Wednesday, April 28, 2004  

Toots & the Maytals, "Pressure Drop"
from Monkey Man (1970) and The Harder They Come (Island, 1971) soundtrack
Junior Murvin, "Police and Thieves"
from Police and Thieves (Mango, 1977; Def Jam, 2003)
Willie Williams, "Armagideon Time"
from Armagideon Time (Studio One, 1979; Heartbeat, 1991)

Because I'm working on a short piece about Joe Strummer's last song, "46664 (A Long Walk to Freedom)," I've been thinking a lot about the Clash. How many people were introduced to dub and reggae through them? I think I was. In honor of the fact that Strummer & Co. edumacated the suburban masses on Jamaican music (as did the Two-Tone ska revival), I've posted the original versions of three JA tunes the Clash covered. (I hear they also did Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come" live, but I'm not sure if it ever appeared on record.)

The Clash cut Toots & the Maytal's "Pressure Drop" as the b-side to "English Civil War," and the song can be found on Black Market Clash. Toots is probably the greatest gospel-influenced soul singer to ever come out of JA, and all of the Maytals' early records are crucial. But I'm sorry to say this: stay away from the new Toots CD, True Love, which features lame remakes of all the great songs with the likes of such dongs as Eric Clapton, Trey Anastasio and Ryan Adams as well as No Doubt, Keith "Where am I?" Richards and Willie "I'll do it for a dime bag" Nelson.

Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves" is produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry. The song was huge in JA and was featured in the low-budget 1978 Jamaican flick Rockers. Murvin's fab falsetto is about as thin as Everest air, and it's such a complete contrast from Strummer's gruff bark.

Willie Williams has recorded very little over the years, but he had a big hit with "Armagideon Time" in 1979; the Clash covered it on the b-side of "London Calling." The song is based on the same riddim that Michigan & Smiley used for "Nice Up the Dance" (this blog's very first MP3 post; ah, such sweet memories....from three weeks ago), which is from the Soul Vendor's 1967 instrumental "Real Rock."

For CDs/vinyl of these original rockkaz, Ernie B's Reggae or Jammyland are your best hook-ups.

If you're Mick Jonesin' to hear more Clash, check out these live and rare tracks. Then go check out this extensive discography and these two discos: Vol. 1 & Vol. 2. And finally, this joint is a pretty cool fan site, which features a bunch of new photos of places the Clash made known either through photo shoots (i.e., the cover photo of their 1977 debut album) or because they wrote about them in their songs.

Let the pressure drop right on you.

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