the definitive skinhead reggae collection on double vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve.

along with his rival, cornell campbell, johnny clarke was one of the most esteemed singers of the roots reggae era. having grown up next door to a popular sound system on waltham park road in western kingston, clarke s early fascination with music led him to hang out at studio one with jacob miller while still at school. he then made the rounds of talent shows with barry brown, sugar minott and the diamonds, which led to a debut recording in 1973, for the pianist glen stair, which remains unreleased. an early effort for clancy eccles, ‘god made the sea and sun,’ was not promoted properly, though ‘everyday wondering,’ for rupie edwards, impacted in britain, ‘golden snake’ for stamma houghton and a cover of smokey robinson’s ‘you really got a hold on me’ for glen brown were also false starts. the breakthrough finally came in 1975 when clarke linked with bunny lee, who had him voice the rastafari landmark ‘none shall escape the judgement’ (written by earl zero, who failed to muster a credible take), which kick-started the ‘flying cymbal’ craze. clarke’s resultant debut album, enter into his gates with praise, mixed hard-hitting rastafari devotional material with sympathetic cover versions of classics by the likes of the paragons, slim smith and delroy wilson, along with a few reggae renditions of some vintage american r&b.

die limitierte single-box »spirit of 69« auf trojan records enthält acht originalgetreue reproduktionen von gesuchten boss reggae-7-inch-klassikern der späten 60er und frühen 70er jahre in einer box. alle singles wurden remastered, das artwork wurde den original trojan-cover artworks nachempfunden. mit dabei namhafte acts und spezialitäten wie john holt, lloyd robinson, the pioneers, lloyd charmers, vincent gordon, tyrone evans, the hippy boys u. a.

rsd 2017 picture disc re-issue of the original classic album from 1969.

tenor singer johnny clarke had many false starts in his youthful days. hanging around studio one as a schoolboy with jacob miller, clarke was supposed to record material written for him by bob andy, but somehow never made the grade. his 1973 debut recording for lesser-known producer glen stair was not released, and early work for clancy eccles failed to hit, though ‘everyday wondering’ for rupie edwards made an underground impact in britain and new york. subsequent singles for keith hudson and glen brown also did not get very far, but the breakthrough finally came when bunny lee asked him to sing ‘none shall escape the judgement,’ which was written by the singer earl zero, it became a massive hit that launched the ‘flying cymbal’ craze (based on an open-and-closed high-hat cymbal pattern, adapted from the soul train theme), and clarke became one of lee’s most reliable hit-makers, partly because lee stoked a rivalry between him and cornell campbell, whom lee had previously asked to voice ‘none shall escape.’ clarke’s satisfaction lp was recorded at harry j for lee, voiced at king tubby’s studio, and issued by third world in 1979. it is a set largely comprised of cover tunes, such as the strong opening update of the paragons’ ‘riding for a fall,’ the title track adapting their rock steady hit ‘my satisfaction’ in a post-rockers style. better still is the hard-hitting ‘reality’ tune, ‘play fool, get wise,’ which uses a proverb to relate a means of avoiding trouble on the dog-eat-dog mean streets of kingston.

in den späten 60er jahren entwickelte sich reggae weltweit zu einem dominanten musikalischen genre. die frühen jamaikanischen original reggae-aufnahmen waren bekannt für ihr hohes tempo und energielevel, das sich deutlich von den langsameren rocksteady tunes absetzte. die frühen reggae sounds lieferten den soundtrack für die britischen rude boys der siebziger jahre und erfreuen sich bis heute einer großen beliebtheit.
diese vinyl-only compilation auf dem legendären reggae-label trojan records liefert die besten tracks des »early reggae«.

this is the second collection to bring together many of the visionary producer clement ‘sir coxsone’ dodd’s early recordings made with jamaica’s most exciting young artists and musicians. the triple 180 gram vinyl release includes a download code.