I've mentioned before that I spent the second half of the 80s in Papua New Guinea and so missed out on quite a bit of music as it was happening. Funnily enough though, this was something I discovered while I was there.
I came across it on a .. shall we say .. 'unauthorised cassette', one of many that were imported and sold throughout the country, often with spelling mistakes, incorrect labels and covers, but I was grateful for what I could get. When I got back down south I bought a 'proper' version of the album. Side one belongs to Yellowman, side two is all Josey Wales.
A bit of background to the culture these two 'Giants' come from. In Jamaica there's a musical legacy of DJ's and outdoor sound-system dances.
"Deejay (DJ) in Jamaican music is a reggae / dancehall musician who sings and 'toasts' to an instrumental riddim (rhythm)"
The sound system "is a group of disc jockeys, engineers and MCs playing ska, rocksteady or reggae music."
To give an idea of how this all develops ... the song 'The Tide is High' was recorded in 1967 by the Jamaican group The Paragons. In 1971 U-Roy toasted over the original and released his deejay version. In 1980 Blondie got hold of it and put out a commercially explosive number 1 reggae hit.
Josey Wales started getting popular when he was performing over the U-Roy-owned King Sturgav sound system in the late 70s.
I know my audience for this album will be limited, so I won't go into great depth on these 2 artists, other than to say they are both deeply respected and influential in their own country and Yellowman was the first dancehall artist to be signed to a major American label. At last count Yellowman has released around 45 albums, Josey more than a dozen.
If you have any interest in reggae, ska, dub or the other genres that sprang from these roots, seek out these 2 performers. For a deeper base go back further to the likes of Desmond Dekker or Max Romeo. (Max Romeo became famous when I was back in England in the late 60s for putting out a record called 'Wet Dream' !! He claimed it was about a leaky roof, but the BBC still banned it.)
I'm adding two links, one for each artist. Listen out for 'One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer' at 2:10 on Yellowman.
On the Josey Wales link, he covers a bit of Harry Belafonte's 'Jamaica Farewell'.
Enjoy.
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