Jacob Miller: Who Say Jah No Dread - 1975
Jacob Miller was a really popular singer in Jamaica in the late seventies and before his untimely death at only twenty seven in a car accident he had become part of the reggae "crossover" scene, performing reggae-fied cover versions of popular rock and easy listening songs.
The original Who Say Jah No Dread (1976) was a twelve track album, but this collection is expanded to twenty-two tracks and includes dub versions of all the tracks and is a wonderful compilation of dubby, roots reggae from the years 1974-1975 from the young Jacob Miller and dub instrumentalist Augustus Pablo. Tracks from Tenement Yard (1976) are covered here too. Often early reggae releases had the same tracks on them or they re-released an album a short while later with a different title, but the tracks remained basically the same, give or take a few. This s definitely the case here.
Miller's later, poppier roots material and subsequent "crossover" covers of big hits from other genres often tends to find some people overlooking the fact that here, at the beginning of his career, he put out some seriously heavy, deep roots/dub stuff.
They all cook, big time, full of rumbling, deep bass, sonorous echoey horns and Pablo's trademark melodica sound. While I like the roots pop of Miller & Inner Circle's Reggae Greats collection, released on the Island label, I cannot deny that his best work, his most "crucial", is to be found here. It is roots reggae of the highest quality and there is an argument for it certainly going into a top twenty reggae albums of all time list.
Checkout False Rasta, Keep On Knocking and, of course, the catchy Baby I Love You So and its iconic dub version King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown. Many claim the latter to be the best dub cut ever produced. Listening to those big bass lines and mysterious Pablo sounds you can see why. For me, 132 Version is even better.
Hungry Town Skank is just so evocative and atmospheric too. Oh, that crystal clear rhythm. You can't beat the roots skank of Who Say Jah No Dread either. Miller always had a mellifluous, lilting voice and it is on some of the cuts on here that he first starts to use the hiccuping vibrato that he would use for the rest of his career. This is a most essential album if you want to build a credible roots reggae collection. It has excellent, booming, deep sound quality too. Get those speakers shaking.
