things and time will tell.

I'm not exactly sure why it felt so shocking a few weeks ago to hear that Robbie Shakespeare, the great Jamaican bassist, had died. Shakespeare was the "Robbie" of  Sly & Robbie  with his musical partner of four decades, drummer Sly Dunbar. The two of them were probably the most important rhythm section in the last 40 years of popular music. If you scoured the liner notes of my records, I think you'd find that the two of them played on more music that I've listen to than any other musicians. Their legendary status is not just because of tens of thousands of sides they played on, it's the influence they had over and over again as their music continued to evolve. Demand for them as backing musicians and producers expanded far beyond reggae circles starting in the early '80s and they went on to play with everyone under the sun, from Bob Dylan to KRS-ONE. Their 1980s work with Grace Jones still sounds like the future to me. They've teamed up with pop s...

Boogie Down Productions – Jack Of Spades / I'm Still #1 Jive – 1169-1-JD Vinyl, 12", US, 1988 info About a week ago, S sends a text to me and R saying "I know y'all are watching this brilliance!" Um... I had forgotten. A few seconds of panic followed as I tried to piece together what I had dropped the ball on. Another text or two and I realized it wasn't a union press conference or something that I was missing, but something far more important and profound: the KRS-One/Big Daddy Kane "Verzuz" battle! My son had it up on his iPad a minute later and we got to catch an hour that gave me more joy than anything I've seen on TV in years. Plenty of other places to  see what you missed ,  hear some highlights from the battle  or  read some color commentary . Of course I think KRS won, but I'm biased. My Boogie Down Productions cassette tapes were life changing. KRS-One got called "the Teacha," but it wasn't just that his rhymes and com...

The Brothers And Sisters – I Am Somebody Toddlin' Town Records – 128 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, US, 1969 info A quick break from the Lee "Scratch" Perry tributes to celebrate a birthday... (I hope you aren't too bored with the LSP productions yet though, still have a couple more planned!) Last weekend, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. celebrated his 80th birthday. Far more important tributes were made, but I figured it was an excuse to share this with you. Reverend Jackson is an institution in my little corner of the world, and I don't say that critically. Organizations are ultimately just made of people. I've come to respect more every year just how fragile these things we build around us can be. And just how important it is to have institutions that weather the storms, that exist (even imperfectly) for our people to draw on, to find some basic structures and lessons when the time comes. The significance not just of his decades of activism, but of Black instituti...

Junior Byles – Curly Locks (Best Of Junior Byles & The Upsetters 1970 - 1976) Heartbeat Records – CD HB208 CD, Compilation, US, 1997 info One of the most wonderful people on the planet sent me a note saying she had read my last post and was "quite partial to curly locks, you know." I know it's *possible* she was referring to her hair (or mine?), but I'm choosing to believe she was moved by that last scratched up record I had shared . So, instead of what I was planning and inspired by my aunt (as always!), the Lee Perry tribute continues with more Junior Byles... this time with good sound, like I promised. ________________________________________________ Curly Locks: Best of Junior Byles & the Upsetters 1970-1976  misses a few crucial cuts, but pretty much does what it says on the cover. This CD gives a real sense of the magic created during those years when Byles worked with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry. A revived Doctor Bird record label  recently ...

 Junior Byles – Beat Down Babylon Orchid – ORC 712 Vinyl, 7", Reissue, UK, (Late 1990s/early 2000s?) Original release: JA, 1971 info Lee "Scratch" Perry produced records for so many of the best reggae singers and harmony groups of the 1960s and '70s. For a lot of them, those recordings included their greatest, most creative and memorable music. Junior Byles is one of my favorite singers from that orbit, someone whose records I find myself regularly going back to. Byles was not very prolific during his too short career, especially by Jamaican music standards. The former member of the Versatiles was a particularly strong songwriter and his small discography contains more than his share of classics, songs that still get played, covered and versioned. Beat Down Babylon was Junior Byles' 1971 hit produced by Perry at Dynamic Studios. Recorded in the years before the Black Ark, it's still a great example of Perry helping to break new ground. The song, an anthem fo...

The Upsetter Revue / King Scratch – Play On Mr Music / Dread Lion Label: Rock A Shacka – DBUP 001 Vinyl, 10", 45 RPM, EP, Japan, Feb 2014 info The Upsetter, Lee "Scratch" Perry, died on August 29th. The man was a giant in the history of Jamaican music, but should also be seen as one of the originators that opened the door to most modern music. A handful of Jamaican producers and engineers developed ideas and techniques that realized the potential for the producer and recording studio to become the artist and instrument. They took the Jamaican "version," reusing a musical backing track, and pushed their experiments in dub until they had invented the remix. It's hard to imagine the path to hip hop, dance music, electronica and more without their contributions. This relatively recent release of much older Lee Perry recordings is one of a handful of Scratch related odds and ends I was feeling inspired to listen to, record and share. Like Scratch's previous ...

