GREGORY ISSACS

YOU GUYS NEED TO BRING GREGORY ISSACS BACK TO ANGELS CAMP FOR 2004

Gregory is one of my favorite artists. I would love to see him perform again. It is a little hard to stomach at times since he had lost so much from his yesteryears, but I will always love the cool rooler.

No one loves this man's music more than moi, but sorry to say, Mr. Cool Ruler
is a cautionary tale for all of us when it comes to abusing one's gifts---just listen to what is left of a once-amazing voice. Sadness.

At his best Gregory's music stands w/ anyone in the history of Jamaica; lyrically
his lines compare poetically to the greatest in reggae. This man could have been THE most recognized and internationally acclaimed artist in the music since Marley----a combination of roots integrity and a power to sway women right up there with Marvin Gaye or Al Green(NO exaggeration). But he blew it, and may Jah Bless him for all he's given us in this music....

I just actually got a new 2004 gregory single called why keep me waiting. its upon a nice riddim . nice to see hes still working on new things. i also got the new eek a mouse cd called mouse gone wild and this has to be the worst eek cd ever made, i was hoping it was good but just didnt even like one song on the whole cd it was way to out there.

Gregory once came w/ some of the most amazing lyrics:

'political violence rule the earth/man not know what life is really worth/while the youth in the street/sell themselves like whore/robbing looting and shooting the poor'
(sound like a condemnation of rap-thug ethics, no?? What a prophecy to fulfill...)
And: 'Down here, in the ghetto of the slum/we have been robbed of all rights and freedom/but I know someday it got to change/'cause JAH JAH got all men in his range'.

I call that poetic genius.

dont ever count gregory out. hes a survivor, if nothing else. not only that, hes got his son to sing the hard parts these days...they should make up a permanent team: his son to sing like gregory and gregory to interject the "oohs" and "aahs".

one love
jah bill

i'm with papa on gregory isaacs...i'd still love to see him again. such a massive catalogue of material. i could fill a crate with just Gregory Isaacs albums.....

It is painful to me these days to hear those notes he no longer can reach.
Oddly, one of his finest all-time classic LPs is no longer available;
'Extra Classic', which pretty much sums up it's worth.

blood and fire may be reissuing extra classic with plenty bonus cuts in the near future. it has not been available in decent quality since its original issue. all subsequent issues were pirates and of miserable quality, including the more common version on rohit and the really bad, mistitled issue on rhino uk called something like "gregory issacs meets lee perry" with renamed song titles and in-the-mud lo fi sound. i have a canadian copy of the original on lp from the early 80s that sounds decent but all more recent issues sound crap.

one love
jah bill

RHINO UK---what a #!@?#-ed-up crew of bootleggers they are! Nice to hear Blood&Fire have their eyes on putting out such potent Gregory in proper fashion.
The Micron press certainly holds up quality-wise(bettah than many in da field
of Jamaican vinyl), but Blood&Fire YOU KNOW will do it right.

Once in JA 'bout '81, a kind man in Sav-La-Mar patiently explained it to me this way:

"Look now, say there's a little gyal at de dance, but she nuh dance with no one.
Yuh must wait 'til a Gregory record play, THEN yuh ask, 'cause if she won't dance then, she nevah will." I had checked some of his sides, but hearing THAT told me: This is a singer to reckon with.

I was really disappointed in Gregory Isaacs at SNWMF a couple of years ago. I hope they don't bring him back again, this was after he "missed" his plane in Montana for SNWMF a few years before that in Marysville, thank B.Spear for filling his void that night. I feel bad that he has declined to his current state, but bottom line is he did it to himself. I really, really like his material a lot, have a lot of albums and singles, but don't want to see the performance I saw at Angel's Camp, I could care less about his son carrying his notes for him. I think a lot of artists would put on a better performance IMO.

One love
eric v

cocaine is a helluva drug..........

>this was after he "missed" his plane in Montana for SNWMF a few years before
>that in Marysville

dont know where you got that from but it is 100% wrong. he actually had a legitimate excuse for not getting here *from jamaica*. he was not in montana at all. thats one of the problems: when youre in gregorys (self imposed) shoes and a real emergency comes up, everyone thinks the worst and starts making up tales.

one love
jah bill

who care, he misses shows all the time. No disrespect to one of the legendary artists of reggae music.

who cares?

i think a lot of people probably care and not only that i think gregory cares what rumours are spread on him. "anything i do im big enough to own up to it" he says but that doesnt include things he doesnt do.

one love
jah bill

Cool Ruler walk thru my store a few years ago, w/ Don Taylor---both looked like they were maintaining, but you could see how the years had taken a toll on each man. Taylor died within the year, and this was the first concert where I noticed Gregory simply could not hit certain notes---and what was odd was those notes were all relatively mid-range....whenever the song he was doing went to that part of his register no longer in existence, there would just be a momentary silence as his mouth opened for the note he could no longer hit . Mighty sad, as if a great river had gone dry.

