It’s probably a fair assumption to think record execs pushed out these ‘various artist’s’ offerings as a way of pushing their current prodigies, perhaps interspersed with a ‘named’ band with a little success behind them, as a way of getting to a wider audience without much effort.
I can see why with this record. I’m guessing reggae in the late 60’s was confined primarily to the Black Caribbean community. So how do you bring it to a white community where racial discrimination was prevalent and, shamefully, very much at the forefront of society? Well no better than offer a couple of tracks by established artists (Beltones) and intersperse with up and coming (King Cannon). It worked for the likes of Glen and Dave (with Dave going on to form Dave and Ansell Collins who had a massive hit in the early 70’s with Double Barrel – a song I absolutely loved at the time), whilst others disappeared without trace, namely Herbie Carter.
The album was produced by the legendary Harry J and he wrote all but one of the tracks. The title track was one of the first reggae songs ever recorded and appeared on Harry Johnson’s own label cunningly named ‘Harry J’ and was a local hit in Jamaica. Harry J went on to have a hit in 1969 with the ‘Liquidator’. So a solid batch of early reggae songs, bar one. ‘Hang ‘em high’, upon first listen, reminded me of spaghetti westerns. And of course, that’s exactly what it was – not sure which came first the film or the song – but it was a golden moment on Side 2. No one track stood out for me, but if you want a snapshot of a time, when the world was very different, then give this a chance. I’d like to think we have left much of the discrimination behind by now – sadly 52 years later, we haven’t. But we still have this and it’s a worthy addition to any collection.
