Sound Advice: CD Reviews - Burning Spear (Marcus Garvey)

CD Review:
One of the must owns in reggae. Along with anything by Marley or Tosh, Burning Spear is essential reggae. Although this is not Burning Spear's first album (he released two albums on the Studio One Label before this) it is the one that busted through the Jamaican market and went international. It is his best album.

At this time Winston Rodney was with a band called the Black Disciples. Including names like Robbie Shakespeare, one of the best bass players in the genre, and Ashton Barrett, another bass player whose work with Marley is the best in the business, the Black Disciples added the sound that Rodney needed.

Rodney also had two backing vocalists, Rupert Wellington and Delroy Hines who compliment Rodney's vocals perfectly. Jack Ruby (aka Laurence Lindo) produced and made his name from this and later Burning Spear albums.

When "Marcus Garvey" and "Slavery Days" hit the domestic Jamaican market it made Burning Spear a star. The album, released after, hit a chord with Jamaicans. Having Marcus Garvey as its main theme, the man who started the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) and became one of the most well known black leaders in world history, was a boon. The roots nature of the music and its theme of oppression and redemption made this album a huge success and primed Burning Spear with what would become an international reggae success story.

But, when Marcus Garvey was released by Island internationally, starting in the UK; they remixed it to make it easier to digest by white audiences. It worked, the album became legendary, but it pissed so many people off, including Rodney himself, that Island released a dubbed version of the album (Garvey's Ghost) to mollify everyone. It didn't work as much as they liked. Rodney came to realize that he was never going to have control over his own music until he took over more of his output. He began Spear records in reaction.

As to the original form of the album that was released domestically in Jamaica, it was never released internationally. So if you have listened to this album it is probably the remixed version. When Marcus Garvy/Garvey's Ghost was released in 1990 it included the two mixed/dubbed version of the album.

Even in its remixed form, or because of it, Marcus Garvey became a reggae classic. It is also one of the greats in music history; a must listen and a needed addition to any music library.

Scott D. Brown