Big Youth: Manifestation

Big Youth: Manifestation

1988

Heartbeat Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. No Nukes  2. Love Fighting So  3. Turn Me On  4. Mr. Right  5. Like It Like That  6. Conqueror  7. Spiderman Meet The Hulk  8. No Way To Treat A Lady


Alright, for all the play and love I give to Jamaican music, I readily admit that I'm not an expert in the field... I just haven't researched it that extensively and the albums are somewhat hard to come by...I can usually find (and buy) the acknowledged classics, so of course I have Big Youth's super-duper 1972 toasting masterpiece "Screaming Target," but I wasn't especially aware that he had put out any other albums...So here was my train of thought when first confronted with "Manifestation"...

 "Woah! Big Youth put out an album that's not 'Screaming Target'?!?!?!"

"Wow! It's from 1988?!  The same year as Poison's 'Open Up and Say...Ahhh?!?!?!?" 

"Wowzy wowz wowzers!!! There's a song on it called 'Spiderman Meet the Hulk?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!"

Easy sell...And what does it sound like? Some seriously 80's reggae. First of all, the opening track is called "No Nukes" and features the world's most loudly mixed syndrum...But beneath all the 80's-ness? I hear that same smart, socially conscious,  half-sung toasting that I loved on "Screaming Target." So yea, Big Youth toasting over time-honored, roots-era Gregory Isaacs and Augustus Pablo backings is always going to beat Big Youth toasting over cavernous 80's music, but I don't think that should detract too much from what he accomplishes here..."Love Fighting So" is some pretty fucking legit 80's reggae...Very rootsy and classic as it slowly dissolves into a big soup of dub stickiness...I would also consider "Mr. Right" and "Conqueror"to be totally "Screaming Target" worthy...Again, tune out the thudding drum machine and you have some sweet roots and fine toasting...

And most importantly "Spider-Man Meet the Hulk" totally lives up the title...It is indeed about  "Spider-man a-talking in a rub-a-dub style..." and Superman and the Hulk show up to have a war in Disneyland!!!! (Prophetic, I say!).  There might be some serious subtext or something somewhere in here, but I don't know what it is...And he keeps laughing throughout the track so I'm not so sure how serious the subtext can be...

There's some total WTF-ness too...Like I have previously stated, I have no idea what those massive amounts of albums between "Screaming Target" and "Manifestation" contained, so maybe there was some precedence for "Turn Me On," which seriously sounds like Saturday Night Fever if someone swapped out John Travolta  for Dr. John.  I had zero idea that Big Youth could sing (or croak tunefully, which is probably closer to the truth)...So when I first heard it, I was like, "Ha! What an amusing little trifle...How droll..." But then I looked down at the big fat band on the vinyl and realized this song takes up the majority of Side One! Uh oh! Hope you like 1988 disco! You're going to be here awhile!

The singing pops back up on "No Way to Treat a Lady"  which has a noble message ("stop disrespecting women and calling them names"), but my God...That singing on it fucking hilarious... I very strongly urge you to listen to this so you can hear him warble, "That ain't no way to treat a layyy-DY!"

Oh, man...It's the small things that get me through the day...

Alright, time to summarize...Pretty good 80's reggae album if you can look past loud drum machines, 8 minute disco infernos, and some questionable singing...Somewhat worth it to get a flash of that prototypical toasting style, that at this point had been largely replaced by dancehall...

Here's "Love Fighting So" by Big Youth...Enjoy...