educate us youths

Yo i just started reading this book "this is reggae music" by lloyd bradley. I'm really enjoying it on this rainy nor-cal day. He really goes off on sound systems. Does anyone else have any favorite books relating to reggae and jamaican culture? Educate, Educate, Educate us youths!

That is an excellent book

Sando try wake the town and tell the people: dancehall culture in Jamaica
by norman stolzoff

and I'm sure Jah Bill could probably name many more in his sleep!

respect
Michael

"rough guide to reggae" by barrow and dalton

reggae bloodlines

reggae international

that book on scratch perry by david katz and i hear his new one is good too...is it "solid foundation"?

and as solid says, if its strictly reggae records you want to know about (with a bit of history centering on those records) rough guide to reggae fits that bill

one love
jah bill

yo big up --"people funny bwoy" i think that's the name of the book by katz but i'm not sure--anyone else with book favorites or movie favorites please post
Education is the key to overcome and overstand

yes sando, people funny bwoy is the name of katz's scratch book and solid foundation is the followup. havent checked the latter but the former is very interesting overall and funny in parts.

one love
jah bill

"Rough Guide To Reggae" is the place to start - it reads more like a history accompanied by reccommendations than just a list of record reviews.
Dave Katz's "People Funny Boy" is an authoritative reference book, but its writing style makes it very tedious going. Every time somebody is introduced, Katz tells you where and when they were born, how many siblings they had, and all sorts of other details about their life . . . this is all good information, and often hard to find, but it seriously interrupts the flow of what otherwise could be a very compelling narrative of Scratch's life. So don't expect to read it like you would most biographies . . .

So far, I haven't read This is Reggae Music/Bass Culture or whatever else it's been renamed, but that's partly been because I got a very bad impression from my cursory skim of it in the bookstore.
Bradley clearly has a strong dislike for dancehall music and views its development as the end of "real" reggae, and this comes through far too strong in his work. The part of his book he dedicates to post-1980 reggae seemed like a poorly-researched rant about how much better the good old days were - after attacking the mid-80s Radics sound for a lack of originality, Bradley then completely ignores the breath of fresh air offered by the new digital rhythms, clearly seeing them as the nails in reggae's coffin. As a result, this part of the book is not very historically useful - he states clear errors of fact, such as suggesting Lone Ranger was influenced by Tippa Irie, and he seems preoccupied with criticism at the expense of giving useful historical information about the time. Saying that Sleng Teng doesn't have a bassline doesn't make much sense to me, either . . .
I'm sure that his reporting on the earlier part of reggae's history is more informative and accurate. But after looking at the last few chapters, I'm not sure I'd trust the writing of someone who is clearly so informed by opinion rather than fact. Of course, a little bias always comes through (and my personal love of the music of that time period undoubtedly contributes to my aversion to the book), but a good historical author should at least make an effort to keep it in check.

Try "Roots, Rock, Reggae - An Oral History of Reggae Music from Ska to Dancehall" by Chuck Foster. It is listed at $19.95. The book is written in 1999 and at the time, this is what it said on the back of the book about the author : "Chuck Foster is the 'Reggae Update' columnist for Beat Magazine and host of radio station KPFK's popular 'Reggae Central' program, as well as serving nine consecutive years on the Reggae Grammy Screening Committee. He has written about reggae for Billboard, LA View, LA Weekly, Dub Missive, Roots Vibe Int'l, More Axe, and Reggae Nucleus, among other publications."

It is basically a collection of interviews he did with various artists while writing for the various magazines. It's cool because a lot of it is from the perspective of the actual artists and not him.

