various artists - Reggae Chartbusters Volume Four

So this is where the series gets interesting.

Trojan didn't release a fourth volume of "Reggae Chartbusters" back in 1972 or 1973, opting instead for continuing the "Club Reggae" series and kicking off "Trojan's Greatest Hits". That didn't keep Trojan from surveying from 1971 to 1973 in this 2009 release.

You see where JA reggae and UK reggae are diverging during this period. There are a pair of Bob Marley & the Wailers tracks on this (leftovers from their pre-Island output) and a Dennis Brown cut, but that's it for roots reggae here. The rest of is that pop reggae ilk that was pretty safe for English folks in the early 70s, but was out of step with the soon-to-be dominant sound coming out of Jamaica.

None of that is to imply this is bad, to be clear. There's music from Dandy Livingston, Joe Higgs, Toots Hibbert, Desmond Dekker; all heavyweights. But the tell here is the presence of Judge Dread's "Big Seven". I love his schtick, but his appearance maintains the theme. This was a series made for white audiences, with a minimum of nasty Rastafari or politics. Groups like Greyhound and Blue Haze wouldn't otherwise stack up to the likes of Sound Dimension or the Supersonics.

It's still pretty good, tho. Better than a sharp poke in the eye, to be sure.

Discogs

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various artists - Reggae Chartbusters: Volume Three (Extended Edition)

This the last of the extended editions in Trojan's 2009 reissue series of "Reggae Chartbusters". Trojan moved on to different titles and themes for their sampler records after 1971. So after this one, it's all imaginary samplers.

The Pioneers' version of Jimmy Cliff's "Let Your Yeah Be Yeah" leads off this, and it's alright. The rest of the original release is pretty mediocre; there's a post-heyday Desmond Dekker track, a pair of cuts from former Technique Bruce Ruffin, and fukkin' Greyhound. Not great stuff. Where some of the classic artists from the JA explosion from '67 - '71 embraced Rastafari and a more rooted approach to reggae, this is more representative of reggae-pop. Which I can't stand.

But this one is worth it for the classic two-fer from Dave & Ansel Collins of "Double Barrel" and "Monkey Spanner". These are two of my favorite tracks from this era, going back to the first Trojan CD samplers I bought in the mid-90s. "Small Axe" is also one of the few Wailers songs I like, due in great part to killer production from Lee Perry. The additions of Eric Donaldson, Delroy Wilson, and the Slickers in this expanded version lead me to ask, "Why weren't they on the original?"

Discogs

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various artists - Reggae Chartbusters Volume Two (Expanded Edition)

I busted my ass to find a copy of this.

See, getting Volumes 1, 3, and 4 were pretty easy. All three came from a seller in the UK with very reasonable shipping costs. I think I paid around $20, shipping included, for all three. But Volume Two was, for most of spring and into summer, a white whale. Sellers were asking $25.00 to ship a copy from overseas. The few US shops who had a copy were similarly asking WAY to much for a 15-year-old reissue of a budget comp from 1971. But, luckily, a Japanese store that I've bought records before had a cheap copy, the yen is weak against the dollar, Bob's your uncle, a copy way mine for $10.

And it was worth it, goddammit. Worth it for the seventeenth record I own with these Desmond Dekker songs on them. Worth it for a pair of my all-time favorite Maytals tracks. Worth it for Bob & Marcia's "Young, Gifted, And Black", which got me a native nod in traffic last week. And worth it for the eight bonus tracks appended to the original release. This is a perfect record for the hot season here in the PNW, chock full of slower jams from the first years of JA music transitioning from the rocksteady beat into reggae and creating one of the finest bodies of pop music ever created.

Discogs

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various artists - Yesterday (16 Fab B**tles Reggae Classics)

4/30 update: apparently, I forgot to post the link. And Mega was giving me a hard time, so you get a Kraken link on this one. Sorry, gang. On with the shit talk.

It's confession time. I....(sigh).

I do NOT like the Beatles.

It seems antithetical to my current "let's see how dumb I was to dislike this when I was 18" stance, but I still cannot get into the Fab Four in my late age. I will offer grudging respect to solo George Harrison and Paul McCartney, definitely fuck with Beatles-adjacents like Billy Preston and Yoko Ono, but I just can't hang with the Liverpudlian legends. Maybe it's the boomer worship, maybe it's that John Lennon always struck me as a self-important pud, maybe it's just because the Stones are more fun. But I just don't get how anyone under the age of 60, most of whom weren't alive when the Beatles were a working band, can worship them.

