In 1977, as Lee Perry and The Congos worked
on the legendary 'Heart of the Congos' LP,
Jeremy Marre, an English film maker, was in
Jamaica gathering footage for a BBC
documentary entitled 'Roots Rock Reggae'.
When Marre knocked on the door of The Black
Ark and asked if he could film some
musicians at work in the studio, Scratch,
Junior Murvin, The Congos, The Upsetters and
The Heptones obligingly improvised a tune
for the camera crew entitled, 'Play On Mr
Music'. It was subsequently assumed that the
song remained unfinished, with the only
evidence of it's existence captured in these
brief, priceless moments from the
documentary.
In 2012, however, the DVD release of 'Beats
of the Heart; Roots Rock Reggae'
unexpectedly included a complete version of
this most sought after of lost Black Ark
nuggets amongst it's bonus features. Now, 35
years later, the tune is finally available for all
to enjoy. One can only imagine what other
gems might be stashed away in the Black Ark
vaults.
Quite often on Saturday Scratch, I attempt
to shine a light on a lesser known gem or
overlooked nugget from Lee Perry's back
pages. Today's tune, however, is an
unarguable, stone cold classic, from what
is, in all probability, the strongest vocal
album produced by Scratch. The album is
1977's 'Heart of the Congos' by The Congos
and the track is the adapted and updated
traditional song, 'Fisherman.'
I've chosen this particular piece as a way
of introducing another musical favourite of
mine, Micah Blue Smaldone. Micah started out
playing in bands from America's hardcore
punk scene in the 1990's, but by the time of
his solo debut, 'Some Sweet Day', in 2004 he
had become what can best be
described as an old-timey acoustic folk-blues troubadour. Since then he has released
two further studio albums, the magnificently
titled 'Hither and Thither' and 2008's deep
and dark 'The Red River', in addition to the
'Live in Belgium' EP in 2007. His extra curricular activities betray his increasingly
neo-traditional folk leanings as evidenced in his
ongoing collaboration with Fire on Fire and
his mid-noughties work with Death Vessel.
I will delve further into Micah Blue
Smaldone's oeuvre at a later date, of that
you can be sure, but for the time being
check out his inspired live reading of that
Congos classic.
