Howling At The Moon - The Punk Panther's Album Reviews

Three years on (quite a while) and Ann Peebles finally got her big single success with the track many of us know by now. The album was produced by Willie Mit chell and largely written by Ann and her husband Don Bryant. I have mentioned the now iconic title track in my introduction to Ann's work. It still sounds great, doesn't it? The lyric is resurrected in the next track, the typical Peebles-soul of Do I Need You. It would seem that the formula hasn't changed much over the ears, but like with reggae or blues rock, for this sort of soul, does it really matter? Hell no.  Until You Came To Me is one of those gospel-inflected slow, heartfelt ballads that finds the singer in more reflective mood. (You Keep Me) Hangin' On (not the Supremes song) is a sumptuously appetising serving of smooth soul. Why, Ann has filed down and polished up those raw, rough raunchy edges, hasn't she? It's a lovely warm song.  The chugging Run Run Run has a vaguely Native American-sounding...

This was Betty's most successful album, at least critically, I'm not sure about sales-wise though, but all I know that it was an absolute corker. Starting with the party song of Everybody Was Rockin', a song about a "Zodiac party" -  "don't forget to wear your sign" , this is a lively, night-time fun groover of an album, on the whole. The Memphis Stax funk has merged with Florida good-time sun-drenched funk.  Florida funk? Want to know where that came from? Well, showing a willingness to diversify within the basic soul framework, in 1974  Wright teamed up with KC & The Sunshine Band’s Harry Casey-Richard Finch songwriting team for the addictive, disco-ish hit  very KC-ish  Where Is The Love .  Despite Wright and Casey/Finch being Floridian, that gritty, earthy Memphis-ish soul sound still generously pervades on the album. It has been described as Miami funk-soul too. So many sub-sub genres! Just as catchy and ebullient is the energetic romp of...

Far more cohesive and appealing from The Delfonics is this album, rated by many critics as the group's best one. The production, while still concentrating on the strings, is much more balanced and the material is all original.  Another big hit opens the album - it is the classic harmony-led number  Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time) , which is enhanced even more by its sweeping strings and strident horn section. Glorious. It is easily The Delfonics' best number. They are unusually strident and poppy on the Funny Feeling which has a definite Motown feel to it, together with some very sixties "ba-ba-ba" backing vocals. When You Get Right Down To It is more in the group's usual style. On this one we get shared deep and high vocals, which works well. Baby I Love You is harmonious and attractive and while Delfonics Theme (How Could You) concentrates on the orchestration, it also has an appeal. Trying To Make A Fool Of Me is a track that features a funkier, bassier...

This was probably the first album from Cornel Campbell (spelt with one "l'", often mis-spelled with two) that people began to take notice of. Dating from 1975, it was a Bunny Lee production.   The only copy I can access via streaming is most definitely a "needle drop" taken from the original vinyl as there are scratches and pops all over the place. Apart from that it still has a reasonable sound quality. This is why, for me, I will aways choose digital over vinyl. Damn the authenticity - give me a faultless sound! Campbell began at this point to become influenced, as so many reggae singers did, by Rasta concerns, and turned towards a roots style as opposed to the rocksteady/lovers style he had been using thus far. This  album, however, is certainly not a righteous Rasta groove. Far from it. Campbell has a light, melodious tenor voice - no Prince Far I gruff growl here - and the material is light too - Why Did You Leave Me To Cry, I Am Just A Country Boy and Some...

The Skatalites were an actually quite short-lived (about eighteen months) collective of instrumentalists who recorded seemingly hundreds of ska tunes, full of fantastic trombone breaks and that rock steady/ska beat that inspired so many, notably the UK two tone groups of the late seventies/early eighties.   The music is upbeat and uplifting. Try keeping still to it. Skinheads loved it in the late sixties too, stomping around with their cherry red boots on.  Their influence was far more wide-reaching than their time together would suggest. Their sound is wonderful, every track having that irresistible beat.  Amazingly, the track that brought them to the attention of many, their version of the theme tune to  Guns Of Navarone , is not included on this otherwise excellent collection. The highlights are many, pretty much every track, but one can make a case for  Eastern Standard Time ,  Music Is My Occupation ,  Street Corner ,  Garden Of Love ,  ...

