Culture: Two Sevens Clash
1977
Joe Gibbs Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. Calling Rasta Far I 2. I'm Alone in the Wilderness 3. Pirate Days 4. Two Sevens Clash 5. I'm Not Ashamed 6. Get Ready to Ride the Lion to Zion 7. Black Starliner
Must Come 8. Jah Pretty Face 9. See Them a Come 10. Natty Dread Taking Over
Alright! Now this is some proper Friday music!
So light up that big-ass Hindenburg joint...Pffffft!!
And put on "Two Sevens Clash" by Culture and you can't go wrong...Bright, chirpy reggae songs about an impending apocalypse...huh?
Apparently Marcus Garvey prophesized that on July 7, 1977 there would be great chaos in the streets, causing Rastafarians to mark it the date the apocalypse would occur...Once July 7th rolled around, however, not much happened, except Dick Clark got married for the third time...
Incorrect doomsday predictions aside, we should all stop and thank Mr. Garvey for a moment and thank him for inspiring one of the enduring classics of the roots-reggae era...
And the odd thing about the album is how peaceful the band sounds about the whole thing...If I honestly believed the world was going to end in a few months I doubt I'd be so laid-back about the whole thing...I'd probably write a lot of panicked tracks about the importance of canned food and tips on fighting wasteland mutants for the last gallon of gasoline...
Again, I'm glad these guys had their heads together...Some of the snappiest reggae you've ever heard lurks underneath that bright yellow cover...More soulful and brighter than the heavier, dubbier style that was popular at the time...Listen to those guitar stabs on "I'm Not Ashamed," it's like being knifed by rays of sunshine (despite it being one of the darker tracks on the album)...And main-man Joseph Hill is one of the genre's great vocalists...He has a nasally, snotty tone that makes all the Rastafarian proselytizing go down easy...It's hard to believe they hit it this far out of the park on their first try...On the other hand the line-up of legendary Jamaican studio musicians listed on the sleeve probably didn't hurt either, boasting names like Sly, Robbie, and Skatalites alumni...
Favorite tracks have got to be the mighty title track, where you can practically hear the band capturing the zeitgeist (which means "friendly ghost" in German or something), and "Get Ready to Ride the Lion to Zion," which I mostly love for the lion roars...Oh yea, here's a neat trick, after the third roar put on the Wizard of Oz and it matches up perfectly...
If you're new to reggae, it should be one of your first purchases, and if you're a long-time reggae fan, dust it off and play it again, fer old times sake...
Here's "Two Sevens Clash" by Culture...Enjoy...
Culture: International Herb
1979
Virgin/High Note Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. The International Herb 2. Jah Rastafari 3. It A Guh Dread 4. Rally Around Jahoviah's Throne 5. The Land We Belong 6. Ethiopians Waan Guh Home 7. Chiney Man 8. I Tried 9. The Shepherd 10. Too Long In Slavery
Culture released a couple of albums between "Two Sevens Clash" and 1979's "The International Herb," but I don't have those (although I ran across a copy of 1978's "Baldhead Bridge," last weekend and didn't pick it up for some reason...Now I kind of wish I would have...). But I did find an old vinyl copy of "International Herb" at FYE for three bucks a coupla years back...So that was a good score...
"Two Sevens Clash" must have been a tough act to follow...Not only was it a perfect debut, but how do you face the world when the doomsday you spent a whole album talking about doesn't occur?
Although, a closer look at the band smoking humongous joints while gathered around a Marijuana bush, they don't seem too worried about it...Just keep on with the sweet, soul reggae and keeping on praising Jah and sticking it to the downpressor man...
I don't think this is quite as spectacular as "Two Sevens Clash," but it's not far off most of the time...It's lacking some of that albums fatalistic joy, but I'm usually too busy tapping my foot and nodding my head to the alluring rhythms to think about it...Especially on the title track, which sometimes plays it a little close to Peter Tosh's "Legalize It" lyrically, but the uplifting delivery is all theirs...No hatred for the weed's detractors...Their only aim is to get people all over the world to smoke "the international herb"...Even schoolchildren!!
"Irie Ites! When does He-Mon come on?"
Y'know....I feel like all I've done lately is draw joints in people's mouths in MS Paint...I'd have to go back and look to be certain, but I'm going to say at least three out of the last four posts have fallen into this category...Has the Friday Night Record Party gone stale? Do I need to put a big chip clip on it to keep it fresh? I'm going to put at least a one month moratorium on MS Paint joint photos...Maybe I won't even use pictures at all...Maybe it'll just be a big, impenetrable block of text...Or maybe just photos of Paula Deen chuggin' Tequila while uncle Jesse looks on...
The Dukes of Hazzard Uncle Jesse...
Not the Full House Uncle Jesse...
We should have a Friday Night vote! Which Uncle Jesse is the true Uncle Jesse? Two Uncle Jesse's enter...One Uncle Jesse leaves...So make sure to stop by your county's polling office, cast your vote and make your voice heard!
Oh yea, I should talk about the "International Herb" record a bit more before we clock out for the day...When I first picked this up and saw a song called "Chiney Man," I was a little concerned, but it turns out it's a beautiful unity anthem with the album's best chorus...They just seem to write it on the sky...In big, puffy clouds of Marijuana smoke...Damn, I'm going to have to rewind it and play it again...
You can listen with me! Here's "Chiney Man" by Culture...Have a happy Friday everyone!...
No comments:
Post a Comment