<Vinyl vindication: vinyl to outsell cds; 1 min. 55 sec.>
I’ve always been a record guy. Back in Montana as a youth, I would drive 35 miles each way to record shop at the local Hastings outlet in Great Falls. Usually buy a couple pieces of vinyl and a cassette for the drive back home.
Bankrupt 2016.
When I moved to Utah for University in 1986, I was already dabbling in CDs. In 1985, Cactus Records in Bozeman, MT had a small rack of CDs in a corner of the shop. I remember buying Fleetwood Mac and the Police Outlandos d’Amour. $16.99 (in those days a fortune). I didn’t even have a CD player yet.
For Christmas, I got a Fisher deck, (probably from Montgomery Wards), – 1 drawer, no frills: just the song number in red LED. I was blown away! Space age technology in rural Montana!
Bought this CD before I even owned a CD player. Fall 1985. Bozeman – Cactus Records
What’s not to love? Smaller. Harder to scratch. Easier to store. Portable players to play them on.
Yet, the smaller size and lack of information on many of the disks didn’t make collecting CDs as enjoyable as buying vinyl. Especially, when I switched to collecting Reggae. Early on in CD’s history there was not a whole lot of Reggae available. And a total lack of the 12″, 10″ and 7″ vinyl I especially was looking for. The rarest of the rare.
Jimmy Cliff’s Reggae Greats. Probably the 1st CD in the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives
I was in a Record Shop in San Francisco. Summer of ’87. Up to my elbows in vinyl racks. The shop owner was trying to up-sell me into CDs. He was like, “Why are you so hot for vinyl? Everybody is moving into CDs”. I shrugged, “I’ll always be a record guy.”
Here is how it worked back then. CDs were new. And expensive. So, many people sold their vinyl for pennies on the dollar to add up cash for CDs.
Vinyl was cheap and plentiful. CDs were exotic, limited in selection and expensive. So the stores were in transition from black wax to shiny metal disks. I built the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives this way: buying other people’s vinyl discards.
All the great things you hear me play today came about through hoovering up as much black wax as I could in the voluminous Bay Area Record stores. I was flush with student loan cash (Thanks Ronnie Raygun!) and I went from store to store digging through the crates.
I would stay at the Travelodge across the street from Tower Records in North Beach: Columbus and Bay. Some days, I would be tired after a day of cratedigging. It was awesome.
*****
Wheel it forward 30 plus years. Most of the record stores are long gone, (Hastings went under in 2016), via over committing to CDs in a digital age of iTunes, Pandora and Spotify. People wised up and started piecing out vinyl for the Ebay collector’s market.
I saw a VG- record with a water damaged cover go for $400 on ebay. My cost? $4: Streetlight Records San Francisco
But for 20 years, I maxed out the opportunities even if around 2005 I started to notice stores were no longer there when I would visit.
When Tower Records and later Virgin and Circuit City went under, that was the nadir of my CD era collecting.
Record and DVD stores were crushed out of business during the 2008-2010 Great Recession
That is why when I heard on the news that 2019 will be the first year since 1986 that Vinyl is expected to surpass CDs in aggregate sales, I felt a sense of vindication.
Enjoy this Spring Time mashdown of Smile Jamaica’s favorite Bob Marley cover tunes. Pulled from deep in the Ark-Ives and stitched up in the Secret Dubratory.
Bless, Bobbylon
0-30 min.
Cedella Marley Booker – Put It On (Lord I Thank You); Awake Zion (Ryodisk) ’84 (Burnin’)
Dennis Brown – Slave Driver; Promised Land (Blood and Fire) ’79 (Catch a Fire)
Dillinger – Check Sister Jane; Top Ranking Dillinger (Rhino UK) ’77 (Waiting in Vain – Exodus)
Hepcat – Hooligans; Out of Nowhere (Moon) ’93 SoCal ska (Studio One 7″)
Judy Mowatt – Screwface; Love Is Overdue (Shanachie) ’87 (Tuff Gong 7″)
Rita Marley – I Know a Place (Shanachie) ’91 (Lee “Scratch” Perry ’77 unreleased)
UB40 – Keep on Moving; Labour of Love (Virgin) ’83 (Lee “Scratch” Perry 12″)
Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers – African Herbsman; Joy and Blues (Virgin) ’93 (Upsetter 7″)
Eric Clapton – I Shot the Sheriff; 461 Ocean Boulevard (RSO) ’74 (Burnin’)
<Black History Month = Bob Marley Month on Smile Jamaica; 21 sec.>
Greetings,
Indeed for I ‘n’ I and over 30 years, February (or Jah-bruary) is not only Black History Month but Bob Marley Month….Feb. 6, 1945
Therefore, during the last Saturday of February, I clipped out a couple of Bob Marley Stories.
