All Beatles, All Reggae

As most people have experienced, there's something inherently catchy and toe-tapping in the reggae beat. Of course, you also know that the Beatles were master's at rafting the perfect pop melody. So, if you put these together, how can you go wrong?

I love cover songs that don't try to recreate the original, but instead put a unique spin on them. The Trojan Beatles Tribute Box Set certainly fits that mold. This is easily the best collections of reggae Beatles. The Trojan record label is legendary in reggae circles. So, it's fitting that they used their vast repertoire of reggae stars to build this 3-CD box set of Beatles songs done in the reggae style. I really don't understand how a relatively repetitive and monotonous reggae beat can be so consistently entertaining. But you'll have a hard time not enjoying this collection. There are numerous repeats (the same song interpreted by different artists) as well as several instrumental numbers (which I didn't care that much for). But, it's a pretty comprehensive collection. The first two discs are labeled simply as "The Black, Gold & Green Album," The third disc is called "The Black, Gold & Green Album... UK Stylee" and I have no idea what that means.

The first selection here is from Disc 1 while the second is from the third disc. The second, by the way, is from reggae legend, Desmond Dekker who just died last year. Remember the big hit "Israelites"? That was Dekker. Finally, I decided to throw in another song from a reggae legend on Disc 2 - John Holt. Here is John Holt's I Will.

This is a worthwhile purchase for a relatively inexpensive price. You can find this 3-CD box set for less that $25 on Amazon here.

1. Ernie Smith - You Won't See Me (3.69 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Desmond Dekker - Blackbird (3.01 MB; 128kbps MP3)
3. John Holt - I Will (3.39 MB; 128 kbps MP3)

10cc of Reggae-Rock

Since I seem to be on a roll here with my nostalgic tunes, here's another one that stems from my college days in India. A cousin of mine owned this album by 10cc. Since I considered this cousin of mine extremely cool, I had no choice but to like what he liked.

One song that was a favorite of his was Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc. If you listen to it, you'll see that it builds on the typically catchy reggae beat by adding some nice harmonies. It also has the word "cricket" in the lyrics, which for some reason, I always liked (I know this is all strange like a surreal dream, but you've got to realize that I'm grabbing at fragments of my memory here).

You can find the 10cc catalog on Amazon here. This song came from the album Bloody Tourists that you can find here. For a start, I strongly recommend this greatest hits collection available here.

You are all savvy enough to find out more info on this band at WIkipedia if you're interested, so I won't go into detail here in the post.

10cc - Dreadlock Holiday (6.92 MB; 192 kbps MP3)