Heart Of The Congos

Product Information

The words “ Lee”, “ Perry” and “genius” crop up together frequently; yet these days evidence of the producer’s excellence seems to be limited to erratic stage performances and wilful eccentricity. Heart of the Congos, however, is the most vivid example of what he’s capable of.

To be fair, I'm no reggae aficionado. As far as I know, there aren't a lot of acts in this genre putting out anything as soulful and original as Heart of the Congos. Of course, I could be wrong. I encourage those in the know to send me a heads up. For those who scoff at the genre, for whatever reason, I implore you to give this album a shot. I think you might like it. Just a note about a confused comment about the Cow noise used, and referring that the Cow is out of place to the Ark topic . One should find out more before making such statements. The Cow is 'holy' in many cultures, including Christianity, and is symbolic in the Ark mythos. I think personal that if island have taken the album perry had produced , more albums after the heart of the congos haved been relesed , when the ark sound was on top :(((( Roy moved to Kingston at the age of 16 and would hang around the music studios meeting the likes of Gladdy Anderson, Winston Wright and Ernest Ranglin who taught Roy to play guitar.Recorded between 1976 and 1977, Heart… is all about Perry’s own breadth of vision and ingenuity despite an impressive cast, including Ernie Ranglin, Sly Dunbar and Gregory Isaacs. Heart… is part of Perry’s string of roots classics, but good as War Inna Babylon and Super Ape were, this collection leaves them standing.

The Congos album was coming together and Scratch would spend more time on this production then any of his previous efforts.

The song went "Row fisherman row...keep on rowing your boat" and an impressed Scratch told Roy to come by his studio to maybe record the song.

The Congos would go on to record for other producers and of course Perry would go on to burn down his studio to 'cleanse it from evil spirits'. The "second mix" (which is the mix you'll find on all pressings except the very first super rare pressing and the [equally rare] RSD reissue) is not one specific version of the album, there is a whole multitude of variations (for example differently edited) using that mix. Here is a bit of a release history: Eternal Thunder | Magazine | Out Of Africa Comes The Congoman

Watty had recorded a number of singles with Perry but none of them were selling in numbers until his cover of a Brook Benton tune adapted to become "Rainy Night In Portland" sold well. I haved the to first relesses maybee not first printed with the yellow paint but on the same sleeve blue and same label LP-4049-A

To some of those that attribute hipster appeal to this title and also claim there was no interest in this LP until the mid 90's, is very confused. Go-Beat reissued this in 1980, and a few other times, among others including the famous Blood and Fire issue. Roydel Johnson also had history with Lee Perry, having grown up in the same small town, Kendal in Hanover, Roy remembers seeing Scratch and recalls his dancing skills of the time. Jewel case and Slipcase version that was released after the production of the original Digipak-style release was stopped. Special Thanks: Cedric and Yvonne Myton, Roydel Johnson, Barry Frankson, Andrea Lewis, Clive Chin and Mandy Campbell, Bob Perry, Lisa Barbaris & Max King, David Katz, Jeremy Collingwood and Trevor Wyatt. This is bad advise and the second post outright faulty. Yes, older VP masterings are awful (speed issues and wonky sound) and should be avoided, they are I think still being used on some single disc pressings.The first version however was considered poor by all involved and so Scratch arranged for the two of them to return the next day with a different set of musicians. Becouse of the other releses like war ina babylon max romeo , heptones - partytime , george faith - to be a lover original super eight on his own label, also junior murvin - police and thives , super ape and jah lions colombia colly al this albums first relesed own upsetter label first pressing.