Bob’s not a fan of space travel: 37 sec.
You see men sailing on their ego trips Blast off on their spaceships Million miles from reality No care for you, no care for me
So much trouble in the world
In the mid 90’s, I had a student from Saudi Arabia who worked for me who said that nearly every government building in his home town was tagged with Bob Marley in Arabic. The Wahhabis were none too happy.
<Bob Marley would be Bwb MarLee in Arabic; 39 sec.>
Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives: Jah-bruary 23, 2019 Annotated Playlist: 56 sec.
bless, Bobbylon
Set 1:
Roots Uprising – Beautiful Music; Beautiful Music (Top Ranking) b’81
Black Uhuru & Sly & Robbie – Ion Storm; Dub Factor (Mango) ’83 US vinyl dub album of the hour
Barry Brown – Party Night; Reggae Heights (Mafia & Fluxy) 2001
Ayo – Who; Ticket to the World (Motown) 2013 Nigerian-German dawta
Junior Murvin – Lucifer; Police & Thieves (Mango) ’76 Lee “Scratch” Perry prod’n
The Nazarenes – Song of Mary Jane; Songs of Life (Heartbeat) 2004 Ethiopian/Swedish herbal ballad
Charlie Chaplin – Chalice Contest; Old and New Testament (RAS) ’92 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement
Dennis Brown & Big Youth – Running Up and Down; 12″ (Joe Gibbs Record Globe) ’81(?)
Set 2:
Alton Ellis – Lord Deliver Us; I’m Still in Love With You (Heartbeat/Studio One) ’70
Junior Delgado – Part Time Lover; Treasure Found (Incredible Music) ’79
DJ /Rupture feat. Sister Nancy – A Little More Oil; Special Gunpowder (Tigerbeat) 2004
Dennis Bovell – Za-ion; 12″ (Rama) ’76 UK
Set 3: Best of Smile Jamaica 29+ Years
Judy Mowatt – Mother Africa; Working Wonders (Shanachie) ’87 Best of Smile Jamaica 29+ Years
Horace Andy – Elementary; Reggae Dance Party (RAS) ’85
Smile Jamaica Annotated Playlist: Jah-bruary 16, 2019: 29 sec.
Set 1:
Azeem & Session – Cool Running; Live and Direct (M. Al’s) early 80s Oakland vinyl
The Agrovators (sic) Meet the Revolutioners (sic) – Conquer Dub; The Agrovators Meet the Revolutioners (Third World) 70’s Bunny Lee dub UK vinyl album of the hour
Horace Andy – Bob Lives On; Exclusively (Solid Groove) ’82 UK vinyl. Bob Marley riddim shower (1): vox
Jah Batta – Great Superstar; 12″ (Top Ranking) ’82 Miami. Bob Marley riddim shower (2); deejay
The Ethiopians – Let It Be; Slave Call (Heartbeat) ’75 Beatles
Queen Omega – Ganja Baby; Weed a Bun vol. 1 (Charm) 2005 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement
Mighty Threes – Sata; 12″ (April) ’79 Haledon, NJ
Set 2:
Likkle Mai – Crystal River; Roots Candy (Beat) 2005 Jah-ponese roots dawta from Dry & Heavy
Pablo Gad – Trodding on Home; Blood Suckers (Melodie) ’78
Jah Thomas – Tribute to the Reggae King; Tribute to the Reggae King (Gorgon) ’81 JA
Musical Youth – Please Give Love a Chance; 12″ (MCA) ’82 UK youth group
Set 3: Best of Smile Jamaica 29+ Years
Jean Binta Breeze – Dubwize + Confusion (Warner); Tracks (LKJ) ’90 UK female dub poet
Linval Thompson – Don’t Cut Off Your Dreadlocks; Clocktower Classics vol. 1 (Clocktower/Abraham) ’75
Tenor Saw – Who’s Gonna Help Me Praise?; Fever (Blue Mountain) ’85
Gregory Isaacs – My Time (12″ mix); More Reggae Music (Sound) ’84 Neth.
Cedric Brooks – Father Forgive Him; Studio Scorchers vol. 2 (Soul Jazz/Studio One) Dub Album of the Hour
Set 4:
Mr. Symarip – I Was Busted; Skinheads Dem a Come (Jump Up) Chicago ska
Althea & Donna – Uptown Top Ranking; Love of the Common People (Trojan) Joe Gibbs comp.
