musicology #531

Jamaica #11

(Johnny & The Attractions – Coming On The Scene)

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Penultimate cut of the Rocksteady excursion features a vocal group that go by the name of Johnny & The Attractions, (already featured on themusicologist), who waxed some of the most beautiful Rocksteady of the day. Amazingly, (or not so if you know a little about Jamaican music), next to nothing is known about these cats so I can’t fill you in on any personal details. All I do know is that the producer was Sonia Pottinger and the label it originally appeared on was ‘Gayfeet’ and the year was most likely 1968, an important year in themusicologist’s life as well as in the progression of Jamaican music as it was in this year that Reggae first emerged.

To be honest RockSteady was not a commercial success and is still to this day not well known, (outside of the community), which has always surprised me but then again if we look at what was going on at the time maybe it was too ’simple’, slow or authentic to attract much interest in a world that was plunging headlong into complexity and inauthenticity but ever since being introduced to it in the early 80’s it never fails to reach out and touch my soul.

Anyway…enough of the sentimentality and on with the transcendental TOP RANKING musicology..

musicology #296

JamaicanVocalGroupAction #7

(The Melodians - Swing & Dine)

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Apologies for not posting yesterday’s Three Tops cut on the Audio Widget until this morning !! … Been grafting like a dog, especially over the last few weeks, in preparation for phase two of ‘the project’ which is almost ready for exposure. As a result themusicologist had to take a back seat. From my point of view the quality hasn’t suffered, (and never will),but the quantity is a piece erratic so hopefully youse Cats will continue to cut me some slack whilst I adjust.

Today’s piece of Vocal Group Action is a solid gold late Rock Steady, Early Reggae classic from one of the Island’s most loved trios….The Melodians, featuring the sublime talents of Tony Brevett, Brent Dowe, Trevor McNaughton? and Renford Cogle. A group known globally for their influential ‘Rivers Of Babylon’, tune which certainly helped the music of Jamaica to gain more exposure and then acceptance outside of the few places that knew and raved about it. This slice is well known to the reggae community but maybe not so well outside of it. A 1968 Sonia Pottinger production for her Gayfeet label that, at least as far as I’m concerned, climbs and reaches the highest heights.

Listen tune……