Here is a complete list of the contents:
Introduction
1) Ska-ba-do-ska-ba-day: Skatalites Bandleader Tommy McCook
2) Baked Beans for Breakfast: Desmond Dekker, King of Ska
3) Ken Boothe: Mr. Rock Steady
4) John Holt: Reggae Classic
5) Johnny Clarke: Rockers a No Crockers
6) Skylarking: A Chat With Horace Andy
7) Marcia Griffiths: Mark My Word
8) Bob Marley And The Wailers: For The Record
9) The Meditations: Deepest Roots
10) The Itals: Jah Glory
11) The Wailing Souls: Soul And Fire
12) Black Uhuru: Uhuru Means Freedom
13) Michael Rose: By Any Other Name
14) Junior Reid: The Strong Survive
15) Reasoning With The Ras: Ras Michael And The Sons Of Negus
16) Steel Pulse: Stayin' Wth The Rastaman
17) Alpha Blondy On The New Generation Of Africans
18) South Africa's Lucky Dube: What Good Is A Song Without A Message?
19) Majek Fashek Of Nigeria: Prophet Without Margin
20) Raymond Myers: Reggae From Nicaragua
21) International Explosion
22) Eek-A-Mouse: One Of A Kind
23) Wicked Inna Dance: The Dancehall Invasion
24) Cutty Ranks: "No Shabba Nor No Other DJ"
25) The Strange Case Of Ini Kamoze
26) Shaggy: The New Breed
27) Buju Banton: Inna Heights
28) Sistaer Carol: Return To The Roots
29) Foundation: Ever Firm
30) Soul Stirrer: The Beres Hammond Story
31) Admiral Tibet: Serious Singer For A Serious Time
32) Luciano: Sending Out A Message
33) Homegrown: Reggae In America
34) Instrumental Reggae: The Players Of Instruments
35) Dubbing Is A Must
36) Dub Poets
37) Jungle And Beyond
38) I Shall Sing: The Singers
39) Vocal Groups And Bands
40) DJs Of The Seventies(And A Few Outside)
Selected Discography

Whew!!!! As you can see there are many great artists including some that will be at this years festival. Check it out!!!!!!!

fourtwentyplenty

I read "Wake the Town and Tell the People" and found it to be very informative but a somewhat boring read. I think the author wrote the book while doing research for his PhD and his writing style came off as very formal and academic. At times I felt like I was reading a textbook rather than an in-depth cultural history of dancehall.
There were some great sections of the book where the author described in detail scenes and experiences from his trips to Jamaica, but they were usually brief and followed by a tangent about things that happened way back in history that didn't relate to reggae at all. The book has received a lot of praise, and I don't discount Norman Stolzoff as a historian. I just had a somewhat hard time following along with the story (in between looking up words in the dictionary!) Is there anyone who has read the book and has an opinion about it?

Acacia

I read the book too I think your take on it seems pretty accurate to me. It al most felt like a textbook for Dancehall 101.
I did however learn a lot about dansehall culture and it's dating back to slavery.
extremely informative no matter how sterile

Michael

yo big up everyone who really know their stuff, thanks for the recommendations, yup, I haven't got to the later chapters in bradleys book, but I did like how he went into depth about the founding sound systems in J.A. I also liked how he mentioned that the crowd in a dancehall is just as important as d.j.'s cause they are the honest ones to tell you what's poppin and what's not. My brain is swelling with new knowledge---i'm getting a head rush-- peace

I thought all those books were very informative on Ja. I also liked " Born fi Dead" by Laurie Gunst ( a journey through the jamaican posse underworld). Also recommended " The true history of Paradise" by Margaret Cezair- thompson a novel dealing with several families and their history from the 1700s to the elections of 1980. Very evocative and i believe a first novel.Lloyd Bradley also has a companion book out to the BBC tv series with photographs by Dennis Morris.

now dont bring up born fi dead pops, some of the young'uns here are gonna get disillusioned by that one.

one love
jah bill

wha yu mean disillusioned---i beat my own path--down the mountian into the forest--where all of babylon ignore us--as baby cham said "time is an illusion"---but it's good to know both sides fo the knife, so when babylon come looking they get the blade of knowledge while I be holding the handle. knowledge is my gun and the books are my ammo-time to reload

nice sando.

have you read the book? if not, i would recommend it, but it aint for the weak of heart.

one love
jah bill

you know what babylon is most scared of? a sufferah with a library card
big up jah bill