Well Jah Bill, the PA that Sat evening announced it to the audience that he MISSED HIS PLANE FROM MONTANA.

<dont know where you got that from but it is 100% wrong>
So I guess your friends at the festival better be careful that they don't spread wrong rumors. I have several friends that were there, also sitting here agreeing that they heard the same thing announced.

You seem to know it all, what was the *legitimate excuse*? I guess he has legitimate excuses for all his no shows, not that he has made a habit of it at all......

One love
eric v

well eric if thats what they said from the PA system then that must be right and i must be wrong. he must have been up there playing in the "snow" or something.

ps: i know differently but i usually dont discuss such things in detail in public. suffice to say he couldnt leave jamaica due to medical reasons not associated with what one might gather.

one love
jah bill

-cause there has to be a way to legitimize a lifestyle where certain individuals may advocate the consumption of one 'natural' substance while at the same time condemn the useage of another 'synthetic' one.

Though I didn't attend SN 2001, I know some reliable tacticians that evidently had better things to do than to consider what some fill-in for Spliff Skankin' just happened to blow out his sarchastic bung hole in -between sets on the 'pa system' . Reportedly, time spent over the weekend with a pleasantly accessible Jah Tooth more than made up for an admittedly mediocre stage performance.

" I feel bad that he has declined to his current state, but bottom line is he did it to himself " Tell us something we don't already know, but with a little more judgement and indignation, please. Why don't you pull out the skeletons of every JA artist who has made a decent record or 300 and implore SN not to invite all of them? You know I was sittin' there watchin' MTV and I had this milk shake and dammit, watchin' MTV and have this milkshake , see..........

Paoaken,

<Though I didn't attend SN 2001>

Nuff said, why are you commenting on something you didn't even see?

<and implore SN not to invite all of them>

I didn't even say that, or imply that SNWMF not book people based on their personal habits. My comments were based on his PERFORMANCE that night which sucked, a performance that you didn't even see! Funny how you make your own statement out of mine. I PAID MY MONEY to go to the festival, I don't want to see anyone who can't perform that well, and IMO (if that is okay with you, let me know) Gregory wasn't really that good, couldn't even hold notes. I didn't say that I didn't like his music, I actually do, just not his live performance which suffers because of his other activities in the past or whatever. Read other peoples posts here that saw him, or "Though I didn't attend SN 2001" you might know better?


One love
eric v

i was there when he didnt show up and that sucked then i was there when he did make it and the performance was not as good as i thought it would be but hes an oltimer and its history but the other day i was stoked to pick up a new c.d. and unfortunatly it was a recent live recording and it sucked so maybe it would be a waste of stage time for him to perform

-the i*+ souN pretty nice on new dub syndicate-no bed of roses album but still failed to mek i* dub selection cutt from that LP. stay strong greg! JAH give nuff protection*

I've tried to see Gregory several times and all performances ended up being cancelled by the day of the show. If he doesn't care enough to show up then neither do I.

your rite about him alwayz cancell his showz. well not alwayz but happenz alot of the time & promoterz have to start boasting another date. alwayz suckz for everyone when dat happenz. o'well, maybe he figures he had glory already. who knoz! >1LUV*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

Dennis Brown was a cokehead too, but unlike Gregory he knew how to keep his obligations.

I man no deal with no hearsay.

-yeah mon+ rumerz are no good @ all but the truth does reveil itself. ive heard so many lies that you cant trust anyone over JAH*. that is forsure! psalm1 >1LUV*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

No rumors, it was well-known in the industry as Dennis was rather open about it...true it mightve help lead to his early death in the end did not harm him career. So is not for I to judge, seen...

Please meet me at the corner, down your avenue...I'll be patientley yeah, waiting there for you...

We have confirmed Gregory Isaacs for the One Love Festival 2004 at the Queen Mary Park in Long Beach, CA Sunday August 22.

[www.onelovefestival.com] for more info

Wow, pretty nice first confirmation. Good luck, I hope it works out.