Nuyorican Soul featuring Jocelyn Brown & Roy Ayers – I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun / Sweet Tears Talkin' Loud – TLXX 26, Giant Step Records – 574 969-1 Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Single, UK, Oct 13, 1997 info Look, I'm often a mess. That's just par for the course and whatever is stressing me out on any particular day probably isn't dramatically changing my playlist. Sure, there are songs that mostly get a spin when I've got some anger to work out and others that come out when the clouds break and I'm in a lighter mood . But when life actually feels  broken , when things are clearly impossible and I just can't will myself into seeing how progress is possible, there are two or three songs that I go back to over and over again. I'm definitely not the most religious person that you know, but I think I'd say those songs give me hope on some kind of spiritual level. Faith? Maybe. It's not completely rational and I gave up trying to self-analyze on ...

Dr. Alimantado – Dread Lock's Music / The Challis Blaze AT IT – none Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Jamaica, 1975 info Dr. Alimantado weighs in on the Greenwich Farm sound system scene in this next cut to my last post,  Dance In A Greenwich Farm ,  also from 1975. The DJ picks up the chalice  baton from Cornell Campbell, chanting his own praises of King Tubby's sound and the dreads at the dance. On the B side, instead of a dub, the good doctor keeps riding that same Bunny Lee rhythm (although the lyrics drift a bit from the sound system to touch on some more, ah, medicinal concerns...). Dr. Alimantado's first album, Best Dressed Chicken In Town , came out in 1978, but was actually compiled from singles the DJ had recorded between '73 and '76. This record comes from that same period, when he recorded most of his greatest material. ( His last appearance on these pages was from just a couple years later, mixed by the Upsetter, Lee Perry, who we sadly lost last week.) I know ...

Cornell Campbell – Dance In A Greenwich Farm Clocktower Records – CT714 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, US, 1975 info Quick post of another Jamaican favorite. Maybe a little more upbeat than my usual reggae picks, it seemed perfect for the beautiful weather earlier today. Hopefully people get a little peace and time away from work and the struggles of the world for Labor Day... and hopefully that provides some time to play this loud and enjoy. Cornell Campbell tells the story of a dance in the Greenwich Farm neighborhood. The dreads are there to rub a dub, listening to latest sounds booming from King Tubby's sound system... but everyone has to worry about police busting up the dance and the baldheads are there to wreck the party. The song takes you back to the time of the foundation sound systems... If you're interested, the sound quality isn't perfect, but you can hear a tape of a 1975 session by Tubby's sound with the legendary U-Roy on the mic that someone has posted...

Chumbawamba ‎– (Someone's Always Telling You How To) Behave Agit Prop ‎– AGIT 666 Vinyl, 12", Maxi-Single, UK, 1992 info Ahem. Ok, let's deal with a few things up front.  1. Yes, they are the same band that did that one song in the late '90s .  2. No, that isn't their only song. They were together for 30 years, roughly 15 on either side of their one bonafide international hit. Started as a punk band before discovering samples and dance music and ended their career as a legit folk music group, but had a good long run as an anarchist pop band in the middle.  3. Yeah, I got it- you remember their song being  about drinking booze and getting up again . But I swear, they spent decades as serious radicals playing music . They funded and supported 100 causes, have the only 1990s pop music video I know of about shooting racists , and kept trying to figure out what a pop band could contribute to the movements . (It's not in the video, but at that same awards show, after...

Various Artists (Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad) ‎– Luke Cage Marvel, Netflix ‎– D002532221 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Limited Edition, US, 19 Jul 2017 Info A few days ago, I was listening to a member of the union jump into an important discussion at a training I attended. He made some really thoughtful points, but in the middle of his comment he mentioned Luke Cage. Right away he paused to explain to everyone: "Sorry. Luke Cage was a comic book reference if that didn't make sense." Well, apparently we live a world right now where a good number of union members sitting in a meeting not only know who Luke Cage is, but have opinions on where he would stand on police, black lives matter, and union struggles. (The consensus, by the way, among people I spoke to was that he would clearly be on our side.) Ten years ago, if you had told me that one day there would be a Luke Cage TV show and that it would actually be good, I'd have been skeptical. If you said that the s...

Little Axe ‎– Bought For A Dollar/Sold For A Dime Echo Beach ‎– EB 133C Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Germany, Sep 2018 (original release: digital 2008/CD 2010) info This is the 2018 vinyl version of Little Axe's sixth LP, Bought For A Dollar/Sold For A Dime . Skip McDonald's blues-dub-hip hop hybrid "band" again features the rest of Tackhead (Doug Wimbish on bass, Keith LeBlanc on drums, and a mixdown by On-U Sound main man Adrian Sherwood) on nearly every track. But this is Skip's show, with the guitarist leading the group in some subtly different directions on their second set of recordings after signing to Peter Gabriel's Real World Records.  Bought For A Dollar...  is probably the slickest and most commercial sounding Little Axe production, but that's not a critique (and it may be my favorite of their records). Cutting to the chase: it's a remarkable record. I promise you'll love it with no background, history lessons, or color commen...