Another of those albums I own purely for one track, in this case it is Tom’s fabulous cover of Ben E King’s Northern Soul classic “I Can’t Break The News To Myself”. Tom’s version is every bit the equal of Mr. King’s but whereas a copy Ben E’s original 1965 Atco 7” will set you back anywhere up to and occasionally over £100 this LP can be found in almost any charity shop in the UK for £2 tops (and if they want more they’re ripping you off !). The other well known track on this album would be the title track, if you heard it you’d know it, believe me.

Interesting tale…I used to play Tom’s version of “I Can’t Break The News To Myself” a lot when DJ’ing. After playing it once at a local Soul night a chap came rushing up to me saying “Is that off the album ?”, why yes I replied and he countered “I’ll give you £30 for it now”. I could barely get it out of my record box fast enough, before he realised what an eejit he was being ! I think it was in the second charity shop I went into the next day where I found my current pristine copy for the princely sum of £1…

I Can’t Break The News To Myself - https://youtu.be/c68phYhk9EI?si=8Uwh5WLoOGawgdsR

For his second album LKJ moved to the record label synonymous with bringing Reggae to Britain, Island Records. Chris Blackwell, whose family had relocated from London to Jamaica shortly after his birth, started Island Records in 1959 with recording engineer Graeme Goodall, and producer Leslie Kong. Yes, Island over the years has been responsible for suffering both Jethro Tull and U2 upon the world (we can balance those horrors with Eno’s Roxy Music and the first 3 (proper) Ultravox! albums) but let’s not forget they also gave us Bob Marley & The Wailers, “The Harder They Come”, Burning Spear, Toots & The Maytals, Max Romeo & The Upsetters, Junior Murvin’s “Police And Thieves”, Steel Pulse and now Linton Kwesi Johnson.

The first LKJ song I remember hearing is this albums first track, “Want Fi Go Rave”, most probably on the John Peel show. I do know I rushed out and bought the single that weekend. The same core is back again with Dennis Bovell and Jah Bunny leading the musicians. Lyrically LKJ is telling the stories of 3 youths who have had to turn to crime due to the lack of opportunities open to them elsewhere

“Mi nah work fi no pittance, Mi nah draw dem assistance

Mi used to run a lickle racket, But wha, di po-lice dem did stop it”

The hardest hitting words on this album belong to “Sonny’s Lettah (Anti-Sus Poem)”. For those that don’t remember them the UK’s Sus laws (Sus being a contraction of suspect but they came to be known as Search Under Suspicion laws) gave the police the power to stop and search anyone they suspected might have committed a breach of the 1824 Vagrancy Act, a law that made it illegal to sleep rough or beg in England and Wales. Effectively this gave the police the power to stop and search anybody, anywhere, whenever they felt like it, all they had to do was say they suspected you might have done something. It was used extensively to stop black youths in the 70’s and 80’s just because the police could. And it wasn’t just used against Black youths, I can’t count the number of times I was stopped by bored coppers in the early hours in that hot bed of insurrection, Marston Green, for committing the heinous offence of walking home from my girlfriends !

“Sonny’s Lettah (Anti-Sus Poem)” is a letter from Sonny, who is in “Brixton Prison, Jebb Avenue London S.W. 2 Inglan”, to his Mother. It tells how her two sons, Sonny and his brother Jim, were simply standing and waiting for a bus when a police van pulled up. Out jump 3 coppers, all with batons, and grab Jim saying they are taking him in. Jim protests his innocence and starts to struggle and the police start to laugh. Then Sonny tells his Mother what the police did…

“Dem thump him him in him belly and it turn to jelly

Dem lick 'im ‘pon 'im back and 'im rib get pop

Dem thump him ‘pon him head but it tough like lead

Dem kick 'im in 'im seed and it start to bleed”

Sonny had told his Mother he would look after “lickle Jim” so, seeing his brother getting a kicking from the police, he jumps in to help him…

