Alton Ellis - "Rock Steady" (2:48)
Justin Hinds - "Save A Bread" (2:36)
Duke Reid & His Group - "Oul Style" (2:29)
Don Drummond & The Skatalites - "Street Corner" (2:58)
The Jamaicans - "Things You Say You Love" (2:59)
The Melodians - "You Have Caught Me" (3:10)
The Paragons - "Wear To The Ball" (2:29)
The Soul Lads - "Funny" (3:00)
The Techniques - "Queen Majesty" (3:22)
Phyllis Dillon - "Perfidia" (2:32)
The Skatalites - "Alipang" (3:05)
Don Drummond & The Skatalites - "Eastern Standard Time" (2:39)
The Paragons - "On The Beach" (2:31)
Stranger & Patsy - "When I Call Your Name" (3:11)
The Techniques - "My Girl" (2:35)
Lynn Taitt - "Magnificent Ska" (2:48)
The Conquerors - "Lonely Street" (2:13)
Freddie McKay - "Love Is A Treasure" (2:35)
Winston Wright - "Tonight" (2:35)
Review: Rocksteady is the kind of genre you know in sound before you know it in theory. Reversely, it's likely most music fans could point out a Jimmy Cliff or Skatalites track bursting from the speaker and have vague feeling that this is a distinct kind of reggae, but it takes a special kind of wisdom to know that this sound is called rocksteady, and was born of the cross-section of reggae and ska. Although its original upsurge lasted only a couple of years, rocksteady yielded several of Jamaica's most immortal songs, and - owing to the above genealogical scruple - is also probably the most contested of reggae formats with regards to who "pioneered" it, the innovations behind its irresistible beat claimed by a range of practitioners. Here LMLR compile close to 20 originals in the original rocksteady sound, amounting to what might be the yetmost serious wax-bound standoff between said still-undecided greats, still fighting for providential legitimacy.
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