Keep The Fire Burning Inside

Some heavyweight grooves to make you move, courtesy of 14 reggae and dub legends.

All of these songs originate in 1975, although I can't be certain that the individual versions used here date from that year. 

Such is the task of trying to date releases when many Jamaican 7" singles bore very little info, let alone the year of release. I guess they weren't considering that half a century later, saddoes like me would be trawling the internet, trying to track down the merest snippet of info about a song. "Internet"? What's an "internet"?!

No matter, what binds them all together is a bass, skank, skunk and a trunk full of quality tunes. Some of the finest voices to ever grace vinyl, from Pat Kelly to Susan Cadogan to Gregory Isaacs to Bim Sherman to Louisa Mark and U-Roy.

Augustus Pablo appears twice, the second appearance via Baby I Love You So, my introduction to the great man via the cover version by Colourbox in 1986.

And Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey is one of the greatest albums of all time.

1) 555 Crown Street (Single Version): Augustus Pablo

2) There's A Song (Sing About Love): Pat Kelly

3) King Tubby's Badness Dub: King Tubby

4) Carry Go Bring Come (Discomix): Justin Hinds & The Dominoes

5) Fever (Live) (Cover of Little Willie John): Susan Cadogan

6) Darkest Night: James Eastwood

7) Dreadlocks Love Affair: Gregory Isaacs

8) Resting Place: Burning Spear

9) Danger (Album Version): Bim Sherman

10) Jah Jah Jehoviah: Ronnie Davis

11) Baby I Love You So: Jacob Miller & Augustus Pablo

12) Blue Boots (Album Version): Eric Donaldson

13) All My Loving (Cover of The Beatles): Louisa Mark

14) Joyful Locks: U-Roy

1975: Marcus Garvey: 8

1990: Crucial Cuts II: 9

199x: Classics: 2

1998: Breakout (bonus tracks): 13

1998: Trojan Dub Box Set: 3

2003: Cool Ruler: The Definitive Collection: 7

2004: The Bunny 'Striker' Lee Story: 14

2005: Tom Middleton Presents Crazy Covers Vol 1: Cosmosonica: 5

2005: Trojan Roots Reggae Box Set: Forward Jah Jah Children: 10

2006: The Essential Augustus Pablo: 1, 11

2007: Sun Is Shining (Mojo magazine promo CD): 6

2009: Emmett's 10/09 Playlist (Art Decade blog): 12

2015: Reggae Discomixes: 22 Essential Extended Mixes: 4

Keep The Fire Burning Inside (46:28) (KF) (Mega)

No More Crying, Heartaches, Sorrows Or Pain

A "quick" post about Johnny Clarke that inevitably turned into a big detour...

Having been listening to it over the weekend, my intention was simply to post Johnny's 1977 classic Every Knee Shall Bow and a couple of accompanying versions. So, without further ado, here's the original single version, produced by Bunny 'Striker' Lee...

...followed by the self-produced extended version from 1978, featuring U-Roy and a superlative dub from King Tubby on the flipside...

...and last, but certainly not least, U-Roy's own take on the song, one of his last recordings before his untimely passing in 2021. This is huge in every sense, over 15 minutes in length and featuring Big Youth and Mick Jones, with Youth, Zak Starkey and Dave Sardy at the controls. 

And the detour? Right at the top of this post, looking on YouTube for Johnny Clarke clips, I discovered rediscovered a full set from the Mekudeshet Festival in Jerusalem on 19th September 2019, Johnny performing with Dub Asante Band and Matic Horns. Well worth an hour and a quarter of your time.

The Originator

Ewart Beckford aka U-Roy, 21 September 1942 – 17 February 2021