I am slowly gaining some interest in reggae music. This is 100% due to my love of The Clash, and THEIR love of reggae music. Anyone have some suggestions of stuff I should check out?

check out Los Pericos, i love them, this is imo their best CD, it's live and features all of their best songs:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=music

If you can afford it, get Tougher Than Tough: The Story of Jamaican Music. If not, pick up some of the This IS Reggae Music CDs. Reggae is much more than just Bob Marley, so don't just buy a bunch of his albums and thinking you're getting the full story. Artists like Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker, etc., are vital to the history of the music.

The Trojan box sets do a good job of documenting a lot of early reggae, stuff outside of the basics (Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff).

However, it is interesting that reggae is almost defined by Bob Marley. I cannot think of any other genre where one artist defines it so, or is reponsible for such a huge share of sales.

God yes. Great recs. Toots is incredible.

The past year I went a little nuts buying OTM music (Other Than Marley). The Trojan box sets are a great deal, but it's daunting because there are so many. Usually three discs for around $15.00. Check out the box set called "Uk Hits". Three CDs of incredible late 60's/early 70's raveups. If you like Motown, you'll love this one.

Check out Black Uhuru's "Ultimate Collection". A jam-packed single disc full of great songs. I think it's at BMG. Actually, those "Ultimate Collection" discs are very good deals. There is also one for Gregory Isaacs that I love.
And if you like 70's DJ sounds then check out the Dillenger "Ultimate" set. The song "Cocaine" will rattle around in your brain for days.

Of course, Peter Tosh and Burning Spear are giants as well. Early Burning Spear is pretty great stuff, but I start to tire of Winston's voice. And I get VERY tired of hearing praise to Marcus Garvey. In fact, if there is one thing I don't like about reggae at times is all the Rastafari stuff. The music is so incredibly upbeat and joyful, but then I think about how ridiculous the lyrics can be (sorry, just not into cults).

Anyway, there is SO much amazing reggae. Dip your toes in and you'll find that out.

I completely disagree that Bob Marley "defines" reggae. Yes, he was probably the greatest reggae artist, but he no more defines reggae than the Beatles define rock.

If you want a good sense of classic reggae/roots singles, check out the "Harder They Come" soundtrack. It basically inspired the Clash to incorporate reggae into their sound.

I second the Black Uhuru recommendation, particularly their album "Red" which is straight-up tough reggae.

Scratch Perry is the classic dub master. The guy's production is ridiculously inventive and his sense of groove is unbeatable. He's Jamaica's answer to George Clinton. King Tubby and Scientist are two other dub artists worth checking out.

I also second the Gregory Isaacs rec. He has more of a lover's rock mellow vibe.

Sizzla is probably the best of the more modern crop of dancehall artists, "Black Woman and Child" was a bit of a classic a few years back.

I can't believe I forgot to mention Burning Spear and Black Uhuru, especially since I saw the latter in concert...20 years ago...

I might also mention that my two favorite non-compilation reggae albums are Equal Rights by Peter Tosh (every song is incredible) and Red by Black Uhuru. Both albums feature the rhythm section of Sly and Robbie - Sly "Drumbar" Dunbar and Robbie "Basspeare" Shakespeare, possibly the greatest rhythm section that's ever lived.

ETA: Great, now I've got "Youth of Eglington" playing in my head, and I won't be able to hear it until I get home tonight.

Tougher Than Tough is a great, great recommendation. It’s the ultimate Ska/Rock Steady/Reggae/Dub primer, culled from many of reggae’s greatest labels.

I’d also suggest, in no particular order:

Gregory Isaacs – Greatest Hits I & II
Bunny Wailer – Blackheart Man
Burning Spear – Marcus Garvey / Garvey’s Ghost
Culture – When the Two Sevens Clash
Jimmy Cliff – Wonderful World, Beautiful People
Bob Marley – Everything he’s ever committed to tape. I’m not joking.


And if the Clash is you main influence, I’d suggest listening to the guy who most influenced them (and even contributed to one of their albums) … Lee “Scratch” Perry. His 4-disc Arkology collection is some of the trippiest stuff ever commited to CD.

Isn't that a great tune? The collection I have includes a dub version of it that's as fun to hear as the regular version.

Don't forget Steel Pulse

Let's not forget Snow

No. Let's.

