Revolutionary Tea Party

Last updated
Revolutionary Tea Party
Revolutionary Tea Party.jpg
Studio album by
Lillian Allen
Released1986
Genre Dub poetry [1]
Label Verse to Vinyl [2]
Producer Billy Bryans
Lillian Allen chronology
Curfew Inna B.C.
(1985)		Revolutionary Tea Party
(1986)		Let the Heart See
(1987)

Revolutionary Tea Party is an album by the Canadian musician Lillian Allen, released in 1986. [3] [4] It won a Juno Award for Best Reggae/Calypso Recording at the Juno Awards of 1986. [5] [6] The album sold around 5,000 copies in its first year of release. [7] Allen subsequently named her band the Revolutionary Tea Party Band. [8] The album was distributed in the U.S. by Holly Near's Redwood Records. [9]

Contents

Production

Allen was backed on the album by the Canadian band the Parachute Club; the band's Billy Bryans produced the album. [10] [11] Lorraine Segato sang on "The Subversives". [12] Allen asked her fans to help fund the album's production, which cost around $25,000. [13]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [14]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [15]
MusicHound World: The Essential Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [16]

The Toronto Star called Allen's voice "a keening, irresistible instrument," writing that the tracks "deal with frighteningly recognizable contemporary issues, with Canadians' offensive condescension towards Jamaican immigrants, with rape, the pain of birth and the myriad small, shattering injustices perpetrated against blacks, the underprivileged and women both in this country and in Jamaica." [2] The Kingston Whig-Standard declared that "Allen's poetry is a bracing jolt against complacency." [17]

AllMusic called the album "a masterpiece of conscious female passion." [14] Ms. included Revolutionary Tea Party on its 1991 list of landmark albums of the past 20 years. [16]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."I Fight Back" 
2."Nellie Belly Swelly" 
3."Riddim an' Hardtimes" 
4."Revolutionary Tea Party" 
5."The Subversives" 
6."Rub a Dub Style inna Regent Park" 
7."Birth Poem" 
8."Birth Version" 

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References

  1. ↑ Nazareth, Errol (May 14, 1993). "Poets with a Cause". Entertainment. Toronto Sun. p. 66.
  2. 1 2 Quill, Greg (18 July 1986). "Revolutionary Tea Party, Lillian Allen". Toronto Star. p. D18.
  3. ↑ "Lillian Allen's new album (Revolutionary Tea Party)". Contrast. Vol. 17, no. 26. Jul 18, 1986. pp. 8–9.
  4. ↑ Hawthorn, Tom (18 July 1986). "Riff Rap". The Globe and Mail. p. D11.
  5. ↑ Youngberg, Gail; Holmlund, Mona; Collective, Saskatoon Women's Calendar (February 26, 2003). Inspiring Women: A Celebration of Herstory. Coteau Books. ISBN   978-1-55050-204-6.
  6. ↑ "The Winners". Ottawa Citizen. 11 Nov 1986. p. A13.
  7. ↑ Mackie, John (13 May 1987). "Lillian takes a different look at poetry". Vancouver Sun. p. E1.
  8. ↑ Boehm, Mike (9 Dec 1988). "Lillian Allen at Postnuclear". Calendar. Los Angeles Times. p. 22.
  9. ↑ Darling, Cary (December 7, 1988). "A reggae born in Jamaica, nurtured in Canadian soil". Orange County Register. p. I1.
  10. ↑ Casas, Maria Caridad (February 26, 2009). Multimodality in Canadian Black Feminist Writing: Orality and the Body in the Work of Harris, Philip, Allen, and Brand. Rodopi. ISBN   978-90-420-2686-5.
  11. ↑ Dovercourt, Jonny (May 5, 2020). Any Night of the Week: A D.I.Y. History of Toronto Music, 1957-2001. Coach House Books. ISBN   978-1-77056-608-8.
  12. ↑ Lacey, Liam (14 Aug 1986). "Revolutionary Tea Party Lillian Allen". The Globe and Mail. p. D5.
  13. ↑ Erskine, Evelyn (20 Mar 1987). "Poetry-reggae combination signs for Juno award winner Lillian Allen". Ottawa Citizen. p. D20.
  14. 1 2 "Revolutionary Tea Party". AllMusic.
  15. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 1. MUZE. p. 125.
  16. 1 2 MusicHound World: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 2000. p. 22.
  17. ↑ Burliuk, Greg (4 Dec 1986). "Poet's Work Provides a Jolt Against Complacency". Entertainment. The Kingston Whig-Standard. p. 1.
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