A Discussion about live dancehall sessions on LP....

[jahadambom]

Some of my favorite LP to listen to are the Live dancehall sessions from the early 80's. Something really exciting was happening there and without even seeing them on video, you call tell that the crowds were really into it too. The quality of the sound recording varies as it seems some of them were recorded from the open air while others may have been taken from the soundboard. Personally, I like it when you can hear more of the crown response and comments they make, the sounds you get from those recordings taken from the open air. The ones taken from the sound board may be a clearer sound quality, but I feel it loses some of the "live" feel.
All of these recordings are fun to listen to because each sound has a different style. Some play their favorite songs and flip the record to sing or rank on the riddim. Others play sound system dubplate specials and them sing to that special dubb. You sometimes even get to hear two singers battle or spar with each other. Most singers and deejays introduce themselves ar say their name in the song. But occasionally you have tp play the guessing game about who it is (if their voice isn't instantly recognizable) because these albums rarely have track listings on them. Some of these albums even have a flyer of list of names onthe cover but the names are not in the order of the songs sung....sometimes they may not even have a song on the album because it may have been edited out of the recording when it was pressed.
Since most of these records are edited and lack in track listings, what I would like to do is start discussing these albums (one by one) and see if you guys can help me piece together the list of artists and songs that occur on each of these records. I think each of these session would make great conversations, but also I would like to get some questions answered about each one...and I know this is the place to go for that. So starting soon I will post discussions about individual records and we'll all go at it. Who knows, maybe even the RA will use some of this info to add to the pages in the archive.
Thanks in advance to all who can add info or give insight into these records which offer rare glimpses and pieces of history to this entertaining genre of reggae we call dancehall. aDam

[mr mountain]

Any Live Sessions with Ranking Toyan or U brown are really great. I enjoy hearing these two chat. Another thing is I have noticed these guys are always in time chatting, unlike other artists i have heard.

[Han]

Most of these 'albums' are pirate releases/bootlegs btw. In the 80s those things were pressed on vinyl.. now you can buy that stuff on cd also...

[davek]

It's a shame that people are profiting from these, without anything going to the entertainers. They used to trade very freely years ago.

[jahadambom]

Which ones specifically (on vinyl LP) do you refer to as bootlegs or pirate recordings?

[Javier]

Now that Sugar Minott is gone, I started to wonder...

Was he really the first singer (as opposed to Dj / Mc) to sing in Sound Systems ?

Bless