Informer, you know asfserfgs4e5g#$#?!@#%% i lick your boom boom dare

A couple of great starting points for Bob Marley would be Songs Of Freedom (4 cd box set) or Legend (a greatest hits cd also available as a 2 cd deluxe edition)

Like you I also got into reggae thru the Clash, so you will certainly enjoy hearing the original versions of Police and Thieves (by Junior Murvin) and Wrong 'Em Boyo (a re-working of The Wrong Embryo by the Rulers).

Police and Thieves can be found on the Tougher than Tough collection and The Wrong Embryo can be found on the Trojan Ska box set.

The movie Rude Boy also featured the original Police and Thieves along with
Rude Boy (aka Jailhouse) by Bob Marley
Johnny Too Bad by The Slickers
Wreck A Buddy by The Soul Sisters (This track is available on a funny collection called x-rated Reggae)

No reggae collection is complete without Yellowman.

just another vote for almost any jimmy cliff cd
and like someone earlier said the harder they come cd is a good start imo


when i was in high school there was a small reggae band called awareness arts ensemble who was played some of the best reggae I have heard. that was 12 or 13 years ago and I can find no mention or them anymore. They would cell their cds at their shows but I guess they never made it to anything bigger in regard to distibution. if some one can tell me different please do.

In the sense that Bob Marley did not create the building blocks for reggae (say, as compared to Robert Johnson and blues), you are right. He does not define it. But ask people what artist they think of when you say "Reggae" and they will say Bob Marley. Ask them to name a dozen reggae artists and can guarantee you, you will end up with a very very low %.

The problem is that reggae is "other" music -- music different from what most people hear. They don't "need" to listen to other artists, with Bob Marley they have reggae covered. Maybe they have a Peter Tosh record, or Wyclef. Ask people the difference in style between Hoobastank and Metallica and anyone can answer the question.* Ask them what makes Charlie Parker different from John Coltrane, they don't know. (Shit, I barely know, and I love a lot of their stuff). I don't think people really know that there's a lot of difference in reggae. It might sound the same to them. Bob Marley = Reggae. Reggae = Bob Marley. I think it's something very common in a lot of genres. Ask someone to name ten jazz artists. Ask someone to name ten classical composers ("Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Verdi, Back, that Tschai guy, um... Orff, and, shit I don't know, John Williams.") Ask someone to name ten blues singers ("Clapton, uh, B.B King, um... Clapton.")

I don't think it's necessarily a good thing that most people only know Bob Marley. But, man, for an island of 2.7 million people, inventing** your own genre is pretty damn cool.




* A. "There is no difference! They both stink!"

** Where as I define inventing as "creating by mixing calypso, African music, R&B, and jazz"

I'll third (or is it fourth?) the suggestion of Gregory Isaacs. My freshman year roommate turned me onto him years ago. Very smooth stuff. His "I Am Struggling" is one of my favorite reggae songs.

If you're looking for dancehall, my favorite compilation is an OOP CD called Buyaka (I see that there's some cheap used ones offered at Amazon). This thread has some other good suggestions.

Whoa - blast from the past! I've never seen them live, but I remember hearing the name a lot when I was growing up in Richmond, VA.

I was more into dancehall music (which I think is different than reggae but I could be wrong) and got to give my vote to Shabba Ranks.

Matisyahu

http://www.hasidicreggae.com/

Nice post, made all the more ironic (for me, at least) by the fact that I can tell you what makes Bird different from Trane (alto vs tenor, for starters), know more than ten classical composers well, own lots of blues records, but I don't think I've ever even heard of Hoobastank...

The Bus. You have a gift for writing. Good post. I think one of the greatest discoveries for me after digging down deep into reggae is to see how the history unfolded. Hearing the pre-Marley material. And realizing that "My Boy Lollipop" is freakin' ska. Funny to know that I actually heard ska as a kid and had no clue I was hearing that stuff. Had I grown up in England maybe I would have had reggae/ska as part of my DNA instead of having to let it soak in as an adult. Regardless, it's been great fun discovering such amazing talent down in that tiny island.

Yes!!! I saw him on the Carson Daly show late one night. The next day I couldn't remember if I really saw him or not.

You'd be surprised... Hoobastank - The Reason (Amazon preview clip). I don't listen to radio (outside of NPR), don't watch MTV, and still eventually hear all the popular songs. I don't know how it happens, but it frightens me.

Never heard it, but the singer's voice sounded familiar, so it's likely that I've heard something by them at some point.

If you're into the sing-y 'lover's rock' type stuff, check out some John Holt. Trojan put out really nice Deluxe Editions of 1000 and 2000 Volts Of Holt with lots of bonus tracks and unreleased mixes.