HOWEVER...I can absolutely get behind a Beatles cover. Whether it's Motown covering the early pop catalog, or Nina Simone's version of "My Sweet Lord", or this collection from 1991, there's something about a different artist interpreting Lennon/McCartney that makes it click for me. This has a few AAA headliners on it (the Maytals, Dandy Livingston, John Holt), but it's a lot of deeper cuts from the Trojan vaults AND includes a fair amount of solo work. Even viewed as a relative novelty, this helps prove that the Beatles weren't TOTAL shit, and maybe I should pull my head out of my ass on this one.

Discogs

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various artists - Reggae Chartbusters Volume One (Expanded Edition)

 This, my friends, is a bona fide banger.

Set aside your knowledge of reggae for a second, if you can. Imagine being 15 again. It's summertime 1969, and the sounds of rocksteady are just starting to simmer down. It's been less than a year since the Maytals taught us how to do the reggay. You take a couple quid down to the nearest stockist, and you see this on the racks. Twelve tracks, for the same amount you'd pay for a couple of 45s? You're sold.

And what a lineup! On the A side, it's Jimmy Cliff, Symarip, Dandy Livingston. On the flip, Lee Perry's Upsetters, Tony Tribe, Boris Gardiner. Both sides showcase Desmond Dekker and the Pioneers. Can you imagine hearing this all together for the first time? This isn't a stack of singles playing on a jukebox; it's the best value compilation you're probably ever going to buy.

55 years on, I still encounter folks whose first experience with reggae was this comp. One of the first full-lengths released by Trojan, it's up there with "Flex Your Head" or "C86" or the "Easy Rider" soundtrack as the sort of collection that shapes lives. This version, expanded to twenty tracks in 2009 and featuring Max Romeo, the Ethiopians, and the Maytals, gives an even more robust view of the first year Trojan licensed a monster lineup of JA labels and producers for the UK.

No wonder reggae became the sound of working class youth in the early 70s. You take great art, you focus on getting it in as many hands (ears) as you can, as cheaply as possible, and nature takes its course.

Discogs

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various artists - Young Gifted And Black: The Story Of Trojan Records

UPDATE 1/25/23: new Kraken link uploaded.

I stopped by the local Half Price Books over the weekend, my favorite ex-employer, on the hunt for some Criterion laserdiscs and other fun at (you guessed it) half price. Any day that ends with a double disc of "Glen and Glenda" and "Bride of the Monster", a copy of Samuel Fuller's "The Naked Kiss", and a few other classics on 30mm aluminum is a good day. However, I took a quick peek into the music book section and found a copy of "Young Gifted And Black: The Story Of Trojan Records", a 2003 book put out by Trojan owner (at the time) Sanctuary Publishing. While I wasn't necessarily feeling spending the money, I'd never seen a copy on the shelves before, and it came with the compilation I share now. Who am I to deny a sign from the reggae gods?

By now, it should be quite clear that I'm into reggae. I'm not into some Ras Trent/cultural appropriation/I like to get wicked stoned white boy reggae scene. I'm into the deepest south soul, six hours of Lee Perry dubs, a chanting down of Babylon and a celebration of skinheads. My first ever Trojan purchase was a two-fer: Symarip's "Skinhead Moonstomp" and the classic "Monkey Business" comp. It was the introduction to another bit of obsession, searching out not just more reissues and compilations, but always keeping an eye out for dub plates and white labels and the records I'd mostly just read about or heard on the random radio show.

I've yet to start reading the book, but this was am immediate "load it onto the phone" record. At 33 minutes long, it's almost just a sampler; barely scratching the surface of initial seven year heyday. But, fuck, if this doesn't pique your curiosity, get you dancing or crate digging, then I guess you're in the wrong place, baby.

Discogs

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Symarip - Skinhead Moonstomp

As novelty records go, this is a pretty good one. Definitely up there with the works of "Weird Al" Yankovic.

You take Prince Buster's touring band, add Alton Ellis's half-brother on vocals, market them to the skinhead youth who were buying up every JA import they could find, and you get Symarip, aka the Pyramids, aka the Bees, aka Seven Letters. You ask them to write topical songs about said skinhead youth, throw in a slightly-altered Lee Hazelwood classic, and somehow you end up with a classic one-off. Is this a purely British phenomena, the knock-off record? I see some parallels between this record and the "faux punk" records of Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias or F.U.2. They're all proficient and memorable and existed (initally) to fill a void in the marketplace.

In retrospect, it's the Philligree production that really seals the deal for me. Graeme Goodall ran Doctor Bird, Sioux, and Pyramid Records, as well as helped found Island Records. Along with Phil Chen, Goodall gets a bass-heavy, skankable sound that just jumps out of the speakers. I listened to this all the time in 1995 & 1996. It was "the heavy, heavy monster sound", in the parlance of the time.

A double disc set, including the "Monkey Business" compilation, came out in the UK in 1988 and was the first CD release of either record. There's a really nice 2xCD Symarip discography that contains every cut they recorded during their initial tenure; you can probably cop one for less than $15.

Discogs

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