Early reggaes transition to roots was like the blending of brown into black paint, the gradual change going practically unnoticed until The Wailers Catch A Fire opened the commercial door with a little help from an overdubbed rock guitar. Roots put an emphasis on Rastafari, Africa, black deliverance and redemption, calling on the youth to put their consciousness into action and be warriors, whether they were musicians or not. From the start it was rebel music.
Big Youth’s Screaming Target wasn’t the first roots record, but it was one of the first to be conceived as a whole, and one that became something of a yardstick for roots style. With a raw, instinctive energy, the 23 year old pushed the whole idea of toasting onwards and upwards by addressing heavier, harder hitting issues. He was also the first to display the dreadlocks that had been noticeably absent in The Harder They Come.
Toasting apart, the second key element of roots was dub as an end in itself. Gradually evolving from the instrumentals used to accompany DJ’s in the late sixties, the increasingly advanced studio technology of the seventies allowed the creation of genuinely dread tracks that bore little resemblance to original song structures. One of the first dub albums was The Upsetters Blackboard Jungle Dub, a startling clash of Lee Perry rhythms and King Tubby sorcery, but the most notable example of the art by far was Augusto Pablo’s King Tubby meets Rockers Uptown.
Under the influence of such luminaries as Don Letts, John Lydon and The Clash, one youth culture that became inextricably linked to roots reggae was punk. Strengthening the bond forged by ska in the early sixties, roots message of resistance chimed perfectly with the early punk ethos. As I remember it, War Inna Babylon, Natty Rebel, Heart Of The Congos, Tappa Zukie’s In Dub, Police And Thieves and most of all Cultures prophesy toting Two Sevens Clash, an album built on its genius anthemic title track, were the most essential purchases of the times, but they were just the tip of a massive cultural surge. By 1977, reggae was threatening to break out of Jamaica for good, mainly because of the islands one, truly global superstar.
In most modern music romance is dying, politics is fatal and God is dead yet Bob Marley never shied away from covering all of them; the sexual, the political and the spiritual. Somehow, he was able to take Jamaica’s mixed up history; a jumble of such disparate concepts as Rastafari, Haile Selassie, Marcus Garvey, rebellion, herb and Trenchtown and with staggering dedication and commitment, rebuild them into a concerned, intricate, focused music.
It would be too easy to say the roots movement died with him on 11th May 1981. The truth is, reggae had already moved on without him. The idea of roots going international in the wake of his phenomenal success had forced Jamaican musicians to re-evaluate the reasoning behind their motivation and belief. Technological advances were changing the way music was being made, making it both easier and cheaper, and there was a new, younger generation determined to reclaim the islands music for themselves, to try something different. And that something was dancehall.
01. BIG YOUTH ‘Screaming Target’ (Screaming Target LP 1972)
02. THE WAILERS ‘Concrete Jungle’ (Catch A Fire LP April 1973)
03. THE UPSETTERS ‘Blackboard Jungle Dub’ (14 Dub Blackboard Jungle LP October 1973)
04. KEITH HUDSON ‘Michael Talbot Affair’ (Pick A Dub LP 1974)
05. BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS ‘Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)’ (Natty Dread LP October 1974)
06. KING TUBBY ‘The Immortal Dub’ (The Roots Of Dub LP 1975)
07. U ROY ‘The Great Psalms’ (Dread In A Babylon LP 1975)
08. BIG YOUTH ‘Lightning Flash (Weak Heart Drop)’ (Dreadlocks Dread LP 1975)
09. BURNING SPEAR ‘Marcus Garvey’ (Marcus Garvey LP December 1975)
10. I ROY ‘Don’t Touch I Man Locks’ (Crisus Time LP 1976)
11. MAX ROMEO ‘War Ina Babylon’ (War Ina Babylon LP 1976)
12. THE ABYSSINIANS ‘Declaration Of Rights’ (Satta Massagana 1976)
13. MIGHTY DIAMONDS ‘I Need A Roof’ (Right Time LP 1976)
14. AUGUSTUS PABLO & KING TUBBY ‘Keep On Dubbing’ (King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown LP 1976)
15. THE GLADIATORS ‘Know Yourself Mankind’ (Trench Town Mix Up LP July 1976)
16. THE UPSETTERS ‘Croaking Lizard’ (Super Ape LP August 1976)
17. BUNNY WAILER ‘Fighting Against Conviction’ (Blackheart Man LP September 1976)
18. BIG YOUTH ‘Natty Cultural Dread’ (Natty Cultural Dread LP October 1976)
19. TAPPA ZUKIE ‘MPLA Dub‘ (In Dub LP 1976)
20. THE CONGOS ‘Children Crying’ (Heart Of The Congos LP January 1977)
21. CULTURE ‘Two Sevens Clash’ (Two Sevens Clash LP March 1977)
22. JUNIOR MURVIN ‘Police & Thieves’ (Police & Thieves LP April 1977)
23. THE YABBY YOU VIBRATION ‘Deliver Me From My Enemies’ (Deliver Me From My Enemies LP 1977)
24. AUGUSTUS PABLO ‘Memories Of The Ghetto’ (East Of The River Nile LP 1977)
25. HORACE ANDY ‘Government Dub’ (In The Light Dub LP 1977)
26. PRINCE FAR I ‘Heavy Manners’ [Heavyweight Version] (Under Heavy Manners LP 1977)
27. CREATION REBEL ‘Rebel Rouser’ (Dub From Creation LP March 1978)
28. LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY ‘Roast Fish & Cornbread’ (Roast Fish, Collie Weeds & Cornbread LP April 1978)
29. ISRAEL VIBRATION ‘Why Worry’ (The Same Song LP 1978)
30. STEEL PULSE ‘Ku Klux Klan’ (Handsworth Revolution LP July 1978)
31. DR. ALIMANTADO ‘Poison Flour’ (Best Dressed Chicken In Town LP September 1978)
32. JOE GIBBS & THE PROFESSIONALS ‘Jubilation Dub’ (African Dub Almighty Chapter 3 October 1978)
33. MIKEY DREAD ‘Barbers Saloon’ (Dread At The Controls LP 1979)
34. LINTON KWESI JOHNSON ‘Fite Dem Back’ (Forces Of Victory LP 1979)
35. SCIENTIST ‘Seconds Away’ (Heavyweight Dub Champion LP 1980)
36. MIKEY DREAD ‘Mental Slavery (World War III LP August 1980)
37. PRINCE FAR I & THE ARABS ‘Shake The Nation’ (Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter 3 1980)
38. SLY & ROBBIE ‘Fire & Brimstone’ (Raiders Of The Lost Dub LP 1981)
39. TOYAN ‘How The West Was Won’ (How The West Was Won LP 1981)
40. MAD PROFESSOR ‘Freedom Chant’ (Dub Me Crazy LP February 1982)