Roots Archives Forum

Before I knew what the music was, I remember seeing shirts and banners in the swap meet booths emblazoned with "Reggae" this and that, and thinking "Reggie" must be a very popular person.

Anyway, in fifth grade, after figuring it out, my friend and I broke away from his mom and ventured into one of these wonderfully lively, colorful booths. Since the only name in Reggae I knew was Bob Marley, I flipped through the selection and bought the cassette that spoke to me the most: "Rastaman Vibration."

For the next two years, all I listened to was Bob. I only had a couple of the Island releases, but I would make these little mix tapes with all the same songs in different order. I would even pretend to be the DJ, and record my own intros before the songs.

Then, in seventh grade, another friend and I would sit way in the back of art class, share a pair of ear buds, and listen to Eek a Mouse "Wa Do Dem" through his walkman. Noah's Ark was, and still is one of my all time favorites.

Reggaemylitis is very contagious.

ah...good question...an easy excuse for me to ramble on again!

the stuff I heard from when my ears and mind were actually starting to form some sort of ability to discern between music I liked and didn't really like that much (about age 8? maybe) was mostly the so called progressive rock my older brothers were listening to.
So I heard way too much ELP, Led Zep, Deep Purple and all of that. First album I bought was age 10 (Presence by Led Zeppelin because my brother told me I had to buy it! I suppose he had run out of money) on a trip to London with my dad and brothers. That was 1977 - Jubilee year! The height of punk. I vaguely remember there being a general awareness of this punk thing - posters all over the place of these new music phenomenons. Some guy called Elvis Costello - didn't look much like a rock star to me. One of my brothers bought Anarchy in the UK single. Scary at the time for me. The b-side 'I wanna be me' was so crude it really disturbed me in a fascinating way. Still not quite recovered, probably!

OK, still have not got to the Reggae. Hope I'm not boring you.

Well I spent the next year or so listening to an awful lot of Led Zeppelin. I'm not ashamed! Some of their stuff is still worth listening to though a lot of it is NOT!

Let's jump ahead to the Specials, Madness and the whole 2-Tone thing. I think I was 12 and was listening to the radio and hearing all of this stuff that was just totally exciting. Around this time Marley stuff was sort of in the air - I never warmed to it and still don't. Not sure why.

But OK here is the big break - about 1980 I went to a 2nd hand record stall in the Dandelion Market (long gone) in Dublin and my brother bought 'The Upsetter' and the Prince Buster Wreck a Pum-Pum albums - nice thick slabs of vinyl. I think they fundamentally changed a lot about my musical outlook. Always looking to Inglan for new music and suddenly this Ska stuff was actually from Jamaica.

In the ensuing years most of what I listened to that was Reggae was most likely filtered through the John Peel show. My brothers and their friends would buy various genres including reggae and I would beg to borrow them for a night and tape them - religiously almost. Happy times.

Wa-Do-Dem, Mouse and the Man, Misty in Roots live, Toots and the Maytals. Most special of all perhaps the Scientist and Scientist v Prince Jammy Greensleeves releases. Now they were life changing. but I had no idea that there was all of this other stuff in the same vein! LKJ in Dub was a big favourite for a long time.

Also, an likely gem I still have somewhere (never returned the disc to my teenage friend and don't intend to) a K-Tel collection of reggae hits. Surprisingly good and familiarized me with a bit more of that late 60s early 70s reggae sound that was happening in England. Some cheesy string laden stuff on there too. It was his sister's album as i remember it. She would probably deny ever having it!

All the while, i was listening to other stuff - I discovered punk a bit late - probably about 80-81 - too clueless to realise that I was actually in London when it was happening and had not yet imploded!

I became much less interested in JA music as the 80s progressed for what to me now are obvious reasons, but it was a natural thing - not much that I heard appealed and there was other music happening that did appeal to me. I would not consider the 2nd half of the 80s a good time for me personally or musically. Spent a lot of time hoping to find something to listen to that really hit that sweet spot. Most JA music disappointed, some rock and 'world' music tided me over until!!!!

When i moved to NY (1992) I started hearing music differently and reggae dub etc started really becoming something I missed, craved - so slowly at first I started checking out the steadily growing CD reissues and here I am, still obsessed and delighted by all of this glorious music!

And obsessing about my own Dub productions too...

well i guess it started out when i discovered 2 albums in my fathers collection witch were Hugh Mundell-Blackman's Foundation and Max Romeo- Holding Out My Love To You. i thought both were pretty cool. a few years later my sisters college friends lent me a few steel pulse albums witch i listened to quite a lot. a few years more down the line i met this guy who was pretty well into reggae. he lent me some Augustus Pablo, pre island Marley, Skatalites but the song that really peaked my interest was the Wailers Let Him Go. i was really attracted to that slow chugging ska sound and it made me start to seriously seek out Jamaican music. i guess it's worth pointing out that the first band i went crazy over was The Police and i still love that band to this day. anyway the more Reggae i hear the deeper i get. music is like food and Reggae is very healthy indeed.

