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VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Reggae Box (Hip-O)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
Perhaps no genre of music has been as poorly served by box set overviews as reggae. Sure, the price is usually right: for ten dollars you can often find a three disc set filled with horrible recordings of the most obvious tracks by the most obvious artists and nary a liner note in sight. The CD stores are filled with such sets. So I was just a little leery of this item called The Reggae Box. My hopes rose a bit when I learned it was sub-titled The Routes Of Jamaican Music and I breathed a big sigh of relief when the package finally arrived and I saw that it was put out by Hip-O, a label that has been doing box sets with care and attention to detail for some time now.
I normally talk about packaging last, but in this case I'm making an exception. A casual reggae fan - and here I'm including those who truly enjoy the music but don't know much about it - can get an outstanding, if compact, education on the history of Jamaican music in the pages of the booklet inside. It's broken into seven chapters. Sound Of Sufferation (How Ghetto Music From Western Kingston Conquered The World) explains the evolution of the sound and the plight of the Jamaican people; Two Turntables And A Microphone (The Sound System And The Birth Of Hip-Hop) tells how the music was taken to the streets on flatbed trucks with huge stereo systems, and how the DJ would rap with the music long before anyone in the states did anything they were calling rap; The Conquering Lion And The Tribe Of Judah (An Introduction To Rastafari) gives a clear introduction to the religion that so much of this music is based on and ruled by. Top that off with a glossary of terms commonly heard in reggae music, which, believe me, will come in handy if you don't know that collie is weed and irie means excellent. Hell, I consider myself semi-knowledgable about this stuff and I always wondered if Pato, Mega, Buju and Nowlyn Banton were related until this glossary told me a Banton is a storyteller. Derrr. There's also a section that goes into detail about each song and a separate chapter called The Musicians, Bands, Engineers and Studios, so if you've gotten the impression that Hip-O took this project seriously, you don't miss a trick, kid.
The music blows other reggae collections off the shelves. There are a few semi-obvious selections, such as Ken Booth's "Everything I Own," Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come" and Burning Spear's "Marcus Garvey," but out of 87 songs there are probably 70 pleasant surprises. On nearly every collection you'll find Toots & The Maytalls represented by "Pressure Drop," but not here. Here they're presented twice, with "Broadway Jungle" and "54-46 Was My Number." Bob Marley & The Wailers are nearly always represented by "Get Up, Stand Up" or "I Shot The Sheriff," but The Reggae Box knows you have eight copies of each so they give you "Roots, Rock, Reggae" and "Trench Town Rock." The perfect illustration of what I'm getting at is this: the great Big Youth is represented by "All Nations Bow," an awesome song I'd never heard that wasn't even included on the Big Youth 51-track box set.
This is not a generic reggae box.
The track list will have some songs you'll recognize, but you're going to draw blanks on most of it. If you're tuned in to the genre, the artists will be familiar, as the four CDs cover the important players from the early 60s ska days right on up to the dancehall rappers of today. Every bit of it is done with care and an obvious love for the music, and that's bound to pass right on to you.
Track List - Disc One:
Forward March (Derrick Morgan) * My Boy Lollipop (Millie Small) * Bank to Bank, Part 1 (Baba Brooks Band) * Count Ossie Special (Count Ossie) * Broadway Jungle (The Maytals) * Carry Go Bring Come (Justin Hinds & The Dominoes) * Eastern Standard Time (Don Drummond) * Hard Man Fe Dead (Prince Buster) * Confucius (The Skatalites) * Tide Is High (The Paragons) * Take It Easy (Hopeton Lewis) * Baba Boom (The Jamaicans) * Tougher Than Tough (Derrick Morgan) * Queen Majesty (The Techniques) * Long Shot (The Pioneers) * Israelites (Desmond Dekker & The Aces) * 54-46 Was My Number (Toots & The Maytals) * Reggae Hit The Town (The Ethiopians) * My Conversation (The Uniques) * Rivers of Babylon (The Melodians) * Double Barrel (Dave & Ansel Collins) * Everything I Own (Ken Boothe) * The Harder They Come (Jimmy Cliff) * Stalag 17 (The Techniques All Stars) * Satta Massagana (The Abyssinians)
Disc Two:
Trench Town Rock (Wailers) * Blood and Fire (Niney) * Cherry Oh Baby (Eric Donaldson) * Better Must Come (Delroy Wilson) * Book of Rules (Heptones) * Westbound Train (Dennis Brown) * Baby I Love You So (Jacob Miller) * No. 1 in the World (U. Roy) * King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown (Augustus Pablo) * All Nations Bow (Big Youth) * Marcus Garvey (Burning Spear) * Don't Trouble Trouble (Johnny Clarke) * War and Friction (I. Roy) * Ballistic Affair (Leroy Smart) * War Ina Babylon (Max Romeo) * Roots, Rock, Reggae (Bob Marley & The Wailers) * 1865 (96° in the Shade) (Third World) * At the Feast (The Congos) * My Number One (Gregory Isaacs) * Police and Thieves (Junior Murvin) * Black Roots (Sugar Minott) * Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Black Uhuru)
Disc Three:
One Love Jam Down (Papa Michigan & General Smiley) * Entertainment (Triston Palmer) * Sitting and Watching (Dennis Brown) * Ganja Smuggling (Eek-A-Mouse) * Pass the Kouchie (Mighty Diamonds) * Night Nurse (Gregory Isaacs) * Zungguzungguguzungguzeng (Yellowman) * Water Pumping (Johnny Osbourne) * Pass the Tu-Sheng-Peng (Frankie Paul) * Here I Come (Barrington Levy) * Under Me Sleng Teng (Wayne Smith) * Ring the Alarm (Tenor Saw) * Tempo (Anthony Red Rose) * Greetings (Half Pint) * Boops (Super Cat) * Punanny (Admiral Bailey) * Hol' a Fresh (Red Dragon) * Rumours (Gregory Isaacs) * Telephone Love (JC Lodge) * Bandolero (Pinchers) * Strive (Shinehead)
Disc Four:
Murder She Wrote (Chaka Demus & Pliers) * Mr. Loveman (Shabba Ranks / Chevelle Franklyn) * Flex (Mad Cobra) * Dancehall Queen [Delano Renaissance Mix] (Beenie Man / Chevelle Franklyn) * Down in the Ghetto (Bounty Killer) * Tour (Capleton) * It's Me Again Jah (Luciano) * Untold Stories (Buju Banton) * Fire Pon Rome (Anthony B) * I and I Saw Them Coming (Starkey Banton) * Rough Inna Town (Cocoa Tea / Luciano) * Armagideon Time (Dr. Israel) * Warning (Tony Rebel) * Set Yourself Free (Morgan Heritage) * Ghetto People Song (Everton Blender) * Party in Session [Main Mix] (Stone Love / Ky-Mani / Beenie Man / Buju Banton) * What's the Matter With the World (Bushman) * I Love Jah (Beres Hammond / Flourgon) * Taking Over (Sizzla)
© 2002 - DJ Johnson