VA – Rebel Island Soul

As that last example suggests, soul music of course remained popular in Jamaica throughout the 70s and indeed beyond (plug: get hold of a copy of the Reggae Vibes book Reggae Got Soul for more information and examples). This set also reveals the variety of the soul styles of the late 60s and the 70s that had an influence on the island’s music – and across the diaspora into the United Kingdom.

John Holt’s soulful tones grace his cover of fellow smoothie Lou Rawls’ You Never Find Another Love Like Mine – shortened here to You’ll Never Find and providing an instant and typical example of the album’s aim. The soft, smooth approach of The Stylistics, one of the most popular soul groups of the early 70s is recreated, Jamaican style, by The Sensations on their version of If I Don’t Watch Out.

Dave & Ansell Collins’ Single Barrel from 1975 is mainly instrumental but does feature Dave singing the sublime chorus of The Temptations’ mid-60s Born To Love You; Female group The Marvels tackle The Supremes’ Some Day We’ll Be Together, also from Motown, the label dubbed “The Sound of Young America” whilst Elizabeth Archer & the Equators turn in a surprisingly innocent sounding performance of Roberta Flack’s Feel Like Makin’ Love.

The Now Generation’s rendition of Isaac Hayes’ iconic Shaft shouldn’t work but certainly does, and the famed Stax label out of Memphis, Tennessee was also the point of origin for Winston Francis’ mid-70s superb cover of Judy Clay and William Bell’s Private Number.

An oddity on this collection (and also a little premature for the 1970s) perhaps is Slim Smith & The Uniques’ Watch This Sound – Slim was always one of the most soulful of Jamaican singers, and certainly this track comes across as such, but it is actually a rendition of hippie group Buffalo Springfield’s 1966/7 protest hit For What It’s Worth (Stop, Hey, What’s That Sound), though soul-gospel group The Staple Singers covered it in 1968, the same year as this version. That is a nicely subtle change in the title to make it more relevant to a Jamaican audience, possibly.

Lee Perry & The Upsetter’s Bathroom Skank doesn’t seem to quite fit here, though the Kentucky Skank riddim is undoubtedly funk-inflected; also slightly out of place, though a fine performance in itself, is dee-jay Jah Youth’s Ain’t No Sunshine; it might have been better for this set to have included Horace Andy’s track that is used for the backing instead. Those are only very minor criticisms though.

Carl Bert & The Cimarons turn on the funk with War’s Slipping Into Darkness, measuring up well against other covers of the song by Nigeria’s The Funkees and Black Uhuru. Before Rastafarianism took hold of the music scene on the island and beyond, a growing Black consciousness was already present in American soul music, which filtered through to Jamaica and the diaspora – they name of the group itself, The Darker Shades Of Black, and their surprisingly still modern rendition of Ball Of Confusion, another Temptations song, reflects this; Edwin Starr’s War also presents a counter-culture stance.

Winston Francis again shows his quality with the second of his two tracks here,Sitting In The Park from the mid 70s. Billy Stewart’s R’n’B ballad that hit in 1965 that is given a little more upbeat treatment than the original that works extremely well. As with The Darker Shades Of Black, note that Winston deserves his two track accolade as his quality is unmistakable even on a collection as impressive as this.