SIR LORD, COUNT, KING, AND WHO?

Change of gears here. I ran into a Sir Lord Comic cut and had to point you to it. He was an early reggae DJ, back when there were very few, Count Machuki and King Stitt among them. Sir Lord, Count and King. That's a lot of royalty floating around in those names. Then U Roy waltzes in, and ruins the whole regal name streak (though he did record for Duke Reid). Where was I? Oh yeah, Sir Lord Comic. His stuff doesn't pop up online very often, so that's why he's down there. The rest are just a cross section of DJ stuff, reggae DJ stuff (if you don't know the difference here's a wiki thing). Some of it's been here before, but there are a couple other goodies I hadn't seen before, a Big Youth live cut from '74, and a very early U Roy, with the Tommy McCook and the Supersonics (gloriously scratched I might add). 

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

Listen:
Sir Lord Comic - The Great Wuga Wuga mp3 at Dinosaur Gardens
Count Machuki - Pepper Pot mp3 at Planet Mondo
King Stitt & the Wailing Souls - Whitebread mp3 at Constant Pressure
U Roy - Flashing My Whip mp3 (via DivShare) at Black Gold with Tommy McCook!
U Roy - Runaway Girl mp3 at Tous les jours la grande chose
Scotty - Draw Your Breaks mp3 at La Grand Chose
Dillinger - Cocaine mp3 at Giant Panther
Big Youth - Cool Breeze mp3 at Le Blog de la Grande Chose
Big Youth - Santa Massa Gone Ya (Live) mp3 at Earmilk 
Dennis Alcapone - Cassius Clay mp3 at Reggae Top Site 

RARE EARLY U ROY

It's scratched, it's dilapidated, it's of questionable appeal to most people, even reggae fiends, but it is U Roy's first record, and because of that, there was no question about it's post-worthiness. For the uninitiated, U Roy was one of the earliest Jamaican DJ/toasters to hit it big. Not the very first, mind you, but the first to chart in Jamaica in rapid succession. Toasting is a particular type of reggae that, as many of you know, eventually hit the US via Jamaican transplant Kool Herc, who was credited with tweaking the DJ method, eventually leading to rap and hip hop.

So here's a few by U Roy, starting with the first and taking a rather sporadic chronological path, through his peak in the mid-seventies, when he went international, and leading a path to a 2002 curiosity that finds him guesting on a cut by Tiken Jah Fakoly from Côte d'Ivoire in West Africa. That particular cut is interesting because the native language in Côte d'Ivoire is French, so you have U Roy on a cut with Fakoly singing part of the song in French. Oui! Oui!

Stop the presses! Here's something else I just found while doing an image search for this post, and, if you're into sound systems and DJs, it's pretty remarkable. Live sound system sets featuring U Roy fronting the King Attorney Hi-Fi in Jamaica, from 1975. The sound ain't the best, but I don't know about you, I sure didn't think I'd ever hear a live set of this vintage with U Roy. The whole rundown of the sets is at Who Cork the Dance, and this particular page also hosts DJ sets by U Brown, Dillinger, Ranking Trevor and others.

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

Listen:
U Roy - Earth's Rightful Ruler mp3 (via DivShare) at Dave's Jukebox
U Roy's first w/intro by Peter Tosh (1970)
U Roy - Your Ace From Outer Space mp3 at Clumsy and Shy (1970)
U Roy - Way Down In South mp3 (via DivShare) at Dave's Jukebox (1972)
U Roy - Runaway Girl mp3 at Tous les jours la grande chose (1975)
U Roy - Chalice in the Palace mp3 (via DivShare) at Flea Market Funk (1975)
U-Roy - Natty Rebel mp3 at Tous les jours la grande chose (1976)
Tiken Jah Fakoly w/U Roy - Justice mp3 at Flapy (?) (2002)
The live DJ sets:

The King Attorney Hi-Fi sets at Who Corked the Dance King Attorney hosts U Roy, Dillinger, Ranking Trevor and others. Click on "Reup"," and it'll take you to MediaFire, which is a bit of a pain, but they're fast downloads, and really, you may never again have the opportunity to hear U Roy on the fly in the seventies.

REGGAE PARTY TONIGHT!

Last August I posted a short thing about Dillinger's "Cocaine in My Brain" and how it borrowed the bass line from People's Choice's "Do It Any Way You Wanna", a song he toasted over prior to recording his signature song. Today, while browsing American Athlete (an excellent blog with tons of groove heavy international music), I ran into a post about Escort's "Cocaine Blues", which is as close to a disco type cover of Dillinger's "Cocaine in My Brain" as you can get it. It's a recent release, but you could swear that it was one of those songs that you never heard back in the late seventies (because, of course, disco sucked, right?). So, the bass line has come full circle, from dance floor to sound system, and back to the dance floor. (Note: get the Escort cut now, because it was posted with a note that said it would only be available for a few days, and that was back in November.)

In looking for an image for this post, I ran into an instant book mark. It's a site called Streamola Archive, and it has tons of reggae-centric stuff on it, streaming and in mp3 format. And I'm not talking about just songs. There's tapes of sound systems, interviews, radio shows, and all sorts of cool shit. Some of the sound files are a teeny bit warbly in parts (because they were ripped from streaming webcasts, from 1999-2001), but it's very minor. And there's some more recent stuff, including an Ari Up DJing gig, from February, just months before her death. It's an excellent set, with recent sounds from Jamaica and a few of the new Slits songs, and a mash up of John Lennon's vocal from "A Day In the Life" with a rhythm that, if you're at all into reggae, you'll recognize. (Stream the whole show at your hoedown tonight!) There's other posts with a Lee Perry set and interview, a King Jammy sound system set from '87, and a interview with Dillinger, and tons more. (Links are below.) I'm also including a repost of a link from a while back, in case you missed it. It's a Slits live set, from the Primavera Sound Festival, in Barcelona, from earlier this year.

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

The bass line that won't die:
Escort - Cocaine Blues mp3 at American Athlete
Dillinger - Cocaine in My Brain mp3 at Giant Panther
People's Choice - Do It Anyway You Wanna mp3 at Lulu.com

PARTY SUPPLIES, the other good stuff:
Ari Up DJing w/Joly & Mad Scientist at Party 4 Haiti (2/2010) mp3 and streaming at Streamola Archive
The Slits, Live at the Primavera Sound Festival (2010) at Free Music Archive (NOTE: Click the arrow to the right of the plus sign [+] to download)
King Jammy's SuperPower soundsystem set (1987) mp3 and streaming at Streamola Archive
Lee Perry gig from 1999 mp3 and streamimg at Streamola Archive
Lee Perry interview (mid-80s) mp3 and streaming at Streamola Archive
Dillinger & Trinity interview mp3 and streaming at Streamola Archive
Breif Selection - Reggae mix mp3 and streaming at Streamola Archive