Bad Brains t-shirt from The Rudy

Washington, D.C. hardcore punk-reggae legends Bad Brains have had a tumultuous career since forming in 1977. The band started out playing jazz fusion along the lines of Chick Corea and John McLaughlin until they were introduced to punk via The Dead Boys and The Sex Pistols. They remain one of the very few all-black punk bands. The band members became devout Rastafarians after seeing Bob Marley perform in 1979 and singer H.R. (Human Rights, real name Paul D. Hudson) wanted to steer the band into more reggae rather than punk and heavy metal. Songs like “I Luv I Jah” and “Jah is Calling” were open professions of their faith. However, H.R. left the band a few times, along with his brother, drummer Earl Hudson, and concentrated on reggae with his band Human Rights. But for the past 15 years both men have remained in Bad Brains consistently.

One of the best stories about Bad Brains has to do with the recording of their third album, I Against I for Greg Ginn’s SST Records.

In 1986 H.R. was arrested and convicted on marijuana distributions charges. Rather than scrap the album or wait until H.R.’s release from prison, the band kept the recording sessions in Massachusetts going at the encouragement of producer Ron Saint Germain. H.R. provided the vocals for the song “Sacred Love” over the phone from Lorton Reformatory in Laurel Hill, Virginia. H.R. unscrewed the mouthpiece of the telephone so that there could be no background noise and sang into it.  Saint Germain still describes “Sacred Love” as “the best makeout song ever written.” 
 

The studio/jail version of “Sacred Love”
 
Bad Brains performing “Sacred Love” at The Ritz, New York, December 27, 1986, below:

 
75-year-old ska legend Prince Buster’s “Ten Commandments” has to be one of the most howlingly politically incorrect tunes ever recorded. It is also, somehow, sublimely charming, and the perfect accompaniment for the aggressive sunshine we are currently staggering about beneath.

In the all-too-true words of YouTube commenter “MitholX”

This song is so sexist. Wait…what the—
What’s happening to my foot? It’s…tapping AAARRGH THIS SONG IS TOO CATCHY!

Commandment Seven, for instance, declares that:

Thou shalt not shout my name in the streets
If I am walking with another woman
But wait intelligently until I come home
Then we can both have it out decently
For I am your man, a funny man
And detest a scandal in public places

Whereas Commandment Nine reveals some pretty dramatic double standards:

Thou shalt not commit adultery
For the world will not hold me guilty if I
Commit murder

Which looks horrible on paper, but which is almost guaranteed to make you smile on record. I can prove it:
 

 
How great was that?!?!? And happily, an equally delightful—no, no, an even more delightful—version, “Ten Commandments (of Woman to Man)”, was then recorded on top of the original by a certain Princess Buster in 1967. Posing (I presume) as the Prince’s new wife, the Princess offered many witty refashionings of Buster’s edicts, such as Commandment Six...

Though shalt not commit adultery
Because the world cannot hold me guilty
If, for spite, I date your best friend

Nice one, Princess!
 

 
Hearty thanks to “Princess” Rebecca M.

 
Happy birthday Bob. We miss you.

Bob Marley and The Wailers at The Sundown Theater in Edmonton, England. May, 1973

“Slave Driver”
“Stop That Train”
“Get Up, Stand Up”

According to reports at the time, most of the audience at this Wailers gig didn’t “get” the group. Marley was still somewhat of an enigma and the Wailers were sonically much more adventurous than some of the other acts on the bill that day. In his book Wailing Blues: The Story of Bob Marley‘s Wailers, author John Masouri experienced something extraordinary:

Marley is a vibrant, charismatic figure with his wild hair and tight trousers.  He’s full of smiles as he strikes rock poses, playing around with the phrasing of certain songs and joining Tosh on a highly charged, semi-acapella version of “Get Up Stand Up”.  Livingston is again hunched over his congas, and Lindo’s playing is more free form than Bundrick’s studio embellishments.  It’s a joy to see him dancing behind his twin keyboards as the Barrett’s anchor proceedings with transcendent drum and bass. The sound quality is good too which must have made a welcome change.“

To me, this is Marley at his nitty grittiest and I love it.
 

 
Reggae singer/session keyboardist/producer Lloyd Charmers’s death in London a few days ago brings into sharp focus the steady passing of musicians from a generation that saw Jamaica become independent during their 20s. But it also sees the passing of one of the island nation’s premier producers of the dirty reggae song artform.

Charmers was born Lloyd Tyrell in 1946 in the Trench Town district of Kingston, Jamaica, and very little is documented of his early life. After getting his feet wet in Jamaica’s late-‘50s shuffle R&B scene, Charmers started his first group, the Charmers in 1962 with Roy Wilson, and after they split, he kept using the Charmers name for many of his subsequent records. 

When The Charmers split, he joined Slim Smith and Jimmy Riley in The Uniques, a group that unleashed a crucial clutch of hits like “My Conversation”…
 

 
…and others which in true Jamaican style would be redone and revived as a “riddim” countless times to generate a bunch of other hits for the dancehalls, as represented by this mix…
 

 
After the jump: More on the Charmers legacy…

 
1964 documentary This Is Ska has been viewable on YouTube in chopped up form, but now you can watch all 40 minutes of this wonderful slice of musical history without missing a single beat. Skank God.