Possibly the most strange of all reggae artists in the UK commercial boom of the early seventies was Judge Dread,  a fat white man from Snodland, Kent called Alex Hughes.  He specialise d in singing double entendre, risqué lyrics over and authentic reggae beat in a cod-Jamaican accent (which was actually reasonably convincing). He followed in the tradition of lewd songs such as Max Romeo's Wet Dream. He had several hit singles in the UK during the early seventies, making him the biggest-selling reggae artist in the UK apart from Bob Marley, incredibly.  What was also notable that his naughty nursery rhyme reggae hits were all banned by the BBC and many other radio stations. Hughes had been an employee of Trojan Records in London as a debt collector. Somehow he managed to convince them to let him do some recordings.  The backing on all his songs was played by bona fide Jamaican musicians, a lot of them recorded in...

Lucky Dube was the "king of South African reggae". He unfortunately lost his life a few years ago, which was a tragedy because he was a true reggae great. One of my all-time favourites. His music combines traditional reggae sounds with the lilting, melodic music of the South African townships to great effect. What a beautiful, uplifting combination. His voice is intoxicating, full of personality. He uses female backing vocalists a lot too, the closest Jamaican artist to compare him to would be Peter Tosh. Lyrically, he is politically motivated but religiously observant, passionate and sensitive. Personal highlights are  Slave ,  Prisoner ,  Truth In The World ,  Feel Irie ,  We Love It  and the incredibly moving, inspirational  House Of Exile , about Nelson Mandela. I remember playing that while on holiday in South Africa, looking out at nothing but the countryside and the hills. An experience I will never forget.  To be honest, all Dube's tracks ...

Sugar Minott was a melodious-voiced bridging artist between roots and dancehall with big hints of lovers rock in his work. This compilation  includes two hours plus of Minott's pleasurable grooves and its highlights are the huge lovers rock hit, the Motown cover  Good Thing Going (first done by Michael Jackson on his 1972 Ben album) ,  Hard Time Pressure  and rootsy hangovers like  River Jordan  and the beautifully bassy  Babylon . Good Thing Going has so many memories of 1981 for me. Even a righteous song like  Never Gonna Give Jah Up  sounds like a lovers crooner, though. Minott had a lightness of delivery and sound that differed from the deeper roots artists of the mid-late seventies, providing a definite pointer forward to the light tones of lovers rock. Along with dancehall, lighter lovers rock sounds were very much the thing in the early eighties. Minott could also do roots, however, and in 1979 - having become a Rasta as so many reggae...

Dandy Livingstone  made his name as a ska and rock steady reggae singer in the mid-late sixties, when most of his recordings were credited to "Dandy" only. Some were credited to "Boy Friday" as well.  Other tracks on this compilation are Livingstone productions, for artists such as Jackie Robinson, Tito Simon, Audrey Hall, The Superboys, The Israelites, Bobby Thompson and The Brother Dan All-Stars. In the early seventies he had some chart success with an easy-skanking, poppy reggae style. His voice was always soft and sweetly melodic. I always had memories of pictures of Livingstone from the time, in his studious-looking glasses and flower-power round collared shirt not seeming anything much like a pop star. Livingstone's biggest hit was the irresistibly catchy  Suzanne Beware Of The Devil  which did really well in the UK in 1972. He also recorded the original of  A Message To You Rudy , memorably covered by  The Specials .  Rico Rodriguez , who p...

This is a pleasing skank from beginning to end, a 1982 release with an easy-going rocksteady feel to it that almost sounds like reggae-country on occasions.  Once more featuring impressive sound quality, it sort of puts me in mind of UB40's 2013 album of country covers, Getting Over The Storm. Tracks like Spit In The Sky (yes, it's "spit" not "Spirit"!) and the cover of the Four Tops' When She Was My Girl perfectly exemplify this. It's a real easy-going album. Cool operating indeed. Nice cover pic on the London streets too.

