Yabby You: Conquering Lion - 1975

Right up there at the vanguard of the Rastafarian-inspired roots reggae movement was this seminal album from Yabby You, an artist who had worked with Lee “Scratch” Perry, Augustus Pablo, King Tubby, Tommy McCook and The Gladiators, and went on to produce material for Big Youth, Dillinger, Michael Prophet and Tapper Zukie among others. 

He was born Vivian Jackson and was a devoutly religious man - his faith had Christ as its leading inspiration, not Haile Selassie, hence his being known as “Jesus Dread”. 

His lyrics were often extremely Biblical - references to Lion of Judah, Mount Zion, King of Kings etc and warnings of avarice and covetousness - and the music was deep, bassy, raw and insistent, exemplified perfectly on the sonorous, deep opener Run Come Rally. This was an introduction a new reggae sub-genre - deep roots.

There was nothing frivolous about this material, no lovers rock, it was serious and dour, but not without its appeal - tracks like Covetous Man, Jah Love and Anti Christ, beneath the message, have a surprising lightness of melody about them. Also notable is Carnal Mind, which approximates The Melodians’ catchy Rivers Of Babylon. 

The Man Who Does The Work has a real lightness of sound to it too, along with some infectious short dubby passages. Take a look at some more titles and you can guess the devout lyrical  nature of the tracks, however - Jah Vengeance, Love Of Jah, and Love Thy Neighbour.

The most well-known track here is Conquering Lion, which includes the repeated, deep “yabby yabby you” backing vocal. 

Although this was a crucial and influential album, it was as a producer and collaborator on innovative dubs like the saxophone-drenched and deliciously bassy Yabby You Sound and on the superb album of the same name (highlights Creation Rock Version and Tribal War Dub) and also the equally impressive King Tubby's Prophecy Of Dub that Yabby You had most of his subsequent success.