Twin detournements of Lieber & Stoller.
Hugh Godfrey coolly channels Love Potion No. 9 into a rude boy anthem, with tasty riding-east piano and full-steam-ahead saxophone.
On the flip, Norma Fraser switches the roles of the Big Mama Thornton classic. An erstwhile dawg is played by the singer. The raucous, sexually dismissive wordplay of the original — ‘You can wag your tail / But I ain’t gonna feed you no more’ — is replaced by dignified verses about female independence and resilience.
Killer 45.

Storming, stomping, insurgent Niney. Stunning record.

‘I think it was 1979, or 1978. That rhythm, I record it at Channel One, and take it to Perry. So when me go down there and record it with Perry, I would have to get it mixed down so it would fit Perry’s 4-track Teac. So this is where now I voice it, and Scratch mix it, mix the voice. Then we put back the rhythm on the thing, and go back down to Channel One, and then Ranking Barnabas mix it. So it’s really Scratch, Barnabas and Scientist work on that song. That’s why you hear Scientist develop the foot and all those… double drumming you see there. It was Sly, Sly was the one who play that drum. Sly, Fullwood, Tony Chin, Chinna, Bobby Ellis, Dizzy the guy that play Riot for Keith Hudson, and Tommy McCook.’

Next deadly vocal on the ineffable Police & Thieves rhythm: less philosophical, more pissed off, accusatory and retributive.

Backed with a heart-crushing Larry Marshall.
Double-headed demands for freedom and peace; both rawly heartfelt and sublimely delivered.
Two salvos of pure roots fire.

Leading with trumps, this was first in Rhythm And Sound’s crucial Wackies reissue programme. Consummate lovers rock by cousins Sonia Abel and Claudette Brown, originally from Brixton. Stone classic Bullwackies.

Unmissable, cornerstone Wackies, back in.
Horace Andy’s greatest artistic achievement, surpassing even his Skylarking set for Studio One. With definitive reworks of songs he first recorded for Bunny Lee and Derrick Harriott (Money Money and Lonely Woman); a deadly version of Lloyd Robinson’s Cuss Cuss; and a first outing for Spying Glass, later versioned by Massive Attack. Musicians include Wackies regulars like Owen Stewart and Oral Cooke from Itopia, and Ras Menilik and Jah T; also Sleepy’s multi-instrumentalist spar Myrie Dread from the In The Light sessions for Hungry Town. At the desk, Lloyd Barnes, Junior Delahaye and Douglas Levy coax unequalled vocal performances from the singer, bejewelling ineffable extended mixes.
Crucial.

Recorded at Bullwackies just weeks apart from Horace Andy’s Dance Hall Style: two of the very greatest vocal reggae LPs of all time.
Between stints in JA for legends like Glen Brown and Junjo Lawes, WJ commuted to the Bronx from Connecticut. With Clive Hunt in full effect, Showcase follows the six-track dubwise format of Dance Hall Style (Wayne never sounding more like Horace), including four utterly lethal Studio One versions — Azul’s killer Rockfort Rock, Sleepy’s Every Tongue (with outrageous Isleys fuzz), yet another Wackies’ Heptones via Leroy Sibbles, and a murderous Drum Song.
Hotly recommended.