Friday Reggae # 4 - LKJ In Dub

This was the first reggae LP I ever bought. I heard it on a tape playing in a fellow sixth-former's car one time when he was ferrying a bunch of us into town for a Friday night out. I think the tape belonged to his elder brother (people with slightly older brothers always got to hear cool music didn't they?). Anyway I loved it instantly, asked what it was, and finally tracked it down, which wasn't easy in Devon in the days before the internet, I can tell you.

Linton Kwesi Johnson is celebrated as a poet of course, so it's ironic that my first exposure to him was via this LP, which is almost entirely instrumental. In fact, I got to know these dub versions so well that when I heard the original vocal tracks many years later it was a tad disconcerting.

The music, from long-term LKJ collaborator and British reggae legend Dennis Bovell, is excellent and easily stands up on its own.

So, here are three 'In Dub' tracks

Linton Kwesi Johnson - 'Victorious Dub' (1980)

Linton Kwesi Johnson - 'Cultural Dub' (1980)

Linton Kwesi Johnson - 'Iron Bar Dub' (1980)

and here are their original vocal counterparts

Linton Kwesi Johnson - 'Forces Of Vickry' (1979)

Linton Kwesi Johnson - 'Bass Culture' (1980)

Linton Kwesi Johnson - 'Sonny's Lettah (Anti SUS Poem)' (1979)

'Compare and contrast', as they used to say in English Lit exam papers...

London Lee has already written much more eloquently than I can about the political and cultural context of LKJ's work over at Crying All The Way To The Chip Shop, and I heartily commend his post (and indeed the rest of his always excellent blog) to you.

[Tracks originally from this, this and this - but also now all available on this].