Cultural polymath - pop star, filmmaker, radio broadcaster, commentator, Grammy winner. Oh and DJ, too. Take your pick from the many coats worn by our selector, Don Letts aka The Rebel Dread.
Listeners of his weekly 6 Music radio show are taken on a musical safari that moves seamlessly between time, space and genre. It's not called Culture Clash Radio for nothing. So this latest bulletin from Letts HQ is merely one angle of a multifaceted personality, his take on the JA tradition of the cover version. The history of Caribbean music owes a debt to R&B as many of the early island releases were cover versions of US 45s.
Ska's breakthrough commercially, Millie Small's 'My Boy Lollipop', was originally recorded by Barbie Gaye in '50s New York. Cover versions became quite a thing in Jamaica and Don, following in that tradition, has dug deep with a selection of interesting dubbed out covers including thirteen exclusives.
There's a diverse mix of classic and new, with legendary figures like John Holt, The Tamlins and Cornell Campbell, mixed in with British veterans Mad Professor and the irrepressible Dennis Bovell, while (relatively) young striplings Kiko Bun, Emily Capell and Prince Fatty deliver the goods, with laidback Texan groovers Khruangbin also offering an exclusive bass heavy-delight.
The song choices are diverse, from French dubsters' OBF's renditions of 'Sixteen Tons', the miners' paean popularised by Tennessee Ernie Ford in the 1950s, to Ash Walker's refix of Omar's 'There's Nothing Like This' and 'All I Do Is Think About You', immortalised by the ill-fated Tammi Terrell and preserved here by Quantic (the latter two both exclusives). Being a Rebel Dread compilation, there's a cover (by Wrongtom Meets The Rockers) of The Clash's 'Lost In The Supermarket' while Don's exclusive, naturally, is a rendition of Big Audio Dynamite's debut hit, 'E = MC2'.
Track list:
LP - SIDE A
Ghetto Priest - Hercules (North Street West 'Late Night Tales' Dub) - Exclusive Remix
Prince Fatty & Shniece Mcmenamin - Black Rabbit
Wrongtom Meets The Rockers - Dub In The Supermarket Exclusive Remix
Gaudi Meets The Rebel Dread Ft. Emily Capell - E = Mc2 Exclusive Track
Rude Boy - Superstylin' Exclusive Remix
LP - SIDE B
Capitol 1212 Ft. Earl 16 - Love Will Tear Us Apart (Full Vocal Dub) Exclusive Remix
Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno - All I Do Is Think About You (Far East Dub) Exclusive Remix
Zoe Devlin Love Ft. Tim Hutton - Caroline No
John Holt - You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine (Mad Professor 2021 Dub) Exclusive Remix
Cornell Campbell - Ital City Dub Exclusive Remix
Matumbi - (I Can't Get Enough Of) That Reggae Stuff (Dennis Bovell Remix) Exclusive Remix
LP - SIDE C
Gentleman's Dub Club Ft. Kiko Bun - Use Me (Ben Mckone Dub)
Black Box Recorder - Uptown Top Ranking
Obf - Sixteen Tons Of Dub
Yasushi Ide - Ain't No Sunshine (Space Dub Mix) Exclusive Remix
LP - SIDE D
The Tamlins - Baltimore
15 16 17 - Emotion (Dennis Bovell Remix) Exclusive Remix
Ash Walker - There's Nothing Like This Exclusive Track
The Senior Allstars - Slipping Into Darkness
Easy Star All-Stars - Within You Without You
Khruangbin - Dern Kala (Khruangbin Dub Mix) Exclusive Remix