I guess my first Garland Jeffreys vinyl 45 was '96 Tears' a great uptempo classic rocker, with a really 'weird' B-side... At the time unbeknownst to me '96 Tears' actually was a cover version of the much earlier hit by ? & The Mysterians, a Mexican-American garage rock band, but what the heck! A little later a colleague had gotten tired of his LP collection and offered them for sale, among those was Garland's album 'Escape Artist', complete with the 'Escapades' EP, which I bought right away.
Unfortunately by now (very early 1980s) I had made the decision to stop working from 9 to 5 and instead go bumming around Europe and Asia, which turned out to be the right thing to do, but affected my interest in music a lot as I didn't have a walkman yet... During incidental trips back home I got into music a bit again and also realized that I'd heard & seen Garland before as his 'Matador' was a hit in the Netherlands: watch and listen!
Fast forward to the 1990s, living in Thailand I started slowly building up a CD collection and in a record store noticed Garland's 'Don't Call Me Buckwheat' album. A quick listen to a few songs convinced me right away to buy it, brilliant album, great music, conscious & politically charged lyrics, AND with Sly & Robbie helping out on some of the rhythms! Since then I bought any of his albums that crossed my way, 'Wildlife Dictionary', 'Matador And More', 'I'm Alive', etc.
One thing that became more and more obvious was that Garland always sneaked at least 1 or 2 reggae tracks, and they sounded like the real deal, not like watered-down, poppy, pseudo-reggae crap...
Besides Sly & Robbie, he also recorded with Dennis Bovell, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Earl "Wire" Lindo, and other Jamaican artists!
Therefore it was only a matter of time before I decided to start digging into Garland's discography for a new JOKONKY project. The things we do for love...
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The 32 tracks cover every album Garland recorded, from 1973's self-titled debut album to 2017's '14 Steps To Harlem', but I decided to use 'Matador' as a key song, therefore CD 1 starts (the original) and ends (a live version) with it, whereas CD 2 closes with a brilliant rerecording; 'Return Of The Matador. In between are obscurities such as 'Escape Goat Dub' (the dub version of 'Miami Beach'), and 'Dirty Little World', a Non-Album track on the 'Original Lust' CD single, this last one is not even on YouTube or Spotify!
P.s. Apparently this idea wasn't that original, yesterday I was searching for some John Hiatt tracks on my old backups and automatically checked any Garland folder... Turned out that in 2014 I'd downloaded a double CD GJ collection, CD2 with his reggae tracks & CD1 with non-reggae, go figure!
There was no info whatsoever, but in one of the MP3s I found a little note: abirdswithbrokenwingscomp. I did quite a bit of Googling but that blog seems to have disappeared completely!
ELSEWHERE ON JONDERBLOG: Dennis Bovell's production and remix work.
The link to Reggae Escapades will be posted later today. But first, Koen has a question: What's your favorite Garland Jeffreys track, or if none, what's your favorite reggae song by a non-Jamaican artist? Please tell us in the comments!
ReplyDeletehi there...I remember I was impressed by the song "christine" on the escape artist album...
Delete"Lon Cheney" remains, probably, my favorite Jeffreys song.
DeleteThough not his best song, my favorite is still "Innocent, Not Guilty". I first heard it at the movies (Times Square) & on the soundtrack to that flick. It was my first taste of M. Jeffreys & I've been a big fan ever since. Thanks so much for this, Koen. Looking forward to a deep listen.
DeleteBirds With Broken Wings was a wonderful blog - I learned about so many artists from that guy and have many, many of his comps.
ReplyDeleteReally too many to list but if i had to choose one it would be Spanish Town, no strike that New York Skyline No, wait Don't call me Buckwheat No well you get the idea. Garland's a great underappreciated artist IMHO. If you can seek out the new documentary King of In Between give it a watch .
ReplyDeleteLINK: https://tinyurl.com/GarlandReggae
ReplyDeleteKeep the comments coming! All thanks to Koen for another winner.
Wild in the Streets, followed by 35 Millimeter Dreams
ReplyDeleteThank you Koen and Jonder. Never listened to him, apart from his Matador hit. I am listening with joy to your compilation.
ReplyDeleteJoy is what we're aiming for with obsessive projects like this one. Thanks, Richard!
DeleteA great artist! And if you really want to support Jeffreys and his art, you might consider buying the new physical product that's still available.
ReplyDeletePoint well taken! https://www.garlandjeffreys.com/store
DeleteYou can also make a tax-deductible donation to support the new Garland Jeffreys documentary film, "The King Of In Between" --
https://www.kingofinbetween.com/
Favourite GJ Song: Calcutta Monsoon
ReplyDeleteFavourite reggae song by non reggae artist: Joe Jackson - The Harder They Come
Nice choices! I think my favorite reggae song by an artist not known for reggae is the extended version of "Private Life" Grace Jones.
DeleteGreat to read all the positive feedback!
ReplyDeleteSeemingly out of nowhere, Andy Fairweather Low had a hit with Reggae Tune in 1974 - I loved it when I was a kid and still love it now (and the album it was taken from, Spider Jiving.) Sting & Co were taking notes...
ReplyDeleteThis looks great, Koen!
ReplyDeleteabirdswithbrokenwingscomp was a really great blog! - Stinky
Whoa, a couple of days of internet problems (my computer decided from one day to the next that he doesn't like or need networks and that my wifi doesn't have a valid IP adress...say what?!) and I almost missed that one.
ReplyDeleteI'm just getting into more Garland Jeffries. Ignorant teenage me thought he was some kind of one-hit wonder when he hit the charts with "Hail!Hail!Rock'n'Roll" which is still a cool-ass song. It took me a while to get into "Matador", but that's also a really cool, infectious number.
Hi there gents, I can't seem to get that tinyurl link to work? is it inactive now? I know Garland only very superficially so would love to hear this one. Favorite non Jamaican reggae song,,,,so many...but I would say off the top of my head, Smoke Two Joints by Sublime.
ReplyDeleteHi, Nate! Just checked it... If you copy and paste the tinyurl, it should redirect to this longer link (which will hopefully work for you):
Deletehttps://mega.nz/file/yNYmzQpK#Xh6BleYaFrTx7FZ3MlzhW8Caxc6RXAZTmUSl0pqZUTI