Donald + Lulu - Beautiful Garden

[Ras Star]

Please review & tell me what you know about Donald + Lulu With The Wailers - Beautiful Garden LP.

[fadel diagne]

a wicked album.story has it that it was the very first lp the wailers band recorded after bob's passing at tuff gong.donald was a seasoned mento musician who had played the hotel circuit in jamaica for a longtime before recording this lp,which oddly enough was produced by a german label,hence the difficulty to access certain information related to the circumstances that led to the recording:"cool runnings"what we gonna do" are 2 of the best tracks you could ever pick from this recording even though there was no accounting for taste.the lulu,the american lady was murdered in jamaica a few years ago:a crime of passion?who can tell.it is really worth a try

[Funkyfred]

Wow Fadel...
Thanx for the info of this great lp!
I have the album to...
But the info about Donald+Lulu on the back of the cover
is in german, and my skills in the german language is crappy. So I never knew anything about them...
Allright, I understood that their names was Donald and Lulu!

The vibes of the songs is in a kind of mellow and laidback style... Not so much hard roots maybe.

[I-Lion Tafari]

LP came with a pictured recording diary. Interesting stuff. Didn´t listen to this album for more than 10 years, hmmm.

[Norbert]

Hey Funkyfred, if you like you can send me the backcover as a picture and i gonna translate it to you!

Bless Norb

[esfiha]

http://www.mentomusic.com/TheJollyBoys.htm

[benjamin]

good album. not really roots indeed but very smooth and melodic with the hardest rythm section ever. I think it's really worth listening. Once again, the sound is close to other early 80' 's wailers works. The voices are more like ballads or folk songs, but the mix is nice and original.

[fadel diagne]

i really like the laid-back tempo and the voice of donald is soulful too.really worth listening

[Norbert]

Hey there i translated the text on the backcover for you, thanks Mark for sending me the picture of the backcover. The text was not well written by the author, anyway here is the translation:

Donald and "Lulu" Davidson are living in the hills southern of Salem. Thats a little fishing village at the north coast of Jamaica. Their corrugated- iron hut have space for one bed, a table, 2 chairs and a kind of cradle for their little son Daniel. Electricity and running water is not available. Fresh water brings the rain that drops on the corrugated- iron and runs into a butt. The water they need to drink daily have Donald to pick up from the valley. For that he has to walk around 6 kilometers.
Donald planted bananas, cocotrees, sour sop, yam and sugarcane. Beside that there is a lot of sun, fresh air, often a fresh wind and an amazing view over the caribean.
They cook outside on stones. Lulu prepares the Ital food: most of the time fruits and vegetables without salt. Sometimes she prepares fish that is slightly seasoned with peppers, pimento and fresh thyme.
Thats all growing wild in the near neighbourhood.
Donals and Lulu are composing, writing the lyrics, arranging and singing. They love Bob Marley and thats why they never tried to copy him. They love Reggae, but they don't like the monoton abuse of tones.

Their music is very melodic and is sounding a bit like Ska and Rocksteady, the typical elements of the jamaican music of the
early 60s.

That gives this "Northcoast- Reggae" - how the Wailers is calling it, it's own attraction. Songs of Donald and Lulu are making happy
and making people to dance. Their songs are about love in general and charity in special. If they want to protest they are doing it calm.

They have no social anger and no special attention. Mostly the often said sentence: Live and let others live - or how we would say live and let others live.
But maybe it is exactly this. Donald and Lulu are singing for tourists that are relaxing at the swimming pools in the residential area of Runaway Bay -
for a hand full of dollars - Donald and Lula are needing to live.

When Aston "Familyman" Barrett, the soul of the Wailers (from the beginning!) promised to arrange the backing of Donald and Lulu at Tuff Gong a great dream of
them became truth.

musicians.....

Hope i could help you!

Bless!

Norbert

[benjamin]

thanks a lot Norbert for the translation!
Nice picture