Decent Books About Reggae

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I am currently reading David Katz' bio of Scratch Perry "People Funny Boy" - this is one of the worst-written music bios I have ever read. Boring, monotonous, devoid of any real emotional engagement with the subject, endless chapters that read like heavily annotated lists of someone's record collection... I will finish it, by God, because I have that masochistic need to finish any book I start, and I have actually learned of a couple records I would like to seek out, but there has GOT to be better, more engaging resources for learning about the history of Jamaican music out there. Please tell me what they are!! (And also, if anyone has any info about Sonia Pottinger, I am very curious about her and her studio).

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 17 March 2003 22:43 (twenty-three years ago)

The Rough Guide to Reggae is great! There is a two-disc collection of Pottinger stuff on Rounder but the liner notes are skimpy.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:45 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, rough guide seconded. plenty in there about mrs pottinger.

― gaz (gaz), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:49 (twenty-three years ago)

i saw this book ages ago by an nme journalist (wait,hear me out!) who basically had travelled to jamaica to write about something for the nme,and ended up liking it so much he stayed there to live,and the book was about jamaican culture in general as well as reggae..
i remember thinking that it could be interesting because it would be cool to get an overview of the country and the music from an outsiders point of view,but at the same time it could be terrible because it was written by an nme journalist...
does anyone know the book i'm talking about?
i wasn't arsed buying it on the off chance that it might be good,but the fact that i remember it means i must have some interest in it...

― robin (robin), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Has anyone read that book on dancehall, Wake the Town and Tell the People? Is it any good?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I was gonna recommend Rough Guide but didn't think it was what shakey was looking for--it's a 'rough guide' after all and just provides an overview. That being said, I am currently reading the whole thing cover-to-cover and like it. I do wish they said more about ea artist's style and gave a brief bio, but that would be TOO huge of a book, I guess.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 17 March 2003 23:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I mean sometimes they'll just mention people because they need to be mentioned, but they actual tell you nothing about them besides "here's this guy, he made a few records too"

― oops (Oops), Monday, 17 March 2003 23:03 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, I'm kinda interested in more of a narrative and less of a list of releases. Katz passes his book off as the former while really it's just the latter.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 17 March 2003 23:05 (twenty-three years ago)

read russell banks' "rule of the bone" for a good novel with a big jamaican part to it. you might hate it though.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 17 March 2003 23:23 (twenty-three years ago)

hah! I have read that book - I thought it was quite great, actually, altho I think it kinda suffered when the plot took them to Jamaica. Didn't teach me much about the music history either.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 17 March 2003 23:57 (twenty-three years ago)

amateurist, i have read "wake the town...", and it's good, if a bit dry in that "i come from an obvious academic background but i'm gonna try to infuse this history with a bit of my own personal love/obsession and the vibe of pop cult writing whether it takes or not." it's nice because it really does attack the subject of jamaican pop in the appropriate context: as records played by DJs at club nights. lot's of nice photos, good background.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 00:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Wake the Town's a cracking good book if, as Jess said, you can set aside the fact that it gets a little dry and academic in places. Crucially, it's packed with information, thoroughly explained and reasoned and talks about the function of Jamaican music and dance in daily life - social/political and otherwise. Add to this all the minutiae of the industry and you'll know a ton more about reggae than you did in the first place if you read this. I also found Lloyd Bradley's Bass Culture a pretty engaging read. I've got a few more to add but will have to dig them out to check names and writers etc...

― Dave Stelfox, Tuesday, 18 March 2003 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the nme book was by chris salewicz: rude boy

wake the town also very interesting, especially the ethnographic account of a dance

y'all should check out anthony winkler and victor headley's (and (lotsa other stuff on X-Press)novels too

― pmaplestone, Tuesday, 18 March 2003 02:22 (twenty-three years ago)

is it any good?

― robin (robin), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 03:18 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought BASS CULTURE was good, supposedly the 'best' historical explanation of Jam music, tho the only one that I've read - I'd just have to go by the quotes on the back - if someone wants to correct me.

Also I'd be interested if anyone has read Hebdige's account in 'Cut'n'Mix'?

― Michael Dieter, Tuesday, 18 March 2003 08:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Cut 'n' Mix is the very definition of dry academia, but lots of crucial ideas and it's a short read besides. That Katz book is abominable. The Rough Guide would be a bit better if it didn't seem as if its authors liked every single reggae album ever.

