Sunday, February 25, 2024

Bob Marley: Judge Not

From The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond by Chris Blackwell:

I put out several Bob Marley songs and Wailers songs in the UK, where I had a deal with Leslie Kong to distribute some of his records via Island. I was living in the London in 1963 when I first heard Judge Not. 

Looking back, it's a remarkable, inspirational record, especially when you think about what Bob would go on to achieve. He recorded it the very month that Jamaica gained its independence. 

It was as ska as anything at the time, quite modern, a sign of the Jamaican self-determination that was gaining momentum by the minute. You can hear young black Jamaica's hope and optimism, the kind of spirit and power the British had consistently tried to suppress for centuries.

But, at the time, Judge Not did not strike me as anything major. It was just another of those records beginning to pour out of Jamaica. In fact, it came to me in a jumbled box of imported records from Kingston, misattributed to 'Robert Morley'.

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