THE LADY KEEPS POPPING UP

It's been three years since I mentioned a chance encounter with Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam" blasting out a car on my way home from the beach. It was strange because the song dates back to 1993, and it's rare to find anyone in these parts that even knows who she is. Since then I've heard it four times in different parts of the neighborhood. I've obviously missed something. Was it in movie lately? Is there popular song that samples it? A remix?

I do seem to remember that the younger surf crowd around here, the Sightly Stoopid guys and their mob, thought Yellowman was all the rage in recent years. Not a big jump from Yellowman to Sister Nancy. So, is that the deal? Today I was walking past the Noodle House, a, er, noodle house that's pretty buch a bar with noodles. Owned by the sons of the couple who own the donut shop up the street. The sons went to school with the same younger surf crowd (now that I think about it, they're not really young. Younger than me.) Out of the Noodle House comes "Bam Bam". I was with my niece who is also part of that vague crowd, and knows the Noodle House bros. I mentioned that it was an obscure choice, and then she started singing along to it. She knew the song. Now I'm perplexed. I asked her where she knew the song from and she said she's just heard it a bunch.

I went to Wikipedia and saw this: "Beginning in 1991 with Main Source 'Bam Bam' has been sampled in 73 songs". Okay, then this: "most recently Kanye West’s 2016 hit 'Famous'." Aw, fuck me. That asshole?

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Sister Nancy - Bam Bam mp3 at Tumblr (?)
Sister Nancy - Roof Over Mi Head mp3 at Fat Berri's
Sister Nancy- Ain't No Stoppin' Nancy mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Video:
Sister Nancy- Bam Bam (live) at YouTube A smoke and a beer while on the mic says something
The History Of Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam” at YouTube Sound bites of sampling songs near the end.

I LIKE THE CARS THAT GO BAM BAM

I was walking home from the beach tonight and a car crossed my path blasting Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam". This shit doesn't happen around here. Not often. And it was blasting out of a newer tricked out import. Go figure. But it was a nice surprise. Sister Nancy was one of the first, if not the first, women DJs, as in reggae DJ's (we don't have to go over that again do we?) So, that was it. "Bam Bam" it is.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Sister Nancy - Bam Bam mp3 at Tumblr (?)
Sister Nancy - Roof Over Mi Head mp3 at Fat Berri's
Sister Nancy - Only Woman DJ With Degree mp3 at Knotoryus
Visit:
Sister Nancy at Wikipedia

THAT TIME AGAIN

In need of some summer jams? Clumsy and Shy just posted five reggae songs, and, boy oh boy, they hit the spot. The first one is Sound Dimension's "Real Rock" the rhythm (riddim) source for a bunch of other reggae songs. Sound Dimension was the house band at Studio One. If you want to see how many songs have used "Real Rock", check the page at Riddim Guide. Keep in mind, all of the songs, all five or so pages of them, are based on one riddim.

The second song, Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam" is another Studio One selection. She was the first woman DJ. After that, a personal favorite, Althea and Donna's "Uptown Top Ranking", which just totally rules. I've had that record in my stacks for decades and I never tire of it. (Even if you've nabbed it before, go download this one, it's a far superior rip.) The next one is Susan Cadogan's "Hurt So Good", a real sweet and spacey trip, produced by Lee Perry. Love this one, it's all heavy and sweet at the same time. (Even cooler? Prior to a comeback, Cadagon worked as a librarian.) The last one is Willie Williams' "Armageddon Time", famously covered by the Clash. Recognize that riddim? Yes, it's "Real Rock". 

Each of these five songs has a reason to be heard. It's a great post from a great blog. Clumsy and Shy's taste and mine intersect a bit, enough for me to check out stuff that they post that I've never heard of. It's like they're over there, and I'm over here, and every once in a while we happen to be at the same party, in a manner of speaking. So dig around over there.