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 08:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Timothy White's - wait wait wait don't run away I know 99% of his music crit is the lamest PR shit ever, wrote 500 pages on solo Roger Waters I KNOW - 'Catch A Fire' is pretty good, loads of stuff on Garveyism etc., and the encounters between Chris Blackwell and various Wailers are pants-shittingly hysterical. "Can I have a clause in the contract saying it's no longer valid if you die?" "Sure, Bunny." "Good, that means I can quit the contract AT ANY TIME"

― dave q, Tuesday, 18 March 2003 11:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Bass Culture is a damn good read. Its heavily influenced by certain people who contribute a great deal (Prince Buster, Mikey Dread, Dennis Bovell) and so their side of the story is emphasised over others (many of whom have kicked the bucket). The other obvious criticism is that it's quite skimpy after 1980 but still well worth picking up.

― tigerclawskank, Tuesday, 18 March 2003 11:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Saliewicz's Rude Boy isn't bad but isn't great either. It's not much about reggae. I liked Laurie Gunz's Born Fi' Dead more int he same sort of line.

The Rough Guide is still my favourite, and the really, really long book which it could have been exists in some form, somnewhere. I remember reading Steve Barrow saying they'd had to cut it very brutally to make it publishable. How I'd love to read the long version.

(ShakeyMC: there's a decent little interview with Mrs. Pottinger in the Rough Guide, but aside from that all I know about her is from sleevenotes. You probably know this but recommended releases: "Put On Your Best Dress" (Trojan comp); "Musical Feast" (Heartbeat comp of Gayfeet / Hi-Note stuff) and "Reagge Songbirds" (also on Heartbeat). "Swing And Dine" by the Melodians is the greatest rocksteady song of all, I think. Avoid the LP she made on Brent Dowe: I think it's called "Pick Me Up".)

There's apparently an interview with her in issue 2 of this: http://incolor.inebraska.com/cvanpelt/onlinezine.html but I can't tell you anything about its quality)

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 11:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Apologies for the typo madness above.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 12:10 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Bringing this to the top. I always get in a reggae mood when summer starts. I was gonna get the Katz book mentioned upthread, but I guess I'll avoid that like the plague now. I don't really have anything to contribute to this thread, I read Stephen Davis' Bob Marley biography when I was 12 but don't remember anything about it.

― stephen morris (stephen morris), Monday, 24 May 2004 19:04 (twenty-two years ago)

i bought the katz book late last year, have to echo everyone else - utter, utter shit. completely flat, one of the dullest books i've ever read.

― a, Monday, 24 May 2004 19:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Katz put out another book after his Perry bio, I forget the exact title, but it's more of a general overview of Jamaican musical culture. I've seen it at City Lights but it looks terrible.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 24 May 2004 20:17 (twenty-two years ago)

It's better than the Perry book actually. It's still dreadfully slow reading though.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 24 May 2004 20:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I just can't see how it's possible to make Perry boring. Katz must have missed something big somewhere along the line.

― stephen morris (stephen morris), Monday, 24 May 2004 20:28 (twenty-two years ago)

does anyone know if the Rough Guide To Reggae has been revised/updated?
could use more indepth ragga / riddim history...

― Paul (scifisoul), Monday, 24 May 2004 20:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Stephen, he is a DREADFULLY boring writer. If there is meanlingless prose slowing minutae to focus on this guy will find a way to write about it in the most mind-numbing way possible.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 24 May 2004 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah totally. And I too thought that as subject matter the persona of Scratch would over-compensate for any stylistic deficiencies, but oh how wrong I was.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 24 May 2004 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, everyone I know was like this book can't be as awful as everyone sez it is: LOOK at the subject! LOOK at the great comps Katz has put together! (A couple of folks even KNEW Katz personally and really like him.) Universally though they all said that People Funny Boy was nearly unfinishably boring. And they were being pretty kind in my view.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 24 May 2004 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Ok at the risk of sounding contrarian, in defense of David Katz, I actually really dug People Funny Boy and Solid Foundation for the minutiae on each of the personalities involved. What they both lack in narrative drive and stylistic pyrotechnics they more than satisfy me with the trivial pursuit stuff. The who-played-on-what stuff becomes diggers gold. This makes me an irredeemable reggae geek, I guess.

I think I'm saying that if you use them as reference books, as opposed to Big Overarching Sum-It-All-Up-And-Drop-Some-Bombs Narrative books--you'll be more satisfied.

