Reggae Reggae Sauce

What day is it? Oh it's Thursday. I was hoping it was Monday so I could start a little "Music Monday" feature. Nevermind. This can be a little Thursday-teaser-tester.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been listening to quite a bit of reggae. I don't own very much (my iTunes says I have a mere 63 reggae songs) and I'm pretty clueless as to what's what, but the stuff I've got I really love. It makes me happy. So much so that kicking a broken old amp in my cupboard to make that squishy reverb noise has become a bit of a hobby.

For years my knowledge was limited to a Toots & The Maytals record that I bought for some long forgotten reason, until recently when I grabbed a couple of Trojan compilations and some other odds and ends. I particularly liked reading about how Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead completely immersed himself in the genre, on a mission to listen to something he knew nothing about. The compilation that he put together called "Jonny Greenwood Is The Controller" is really top of the pops:

There is a cloud that hangs over reggae though, more than almost any genre. It's the danger of becoming "a reggae guy". Those crusty, boring, student dudes are such a deterrent to the genre it's not funny. They suck! Don't become one of those guys. Did you know that it's possible to have a little reggae in your life without turning into someone people avoid at parties? Crazy but true!

While blindly clicking about like a silly man, not really knowing what I was looking for, I discovered the video above. It's of Lee "Scratch" Perry working in his Black Ark studio. It's bloody brilliant. Have a watch, and even if you don't give a monkey's about reggae you'll like it. If you don't, I'm afraid you're an idiot. Sorry to be the one to break the bad news.

Bah, this is not the most coherent thing I've ever written. It's really just an excuse to post that wee video, so you'll need to forgive me. I find writing about music a tricky business, because as a reader I ususally don't care what some chump on the internet thinks is wicked-cool.