Barrington Levy's  most successful period was during the Dancehall boom from the mid/late eighties into the early nineties.  Despite releasing a lot of material in the seventies he became one of the pioneers of the "ragga" sub-genre. His voice at that time was tuneful and light-ish in tone, with an attractive strange wail to it. He had none of the gruffness of earlier roots artists like Prince Far I or Big Youth. He mixed singing with that dancehall style of toasting. The rhythm is generally light and breezy, certainly not dubby or particularly rootsy. This is an impressive collection of this influential dancehall/ragga artist's work.  Murderer is a staccato, unusually rootsy skank with a semi-spoken dancehall-style lyric. It was one of the first "ragga" hits. Levy breaks out into singing on the chorus with his relatively high-pitched and quite melodic voice. Another early ragga hit was Under Mi Sensi, which is also very much in the dancehall style with more...

Guns Don't Argue: The Anthology 1970 to 1977 One of the most listenable and melodious of the many DJ/toasters was Dennis Alcapone, who was U-Roy's biggest rival in the early/mid-seventies. He was originally known as Dennis Al Capone. As opposed to just growling every now and again over a dub beat, Alcapone actually sang, often singing back to the vocals on the original cut he is "versioning". His voice was light, lilting and tuneful and his lyrics were accompanied by high-pitched wails and whoops. He claimed that he was the first "sing-jay" (DJs who sang as opposed to rapping/growling) The years 1970-1973 saw Dennis at the peak of his powers, being even more popular than U-Roy during that period. He worked with Duke Reid, Coxsone Dodd, Bunny Lee, Keith Hudson and Lee "Scratch" Perry among many others.  His biggest hit was  Teach The Children , from 1972 - with its often-sampled "oh oh yeah"  female backing vocal.  Other highlights were  ...

Tommie Young was a soul singer from Texas who recorded most of her music in Shreveport, Louisiana in the early seventies. Her voice was strong, soulful but gospel-influenced, like Betty Wright, Shirley Brown, Freda Payne and Candi Staton. She has been relatively forgotten, which is a shame cause she laid down some seriously quality seventies soul.  This is an excellent album. The sound quality is superb. The horn backing is dominant throughout the material as are the churchy backing vocals. I think you can get the picture - powerful vocals, emotive songs, big brass backing - all the usual ingredients from the era.   That's How Strong My Love Is   is very different-sounding to the version that is more commonly heard - by Otis Redding and The Rolling Stones for example. Young's version is slowed down to walking pace and it becomes a late night soul ballad, although some horns are still there on the backing, they are not as "...

Desmond Dacres grew up in the church tradition of singing and, in 1961 auditioned at Studio One, as did so many reggae singers. He was initially rejected, however. Not deterred, though, he began singing ska, proceeding in the mid-sixties via rocksteady to being one of the main lights of the "skinhead reggae" boom of the late sixties/early seventies.   Even then, his ska-developed instincts for a catchy tune prevailed, and many of those songs from the 1968-72 period became his biggest hits. We are talking, of course, in the first case, about the iconic Israelites , with its memorable vocal intro of  "get up in the morning - slavin' for breads, sir.." . What a song it was. Indeed it was the first song that got me into reggae when I first heard it as an eleven year-old. I loved it and have done ever since. It began a lifelong love of reggae. For me, it started here.  For Dekker it began with the first producer to accept him, Leslie Kong, and he remained steadfastly...

Maxi Priest was, to some in the media, "the king of lovers rock". Beres Hammond or Peter Hunningale may have had something to say about that, though. He certainly had a lot of "crossover" success taking his brand of commercial, radio-friendly reggae into the charts in the UK and the USA. He never caught on with reggae purists, but there is no point in being snobby about it - his reggae was accessible and popular with those who may not otherwise have given reggae a second listen. Despite his dreadlocks and Rastafarianism, he was certainly no Johnny Clarke, Junior Murvin, Linval Thompson, Tappa Zukie, Dennis Brown or Michael Prophet. There was nothing "roots" about Maxi Priest. That said, there is no reason to object to his music. It is what it is - commercial, appealing reggae. Fair play to him.               Priest's biggest hit, his cover of Cat Stevens' Wild World, is given a very bright, summery eighties-style reggae backing, with synthesisers a...