anything else in reggae as good? please......?

-paul m.

[DUC]

Wow, those are strong statements.

Bob Marley is cool... way cooler than that skinney white guy Frank Zappa. I never did like Frank. What are we talking about?

The Beatles are getting a bashing on TapeOp lately. Anyone notice this? It's a trend.

They are the next Steely Dan.

[trash180]

Well, I assume with a handle like Black Ark you may already know about the Black Ark "holy Trinity" as some have called it.

Classic Lee Perry Productions...
The Congoes-Heart of the Congoes (go for the double cd re-issue)
Heptones-Party Time (just re-issued on CD)
Max Romeo-War Inna Babylon

Not quite Marley, but great albums all. Go for the Congoes first. Probably the best of the three. Not a bad song.

That Black Ark Marley stuff has been sounding great though...4 track!

[black ark]

Well, I assume with a handle like Black Ark you may already know about the Black Ark "holy Trinity" as some have called it.

no no,

holy trinity? tell me more... are these the three albums that you mentioned?
black ark is the (random) name of my own recordings. apparently an unoriginal one..


black ark 4-track stuff? my interest is piqued. lay it on me!

-paul m

[wing]

well for me, bob marley is so much more interesting to listen to, and his records and his very voice have far much more soul and feeling to me. his songs & lyrics hit me a lot more than the beatles. i guess i could say i'd rather listen to bob marley than a lot of other stuff too. i don't really know why i cited him in particular, but i guess i just feel like bob marley deserves the kind of recognition the beatles are constantly getting. the beatles are good, but their songs just don't hit me like marley!

[percussion boy]

I used to be big into Marley -- had tix to see him on one of the last canceled shows -- but the Island stuff & Jimmy Cliff are more 70s pop than reggae to me . . . not meant as a knock, I like them both. Another good album along these lines is Bunny Wailer's BLACKHEART MAN.

Some real deep, bass-heavy reggae is the early 70s vocal trio stuff -- not poppy like Marley, though, give it a minute:

Mighty Diamonds - I NEED A ROOF, STAND UP TO YOUR JUDGMENT, DEEPER ROOTS

Heptones - COOL RASTA, PARTY TIME

Abyssinians - SATTA MASSAGANA

To add to the nice Lee Perry stuff already mentioned, three good comps:

Lee Perry, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY THE UPSETTER, OPEN THE GATE, and REGGAE GREATS (the latter is the Island comp -- a good place to start). This stuff was done with a TEAC 4 track, a Soundcraft board, and a great rhythm section. There were Neumanns in Jamaica, but Perry didn't have 'em.

For Marley freaks, GERMANY '80 is lo-fi but good . . .

[apropos of nothing]

I like the Specials a lot. Technically that's ska, not reggae, but their self-titled album (produced by Elvis Costello) is sooooo gooooood. There's a few bunk generic jams, but the stand-out tracks are beyond amazing.

Here's a really good article on Lee "Scratch" Perry and his work with Bob Marley:
http://www.techgnosis.com/dub.html

Mmm. Dub. Dubby.

[trash180]

Black Ark was the name of Lee "scratch" Perry's studio in the 70's. He recorded all that pre-Island Wailers stuff there on a Teac 4-track (as mentioned), invented the dub (with King Tubby), and eventually burned the studio to the ground.

Lee stole lot's of money from the Wailers, and in return Bob stole the Upsetters for his band. You can get most of the Black Ark Wailers track on Bob Marley and the Wailers-Trenchtown Rock (anthology '69-'78 ) on Trojan. If you recognize many of the track names it's because they re-recorded many with Chris Blackwell and Island records.

More info...
http://www.blackark.com (check out Black Ark radio...it's great)
http://www.upsetter.net/scratch/
http://www.eight4eight.com

[trodden]

uhh i don't understand where frank and bob come together in the same picture? Duc?
frank zappa is a badd ass.

and who be bashing the beatles. no one in their right mind...

[uqbar]

I dunno. While I love 60's rock and 70's reggae, I don't think you'll find me listening to much Bob Marley or Beatles. I've always found much more to love in either group's peers.

I'll take Toots and Maytals, Burning Spear, Culture, Black Uhuru or any one of a zillion other 70's Reggae groups over Marley. Maybe it's all just my own damage from college years when Marley was the incessant #1 pick of every dorky frat boy trying to be "down."

There are a lot of good compilations of Reggae - they are a good spot to start exploring artists and genre. Genrewise, I've always been more of a Dub head. If it says King Tubby on it, I know I'll love it...

And Don Lett's new 2 CD Trojan compilation totally rules!

mark

[percussion boy]

Damn, I forgot about Culture and Burning Spear. TWO SEVENS CLASH and MARCUS GARVEY -- more candidates for the, ah, Golden Spliff award . . .

[uqbar]

Well then "Garvey's Ghost" gets the platinum spliff award, right?

(Garvey's Ghost is the dub version of the Marcus Garvey album.)

mark

[percussion boy]

Definitely.

Didja know it was engineered by a couple of Brits, presumably under Jack Ruby's direction?

[black ark]

alright...

i obviously have a lot of research to do.

i'm printing this page out and heading to the reggae section.

the tapeop board strikes again!

thank you.

-paul m.