Peace!!

oh yeah...I forgot to mention that at age 11-12 i was a member of my town's marching band (!) - I struggled through a few months of playing horrible sounding recorder (you know the fluty thing) and stuck with it just so that I could graduate to the instrument of my choice at the time - the tenor sax - that was I could happily play along with Night Boat to Cairo (Madness) and Food for Thought (UB40 - the only good thing they ever did) and probably some Specials...

I gave up playing the sax as soon as they started talking about the uniforms and the actual marching part of the operation. Didn't pick up another instrument for about 7-8 years after that bizarre experience.

That is part of why I don't 'teach' my son music or push him in any way. If he is like me he will find his musical path in life...no sense in forcing anything in life..things will be what they are meant to be...

my dad and my older cousins were all into reggae music. guess where? in morocco of course my first lp was dillinger (the king tubby one with African World Wide, etc.) later i met some people from southall in london. even though i like all sorts of musical styles like rnb, hiphop, rai and westafrican music, roots/dub music still is my #1. i never became a huge fan of dancehall music though.

Through punk rock and two tone.

First heard reggae on John Peel in early 77. I was hard tuned listening for Peel playing punk, reggae sunk into my subconscious.
Started going to punk gigs aged 14 in late 77, first band I saw,The Clash, had a fair mix of reggae in their pre gig disco. It being my first gig my excitement was off the scale and reggae became kind of associated with that - and later gigs I always loved hearing Reggae. Wasnt till later in 78 that I started finding out who some of these artists and tunes were thanks to John Peel. Then started buying records

It was in 1973... following a trip to the Bay Islands of of Honduras, I just sorta became interested in all 'tings Caribbean. Anyway, upon return to the States I picked up Johnny Nash's LP "I Can See Clearly Now". The liner notes on the album about this amazing music coming out of Jamaica intrigued me... I have to say, I did (and still do) enjoy the LP itself for what it was at the time. Anyway, with that 'seed' planted, on subsequent visits to the local record shop, I soon ran across BMW's "Catch A Fire" LP (the one with the lighter sleeve/jacket) ... It's still one of my fav's, btw. Also, Jimmy Cliff's "Unlimited" and, of course, "The Harder They Come" soundtrack LP. So I realized early on that there was far more to this music than Bob Marley & The Wailers, although they were obviously a big early influence, 'cause that's mainly what was available here. So, my early "collection" of reggae vinyl consisted primarily of BMW LP's, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Toots & The Maytals, and Desmond Dekker. Oh, and some Burning Spear... especially after having read the book "Reggae Bloodlines" (1st edition)

It has NOT been, though, 35 years of uniterrupted collecting, etc., as I do enjoy other genres as well, but this is my "first love" really. Finally, have to say that my tastes are really sort of "stuck" if you will, in that wonderful decade 1973-1983. The modern, digital dancehall, etc, etc. just does NOT do it fi me.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I neglected to mention one particular album that really cemented my love and passion for reggae. Congos, Heart of the Congos.
At age 15 i had a summer job painting windows at a school - believe me if you love music - you need no iPod - that album sustained me for 6 weeks of hard (character building) work - it was all in my head and I could sing (as I worked) and play every note of it - virtually - if not actually. I could probably play most of the bass and guitar and some of the piano now...
I have to say that this album is my Corner Stone of REGGAE.

Tough work, crap pay, happy memory - only possible because of the Congos album.

And to think of it - at the time when my older brother introduced me to it - I thought 'Congos' silly - what IS that - and when I heard it first it sounded SO exotic and strange (well yeah living in Ireland then) - but of any music I have ever heard this album made me love it almost - it cast a spell.

And I must note that I think it was cosmopolitan magazine some time in the late eighties had a revie of this same album - weirdly I thought at the time - still think it is weird. The Congos appeal to wimmin?

Got into reggae? Sonny, I invented reggae! I remember it well...

Frederick Hibbert, Edward Lee and I were rocksteady jammin on my porch one day. Rainford Perry walks by, limping a bit, wearing these ratty old jeans and tee. I said "Man, Rainford, you're looking real streaggae today, whats with those dirty old clothes?"
He tells us some kid's cat was stuck in a tree and he climbed up to get it down. The cat freaked out and scratched up his arms, causing him to fall from the tree and mess up his clothes.
So we start teasing him, and I get up and mock the way he was walking, saying "Look, I'm doin the scratchy perry streaggae" and Frederick slows the rocksteady jam as I limp around singing "doin' the streaggae-reggae-reggae".
Rainford, who all three of us are callin Scratchy now, gets upset and jumps up over the porch railing, accidently stepping on Ed's foot. Ed starts hopping around like a bunny, and Fredrick's laughing so hard, he sounds like a train whistle; all you can hear from him is "hoo-too-toot!"

That my friends, is how I invented reggae, and gave Scratch Perry, Bunny Lee, and Toots Hibbert their names.