is The Reggae Box just a big fat ripoff of Tougher Than Tough?

michaelangelo vs. cybele: FITE FITE FITE.

I'm going to stand on the other side of the playground eating fruit roll ups and singing "Solid Foundation" to myself.

na na na na na

hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

wake me up when yr done whining. and when you have a CLUE about reggae. thanks.

BandF is a good label--I have nearly everything they've put out--but if you're interested in the panoply of post-ska Jamaican genres (up to and including current ragga), buying their catalogue is pretty useless because A) most of it is either by lesser artists or lesser work by artists who've done better things, and B) it's all so GOTdamned concentrated on '70s roots'n'dub. you pick your exception and I'll pick mine--King Tubby's Dub Like Dirt 1975-77, my favorite King Tubby compilation ever, the Big Youth box, Pick a Dub, Heart of the Congos--but it's pretty much for specialists and/or fanatics. Tougher Than Tough, on the other hand, not only offers a broad view of the island's output (and not just Island's, as some mistakenly believe--more than half of it is licensed from other record companies) but is one of the most sheerly FUN, listenable compilations of any kind I've ever heard, period. I play it all the time--something that the Big Youth box aside, I cannot say for ANY B&F CD.

As far as knee-jerk box-set hatred, it's rather puzzling, as if people who buy boxes are too lazy to really get into the music. It's a reflex, not a learned response, arbitrary pseudo-neoprimitivism, like me randomly deciding I hate soundtracks and therefore real reggae fans shouldn't like The Harder They Come ST because it's not a "real" album, or something equally idiotic. I never claim to be a reggae expert, but dismissing what is, in hardcore reggae circles and in dabblers' as well, considered the single best introduction to Jamaican music--ALL of it, not just '70s roots'n'dub--makes me wonder just how much the dismisser is aware of in that music.

Finally, it might interest Cyebele to know that Tougher Than Tough was put together by some guy named Steve Barrow. He also owns a record company of some note--the one you've been venerating over those stupid box sets.

I don't like box sets for the same reason that I don't like anthologies. I don't like the idea of canonizing music, lit, film, or anything. I prefer to pick my own favourite Toots and Maytals tune and mix it with Dennis Alcapone myself.

Although I have a great deal of respect for the man, I have problems with Steve Barrow's attitude about reggae and his sense of their being somewhat of a reggae cognicenti and these cognicenti knowing or "understading" what are the most or least important singles/producers/engineers/deejays etc. Just because someone owns 6,000 reggae LPS and 19,000 singles or whatever the stats are for the sick amount of stuff found in Barrow's house, doesn't mean I'm going to necessarily agree with his picks, nor should I.

Aside: What do you think he listens to (if anything) when he's not listening to reggae? Punk rock? Britney? IDM?

Let me elaborate on what I initially said. You were asking about two separate box sets--I remarked (snarkily, I admit) that one should take a peek at the BandF reissue catalogue instead. Yes, I agree that the Box sets provide you with a nice overview, and I also concede that Barrow's choices reveal a soft spot for Bunny Lee, but I like the idea of widening the net. Perhaps I should have said to not buy a canonized box set, but rather taste test a number of different types of reggae through the magic of the internet and decide yourself.

I think it's probably because I work in publishing that I immidiately get my back up against a wall when anthologizes are mentioned.

Then again, maybe the reason why I don't like the box sets you mentioned is because you can't get 'em on vinyl.

incidentally, one of the miracles of Tougher Than Tough is the fact that, well, Steve Barrow compiled it and it isn't full of who-cares rarities. it really is a great album--and as a rule, I too am VERY wary of box sets.

Two-string geetar pickin' mixed with Fairlight synthesizers. Journey meets Black Oak Arkansas!

(actually was it coxsone dodd or some other dubmeister?: my memory has been "enhanced" by too much ganja i finx) (= none)

the blood & fire catalogue, until maybe its last year or two, is completely fucking ace. granted it doesn't cover every genre of jamaican pop music, but for what it does cover, it's as good a guide to the music as anything.

ah callow and/or stupid youth

indeed.