Can’t bubble, can’t cook, can’t even dress properly.

Tough, thumping Jammys from 1989, with expert falsetto singing from CT.

Ah, yes… takes you back to 1968… and sultry Kingston nights loungin’ downtown with Madame Wasp (that’s her on the cover), to a chilled cocktail of rocksteady, calypso, pop, jazz, mood and bossa.

What a record. The studio debut of the mighty Daddy U-Roy in 1969, sparring with Val Bennett over Old Fashioned Way, both of them wigging out like a couple of beboppers, with the ghost of John Holt on the backing tape. “The studio is kinda cloudy,” reports U-Roy — and everyone sounds lit but utterly inspired. Pure vibes.
“My first tune I ever do was Dynamic Fashion Way with Keith Hudson, and then I do Earth’s Rightful Ruler for Scratch. Those tunes didn’t get very far, them sell a couple hundred.”
Cornerstone stuff. Show some respect and chuck your bootleg.

Unmissable rocksteady: a magnificent version of the Curtis; and a hard-rocking Never Let Me Go.

Copper-bottomed rocksteady do-over of Take Five, by Buster’s go-to saxophonist. The title is nicked from a comedy film directed by Norman Jewison, out a couple of years beforehand in 1966.
Plus Glen Adams having a not so shabby go at an Eddie Holman, on the flip.

Agony aunts Clifford Morrison and Dada Smith from The Bassies, with George Blake replacing Leroy Fischer, in 1969. Cornerstone moonstompers, both sides.

Magnificent, militant roots with the heart of a lion. Bunny’s greatest record under his own name, much superior to the version on the Liberation LP, this was originally released as a UK disco 45 in the early eighties.

Heavyweight, apocalyptic Bunny, with a burial b-line, burning horns, masterful dub. By a mile the best thing on Blackheart Man.

The finest of his dancehall interventions with the Roots Radics, as the eighties progressed. This is taut and simple, tough and atmospheric, triumphant.

Love Punaany Bad — a tale of hard times in New York City, with a nice steelpan sample; and a badman Admiral Bailey.

Two cuts from the LP High Times Present New Talents Ghetto Youths Showdown.
The MW is killer roots, not to be missed. You can hear Scientist in the dubwise mix.
With Clive ‘From Creation’ Hylton, on the flip.