Island Records Presents: Roots

Island has been packaging and repackaging the same basic roots reggae songs from those brief years (1974 to 1979 or so) when Chris Blackwell tried to market his native Jamaica's music to rock fans. Except for Bob Marley, Blackwell did not manage to introduce this music to the mainstream. However, for some people, (of whom I am one) Blackwell's Island releases were the introduction to a fascinating and non-rock (unrock?) contemporary music.Island's library has apparently been migrating between different large conglomerations and now someone has decided to release a number of extremely good roots reggae songs. Such familiar songs (to the intense reggae fan at least) as Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey, Junior Murvin's Police and Thieves, Inner Circle's Tired Fe Lick Weed in a Bush, Congo's At the Feast of the Passover are here. Also present are songs which are less familiar, plus one or two absolute rarities.The songs have an extremely high quality. These are some of the finest songs of the 1970s in any genre of music. I looked up the track listing online before I purchased it (and I would suggest a reggae collector to do so) and made the decision that at about 6 bucks for the CD and 4 bucks for shipping the set would be a nice addition to my collection. I am pleased to have it, even though I already owned about 75% of the cuts.If on the other hand your only exposure to reggae is Bob Marley, this would be a fantastic purchase. Even after almost 40 years, these songs sound fresh and original. I honestly feel a person can not hear enough new music. IF all you know of reggae is Bob Marley, order this set. You will be satisfied.

Excellent!

Four star purely for disc 1 which is absolutely essential--from majestic Africa(Rico) ,Three in One(Lee Perry &Heptones) to all the 3 tracks by legendary Burning Spear.Throw in the humorous but deep Natty B.Sc(Dillinger).Disc2 is an oddity save for three of its seventeen tracks.Worth buying for first disc alone.

Brought back a lot of memories listening to this excellent compilation.

Brilliant album well worth buying for your collection 👍👌

a fantastic selection and a breath of fresh air from the usual reggae compilations in fact there's a few island, trojan, treasure isle and top deck presents collections I'm purchasing as many as I can there top quality & the real deal

Given as a gift and informed that it's great and they love it ❤❤