I have to do this stuff for music class... - Reggae

[Politrickian]

I have to write an essay about Reggae (well, I can chose whatever I want but I took reggae) but I would like to have some info about it.

Here's what I need:
1. Info about the History of Reggae
2. Info about instruments used in Reggae
3. MP3's of some good Reggae songs
4. And of course info about good artists(Yes, I know who Bob Marley is =)

[canikickit]

I've got loads of information. All that is in my brain is reggae music. I'll write a long post in a few minutes.

[canikickit]

“It was always a downtown thing, only among a certain sort of people. But more than just hearing the music, the equipment was so powerful and the vibe so strong that we feel it. Like when we were dancing you were actually part of it. It was ours, and so many of us wanted to do something to contribute to it.”
- Derrick Harriot

Reggae

Reggae today has become the name for all Jamaican music, but it wasn’t always that way. It began with the boogie, Jamaican boogie. But before all that there was the soundsystem. Soundsystems began in the 1940s as a way of attracting customers into bars and shops. The latest American R & B or jazz was to be heard coming from the doors of most establishments and they quality of the music became a strong selling point. This was largely due to the fact that transistor radios were beyond the means of most people, and this was the only way most Jamaicans could hear quality music.
Within ten years, the sound system became an important social gathering for the members of the ghetto, and the soundman was something of a celebrity. The dances were run by extravagantly named individuals such as Sir Nick the Champ, King Edwards, Lord Koos of the Universe and, most famously of all, Tom the Great Sebastian. In addition to the social benefits, there were also economic benefits. A dance was a big event, and people would come from outside town and other areas of Kingston, bringing their money with them. Outside the dances there was a mass of stalls, selling fresh fruit, fish and meat, alongside trucks of beer supplying bars inside the dance and all the other bars in the area. It’s also worth noting that two of the main men of the soundsystem, Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid, had direct links to the liquor industry.
Initially the soundmen relied on music from the US.
Another very important aspect of the reggae is the talent shows, which permeated the island in the mid-50s. The most popular of which was the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour, according to Lloyd Bradley*,
“He was the Don Dada in this arena. No two ways about it: he was, even when compared with the big sound-system operators, the most influential man in Jamaican music in the second half of the 1950s”

The most important aspect of reggae is the soundsystem or dancehalls. You can think of the sound system as the equivalent of Billboard’s charts (or Top of the Pops depending on where you’re from). The basic life span of a song was this:

·Group/singer write a song.
·Sing the song for a producer.
·Producer collaborates with his arranger and musicians and they come up with a riddim (rhythm).
·Full tune is recorded.
·Record pressed.
·Producer brings record to sound system, observes reaction and then presses as many as he feels will sell.

A dancehall was not quite what it sounded like. The “hall” part was not particularly used; they opened out onto a large lawn, where the soundman would have his huge speakers set up, with one turntable and a mic.

* - Lloyd Bradley wrote a book called Bass Culture: When Reggae was King, well worth reading if you’re interested in Reggae.




This is just a bunch of stuff I threw together, it's a little haphazard, but I'll write more. Ask me any questions you have on that.

[canikickit]

Here's some songs which I consider to be essential:
[list]
Culture - Two Sevens Clash
Junior Murvin - Police and Thieves
Max Romeo - War ina Babylon
Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey
Augustus Pablo - King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown
Lee Perry - People Funny Boy
Lee Perry - Soul Fire
Junior Byles - A Place Called Africa
Mighty Diamonds - Them Never Love Poor Marcus
Big Youth - S90 Skank (a.k.a. Ace 90 Skank)
[list]

It's also essential that you learn what dub is and learn about DJs and versions.

Also learn about Lee Perry, he influenced many, many artists, and in fact produced 5 out of the above ten songs. I've started quite a few threads about reggae, I'll have a look and give you links to them.


(Edited by canikickit at 11:52 pm on Nov. 26, 2002)

[canikickit]

Is Bob Marley overrated. (http://ska.about.com/library/2001/aa020701.htm)

Threads started by me:

Flight of the Bumblebee reggae style (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=16&topic=373) - contemporary.

Chant Down Mugabe (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=16&topic=590) contempoary reggae song.

Naturality (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=16&topic=633) - Lyrics to a song by the Gladiators.

Dreadlocks in Moonlight (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=16&topic=591) lyrics to, and story behind the recording of a classic song from Lee Perry.

Bunny Wailer, the forgotten Wailer (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=16&topic=502) - link to a good article.

Peter Tosh (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=16&topic=479) a little bit of waffle from me and a list of some of Peter's songs.

Transcraip of a Peter Tosh speech (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=17&topic=1718) plus lyrics. I think there might be some more waffle, I'm not sure.

reggae (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=16&topic=373)

Also check out my website, I intend on adding some more stuff up there in the next few days and there could be some interesting stuff there already.

http://www.angelfire.com/musicals/canikickit

There's also a shitload of articles out there on the net. Search for some of the artists I mentioned. Here are some essential producers as well:
[list]
Duke Reid
Coxsone Dodd
Jo Jo Hookim
Lee Perry
Sonia Pottinger
Bunny Lee
Joe Gibbs
Keith Hudson[list]

King Tubby is another extremely important character, the Karl Marx of Dub music I guess you could say.

http://www.firecorner.com

http://www.dubroom.org

http://www.bloodandfire.co.uk

(Edited by canikickit at 11:59 pm on Nov. 26, 2002)

[canikickit]

Yeah, you also have to understand the basics of rastafarianism to know anything about reggae.

