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Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish reggae, including harmony groups such as the Techniques, the Paragons, the Heptones and the Gaylads; soulful singers such as Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Bob Andy, Ken Boothe and Phyllis Dillon; musicians such as Jackie Mittoo, Lynn Taitt and Tommy McCook. The term rocksteady comes from a popular (slower) dance style mentioned in the Alton Ellis song "Rocksteady", that matched the new sound. Some rocksteady songs became hits outside Jamaica, as with ska, helping to secure the international base reggae music has today.
The Harder They Come is the soundtrack album to the film of the same name, released in 1972 in the United Kingdom as Island Records ILPS 9202. It was issued in February 1973 in North America as Mango Records SMAS-7400. It peaked at No. 140 on the Billboard 200. In 2021, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
Desmond Dekker was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group the Aces, he had one of the earliest international reggae hits with "Israelites" (1968). Other hits include "007 " (1967), "It Mek" (1969) and "You Can Get It If You Really Want" (1970).
Kaya is the tenth studio album by the Jamaican band Bob Marley and the Wailers, released in 1978. The album consists of tracks recorded alongside those released on the Exodus album. It was produced by the band.
"Israelites" is a song written by Desmond Dekker and Leslie Kong that became a hit for Dekker's group, Desmond Dekker & the Aces, reaching the top of the charts in numerous countries in 1969. Sung in Jamaican Patois, some of the song's lyrics were not readily understood by many British and American listeners at the time of its release. Despite this, the single was the first UK reggae #1 and among the first to reach the US top ten. It combined the Rastafarian religion with rude boy concerns, to make what has been described by Allmusic as a "timeless masterpiece that knew no boundaries".
Gregory Anthony Isaacs OD was a Jamaican reggae musician. Milo Miles, writing in The New York Times, described Isaacs as "the most exquisite vocalist in reggae".
Joseph Benjamin Higgs was a reggae musician from Jamaica. In the late 1950s and 1960s he was part of the duo Higgs and Wilson together with Roy Wilson. He was a popular artist in Jamaica for four decades and is also known for his work tutoring younger musicians including Bob Marley and the Wailers and Jimmy Cliff.
Delroy George Wilson CD was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer. Wilson is often regarded as Jamaica's first child star, having first found success as a teenager. His youngest son, Karl "Konan" Wilson, has found success as part of British duo Krept and Konan.
Leslie Kong was a Jamaican reggae producer.
Beverley's was a Jamaican record label active between 1961 and 1971, owned by the record producer Leslie Kong. Beverley's was essential to the development of ska and rocksteady into reggae. The label launched the careers of Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley, having released Cliff's first recording "Dearest Beverley" in 1961 and Marley's early singles "Judge Not" and "One Cup of Coffee" in 1962.
Justin Hinds was a Jamaican ska and conscious roots reggae vocalist with his backing singers the Dominoes.
The Wailing Souls are a Jamaican reggae vocal group whose origins date back to the 1960s. The group has undergone several line-up changes over the years with Winston "Pipe" Matthews and Lloyd "Bread" McDonald the only constant members. They have been nominated for Grammy Awards three times.
"Rudie Can't Fail" is a song by the English punk rock band the Clash, featured on their 1979 album London Calling. The song was written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, who sing it as a duet.
Ruddy Thomas was a Jamaican reggae singer, musician, and recording engineer, who had his greatest successes as a singer in the late 1970s and early 1980s with lovers rock songs.
Bob Andy's Song Book is a 1970 album of songs by Jamaican reggae singer and songwriter Bob Andy, recorded between 1966 and 1968. Andy had first found fame as the lead vocalist of The Paragons, but his peak as a solo artist came in the late '60s when he recorded a string of singles for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Studio One label. In 1970, these singles were compiled on the Song Book album. Many of the songs on the album have since been covered by a range of artists, including Taj Mahal, who covered "Desperate Lover" on his 1974 Mo' Roots album. Vocal harmony on three tracks on the album are performed by Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh of The Wailers, and backing comes from Studio One band the Soul Vendors, whose members included Jackie Mittoo and Roland Alphonso. The album was re-issued on CD in 1997, with extended versions of "Desperate Lover" and "Feeling Soul". In the Rough Guides book Reggae: 100 Essential CDs, the album is described as "a masterpiece that belongs in anyone's CD collection - and not just of reggae music", and it has also been described as "one of the era's classic albums".
The Aces, originally known as The Four Aces, were a Jamaican vocal group who are best known for their work with Desmond Dekker.
Action! is an album by Jamaican rocksteady and ska group Desmond Dekker & the Aces that they released in 1968. Singer-songwriter Desmond Dekker composed all of the tracks, which includes the song "007 ".
"You Can Get It If You Really Want" is a reggae song written and originally recorded by Jamaican singer songwriter Jimmy Cliff and released as a single in July 1970. Another version, recorded by Jamaican singer Desmond Dekker and released within a few weeks of Cliff's version, became a hit single in a number of markets, reaching number 2 on the UK Singles Chart.
Graeme Goodall was an Australian recording engineer and record label owner who was a key figure in the early days of Jamaica's recording industry, constructing several of the Island's studios, co-founding Island Records, and operating other labels in the United Kingdom releasing Jamaican music.
This Is Reggae Music: The Golden Era 1960–1975 is a reggae retrospective anthology issued as a 4-CD box set in 2004 by Trojan Records. The anthology, which was compiled by Colin Escott and Bas Hartong, is arranged in chronological order and features tracks by various artists, starting with mento and ska from the first half of the 1960s, then progressing to the slower rhythms of rocksteady and reggae, which both emerged later in the decade, continuing into the 1970s. Several of the acts featured are Derrick Morgan, Desmond Decker & the Aces, Toots & the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, and Bob Marley and the Wailers.
References
- ↑ Barrow, Steve; Dalton, Peter (2004). The Rough Guide to Reggae (3rd ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 61. ISBN 1843533294.
- 1 2 3 Thompson, Dave (2002). Reggae & Caribbean Music. Backbeat Books. p. 374. ISBN 0-87930-655-6.
- ↑ Masouri, John (2010). Wailing Blues: The Story of Bob Marley's Wailers. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1847727060.
- ↑ O'Brien Chang, Kevin & Chen, Wayne (1998) Reggae Routes, ISBN 976-8100-67-2, pp. 102-3
- ↑ King, Stephen A (2002). Reggae, Rastafari, and the Rhetoric of Social Control . University Press of Mississippi. p. 38. ISBN 978-1604730036.
- ↑ Apter, Jeff (2007) A Simple Kind of Life: Gwen Stefani and No Doubt, Wise, ISBN 978-1846094811, p. 8
- ↑ Barrow, Steve; Dalton, Peter (2004). The Rough Guide to Reggae (3rd ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 34. ISBN 1843533294.
- ↑ Salewicz, Chris; Boot, Adrian (2001). Reggae Explosion: The Story of Jamaican Music. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. p. 52. ISBN 0810937891.
- ↑ "Dekker Finds Genesis In 'Exodus'", Jamaica Gleaner , 25 November 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2012
- ↑ "Desmond Dekker & the Aces". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
- ↑ Veal, Michael E. (2007). Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0819565723.
- ↑ "Musical Youth". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
- ↑ Campbell, Howard (2012) "Soundtrack for the ages: 40 Years of Harder They Come", Jamaica Observer , 13 November 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2012
