Ken Boothe: Everything I Own - 1974

This album, from 1974, did pretty well for Ken Boothe on the back of the two big hit singles, Everything I Own and Crying Over You. 

Evil Girl is a nice brassy skank featuring an excellent trumpet solo, something unusual for a reggae song. The brass enhancement continues on Sad And Lonely, another mid-pace lovers groove, with Boothe's unique, immaculately phrased voice to the fore. Sandie has a great rock guitar solo on it, surprisingly. 

Come And Lay Some Loving On Me is a good one too. My Heart Is Like An Open Book is also in the same mould, in fact all the songs are - you know what you're going to get here. It is an easy-listening, gently skanking reggae album, nothing more, nothing less. Mind you, Time Passage is one hell of a track, different in style to the lovers-style material of the rest of the album in its grinding groove. 

★ The best way to get an overview of a hell of a lot of Boothe's work, from the early rocksteady years through the pop reggae success to later Rasta-inspired roots material (Ken got surprisingly rootsy at times) is via this excellent Trojan compilation -


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