Young, Gifted & Black

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Young, Gifted And Black acts as an excellent primer for a new generation of reggae enthusiasts. With their vigorous reissue programme, Trojan Records appear to be inspired by the recent success of the Blood And Fire label, although their own specialist field is ska and rocksteady rather than deep dub. The endorsements in the sleeve booklet come from Don Letts and UB40's Robin Campbell, with the latter highlighting this set's populist accessibility. There's a wide range to be covered in this handsome package, so any selection is bound to end up with some degree of subjectivity. Even so, it's hard to go wrong with two discs and 50 tracks, spanning the best part of two decades. Selections like "Oh Carolina" (The Folkes Brothers) and "Guns Of Navarone" (The Skatalites) sound like long-lost audio relics, the very beginnings of ska. Prince Buster clicks and puffs through "Al Capone", providing the impetus for Madness and The Specials. If some tunes weren't hits the first time around, they had their day as covers by the likes of Blondie, The Clash and UB40. The metamorphosis into rocksteady happened quickly and, early on disc 2, Bob Marley's sudden entrance illustrates how shocking reggae's slowed-down minimalism must have sounded in the early 1970s. Much of the second disc is dominated by a lighter pop-reggae, at its worst with "Side Show" (Barry Biggs), and its best with "Uptown Top Ranking" (Althea & Donna). We also get to hear the banned naughties of "Wet Dream" and "Big Seven" (Max Romeo and Judge Dread), never allowed in the playgrounds of the 1970s. --Martin Longley

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Customer reviews

review by: Sizbat date: 2008-03-29 rating:
A feast of vintage reggae
Friends who grew up in the multicultural scene that was Cardiff Docks say that this cd is almost the soundtrack of their youth. There are some real gems on this collection & the fact that the sound quality is on par with the original releases only serves to add to the authenticity.

Vintage stuff - superb!

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review by: date: 2004-08-12 rating:
Young Gifted and Black
I found the sound quality poor on both cd's but this did not retract from the quality of music used in this compilation. I was very surprised to find that most of the titles are well known. I didn't find it too much ie reggae. The differing titles made a good all round album. I'm sure you'll find this as surprising as I did on first listening. Well worth the listen.

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review by: davewright29 date: 2004-08-10 rating:
Surprisingly good!
When I was growing up in the early seventies like all the other boys in my all boys school I was a rock music fan who hated reggae. Like Motown it was unfashionable.
Well I've since grown to like Motown, but it was another few years before I gave reggae a fair hearing. Then it was through the Clash's version of Police and Thieves and the inevitable Bob Marley. I began listening to The Specials and early Madness again, not having given these bands a fair hearing in their heyday. I then began to wonder what the originals would be like. Well they're all here on this wonderful Trojan compilation. Rudy, A Message To You, Monkey Man, Guns Of Navarone, all covered by The Specials, plus Al Capone which mutated into their Gangsters. There is also Madness covered by Madness, The Tide Is High covered by Blondie, Love Of The Common People covered by Paul Young and many more. Some of them I remember as a kid when they were UK hits in their own right Desmond Dekker, Dave and Ansel Collins, Greyhound, The Pioneers, Bob and Marica, etc.
Most of these fifty songs are eminently listenable and will really bring back the memories. There are a handful of absolute classics too. Jimmy Cliff's Many Rivers To Cross, Lord Creator's Kingston Town (heard the song before, but never heard of the artist), Horace Faith's Black Pearl and Junior Murvin's aforementioned Police and Thieves to name but four.
There are also inevitably a few clunkers - Skanga by Rupie Edwards being perhaps the worst and I've always found My Boy Lollipop by Millie (perhaps one of the most famous tracks on here) quite irritating.
I was also interested to hear Big Seven by Judge Dread as all his hits were banned from the radio when I was a kid. Unfortunately, on the evidence of this one I think the radio authorities were right to ban it, not because it's rude but simply because it isn't very good.
However, I would conclude that this album is well worth getting if you're at all interested in popular music, not just reggae. With fifty songs, and many of them classics it is excellent value.

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review by: date: 2004-04-25 rating:
A must for every reggae fans music shelf!
This is definitely reggae music at it's most seductive. I f it wasn't forthe artists featured here neither Shaggy nor UB40 would have a career!Reggae how it should be done; no frills, no over production, just a raw,fresh sound to the tracks that adds to their timeless appeal(theinstrumentals are particularly strong Guns of Navarone and ElizabethanReggae being two of my personal favourites) Great top class listening.


review by: date: 2004-03-16 rating:
Gifted? Definitely!
I spent ages looking for a good compilation of 60's and 70's reggae hits, and it wasn't until this came along that I found it. I was listening to it on the way into work yesterday and today, and it prompted me to write a review.

There really isn't much at all to complain about with this CD. The only thing wrong with it is the inclusion of the terrible 'Sideshow' by Barry Biggs, which is really out of place here, but the rest is so good that it certainly still deserves 5 stars.

Some of the earliest roots of reggae are represented here in the form of the ska songs 'Oh Carolina', 'Guns of Navarone', 'Train to Skaville', etc. The songs are pretty much in chronological order, so you can hear the development of reggae from one song to the next, all the way to it becoming a force in worldwide music by the 70's.

Many of the songs here are probably better remembered by the later (not as good) cover version by the likes of UB40, etc., but no one can touch the raw, impassioned playing on these songs, particularly the first CD. The vocal on 'Angel of the Morning' is enough make you feel great no matter how bad you felt before hearing it, and just try to stop yourself singing along to tracks like 'Fatty Bum Bum'.

This is one of the best reggae compilations on the market!

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