Universal/Island are set to re issue the best selling Bob Marley & The Wailers Legend album tomorrow on its 35th Anniversary
As my first love is Jamaican music which doesn’t tend to get covered much in audiophile circles, I thought it might be interesting to start this thread and ask which Jamaican/Reggae music forum members like and why?
Records, memorable gigs, sound systems, record shops etc
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Love reggae, and used to love playing it back when I was a drummer.
A few of my favourites are
Mighty Diamonds
Black Uhuru
The Cool Ruler
Wailers, obviously ( Rastaman Vibration turned my head around when it came out)
Yabby U & The Prophets - Beware Dub
Lee Perry, of course
Channel One dub
Sugar Minott’s first album
Last night I was dancing round the room to
Kingston 12 Tuffy - The Morwells
54-36 - The Maytals
Rock Me Dub - Linval Thompson & The Revolutionaries
(All on Trojan’s mighty Creation Rockers series)
I also adore The Eternals’ Push Me In The Corner…guaranteed to get me singing!
And Guardian Angel - Self Service Love 7"
Love this stuff - this list barely scratches the surface! 
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I bought these four compilations over the past couple of years which are excellent value, not the best SQ of course but all the same very enjoyable.
Compiled and released by Dub Store Records from Japan on double vinyl, CD and download.
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Apart from perhaps the very modern U.S R&B influenced reggae and Ragga from the 1990’s and 2000’s I love all types of Reggae and for me numero uno is Bob Marley.
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I’m not a big reggae fan but this is insane and my recording of the moment.
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One to hear if you haven’t :
Prince Far I - Shake Up The Nation.
In fact the whole album:
Prince Far I and The Arabs:
Cry Tuff Dub Encouter Chapter III
Helluva track/s 
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Wow guys I’m impressed. Great selections so far, I did wonder if this thread might be a non starter!
Rewind n come again!
Bob Marley is top of my list like most. Even named my oldest, Marley, after him. I like roots rock reggae. Burning Spear, Black Uhuru, Steel Pulse, Culture, Eek a mouse, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs, etc.
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Bob, for a decent King Jammy set with good sound quality check King Jammy The Rhythm King, essential selections out of print but can be picked up inexpensively
I hadn’t heard of Alpha Blondy before, but enjoyed listening to this. I’ve been listening to Fip Radio a fair bit recently, so maybe that primed me
Thanks for the tip.
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It was a review from our very own Adam Meredith in he old Hifi Review that got me into Alpha Blondy back in the day.
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Hearing Reggae music for the first time changed my life and outlook completely.
In the mid to late seventies I was a hard-core heavy metal rocker until one day I saw a TV documentary about the band Steel Pulse and Sound System Culture which fascinated me, then in 79 the Two Tone Movement pricked my ears.
The LP that turned me into a die hard Reggae and Jamaican music fan was Steel Pulse Tribute To The Martyrs. This music was a million miles away from the Deep Purple, Zep, Rainbow, Saxon, Rush, Iron Maiden etc that I had been immersed in. Reggae moved me like no other music I had ever heard. There wasn’t a lot of it around in sleepy Sussex but early records that inspired me to deeper exploration included Aswad Showcase, Black Uhuru Vital Selection, Culture Vital Selection, Dillinger (my name is Ragnampiza and I dont eat fertilizer! 
)and the idiosyncratic dub sounds of Mikey Dread particularly World War III blew my mind
I used to go to extreme lengths putting up aerials to pull in Rodigans Roots Rockers on Capital Radio, the tunes and wild jingles really got under my skin, Tony Williams on Radio London, DBC
I must have been the only lad in the dead end smalk town I lived in with a weekly subscription in my local newsagent for Black Echoes, which I consumed with zeal, all these oddly named records with strange labels, Echoes Discomix & Pre Release Charts, shops like Daddy Kool & Dub Vendor especially which took record shopping to a whole different level and experience once I had discovered this other world.
Discovering all aspects of Jamaican music and culture led me to a greater appreciation of other musical genres, particularly Jazz as many of Jamaica’s musicians came from a Jazz tradition, playing in the big dance bands like Eric Deans that played the hotels on the Island or poor or wayward youth that were taken in by Sister Ignatious at the Alpha Boys School and taught music, particularly Jazz. Dizzy Reece, Joe Harriot, Ernest Ranglin to name just three who achieved international success and respect beyond the Reggae genre.
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Working in London in the late 70’s / early 80’s, I found myself immersed in the sound system / house party scene, largely in the New Cross and Deptford areas.
Heard some great “off the radar” reggae, and made many friendships, several of which survive to this day, mainly, I guess, because of the shared love of the music. 
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Another reggae fan here, old enough and lucky enough to have seen Bob Marley live.
I can’t resist bigging up (as I believe young people say) Talisman, a local band from here in Bristol. They had 2 incarnations - early 1980s which I think of as their golden age, and the past 5 years or so when they reformed. I prefer their old material but the new material ain’t so shabby. Can’t find a decent quality video of the old stuff but this fairly recent video will give you a taste:
For the wonderul early stuff, Googling “Talisman Dole Age” will lead you to their classic LP of the same name, reissued on vinyl in 2011.
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…Reggae music led to my broader discovery of Rhythm n Blues, Soul, Blues, Jazz. Strangely a lot of the early Jamaican blues, Ska and Rocksteady I was listening too were unknown to me direct cover versions of Sam Cooke, Soul Stirrers, Curtis Mayfield, Winona Harris, Wilson Picket…for years I was listening too Val Bennett & The Aggrovators - The Russians Are Coming before discovering that it was a cover of Brubeck’s Take Five.
Going to dances and listening or rather feeling the vibe from massive valve driven speaker stacks from sound systems with esoteric names like Jah Shaka and Coxsone Outernational, being totally freaked out and physically sick from the depth and intensity of the low frequencies, leading to my interest in HiFi equipment…
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Unity HiFi?
I organised some blues & rock clubs & events in & around Oxford(shire) in the 1960’s & as a result ran into David Rodigan who was most interested & involved with ska & reggae amongst the Oxford city Caribbean community - remember ska came first in the 1950’s, reggae arrived in the late 60’s.
David gave me the bug & I’ve been infected ever since.
And if you ever get a chance to experience a real live Jamacian “soun’ system” on the island, do it. Then you will have the real reggae bug & it will prove terminal.
… ahy-ree 
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I was/am also a metal head from my youth and always noticed most bands listed Bob Marley as an influence. That peaked my interest then but then had a friend that had a Bob album. After hearing that I was hooked. Later I had another friend move away and got hooked on reggae from his new surroundings. That introduced me to more reggae. There are some white boy reggae bands around these days that I don’t mind either. Maybe not authentic but still a good vibe coming from them.
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I think I’d left London before Unity HiFi got going, but I do remember Sir Coxsone and Jah Shaka, among others.
Happy days. 
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