One of Jamaica's most significant reggae albums, originally released in 1978 on Frontline Records. Poet is
Linton Kwesi Johnson; the Roots are
Vivian Weathers (bass guitar, vocals),
Dennis Bovell (guitar, keyboards),
Desmond Craig (keyboards), Winston Cumiffe (drums), Lloyd Donaldson (drums), Everald Forest (percussion), John Vamom (guitar), and
Lila Weathers (vocals). All but two songs first appeared in Johnson's 1975 poetry book, Dread Beat An' Blood. The poems are political in nature, dealing with Jamaica's racist regime and the way some dealt with the oppression: doping, fighting, and wasting one another in bars, as depicted in "Five Nights of Bleeding (For Leroy Harris)." Johnson does little singing, he simply delivers his poems in cadence to the music. Only on a couple of tunes like "Song of Blood," led by
Lila Weathers, does any real singing occur, but Johnson's powerful, inspirational, descriptive words needs little embellishment. ~ Andrew Hamilton