what got you into music from jamaica?

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fifrri

― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 13:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Hearing Dekker's "Israelites" on Fluff Freeman's "Pick of the Pops" on Sunday afternoon aged five and being scared shitless by it.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 16 October 2002 13:12 (twenty-three years ago)

firstly i would say its use in breakbeat hardcore, but the time lag was quite long, wayne smiths under mi sleng teng was the first jamaican record i liked for itself rather than as part of something else (yes i know it was used as the basis for sl2s way in my brain). then courtney melodys bad boy and sister nancys bam bam. mostly it has been this year, hearing some rhythm albums and stuff, i think my conversion will continue apace...

― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 13:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Pretty much the radio show called "Roots Rock Reggae," DJd by Randall Grass, which used to air on WXPN.

― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 16 October 2002 13:18 (twenty-three years ago)

older brother and sister playing it a lot

― H (Heruy), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 13:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Hearing Linton Kwesi Johnson on John Peel

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 14:00 (twenty-three years ago)

For ages it was one of those things where I liked individual tracks but not the genre(s) in general - then getting 300% Dynamite! a couple of years ago finally set me straight and it's a big thing for me now.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 14:18 (twenty-three years ago)

The Specials and the whole '79-'80 ska revival, which led me to the Intesified! LPs.

― Curt (cgould), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 14:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Sunday nights on WHFS in Bethesda in the early 80s.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 14:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Dave and Ansel Collins - Double Barrel, Israelites, Susan Cadogan - Hurt So Good. Marley on OGWT.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 14:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Soul Jazz comps and the Heart of the Congos. Putting years between myself and being in Ann Arbor w/trustafarians and 'legend' owners didn't hurt, either.

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 15:02 (twenty-three years ago)

reggae is unavoidable in florida. you totally grow up around it. at least i did. marley first, of course, being the most available. then black uhuru or burning spear...

look at all the 80's pop based around jamacian influence... you could almost be into it indirectly and not know it,
m.

― msp, Wednesday, 16 October 2002 16:04 (twenty-three years ago)

got some pablo. its a good starting point.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 16:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Gd weed.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 16:46 (twenty-three years ago)

No Doubt.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 18:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Living there.

― wl (wl), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 19:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Musical Youth

― Leo Lonergan (Leo), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 20:06 (twenty-three years ago)

"Tougher Than Tough: The Story Of Jamaican Music" All about the box sets.

― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 16 October 2002 20:43 (twenty-three years ago)

four months pass...

Scientist--Dub in the Roots Tradition

Of course I listened to Bob Marley since I can remember and had albums by Tosh and Burning Spear, but it wasn't until I heard the beats (the actual playing and the mixing/production) that Scientist was putting out over 20 YEARS AGO that I really got into all things Jamaican.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 24 February 2003 21:57 (twenty-three years ago)

the Mikey Dread LP cover with him in a spaceship and the controls are a mixing desk.

― gaz (gaz), Monday, 24 February 2003 22:01 (twenty-three years ago)

the 1st reggae songs i heard were 2 that were on the radio all the time when i went to england when i was a kid - "up town top ranking" & bob marley's "jammin'" . so, those. i didn't quite understand what reggae was tho, 'cause i remember thinking that donna summer's "love's unkind" (another hit from the same time) was reggae too, i can't remember why

― duane, Monday, 24 February 2003 22:02 (twenty-three years ago)

My best friend in 8th grade in Madison, WI, got himself a Jamaican stepdad. His mom was already a reggae fan, tho, went to see "Rude Boy" for the title, bought London Calling--and that's all she wrote as far as us kids were concerned.

I don't even know if I knew what reggae was before "The Guns of Brixton." I'd heard it, but I didn't identify it as a style or anything. Funny, because my dad used to tell me bedtime stories based on "Oh Blah Dee, Oo Blah Da."

To make all this even more tortured, I didn't really "get into" older stuff until a D.C. college friend in '88 played me the Club Ska '68 record. When I bought Dr. Alimantado's Born For a Purpose and the Duke Reid box set out of a New Orleans cutout bin a couple years later, I had finally become acquainted with marijuana, which helps. (Got stoned for the first time in front of the Bush I White House.)

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 24 February 2003 22:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Super Ape ... Lee Perry

― Jan Geerinck (jahsonic), Monday, 24 February 2003 23:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Super Ape ... Lee Perry, In fact the first time I had heard (I had gotten it from the cd-library) I didn't think much of it. And when I told this to my local record dealer he said: "You didn't like it?, Listen again!". I did, and Lee Perry is the first artist who I have not grown tired of.

Jan

― Jan Geerinck (jahsonic), Monday, 24 February 2003 23:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Horace Andy, "One Love" from Blue Lines. Led to other HA.
Ethiopians.
Ska night at Goldsmiths Tavern, New Cross.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 24 February 2003 23:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, and there's this dub comp on Rykodisk, Towering Dub Inferno. Very nice. And there's a mistake on it. The Japanese group Mute Beat's song in listed as "Dub No. 5" but it should be "Schoolyard Dub." On the Mute Beat record "Dub No. 5" is a take on Brubeck's "Take 5." Anyone else have this Ryko comp? Also, any recommendations for Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus?

When I first saw Out Hud play live I thought immediately of Mute Beat, actually, with the live mixing/delay stuff. Fun stuff.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 24 February 2003 23:58 (twenty-three years ago)

My uncle's old Bob Marley albums.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 05:23 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Reading over and over how essential the "Harder They Come" soundtrack was, so I scooped it up. (It's still one of the best reggae compilations, 30 years later.) From there I started exploring.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Sunday, 2 May 2004 13:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Sean Paul.

― OCP (OCP), Sunday, 2 May 2004 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

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