Hortense Ellis – Can I Change My Mind; (Heartbeat/Studio One)
Roots Uprising – Master Blaster Jammin; Beautiful Music (Top Ranking) ’81 Miami vinyl; Stevie Wonder Bob Marley tribute
My brother lives in Minneapolis. When the Polar Vortex hit, it took me back to my youth in Montana.
Cold so bitter, just closing the car door shattered glass. Only Chinook winds, (warm winds) kept Montana from being Alaska
<Chinook Winds; 46 sec.>
So when it became our turn in Utah to be homebound with a massive mid week snowstorm, I took advantage of the day:
Feb. 6 – Bob Marley’s Birthday. Once I got the notice on my phone to stay home. I turned off the alarm, cranked up the furnace and decided what better way to celebrate a Snow Day than starting with The Wailers Catch a Fire and play through to Uprising.
No Xmas until Black Friday. No Xmas Reggae til Dec. 1. So enjoy some Holiday Reggae set (including a Hanukkah jam).
<Happy Reggae Hanukkah; 53 sec.>
Just got back from Las Vegas on a cratedig. So we hear the fruits of that labor. More vinyl than CDs. The CD is going, going, gone. Vinyl, even rare vinyl for I ‘n’ I as a collector, was really a good trip.
And in the land of 10 down (with 40 to go), I wasn’t a criminal. Here was my stop in Vegas. Since I’m an Ancient Astronaut Theorist, (who believes in the 12th planet Nibiru), of course my go to Vegas dispensary was Planet 13.
bless, Bobbylon
Smile Jamaica Annotated Playlist: Jah-cember 1, 2018: 1 min. 54 sec.
Set 1:
Al Campbell – Words of Wisdom; Rainy Days (Hawkeye) ’78 UK vinyl
Soul Syndicate & Big Youth – Inside Out; Reggae Gi Dem Dub (Nichola Delita) ‘ JA vinyl dub album of the hour
Sammy Dread – Jah Guide; Roadblock (Hitbound) ’82
Zema – Joy in the Morning; Black Sheep (Melchizedek) 2003 So Cal female
Johnny Clarke – Waiting in Vain; Sings Bob Marley in a Dancehall Style (Rhino UK) ’77 Bob Marley cover
Dillinger – Hearsay; 12″ (A & M) ’81 US picture sleeve
Carelene Davis – So Much Things to Say; Songs of Bob Marley (VP) ’93
Pato Banton – My Opinon/What the World Needs Now Is Love; Live in San Francisco (2B1) 2001
UB40 feat. Chrissy Hynde – I Got You Babe; 12″ (DEP) ’85 UK Sonny & Cher cover
Set 3: Best of Smile Jamaica 29+ Years
Misty in Roots – Mankind; Live at the Eurovision (Kaz) ’79
Cedric Myton & the Congos – Scoffers and Scorners; Face the Music (VP) ’84
Love Joys – Jah Light; Reggae Vibes (Wackies) ’81 female duo
Hugh Mundell – One God, One Aim, One Destiny; Blackman’s Foundation (Shanachie) ’83
<Senseless murder of Hugh Mundell; 53 sec.>
Sound Dimension – Heavy Beat; Jamaican Soul Shake vol. 1 (Soul Jazz/Studio One) ’71 Dub Album of the Hour
Set 4:
Judy Mowatt – One Day We’ll All Be Free; Gathering of the Saints (Shanachie) ’98
Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers – One Good Spliff; Spirit of Music (Elektra) ’99 herbtune
Starkey Banton & Dean Fraser – Another Day in Babiwrong + Warrior Sax (Maxiumum Sounds) 2005? Fr. over Aswad’s Warrior Charge riddim
Set 5: Vegas Vinyl
Lord Laro – Bob; Messenger of Songs (Trinjam) Soca tribute to Bob Marley
Ranking Scroo & Crucial Youth – Essential Chant; Thanks and Praises (Crucial Youth) ’84 Hawaii
Shadow – Snakes; Return of de Bassman (SR) ’83 Barbados soca EP
Pupa Curly – What’s Wrong With This World; What’s Wrong With This World (Fresh Breeze) ’89 LA EP
Cratedug: Moondog Records, Las Vegas
Set 6: Wailers Family Tree
The Wailers – Get Up Stand Up; Wailers Live 1973-1975 (Starbucks) 12/2/73 live at KSAN Radio in San Francisco: Bob, Peter & Joe Higgs
<Wailers live ’73 KSAN Radio, San Francisco>
Smile Jamaica is hosted by Robert Nelson on 90.9 FM KRCL in Salt Lake City, Utah (Saturdays, 4-7 p.m. MT). Ark-ives available weekly here at the Smile Jamaica blog.