Various
Artists: Soul Power ’68 album review
(Doctor Bird)
2CD/DL
Released 12
March 2021
Two CD set of
some of Duke Reid’s rarer productions from 1968, built around the unissued Soul
Power ’68 compilation album that features Joy Landis, Tommy McCook and Hopeton
Lewis among many others. Eighteen of the tracks included are new to CD and three
are previously unreleased in any form. Ian Canty goes prospecting for Treasure
Isle’s buried treasure…
By 1968, Duke
Reid was firmly established as one of the big two in Jamaican music circles,
along with his long time rival Clement “Coxsone” Dodd. He had possibly had the
edge on Dodd in the rocksteady era, after a closely fought battle during the
ska craze. The ex-policeman was an imposing figure rarely seen without a
firearm on his person, but even so, singers and players flocked to his Treasure
Isle studio that cranked out hit after hit, knowing that their tunes would be
given quality attention. Alton Ellis and Justin Hinds And The Dominoes were
just two of the many artists that enjoyed a flush of success with Reid at the
helm.
Change was in
the air though and this collection reflects that, in the main made up of late
in the day rocksteady melodies, but also having a few proto-reggae groovers.
Some of Duke’s biggest stars are not represented here – which is not to demean
artists of the stature of Tommy McCook and The Melodians, but there’s No Alton,
The Techniques or Justin for example, all of whom were a large part of Reid’s
star-studded roster. The Treasure Isle archive has been extensively mined by
compilers over the past 20 or so years, so it is nice to have a good few not so
well-known offerings and artists included here.
As might be
suspected from the title of this set, soul music features strongly. The Duke
himself was a long term r&b fan, with the US imports in that style that he
played on his sound system crucial to getting his start in music in the 1950s.
At Treasure Isle, he continued to favour artists with soul leanings,
culminating in his peerless run of rocksteady successes. Soul Power ’68 makes
Reid’s preferences overt, mixing pure soul offerings and rocksteady tunes.
The Soul
Power ’68 album itself went unreleased at the time and was only recently
located in the depths of the Trojan Records archive. It kicks off in suitable
enough fashion with The Silvertones applying reggae touches to a well-sung
version of In The Midnight Hour, a song made famous by Wilson Pickett. The
decidedly plummy voice of DJ Radcliff Butler makes Soul Power aka My Last Word
different and novel and Tommy McCook And The Supersonics’ Music Is My
Occupation uses Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire as the jumping-off point for some of
his trademark fine sax. A brassy Lloyd Williams’ Funky Beat is a good example
of an early toast, with spoken and singing styles combining over an r&b
guitar line. What results is a very cool mixture of soul and reggae.
The Melodians
provide a classic example of the rocksteady format in Come On Little Girl and
it is preceded by its smart b side Work Your Soul, The Supersonics jumping near
instrumental which highlights the horn section. I Fell In Love by vocal group
The Conquerers is a totally charming love song and the album finishes with a
super instrumental take of In The Midnight Hour, here under the name Black
Power and credited to organ maestro Winston Wright And The Supersonics. Soul
Power ’68 would have made a fine release at the time. The reason why it was not
issued back then will remain a mystery. Maybe it was felt the soul/reggae
balance might confuse new UK fans?
The LP is
fleshed out on the first disc of this set with nine contemporary Duke Reid
productions, plus a bonus disc with 21 further tracks from around the same
time. Lloyd Charmers, under the pseudonym Lloyd Tyrell, provides a lovely bit
of rocksteady in Keep Me Going and The Gladiators, who would go on to have
great success as the 1970s went on, give us an early indication of their
abundant potential on Live Wire.
Joya Landis,
actually an American born Wanda Jean Vann, features seven times amongst the
bonus tunes. All are very much in a soul vein and all a delight. On I Love You
True (or So True) she gives us a truly touching vocal performance and When The
Lights Are Low is an absolute beauty. She had a brief but successful recording
career, scoring with versions of Kansas City and Moonlight Lover, but, after a
handful of singles over a three year period between 1967 and 1970, she seems
never to have recorded again. Something that is a great shame, given the
evidence provided here.
The
Silvertones return with Slow And Easy, where their singing talents skilfully
offset against a deep trombone part. The excellent Baby Love by The Sensations
opens up disc two of this set with a perfectly judged masterwork of rocksteady.
It’s a pretty difficult task to follow that wonderful tune, but The Melodians’
lively Let’s Join Hands Together doesn’t go far wrong. That this collection is
full to brimming with top quality vocal groups is rammed home by the inclusion
of John Holt’s band The Paragons’ with the brilliantly arranged Joy In My Soul,
which unbelievably went unissued at the time.
Hopeton Lewis
combines the DJ style and singing well on Black Power (take 2) and provides an
early sighting of the Ali Baba rhythm on his Live It Up. Phyllis Dillon’s
Humpty Dumpty is a soul smasher and features Hopeton on co-vocals, their
contributions making for a very exciting piece of music indeed. The compilers
drew a blank in identifying both The Yardbrooms and Joey And His Group (though
they hint that the latter may be linked to The Melodians), even so, the stately
pace of If You See Jane and the sleepy but warm Soul Love enchant.
All things
considered, Soul Power ’68 is another satisfying delve into the Treasure Isle
archive. By eschewing the dog-eared (but admittedly still great) songs that
have been regularly reissued over the past 20 years, it brings to light many
hidden jewels that have languished in the Treasure Isle archive. The step away from
pure rocksteady towards soul and r&b gives the set an extra dimension that
other compilations simply don’t have and you could always rely on Duke Reid to
get it spot on in the Treasure Isle studio environment. With detailed and
interesting sleeve notes, Soul Power ’68 is perfect for exploring by the more
adventurous reggae fan.
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