Jamaican Ska - Byron Lee & The Dragonaires
Sammy Dead-O - Eric ‘Monty’ Morris
One Eyed Jack - Jimmy Cliff
Wash Wash - Prince Buster
Treat Me Bad - The Maytals
She Will Never Let You Down - The Maytals
So Marie - The Charmers
Rough ‘N’ Tough - Stranger Cole
Two Roads Before Me - Roy & Yvonne
I Don’t Know - The Blues Busters
Sammy Dead-O - Byron Lee & The Dragonaires
King Of Kings - Jimmy Cliff

Your host: Tony Verity.
 

 
Some of the bloodiest violence in Jamaica’s history took place in the lead-up to the country’s 1980 elections. The battle for political leadership between socialist Prime Minister Michael Manley’s Peoples National Party and Edward Seaga’s Jamaican Labour Party, brought the country to the verge of civil war. The conflict started in 1976, and arose out of the PNP’s plan to form closer links with Cuba. The JLP wanted to bind Jamaica closer to the USA and a free market. Both parties used gangs (posses) to enforce their will within Kingston - Seaga accessing weapons via America. This violence culminated in the 1980 elections that left 800 Jamaicans dead, as Seaga was elected Prime MInister.

It was against this background, the documentary Bongo Man was filmed. Bongo Man told the story of Jimmy Cliff, as he traveled across Jamaica to Kingston, in an attempt to unite the country through the power of Reggae.

Cliff’s philosophy was simple: ‘Politics divide, Music unites’. The legendary Cliff is a fascinating character and this is an exceptional and engrossing documentary, containing excellent concert footage and some of Cliff’s best songs.
 

 
British film maker and writer Horace Ove’s Reggae was the first documentary to capture the early days of reggae’s UK invasion and its growing popularity outside of Jamaica. In this mix of performances filmed at Wembley Arena in 1970 combined with footage shot in the West Indies and interviews and commentaries providing social and political context, we are introduced to reggae as an art form that transcends music and becomes an articulation of a complex culture and a powerful medium for change.

The Heptones - Message From A Black Man
The Pyramids - (Pop Hi!) The Revenge Of Clint Eastwood
Noel And The Fireballs - Can’t Turn You Loose
The Pioneers - Easy Come Easy Go
Laurel Aitken - Deliverance will come
Black Faith - Everyday people
The Beatles - Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da/Get Back
John Holt - I Want A Love I Can Feel
Dave Barker (Tommy and The Upsetters) - Lockjaw
Count Prince Miller - Mule Train
Millie Small and The Pyramids - Enoch Power
Mr Symarip - Skinheads Moonstomp
The Maytals - Monkey Man
Desmond Dekker - Israelites
Bob & Marcia - Young, Gifted & Black

Reggae has not been released on VHS or DVD. Finding it on Youtube made my day. These are the groups and artists that revived my passion for pop music before punk came along.
 

 
Photo: Horace Ove.

 
The King remixed in a reggae style.

01. Return To Sender
02. In The Ghetto
03. Blue Moon
04. Fever
05. It’s Now Or Never
06. Baby I Don’t Care
07. Suspicious Minds
08. I’ll Remember You
09. Are You Lonesome Tonight?
10. Crying In The Chapel

Video contains some nudity.

 
A highly enjoyable video montage of Lee “Scratch” Perry shilling Guinness beer. He’s dublin’ dublin’ bubblin’ bubblin’ for you!
 

 
Via WFMU

Nicky Thomas delivers…
 
The Old Grey Whistle Test was only in its second year on BBC2 when producer Rowan Ayers presented this reggae showcase in Edinburgh in 1973.

The lineup is almost completely comprised of Jamaican artists who had settled in London after touring Europe off of hits they scored in the British charts. The notable exception is the specially flown-in MC Dennis Alcapone, who delivers two of the three original tunes in this collection of excerpts (the other is Winston Groovy’s “I’m a Believer”—the one written by Mulby Thompson of Trojan Records, not Neil Diamond). It’s pretty rare to see footage from this early on of a reggae MC like Alcapone in front of a live band—until the late ‘70s, they were pretty much relegated to chatting over instrumentals at sound system dances.

After the agile Cimarons cover Bill Withers’s “Ain’t No Sunshine,” they back nearly all the other artists, until an all-white band pops up to back the Pioneers. The late Nicky Thomas offers up a compelling highlight with his paroxysmal covers of Syl Johnson’s “Is It Because I’m Black” and The Four Preps’ “Love of the Common People.”

The program was hosted by Alex Hughes, who as Judge Dread had just scored three charting British reggae singles of his own—the lewd nursery rhymes “Big Six,” “Big Seven,” and “Big Eight”—and was the first white artist to have a reggae hit in Jamaica.

One can imagine how many mods, skinheads, soul boys and other riff-raff this broadcast kept off the street at the time.
 
Part 1
The Cimarons - “Ain’t No Sunshine”
Winston Groovy - “I’m A Believer”
Dennis Alcapone - “Cassius Clay” & “Wake Up Jamaica”

Part 2
The Marvels - “Jimmy Browne” & “One Monkey”
Nicky Thomas - “Is It Because I’m Black” & beginning of “Love of the Common People”

Part 3
Nicky Thomas - end of “Love of the Common People”
The Pioneers - “Higher & Higher” & “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”
All Star Finale - “Freedom Train”

Pt. 1
 

 
Keep yr skank up: check out parts 2 and 3 after the jump…