With an artist called Ranking Barnabas, and a kinetic title like ‘The Cold Crusher’ you’d be forgiven for expecting a chaotic and action packed cover.
Guess they ran out of ink.
That said, this simple cover works well with the music contained within – this is a no-frills, raw dub album that is well worth checking out if you can find it.
Track List:
Roast Fish & Stout
Raw Meat
White Whale
Cold Crusher
11-9-0
Dub Them Roots Man
Murderer
Run For Cover
Dub Me Right
Corn Meal Porridge
Recording Engineer : Bunny Tom Tom
Mixing Engineer : Ranking Barnabas
Producer : Phil Pratt
Drums : Sly Dunbar
Bass : Robbie Shakespeare
Rhythm Guitar : Bingy Bunny
Lead Guitar : Rad Bryan
Piano : Ansel Collins
Organ : Bobby Kalphat
Horns : Herman Marquis & Tommy McCook
Percussions : Sticky & Scully Simms
Elephant Man is on a mission to bring the fun back to Dancehall. His latest album is called “Dance and Sweep – Adventures of the Energy God”, and it features a fantastic piece of cartoon cover art that brings back memories of those old Greensleeves album covers (especially the Scientist ones). This is released on VP records, who actually acquired Greensleeves a while back – so the link between the two is not that surprising.
The cartoon cover protrays Elephant Man as the dancehall superhero who is here to start the party and lead the crowd in dancing. Look closely and you’ll see what looks like Usain Bolt in the background, and even Harry Potter clutching his broom for the Dance and Sweep. There’s a possible Barak Obama in the background as well?
TRACK LISTING
1. The Genesis (The Energy God’s Introduction)
2. How We Do It ft. Bounty Killer
3. Party Up In Here
4. In Jamaica
5. Nuh Linga
6. Dance And Sweep
7. Clear ft. Kardinal Offishall
8. Sweep
9. Wine And Dip
10. Dip Again
11. Swing
12. Step Ova
13. Shake It
14. Let Me Be The Man
15. Life Of The Party Ft. Bounty Killer (Digital Exclusive)
Dancehall fans will be already familiar with some of the tracklisting as recent singles like ‘How We Do It” and “Nuh Linga” are included.
Listen to ‘How We Do It” with Bounty Killer (Mad Collab riddim):
Prince Jazzbo, as well as being one of the more under-rated DJs – at least outside of the more passionate and knowledgeable reggae circles, also has a large footprint of both wonderful and poor album covers.
This is one of the wonderful ones.
‘Natty Passing Thru’ was first released in 1976 on Black Wax records, and was later re-released under the name ‘Ital Corner’ on Clocktower Records.
The first release on Black Wax records can be seen in the image at the top and featured a bold cover design featuring a dreadlocked face.
The release that came later on Clocktower records featured a New York style street populated by various dreads hanging around on ‘Ital Corner’. The Clocktower logo is prominent in the upper left corner of the record sleeve and the artwork was credited to Brad Osborne and Jamal.
It is quite rare for a re-release to feature artwork that is as good and as arresting as the original – I personally love the urban 70′s feeling that seeps out of the artwork on the Clocktower release and the fact that the streetlight on the album cover gives off the impression that it is only illuminating a fraction of what is going on in the busy scene – it’s like discovering some hidden part of a city, and only getting a glimpse.
The 1981 re-release also featured a red, gold, and green border (as seen in the image above).
Both releases are effectively the same album, but the track-listing is in a different order on each. The music is incredible and Prince Jazzbo DJs over a selection of Lee Perry produced Black Ark tracks. This is one of the few DJ albums to be released that was based entirely around Lee Perry’s Black Ark productions (Jah Lion’s Colombia Colly springs to mind as another).
Released in 1985 on Powerhouse Records, this is the Undercover Lover album by Josey Wales (spelt Jose Wales on the cover).
It features very distinctive artwork by the legendary Wilfred Limonious – the cover features Josey Wales kissing a topless woman (the woman also has ‘Handle with love’ stamped on the rear of her jeans – Limonious would often write text across his album art).
As usual for an 80s Limonious album cover, it features bright colours, hand-drawn cartoons, and comic style speech bubbles – the rear of this particular cover articulates a stark warning to Josey ‘The Colonel’ Wales with a cartoon woman stating: “Jose Wales, if you ever leave me for another girl, I’ll cut off your you know what!”
Josey Wales was one of Jamaica’s biggest DJs in the 1980s and his gruff, but melodic flow, coupled with snappy and witty lyrics created many classic hits – “Undercover Lover” was a huge hit single.
This is classic 1980s dancehall through and through – from the album cover to the music and the riddims. Greensleeves have just re-issued this album so make sure you check it out.
Track List:
Undercover Lover
Throw Me Corn
Pon Street Again
Jose Ready
Nuffy Nuffy
Love I Can Feel
Don’t Come Distress Me
Freeze Who Goes There
Come Watch The Sound
Rocking Time
Listen to ‘Undercover Lover’ by Josey Wales:
Try not singing along to this – it’s basically impossible….
Listen to ‘Throw Me Corn’ by Josey Wales::
The Undercover Lover album has just been re-released, so you’ve got no excuse really….
This is going straight into the Iconic & Classic Album Covers category.
Produced by Lee Perry and classed by many as one of the greatest vocal roots albums ever made, The Heart Of The Congos also has a wonderful album cover to match the music.
The cover shows Cedric Myton and Roy Johnson, the main vocalists, playing congo drums in, what is said to be, a local fishing shed – which totally suits the ‘local’ and ‘rural’ feel that the music conveys.
The album itself has also been known as ‘Heart of the Congo Man’ and was first released on Lee Perry’s ‘Black Art’ label in 1977.
If you have never heard this album, then you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy – it is a dense and complex roots production with soaring vocals and melodies. The uninitiated may find it hard going at first, but perseverance will eventually reward you as you’ll discover more and more layers to the album with every listen. Steve Barrow (founder of Blood & Fire records and reggae historian) stated the “Heart Of The Congos is the most perfectly realized album to come from Lee Perry’s Black Ark.”
Track List:
Fisherman
Congoman
Open Up The Gate
Children Crying
La La Bam Bam
Can’t Come In
Sodom And Gomorrow
The Wrong Thing
Ark Of The Covenant
Solid Foundation
The album has been reissued a number of times on a number of different labels, and more recently the now (sadly) demised Blood & Fire label produced an extended version that captured extra tracks and recordings.
The album cover produced for the re-issue was reverential to the themes contained in the original songs, and even tried to maintain the ‘home-made feel’ to the artwork – it featured the original cover mounted in the center of a sculpture, and surrounded it with symbols relating to the spirit and themes contained within the album.
Album cover for the Blood and Fire re-issue of ‘Heart of the Congos’:
Track Listing for the Blood and Fire re-issue of ‘Heart of the Congos’:
Fisherman
Congoman
Open Up The Gate
Children Crying
La La Bam Bam
Can’t Come In
Sodom And Gomorrow
The Wrong Thing
Ark Of The Covenant
Solid Foundation
At The Feast
NicodemusCongoman
Congoman Chant
Bring The Meakabeak
Noah Sugar Pan
Solid Foundation
The re-issue is a nice tribute to the original album, but at the end of the day we prefer the original photo and hand-made design of the original release for defining the spirit of this wonderful album.
Reggae Album Covers is a blog that celebrates vintage reggae album cover artwork throughout the years - from the classic and legendary artwork, to the not so great. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!
![Josey Wales - Undercover Lover [back cover]](http://reggaealbumcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/josey.jpg "Josey Wales - Undercover Lover [back cover]")