Nice and Easy (Summer Classics) Shuffle - Five choice reggae cuts at Clumsy and Shy
Again, the songs:
Sound Dimension - Real Rock
Sister Nancy - Bam Bam
Althea and Donna - Uptown Top Ranking
Susan Cadagon - Hurt So Good
Willie Williams - Armageddon Time

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER RIDDIM

Just a quick one, because I ran into a post at Oliver Wang's trusty Soul Sides that's right up my alley.  It features three cuts from the Sister Nancy LP above.  One is "Bam Bam" which I happened to post a day later, in a thing about the Stalag riddim,  One of the other songs posted is "Roof Over My Head", which O says is based on the same riddim as the Heptones "Gonna Fight". They sound different to me, but it could be that I'm distracted by the horns in the Heptones' song.  Regardless, the "Gonna Fight" riddim is another one that seems to have legs, and if you've been paying attention, you'll know that the Heptones featured Leroy Sibbles, who was gushed about here a week ago. Check the "Gonna Fight" entry at Reggae ID. It's no stalag, but has a respectable history nonetheless. Enough of this for now.  The riddim rabbit hole is a deep one, and I need to eat dinner.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen: 
Sister Nancy - Roof Over My Head mp3 at Soul Sides 
Sister Nancy - Two more cuts at Soul Sides 
The Heptones - Gonna Fight (streaming) at YouTube 
Bonus unrelated Heptones cut: 
The Heptones - Love Won't Come Easy mp3 (via DivShare) at Derek's Daily 45 Crucial Studio One 
Visit: 
Other Heptones posts

BOSS SOUNDS FROM THE TRASTOS HI-FI

One advantage of being a certain age is that, when it comes to reggae, your objectivity isn't necessarily skewed by hippies, hacky-sack, Bob Marley, trustifarians or other such reggae cliches. My friends and I were lucky enough to be turned on to reggae as an ersatz chaser to a punk rock cocktail. When all other mellow music was getting tossed aside, reggae was not. Simply put, it was the best rebel music with a soulful beat available. It was an awesome awakening: the hunt for reggae on the shelf, any store shelf (Ratner's Electric in downtown San Diego?!?), the booming sound system of the reggae disco at North Park Lion's Club (you could feel the bass in your chest), the kind recommendations from reggae freak elders, and learning the proper way to spell New York ("a knife, a fork, a bottle, and a cork, that's the way you spell New York..."). And all of that discovering of this other acceptable genre comes flooding back when I hear anything from Horace Andy's first album, "Skylarking".

At the time, a lot of earlier reggae was getting licensed in the U.S. and issued at bargain prices. Marley had yet to break and it seemed like the reggae that was being released as if spattering paint, just hoping some of it would stick. The reissues were typically released with bland packaging with total disregard of the exotic covers of the originally issued LPs. It boggles the mind to think about what could have happened if these LPs were released with the original packaging (as seen here). What if the significance of these reissues was more widely recognized, and what would have happened if reggae music as a whole had broken before the rampant one dimensional Marley mania?

Before any miscreants start whining about how great Bob Marley was, let me pose this question: what would rock n' roll be like if the only artist most people were familiar with was the Rolling Stones? You get the picture, so make room on your plate. There is so much more essential reggae.

.

Horace Andy - Skylarking mp3 at KinoSport

All the ingredients are here: an essential 1969 Studio One classic
Horace Andy - Skylarking, the entire LP download at Global Groove
Sound Dimension - Real Rock mp3 at The Suburbs are Killing Us
The house band at Studio One with the rhythm that backs 250+ early reggae classics
Sound Dimension - Real Rock Version mp3 at The Suburbs Are Killing Us
The Heptones -Hypocrite mp3 at Ear It Now
The Maytals - Pressure Drop mp3 and 6 other Maytal cuts at I Predict A Riot
Sister Nancy - Bam Bam mp3 and 11 early reggae & rock steady cuts at I Predict a Riot
Bam Bam, from 1982, had to have been on MIA's turntable at some point
Alton Ellis - I'm Still in Love With You mp3 at Grand Panda
If the rhythm sounds familiar, you must have checked Althia and Donna's Uptown Top Ranking
Big Youth - Screaming Target mp3 at Djnodj
The Slickers - Johnny Too Bad mp3 at Motel de Moka
King Tubby - Take Five mp3 at 8106
How this is a King Tubby cut when there's no dub is beyond me, but a cover of Dave Brubeck with a groove keeps me from asking too many questions...

Augustus Pablo and King Tubby - King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown mp3 and 3 others at Dollar Bin Jams

Another all time classic: melodica + dub = chill bliss