Reggae bits and bobs

I’ve just been listening to the first disc of one of those Trojan boxes which contain three CDs of reggae centred around a particular theme, in this case 12″s. I particularly like this set because they’ve merged the ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides together seamlessly and the proximity of original and version make for an excellent lesson in dub tricknology. I just noticed something that amused me, namely the versioning of the titles, for example:

• Small Axe/Battle Axe (Bob Marley & The Wailers & The Upsetters)
• Materialist/Poor Man Style (Horace Andy & The Observers)

But my favourite has to be:

• Clap The Barber/Run Bald Head Dub (Michael Rose & The Observer Band)

Amy and Gabes noticed the other day that the music I was playing was by somebody called King Tubby. In all the years I’ve listened to him, the humour of his name had never occurred to me. On the other hand, Ames and Gabes found it hilarious…

On a related topic, I received some lovely Christmas presents this year – one item that I specifically requested was The Rough Guide To Reggae by Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton. This turned out to be a pretty big disappointment. Rather than capturing the ‘blood and fire’, the breadth of expression, the structural innovation, the striking texture of reggae and so on, it settles for seemingly endless pages of album listings with brief, frequently rather inane commentaries. There are a number of key artist profiles, but the ones I’ve read don’t convey any of the artist’s individuality, while the Bob Marley essay mostly focuses upon his success rather than what made the world love his music. The piece about dub might just as well have been written about Stock, Aitken and Waterman for all that it explained the jaw-dropping originality and existential suggestiveness of the music. It’s clearly a book for the converted, but it won’t ignite any fires nor cause any spark of wonder in the uninitiated. Oh and no mention of recent rediscovery Michael Smith, nothing about Rhythm & Sound nor about the wider influence of reggae (for example on Jungle). Most criminally for its dismissal of such a key artist, at least on the UK scene is this sole reference to Linton Kwesi Johnson for his album Forces Of Victory:

MP3: Horace Andy & The Observers / Materialist/Poor Man Style + Michael Rose & The Observer Band / Clap The Barber/Run Bald Head Dub