The Rough Guide Reggae: 100 Essential Cds (Rough Guides)

Rating:
Summary: 100 Essential CDs
Review: In the introduction to Regge: 100 Essential CDs by the Rough Guide, the authors (Blood and Fire's Steve Barrow, Peter Dalton) clearly state "The choices of CDs on the Blood & Fire label - associated with co-author Steve Barrow - was made by Peter Dalton, to avoid partiality" It goes on to say that Steve did argue for "Heart of the Congos", but who wouldn't? If you already own the Rough Guide to Reggae, this isn't essential, but the different format does make for a fun read. By selecting one essential record from each artist (the exceptions being two each for major figures like Lee Perry, the Skatalites, Yabby You, Augustus Pablo etc...), they do more than just give an album blurb. Almost every review includes a mini-bio of the artist that is highly informative. They also tell you the next best record in each case ie: the one they almost chose. This is a great book. Obviously not quite as comprehensive as the Rough Guide to Reggae, it is nonetheless an introduction to a wealth of great music.

Rating:
Summary: A difficult task, but well handled.
Review: That the Reggae volume of the "100 essential CDs" series needed two authors gives a clue to the difficulty in reducing Jamaican music to one simple list. While it begins and ends with Bob Marley's Legend for most listeners, Reggae music has grown so large in scope, variety and artistic motive that one term really isn't big enough to encompass it all. Frequent, sweeping changes in form, content, technology and public perception have resulted in sincere fans that see the music as something totally different than the next (equally devoted) enthusiast. What one loves about Reggae (and thinks it is for that matter) can often depend on when one was first exposed to it, and what was big at that moment. Take a 20 year old, 30 year old and 40 year old Reggae "fan" and ask them for a list of 100 "essential" discs; the results will likely have nothing in common.

Authors Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton make the best of a difficult task, explaining in their introduction that a lot of what could be considered for their book isn't even currently obtainable. Long the preserve of small, provincial, shoestring operations, when Reggae records go out of print, they go way out. From the start it's been a Dj - based form, with records and even master tapes recycled or even just discarded the moment a particular tune lost local popularity. The last few decades have seen valiant rescue efforts by labels big and small, but some things are simply lost forever to time, shortsightedness and regional economics. Taken in this light, the authors' decision to stick with what's readily available is laudable - they obviously hope that people will go get the stuff they love and have little interest in bragging about all the cool stuff they've heard that no one else can get.

Additionally hampered by Reggae's heavy dance/singles orientation, Dalton and Barrow do the best they can. On first viewing, their volume seems heavy on Dancehall and Ska while being desperately light on Dub, Roots and Lovers Rock. More careful thought reveals that most of the best stuff consists of singles found only on compilations, not all in print: Listing 75 compilation discs might not play for a modern audience raised on 75 minute cds all by one artist. Barrow and Dalton make up for the rough ride by cramming as much history into each review as possible, giving the beginning listener as well as the seasoned expert a larger view of Reggae music and culture that inspired it. The wealth of names, dates and places makes the Reggae volume well worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: A difficult task, but well handled.
Review: That the Reggae volume of the "100 essential CDs" series needed two authors gives a clue to the difficulty in reducing Jamaican music to one simple list. While it begins and ends with Bob Marley's Legend for most listeners, Reggae music has grown so large in scope, variety and artistic motive that one term really isn't big enough to encompass it all. Frequent, sweeping changes in form, content, technology and public perception have resulted in sincere fans that see the music as something totally different than the next (equally devoted) enthusiast. What one loves about Reggae (and thinks it is for that matter) can often depend on when one was first exposed to it, and what was big at that moment. Take a 20 year old, 30 year old and 40 year old Reggae "fan" and ask them for a list of 100 "essential" discs; the results will likely have nothing in common.

Authors Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton make the best of a difficult task, explaining in their introduction that a lot of what could be considered for their book isn't even currently obtainable. Long the preserve of small, provincial, shoestring operations, when Reggae records go out of print, they go way out. From the start it's been a Dj - based form, with records and even master tapes recycled or even just discarded the moment a particular tune lost local popularity. The last few decades have seen valiant rescue efforts by labels big and small, but some things are simply lost forever to time, shortsightedness and regional economics. Taken in this light, the authors' decision to stick with what's readily available is laudable - they obviously hope that people will go get the stuff they love and have little interest in bragging about all the cool stuff they've heard that no one else can get.

Additionally hampered by Reggae's heavy dance/singles orientation, Dalton and Barrow do the best they can. On first viewing, their volume seems heavy on Dancehall and Ska while being desperately light on Dub, Roots and Lovers Rock. More careful thought reveals that most of the best stuff consists of singles found only on compilations, not all in print: Listing 75 compilation discs might not play for a modern audience raised on 75 minute cds all by one artist. Barrow and Dalton make up for the rough ride by cramming as much history into each review as possible, giving the beginning listener as well as the seasoned expert a larger view of Reggae music and culture that inspired it. The wealth of names, dates and places makes the Reggae volume well worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: 100 Essential CDs
Review: The only reason I've given this four stars rather than five is because it stands in the shadow of the earlier, exhaustive and indispensable Reggae: The Rough Guide by the same authors. There is obviously a great deal of overlap between the two, with the new recommendations going to material (re)issued since the big Guide was published. Inevitably, this mini-Guide also lacks the latter's historical framework, but for concise, reliable and consumer-friendly CD coverage, there is nothing else on the market to compare.

Perhaps the best endorsement I can give for the mini-Guide in itself is that I already had about two-thirds of the recommended albums in my collection, and have rarely been disappointed by the ones I have bought since (mainly because I strayed outside my preferred kinds of reggae). If the book has a fault, it's that in their concern to be impartial, representative and up-to-date, the authors include a few recent albums which may, for all I know, be among the best of their kind, but which to these ears don't match up to the classics I (and I suspect they) know and love. With a new edition of the big Guide imminent at the time of writing, I would obviously recommend that as the first-choice buy, but for the less committed, you can't go far wrong with this.

(NB: as clearly stated in the introduction quoted above, the Guide recommends a number of CDs on the Blood and Fire label run by Steve Barrow, but these were selected by his co-author Peter Dalton to avoid bias. Anyway, the CDs in question are among the strongest recommendations in the Guide, and reggae lovers around the world owe a massive debt of gratitude to Barrow for the dozens of classic albums he has compiled over the years.)

Rating:
Summary: yes but...
Review: This book is deep into 60s and 70s reggae and precursors that I am glad to find more about, has a few token efforts from the 90s, but simply nothing from the 80s (Charlie Chaplin, Fathead, Nicodemus, Eek-a-mouse, YELLOWMAN!!!!!!) The authors say up front their recommendations are colored by personal preference, but boy their tastes don't seem very reflective of the breadth of reggae out there.