#60s Reggae

[oldfuturisticrebel]

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"IS THIS THE NEW DANCE? (YEAH) GOING AROUND THE TOWN? (YEAH)"

PIC INFO: Spotlight on a live shot of legendary Jamaican muscial/reggae group THE MAYTALS during their earliest incarnation as a vocal trio, c. early 1960s.

Members included: Toots Hibbert✝, Henry "Raleigh" Gordon, and Nathaniel "Jerry" Mathias. 📸: ❓

Source: https://plainorpan.com/tag/toots-and-the-maytals.

[sonicandvisualsurprises]

1965

A rhythmically rich and playfully eccentric gem from Lee Perry’s Reggae Up, brimming with his early reggae magic.

[retrofightingrobot]

An old abandoned comic out of context!

maybe one day I'll complete it

in the future...

[bayareabadboy]

Born In The Raggae 2/6/1945: The late, great Robert Nesta Marley, known to his millions of fans as Bob Marley, purveyor of ska with the Wailers, and pioneering progenitor of Reggae. He brought the Rastafari movement to the masses, and light to the world. And he was gone too soon.

[vintageblackandwhiteportraits]

[c1trvswurld]

ik humanz is universally hated and labeled the worst Gorillaz album...but counter you guys just have the music taste of a monkey whose had their heads switched but their spinal cords were not intact in the 1970s

[supersupersounds]

The Paragons - Memories By The Score / My Number One

A lovely little pair of rocksteady tracks, pure 60's Jamaica. Memories By The Score is so slow, love this tempo. -Kris

[principiumindividuationis777]

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"MOJO" MAGAZINE PRESENTS -- A REGGAE SAMPLER THAT SENDS YOU BACK TO THE HEYDAY OF TROJAN RECORDS.

PIC(S) INFO: Mega spotlight on complete package design for "Trojan Explosion (20 Reggae Classics!)," a 20 track CD compilation, free with "MOJO" [magazine] #105, published August 2002. Made in England. The CD came in a single die-cut cardboard sleeve to mimic reggae 45's of the 60s & 70s.

LABEL: Mojo Magazine – August 2002, Mojo Magazine – MOJO 4, Trojan Records – MOJO 4

FORMAT: CD, Compilation

COUNTRY: UK

RELEASED: Aug 2002

GENRE: Reggae

STYLE: Reggae, Rocksteady, Ska, Roots Reggae

Source: www.discogs.com/release/534342-Various-Trojan-Explosion-20-Reggae-Classics.

[sonicandvisualsurprises]

1967

Love this track's smooth yet propulsive swing, with Lewis' deep, commanding voice steering the groove.

[peaceloveandhistory]

Today in 1982 the Jamaica Post issued a commemorative postage stamp featuring reggae singer Bob Marley. Marley was born in 1945 and would move to Kingston with his mother in 1957. By 1963 he formed a music group called the "The Wailing Wailers," later becoming "The Wailers" achieving local success. During the 1960s Marley became interested in the Rastafari movement, which he would commit to for the rest of his life, and the influence can be heard in his music. Marley would unfortunately pass away from cancer in 1981. His album "Exodus" which was released in 1977, was named by Time Magazine in 1999 as the album of the century. Bob Marley was a prominent advocate for human rights, and social justice, bringing attention to the economically and politically oppressed through his music. "One love, one heart. Let us get together and feel alright."

[apollopolls]

Tumblr rated 7.326/10.

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

The Wild Bunch 1995 Reggae / Roots Reggae / Rocksteady / Dub

First off, let me just say that I am in total awe of this crop of reggae instrumentals from the 60s and 70s here. So much music since has come with so much more fuss and technological advancements, and yet an unscalable pile of the stuff that came out after this doesn't seem to come close to how good a bunch of these simple tunes still are. In a broad sense, all these songs' formulas are pretty simple, but they really still just manage to click so damn well 😌.

From this comp's liner notes:

During the past eight years, Trojan have pioneered the 'Revival' Reggae scene. Our re-issue programme has preserved some of the best vocals ever recorded in Jamaica, but with the emphasis being placed on some of the island's many talented singers in recent years, the musicians have tended to be ignored. This current release reverses that trend by turning the spotlight onto the 'players of instruments', and in so doing we pay tribute to Kingston's legendary session men.

Now, because nearly all of these are straight-up instrumentals, they all pretty much operate in the same way, and each of them seem to have one thing in common that ends up either making or breaking the tune: the lead instrument. Because reggae riddims are inherently repetitive and steady, if left alone, they will naturally get stale. So, it takes a good melody of some kind to be laid atop that riddim in order to lend the song some much needed variety. And in a whole lot of these 27 tunes, that ends up coming to remarkable fruition.

It's hard to even really know where to begin with this album since there's so much goodness to be found within it, but the thick, whistle-ringing improvisational organ of Lloyd Charmer's "Ling Tong Ting" is an absolutely terrific place to start. Then the JJ All Stars get topsy-turvy with the audio channels on "Memphis Underground," by sending the melodic leads exclusively and *very prominently* through the left, and 90% of the riddim through the right; Herman Marquis' "Tom's Version," whose intro I'm pretty sure I've heard sampled in at least one hip hop tune before (Wu-Tang, maybe? It's honestly driving me crazy that I can't put my finger on it), then follows by doing a wonderful job of harmonizing its organ and trumpet, yielding this fully warm and satisfying haze; the legendary Augustus Pablo, who singlehandedly managed to transform the melodica from a mere plaything for children into an instrument with serious gravitas, shows why on a rootsy piece of dub called "Great Pablo;" and then towards the end, we get a bit of a surprise with a piece of gospel-reggae that's actually not an instrumental: the Harry J All Stars "Holy Moses," which is aided by a small set of female singers whose deployment of soul harmonies reminds of the backup singing that can be found on a bunch of Bob Marley hits.

But the closing title tune by the Music Doctors may be both the most remarkable and most fun track of them all, for the simple fact that it uniquely trades its leads between—not things like guitars, horns, and organs—but just bass and drums. And the bassist just seems to carefreely play this laid-back and very recognizable piece of melody from The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back;" it's so good!

So, a phenomenal collection of rare Jamaican reggae instrumental classics here, from the genre's premier label itself, Trojan. Yesterday, I posted about an excellent metal cassette from 1985 that's also called The Wild Bunch, and given how good that that album was, I really didn't think that this one could outdo it, but it very much did!

Highlights:

Selwyn Baptiste - "Mo' Bay" Boris Gardiner - "Memories of Love" The Dynamites - "Phantom" Sound Dimension - "Soul Food" Lloyd Charmers - "Ling Tong Ting" The Aggrovators - "The Sniper" JJ All Stars - "Memphis Underground" Lynn Taitt & The Jets - "Love Me Forever" Herman Marquis - "Tom's Version" The Tennors - "Copy Me Donkey" Winston Wright - "Heads or Tails" Augustus Pablo - "Great Pablo" Harry J All Stars - "Holy Moses" Music Doctors - "Wild Bunch"

[djevilninja]

I don't want to hear it - No more fussin' and fightin', baby - Hold me tight.... Let's let bygones be bygones - Let's think about tomorrow, girl; Our future's bright.

Johnny Nash - Hold Me Tight