That site above, the dubroom has a forum with some strongly religious people, you could learn something there.

[Politrickian]

Thanks alot!

This should get me a 10(same as a American A+ or German 1)

[canikickit]

But you are still missing loads of information.

[Politrickian]

and google??? With you're info I should get some good stuff.

[BOZG]

Also learn about Lee Perry, he influenced many, many artists, and in fact produced 5 out of the above ten songs. I've started quite a few threads about reggae, I'll have a look and give you links to them.

I want to ram my foot up his nostrils.

[mcleodstickle]

buffalo soldier by bob marley is a hell good tune....it means alot to me for lots of reasons, i wont go into them now

[Michael De Panama]

Wow, man. Very impressive!

[canikickit]

buffalo soldier by bob marley is a hell good tune....it means alot to me for lots of reasons, i wont go into them now

Go into them.


I want to ram my foot up his nostrils.

Go for it. He's a genius. You're obviously jealous.

http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/saunders.html

That's a pretty good essay about Deejays and Dub.

There are a lot of papers written there for college, as far as I can tell, check it out.

[canikickit]

There's actually a huge amount of stuff at the above stuff. I've only read two of those essays. Cool.I'd recommend you read the Lee Perry essay, I don't know what it says in it (it could be completely shit) but he is definitly one of the most important figures in reggae. He produced over 1000 songs in 10 years (i.e. one song every 82 hours) which is quite impressive, especially when you hear the quality.
Unfortunatly the pressure eventually drove him nuts. He was under tremendous pressure from guys; asking for money and asking for him to produce them. He ended up burning down his studio in 1983, and consequently spent a couple of days in prison on charges of arson. He convinced them it had been an electronic failure of some discription and ended up going free. A lot of controversy surrounded the event and naturally still does but apparently he admitted it to both David Katz (San Francisco journalist who wrote his biography) and Lloyd Bradley (the English journalist I mentioned earlier).
You can read interviews with Scratch (and a few others) here. (http://rootsdub.free.fr/Interviews%20anglais.htm)

Okay, the Lee Perry interviews aren't there anymore but there are some others. If you speak French there are a lot of other interviews there.
If you want I can send you those Lee Perry interviews, I saved them, have a look for some yourself though.

(Edited by canikickit at 12:03 am on Nov. 28, 2002)

[canikickit]

More crap:

I don't know (http://www.networksplus.net/shallowend/ShocksOfMighty/links.html) what this is, but there's a few links at the bottom, including a Scratch interview, and some tributes to some of the greatest artists who have passed away. (You should read about Don Drummond, also very important. He was the leader of the Skatalites who were the most influential band in the early days.

Horrible looking Lee Perry "outerview" (http://niceup.com/interviews/lee_perry)

High Times (http://www.midnightdread.com/lpinterview.html) interview with Lee Perry.

Anyway, I know you're not writing a thesis or a dissertation here, so all this might be a bit much, but what can I say?

Also, all the info I have provided is concerning the old days of reggae, not much of this really concerns the more modern stuff (because it's shit).

Be sure to post your complete essay.

(Edited by canikickit at 12:16 am on Nov. 28, 2002)

[canikickit]

If you go to my website, you can read the lyrics to the Lee Perry song "25 Years Ago". In it, he makes reference to eating and drinking piss, here's some insight courtesy of David Katz;

"And what are we to make of the middle lines, when Scratch describes how, post-breakdown, he eats his own excrement? Is this the raving of a madman or the bluff of one who wants the world to believe he is mad? If we think of these words in another sense, we may find Lee Perry tapping into an ancient link with nature through the utterance of such a taboo. The lines are no so different, for instance, from the chant recited by tribal Asmat fishermen in the unblemished wilderness of Irian Jaya:
'Shrimp are in the river
Shit is in the river
Piss is in the river
The shrimp eat the shit
The shrimp drink the piss
We eat the shrimp.'*


Well, I just think it's interesting. If you want to learn more about Lee Perry, the best site is probably this: http://www.upsetter.net


* - As told by Tobias Schneebaum at 'Art of Asmat' presentation, September 10th, 1998, San Francisco.

[Politrickian]

Hey, canikickit, would you mind it if I put my name in my essay? Because I have to tell my sources.

[canikickit]

Sure you can put your name wherever you want. It doesn't bother me.
But that was obviously a misprint.
Don't your sources have to have some sort of reputation? You know, I'm just some wierdo. What are you going to say, Mr. Canikickit, some weird guy that wrote a shitload of stuff on the internet?

[Rastafari]

bump

[Mr Mojo Risin]

Additionally, if you're looking for some of the roots of the actual reggae music, go get the cd Bob Marley-"Trenchtown Days: Birth of a Legend" from your local library and read the liner notes and listen to the music, it will explain a lot about the origins of the ragga beat.

And don't forget about the upsetters, canikickit. Scratch's own.
Rastafari had a link to a commercial involving scratch, i think it was with heineken?

And when you reference my name, well, call me bobby buttface.
http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/dre900/e974/e97479oibak.jpg
A madman? I think not!
http://www.pyke-eye.com/a/music/lee-scratch-perry.jpg
scratch relaxin with a marcus garvey book

[canikickit]

How could I forget the Upsetters?

http://leeperry.free.fr/extra/guinness.htm

[Rob]

I'd also add that your project (or essay or whatever) will be mournfully incomplete until you mention Trojan Records.

[Politrickian]

This thread's a year old.

I never completed the essay. It got lost in a void of formatted hard disks and disappearing floppy disks.

My Music Teacher never whined. What a nice guy.