I love Timothy White's book and Norm Stolzoff (who BTW has been making a documentary extending from the book). As far as Big O.S.I.A.U.A.D.S.B. Narratives and Jamaica, I'm still pushing Michael Thelwell's 1980 fictional adaptation/version of the movie "The Harder They Come". Then add on Laurie Gunst's "Born Fi Dead' (as noted above) for the 80s, and Stephanie Black's DVD "Life and Debt" for the 90s.

One more thang: here's something to chew on for all of us--Rob Kenner is currently writing his book on reggae and dancehall. Yes!

― Jeff Chang, Monday, 24 May 2004 23:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I see your point - Katz knows his stuff and I have referred back to the book to hunt down specific albums (Max Romeo "War in a Babylon" for one), but yeah, as a reading excercise the book is a spectacular failure. May as well have just structured it as an annotated discography.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 24 May 2004 23:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Which David Katz did do, I believe.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 24 May 2004 23:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Sci Fi Paul: I guess the first Rough Guide was published in 1997 or thereabouts. Since then there has been one updated / revised / enlarged version in the UK (the headers and suchlike are in orange print), but I was too mean to shell out the cash for another copy so I don't know how much attention is paid to more recent material. Sorry.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 07:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica by Norman Stolozof (sic)
An academic book (Duke Univ Press) that's actually quite readable. Thoroughly researched history that's not really about reggae per se, but nails down the pre- and post reggae scenes with great details and anecdotes. Good on Lee Perry as well as Coxsone (RIP) King Tubby and the rest. Prose is probably TOO straightforward for some egghead readers, but it places musical facts in a believable social context.

― lovebug starski, Tuesday, 25 May 2004 11:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah the updated Rough Guide is good on 90s ragga (great stuff on Jammys for instance--was this in the original? can't remember) updated through about 2000, plus new roots artists like Capleton, Luciano and Sizzla (new chapter called "Rasta Renaissance"), and adds maybe 50 pages on new UK, African and US stuff, even including Jah Shaka and Bobby Konders.

― Jeff Chang, Tuesday, 25 May 2004 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Wake The Town... actually sounds like exactly what I was looking for. Will check it out.

― stephen morris (stephen morris), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)

All of the criticisms of the David Katz book are justified but it's still an incredibly useful companion when you're trying to navigate thru the Lee Perry's incredible knotty (natty?) undergrowth - as your narrator currently is

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

You can quite easily read the new stuff in the Rough Guide to Reggae in a shop, providing they have comfy seats. There is a section on Bobo.

Born Fi' Dead is a great book.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

OK. My bad. I went back and actually compared the two Rough Guide editions and here's the new stuff:

Reggae IN the US--5 pages or so on hip-hop and ragga,

Rasta Renaissance--reorganized section on new roots artists, with focus on Boboshanti

and about 5 pages or so of updated ragga runnings.

There are probably more new things throughout the book, but I just went to the back of the book.

Hope that helps...

― Jeff Chang, Tuesday, 25 May 2004 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

"King Jammy's" by Beth Lesser is a v. good account. Originally self-published, it was given a proper printing (in 7"x7" format!) by ECW press 2 years ago.

Also on ECW - "Shaggy: Dogamuffin Style" by Micah Locilento
http://www.ecwpress.com/books/shaggy.htm

― superultramega (superultramarinated), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

anyone find the katz oral history book solid foundation book as boring as i did?

― okoko, Tuesday, 30 August 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

I was reading down this thread wondering to myself, "Is the same guy that wrote that awful 'Solid Foundation' book?" One of the most difficult-to-finish books I've read in a long, long time. And at the time I was completely immersed in Jamaican music.

― Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:18 (twenty years ago)

Read above okoko. Everyone found it boring.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:29 (twenty years ago)

Except Jeff Chang.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

am i the only person who also found the jeff chang book very underwhelming. for every nugget that reminded me of certain important things in hip hop, there were endless passages of rehashed stuff. plus the book totally skipped over the 90s and was overall inconclusive. it read like any other book of dashed hopes relating to a musical genre. i mean, it had some great research, all the stuff about the bronx and hip hops early days was great, but after that, it seemed to dwindle a tad.

xxpost- im glad others found solid foundation fucking impossible to get through. that book had about as much urgency as a family of snails buried in salt.

― okoko, Tuesday, 30 August 2005 17:40 (twenty years ago)

I never even noticed I stopped reading Solid Foundation!

― Old School (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 17:43 (twenty years ago)

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