favorite book on dub/reggae/jamaican music?

[dako]

Lloyd Bradley's "Bass Culture" is very interesting. It explain every change of reggae music from the middle of the 50's to the 90's through a social, political and sometimes economical point of view, also the contribution of the people, the sound systems, the producers...the most important singles and albums of each period, very complete!!!
It can be difficult to read (600 pages) if you're not used to read fat books like this, but so interesting!

I've also read a book called "Reggae Explosion" in it's french version. It's full of magnificent photos by Adrian Boot and also very complete conserning the history of that music. (I don't remember the other author coz I've lend it to a friend but I can tell it you this weekend). A beautiful book !

dako

[Chris]

Just to point out, I'm pretty sure Lloyd Bradley's "Story of Jamaican Music" and Lloyd Bradley's "Bass Culture" are the same book. I read "Story" and I believe this is either an updated title or possibly the title of the U.S. release. Any clarification would be appreciated. By the way, it is a VERY good book.

Chris

P.S. Bradley also had a book "Reggae" which apparently accompanied a BBC documetary. Much of the material is the same as "Story", but it's an oversized book, so the pictures are GREAT.

[Bill]

I hear the Bob Marley book Catch A Fire is full of imagination interviews and comments.The man just love bob so much i guess he make a conversation with him in his head.

[Chris]

Catch a Fire does rely a great deal on supposition and "possible" conversations, but in my opinion it is a nice book about Bob's life. The afterward to the book really makes you wonder about Rita, Cedella, etc. and their greed.
Chris

[matty]

I recommend "Reggae International" by stephen davis and peter simon, it is full of information and has some awsome color photos, "Reggae Bloodlines" is also great.

[kukuman]

Has anyone read Michael Veal's book on dub? It is quite academic/theoretical but also has some excellent history/interviews too. I don't thinkanyone has mentioned it on this forum before (apart from me!) but would have thought it would be of great interest to the many dubheads on roots archives....

I'm reading it right now. It is rather academic... personally I don't mind that approach, though I have very little musical knowledge so some of the terminology is unknown to me. I had read Veal's book on Fela before I bought this so I knew what to expect.

[picaraza]

@ Punxsta, kukuman,

I agree Veal's book is really quite good. Practically every review or mention I've seen of the book mentions that it is "academic" or "dry".

But as these things go-- books that grow out of dissertations, it is really, really good. Actually, as far as reggae books in general go, it is really, really good.

Veal can write! He does a great job of describing the feel of the music. Sometimes the language reminds me of the jargon that wine connaisseurs use. Elsewhere, he uses terms which I gather are pretty common in enthomusicology. And that is not a bad thing, I felt I learned a lot.

One of things that Veal recommends is listening to the recordings as he discusses them. Really nice in depth discussion of individual works by Sylvan Morris, King Tubby, E.T., Scratch, Prince Phillip, Prince Jammy, Scientist. He provides a really good "syllabus" of crucial dub too.

[daCENSOREDone]

my favourite one so far is
"SOLID FOUNDATION" by David Katz

[Chris]

Another book I'd suggest is "Exodus", by Vivien Goldman. It's about the making of the BMW album, but it starts with a nice run down of what was happening in JA from the late 60s to mid seventies to put the album in context.

Chris

[Dizzle]

It's a bit off topic because it's fictional, but it has a definite reggae vibe, One People by Guy Kennaway makes an excellent accompaniment to a slab of wax.