Roots Archives Forum

Greetings,
I have a question about a record that was just sold on EBay. It was advertised as the original (different mix) release of The Heart of the Congos LP. However, the album cover had the black strips on the sides and the record label was the wrong Black Art print, as far I as know. Mick Sleeper posted a great link some time back that sheds some lights on the various releases of this LP:

http://www.upsetter.net/scratch/station ... congos.htm

It is clearly not the original pressing that is listed in this article. What is curious to me, is that the matrix number is the same (LP 4049) and the sound clip provided on the auction is indeed the different mix of Sodom and Gomorrah. Soo... what release is this? A repress of the original different mix of the album? Indeed an alternative original pressing of the different mix? Here is the link to the auction and to rootsvinylguide for when the auction expires:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Congos-Heart-First- ... fresh=true

http://www.rootsvinylguide.com/127119

Many Thanks,
Jah Chicken

Jah Chicken, yep this LP is really confusing with all the different pressings!
The first mix of this LPs has the matrix Number LP4049 and was issued with (at least) 2 different labels.
It seems that the very first issues of this pressing has the black types on a white label (see the photo on roots-archives) and the second issues have this "mask" label from the auction. The mix is identical - I have a copy of each one at home and they are really the same.
From time to time copies with yellow handpainted vertical stripes on the cover show up. The rumour persists that Mr. Perry himself overpainted the cover as he was not happy with the printing. Assumingly a record with matrix LP4049, a handpainted cover and the above mentined black white standard label is one of the very earliest ones.
A bit later a new mix with more effects was created by Lee and all these ones have the KLP005 matrix.

my knowledege is....lee perry got jah wise to paint the yellow stripes on the sleeves

Lee Kingston is right. First ones came with the black/white label. The cover had blue printed stripes, and some of them got handpainted yellow stripes over the blue ones. Rumours have it, that Lee Perry painted these by himself.

But the red typed label from the auction was issued as the first mix with matrix LP4049, and as second mix with matrix KLP005 as well.
So you cannot say from the looks of the label if it's the 1. or 2. mix.

I've got the one in the auction with the black stripes and the orange and brown label.

From the description of the original mix in the article, this version sounds the same as mine: especially the dodgy tape edit on Congoman.

I'll check on the matrix tonight

PS I've only ever listened to this version of the album

Thanks to you all for the info. So this really sounds like a second pressing of the original mix. It sounds like it is certainly worth owning so I regret not bidding on that auction! Hahah.. The various incarnations of this release are confusing indeed! I hope to own them all some day and set up a museum like exhibit with explanations of each release. Thanks agains brethrens!

-- Jah Chicken

Is there only one press that says "HEART OF THE CONGO MAN" on the label, as opposed to "HEART OF THE CONGO(S)"?

I'm looking at a copy right now that looks identical to this
[cover=4810,168]
but the label isn't really white, it's more of a gray. I guess it's possible that it has darkened over time as this record is 33 years old. Do I have the original? Seems like the first mix because there are none of the moo effects and such.

http://www.upsetter.net/scratch/station ... congos.htm

According to Mick Sleeper it was painted by Jah Wise not Lee Perry.