Classic Reggae From (and Inspired by) Jamaica

Reggae originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s and quickly emerged as the country’s dominant music. It was widely perceived as a voice of the oppressed. This list offers everything from love stories to tales of how Jamaica’s poor live. But above all, it is focused on matters philosophical, spiritual, and militant, because that is what reggae has brought to the world more than anything: songs with a conscience.

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Get Up, Stand Up

As a teenager battling to build a career, Bob Marley quickly grasped the importance of the songwriter’s craft. As a result, his songbook is packed with material that resonates beyond reggae. “Get Up, Stand Up,” co-written by Bob’s fellow Wailer Peter Tosh in 1973, served as a wake-up call to the world about the talent of both artists, as well as the spirituality and militancy of Rastafarian reggae. It reveals Bob’s understanding of the Black struggle, and Peter’s righteous fury about it. Their God is not a cosmic figure, but a living God; that’s why they were calling for justice in this life, not the next.

The West (2001 Digital Remaster): Althea And Donna

Althea & Donna are widely known for “Uptown Top Ranking,” an amusing UK No.1 in 1977-78 which presented two seemingly trivial teens boasting about how fashionable and sexy they were. But note their hit record’s line “I strictly roots”: their Uptown Top Ranking album holds a number of serious reggae songs, including this gem, which insists the West will receive just punishment for the crime of slavery.

Police and Thieves: Junior Murvin 1976

Junior Murvin had been recording for the best part of a decade with little success when he showed up at Lee Perry’s Kingston studio in 1976 and auditioned “Police And Thieves.” It told an uncomplicated if pointed tale about crime in Jamaica, presenting both parties as two sides of the same coin. It caught the mood of that year’s long hot summer in London, appearing to soundtrack the rioting around that year’s Notting Hill Carnival in London.

Slavery Days: Burning Spear

Burning Spear’s Marcus Garvey is packed with some of his best songs and it is difficult to pick one. But “Slavery Days” remains a potent reminder why Black African people found themselves in Jamaica and are still suffering hundreds of years later. Spear, a singer full of the light of life, makes a bleak subject a celebration of the unperishable Black soul.

Blackheart Man: Bunny Wailer

Children in Jamaica were told to avoid Rastas, counsel that treated these serious religious adherents like bogeymen. Bunny Wailer recalls this in a song that melds folklore, his own upbringing, and the Rastafarian beliefs he acquired when he understood the reality of the situation. Full of his customary stateliness and gentle, folky way with a melody, “Blackheart Man” was an instant classic when released in 1976.

Innocent Blood (2000 Digital Remaster): Culture

Culture, a vocal group, came to prominence in 1977 with Two Sevens Clash, singing of serious issues in a way that lifted the spirits. “Innocent Blood” is a lesson in Black history, Jamaican history, slavery, and imperialism, delivered in a manner that prompts a smile.

Book Of Rules: The Heptones

“Book Of Rules” is a reggae song penned by The Heptones’ Barry Llewellyn in 1973, but its roots are older: it is adapted from RL Sharpe’s philosophical poem A Bag Of Tools, written in the early 20th Century, and muses on how everyone, from commander to commoner, is equipped to shape their life.

Damian Marley & Nas – Patience

Damian and hip-hop legend Nas explore the way those of African blood are portrayed in the media and disregarded by the scientific and political establishments. The song takes in spirituality, the environment, the way humans have lost touch with life’s nitty gritty, and numerous other causes for concern along the way.

Many Rivers To Cross: Jimmy Cliff

One of Jimmy Cliff’s most heart-rending songs is not really in reggae time; there isn’t even a riddim. Nonetheless, it became Cliff’s calling card, and has attracted covers by artists as diverse as Nilsson, Percy Sledge, and Cher. Yet the original, written when Cliff was struggling to realize his dream of stardom in the UK, remains the definitive cut. It appeared in 1969 on his highly underrated Jimmy Cliff LP, and received a boost on the soundtrack of the 1972 movie he starred in, The Harder They Come. He was only 21 when he wrote this world-weary statement: he was not the only writer who could never better it.

via udiscovermusic

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