In the years preceeding Marleymania, more than a few reggae recommendations came stateside from UK punk rockers (via the music press), and additional exploration quickly spread through their US counterparts. But before all that, the soundtrack to The Harder They Come had already introduced reggae neophytes to the Maytals, the Slickers, the Heptones, Scotty, Jimmy Cliff and others. And, in hindsight, by featuring multiple artists it was a far better set of training wheels than any single artist, Bob Marley or otherwise, could provide.
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Chris Blackwell fucked that right up. The first release on his Island Records had been Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop. It became an unlikely hit, charting even the US. Convinced that Bob Marley could be the big international breakthrough artist he'd been waiting for, he took Marley's bare-bones Jamaican masters to England and laid overdubs of British session musicians over them. He then put the bank on Marley.
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It was a move taken right out of UK's Trojan Records' playbook. Trojan had already made their mark a few years earlier, disinfecting scores of reggae songs to make them more palatable to English ears. But Trojan's approach wasn't nearly as narrow in scope, distributing promotion evenly among dozens of reggae artists.
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If you grew up in the Marley era. or are otherwise on the fence about reggae, download these cuts and let them simmer. If the only reggae that you've really heard is Bob Marley, stop listening to Bob Marley. There's far more adventurous stuff out there.
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Start From Scratch Reggae Starter Kit:
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Originals of songs covered famously by other bands:
Daddy Livingstone -A Message to You Rudie MP3 (covered by the Specials) [2]
Originals of songs covered famously by other bands:
Daddy Livingstone -A Message to You Rudie MP3 (covered by the Specials) [2]
Willie Williams - Armagideon Time MP3 (covered by the Clash) [2]
The Paragons - The Tide is High MP3 (covered bt Blondie) [2]
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BONUS: An excellent Trojan cut:
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MP3 Hosts:
