Jamaica was at a dangerous and combustible spot as the 1970s rolled in, beset by class disparity, crushing poverty, increasingly barbed friction between the country’s two political parties, and violence that amounted to open warfare in the streets, all of which fermented and came together creatively inside the island’s maverick music industry, resulting in what was undoubtedly Jamaica’s greatest pop music era, the era of true roots reggae, much of which was highly political and charged with desperate and stubborn defiance. In the midst of all this, a subgenre known as lovers rock emerged, love songs chanted and crooned out of the same destitute streets and neighborhoods that created the more militant songs. Poised to export all this to the rest of the world was Chris Blackwell’s fledgling Island Records imprint, which grew in time into a major player in the rock market, but back then, it was all roots, including this set of Island love song classics tracked between 1976 and 1988, which includes the Heptones’ “Crying Over You,” Alton Ellis’ “And I Love Her,” and Jimmy Riley’s version of Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” among others.
Tracklist:
Disc 1: 1. The Heptones - Crying over You 2. George Faith - To Be A lover 3. Alton Ellis - It’s Hard To Be A Lover 4. Jimmy Lindsay - Easy (discomix) 5. Junior Murvin & The Upsetter Revue - Closer Together 6. Inner Circle - Stop Breaking My Heart 7. Third World - Tonight For Me 8. Vivian Weathers - Married Woman 9. Sugar Minott - Two Time Loser 10. Jacob “Killer’ Miller - Once Upon A Time 11. Steel Pulse - Caught You Dancing (discomix) 12. Tony Tuff - Sweet Maureen 13. Junior Tucker - Spinning Around 14. Sheila Hylton - Bed’s Too Big Without You (discomix) 15. The Paragons - Only A Smile (discomix)
Disc 2: 16. Alton Ellis - And I Love Her (discomix) 17. Jimmy Riley - Sexual Healing 18. George Nooks - We’re In This Love Together 19. Derrick Lara - Peek A Boo 20. Tony Tuff - You’ll Never Find (discomix) 21. Jimmy Riley - Hey Love (discomix) 22. Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse (discomix) 23. Barry Biggs - Break Your Promise (discomix) 24. The Tamlins - Go Away Dream (discomix) 25. Ken Boothe - Show And Tell 26. Aswad - Gave You My Love 27. Struggle - My Baby 28. Ruddy Thomas - Long Lost Lover 29. Kotch - Oo Baby Baby 30. Karen Smith - Oh Me Oh My
Media Info:
Bitrate: 320 kbps Channels: joint stereo
Samplerate: 44100
Encoder: LAME 3.98
MPEG-1 layer 3
*many thanks and much respect to exy and all those who care enough to share
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