A couple of compilation CDs. On a Reggae Tip was bought in 1993, when I had been living in South London just over a year and was still rather dazzled by the inyerface brashness of the place. I visited my mother's nice quiet* suburban white ghetto and realised that it just sounded wrong in this environment. At the time I was tapping away on my P3 Project on a steam driven portable computer. We didn't call them laptops back then. Indeed, 'portable' was a bit of a stretch!
I have mixed feelings about this CD. There is some genuine crap on it, by Material, Mad Cobra, and General Levy. It's just noise. It's aggressive, confrontational and unrelenting. But then you listen to something like Sly and Robbie's Boops (Here To Go) and you hear something worth hearing.
Overall it's a glorious optimistic LP, and an indication that reggae, a valid musical form, has degenerated into the hate-filled hateful cRap of today. Some of these songs have a varying beat and indications of some intelligent musicianship, not like the penetrating bass that thunders out from cars and flats wherever you go. Overall, it's a strange album, some quite pleasant tunes, none worth considering for elevating into a list of 'My All Time Favourites'. I can't see myself playing it again voluntarily...
Rude Boy Revival, is a whole different matter. Bought maybe two years ago, I played it entirely voluntarily just a few weeks ago, but now I'm playing it agin to blog it!. The person who added the details to CDDB added the note
Fine examples of mod/ska/skin and two tone - get your Cromby and Pork Pie hat out !!!
Great song after great song. The first disc starts with Too Much Too Young and the second disc finishes with Ghost Town, so the person who compiled it is obviously intelligent. Both of these are utter class. Ghost Town is an absolute contender for my top fifty discs, and absolute proof that 1981 was the best year EVER for pop music. But the hits just keep on coming - Geno, Time for Action, Special Brew, Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag, Reasons To Be Cheerful, Louie Louie, My World, Uptown Top Ranking, The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum.
Some tracks are weaker eg Gloria Jones's Tainted Love was bettered by Soft Cell. And obviously, there are few turkeys: the Greatest Cockney Rip Off, anybody?
The day before I played this Desmond Dekker - without his aces - was spotted in the record shop just round the corner on the Hill. Much to the total excitement of the woman who runs it!
* 'nice quiet' being an euphemism for bland, boring, smug, self-satisfied, small-minded...
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