(Message 7″)
The best place to start, as a wise man probably said, is at the start! So this time my Track of the Week will be for the first reggae 7″ I brought.
I grew up on the outskirts of London and had become interested in the thriving sound system explosion of the 90s. Culture Promotions put on regular Jah Shaka all-nighters at The Rocket on Holloway Road, as well as their regular Thursday night Dub Club. Every week saw a different sound. And as you reached the top of the stairs at The Dome (Tuffnell Park), there was a record stall. I had quite a few LPs by that time but had not yet started on the 7’s.
I had always liked Augustus Pablo and when I saw a copy of ‘Mr Bassie’ on 7”, a track I had on LP, I jumped at the chance to buy it. This introduced me to two things. One – the addictiveness of buying 7’s. And two – never trust what is written on a record.
The 7” was not ‘Mr Bassie’, instead it was a vocal tune. I loved the tune and its dub but didn’t know what it was. It was only through a stroke of luck years later that I found out who sung it (please note, these were the days before YouTube and mass record sharing!).
I had been to a record fair in Nottingham and on the way back popped into Selectadisc. They had a fanzine written by one of the members of the Beastie Boys, which contained a very accurate Pablo discography that included details of this tune. I still remember sitting down in a pub in the centre of town reading this fanzine, before having one of those eureka moments. This was eight or so years after I had brought the 7” and I was so chuffed to finally have this great tune named. Years after that, I managed to pick up an original of the tune but I have always hung onto that yellow Rockers repress with numerous crossings out….just for the memories!
Just for the record (no pun intended) the tune is a nice, quite light vocal produced by Pablo. It is not as heavy as some of his productions (Jacob Miller and Hugh Mundell etc). It has a really nice, simple sound. Delroy Williams did a few tunes but this is by far his best. Also has a nice version as you would expect!
Plattsie OneVoice
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