“So mi jook one in him eye and him started fi cry

Me thump him pon him mout’ and him started fi shout

Me kick him ‘pon him shin so him started fi spin

Me hit him ‘pon him chin an’ him drop ‘pon a bin

An crash…an dead”

Which is how Jim is charged under the Sus Laws and Sonny is charged for murder, it’s quite the shock when he hits that line “an dead”. Like The Jam’s “Down In the Tube Station At Midnight” and “A Bomb In Wardour Street”, which we talked about a couple of weeks ago, it’s another stark reminder of what a violent place Britain could be in the late ’70’s and early ’80’s.

“Forces Of Victory” is a less angry and less dark album that “Dread, Beat An’ Blood”. LKJ was still railing against the institutions that were working against the Black communities of Britain just this time with a little more measure and finesse to his words.

Sonny’s Lettah (Anti-Sus Poem) - https://youtu.be/uKt2piV6U6s?si=7NlcTKBtsTt64cxH

Those in the know will have already identified that this copy of mine is a re-issue, as they will know that the original release was credited to Poet & The Roots. Whoever it’s credited to, were we to sit down to discuss the question “Which is the greatest British Reggae album ?” this record would hog quite a sizeable chunk of that discussion, and would have every chance of coming out on top of any list constructed from that discussion.

LKJ was born in Jamaica. His middle name, Kwesi, is a Ghanaian name given to boys born on a Sunday. In 1963 he and his father moved to London to rejoin his Mother who had moved to Britain the year before. While still at school he joined the Black Panther Movement and began a poetry workshop with a group of Rastafarian drummers. In a 2018 interview he revealed “I began to write verse, not only because I liked it, but because it was a way of expressing the anger, the passion of the youth of my generation in terms of our struggle against racial oppression”. 

While working as a journalist for various publications (NME, Melody Maker, Black Music and others) LKJ was asked to write advertising copy for Virgin Records Front Line Reggae label (the labels first release was compiled, uncredited, by John Lydon and we shall cover that pivotal album in a future blog post). While at a recording session he talked to Richard Branson about recording a poetry session and Branson agreed (he did once make good decisions !). After recording some demo’s Branson agreed to a budget of £2000 (!) to make an album. The original issue on the Front Line imprint was credited to Poet (LKJ) & The Roots (who included Dennis Bovell and Lloyd "Jah Bunny" Donaldson from British Roots pioneers Matumbi). The finished album is credited with launching a whole new genre in Reggae music, Dub Poetry. 

The music is dense and heavy, bass driven with a sound that at loud enough volume will make the walls shake. LKJ intones his poetry, and make no mistake these are poems and not songs, in his deep almost monotone patois.

“Brothers and sisters rocking, A dread beat, pulsing fire, burning

Chocolate hour and darkness creeping night

Black veiled night is weeping, Electric lights consoling, night

A small hall soaked in smoke, A house of ganja mist”

Stunning words, it’s not for no reason that LKJ is only the second living poet, and the only black poet, to be published by Penguin Modern Classics. That first song doesn’t end well as a knife is pulled and “Leaps out for a dig of a flesh, of a piece of skin, And blood, bitterness, exploding fire, wailing blood, and bleeding”, vivid pictures painted with words.

Alongside LKJ’s words the music is some of the best British produced Reggae it’s possible to hear. But at its core this album is all about the words. There are songs about George Lindo, framed by the police and jailed for a robbery in Bradford, Darcus Howe, editor of the magazine “Race Today” who was falsely jailed for assault in London “Him stand up in di court like a mighty lion, Him stand up in di court like a man af Iron” and fiercley rebellious words about the racial oppression suffered by black communities across Britain,  problems that sadly still exist today. 

“All wi doin is defendin, Soh get yu ready fi war…war…
Freedom is a very firm thing, All oppression can do is bring
Passion to di ‘eights of eruption, An’ songs of fire wi will sing”

If you have any interest in Reggae music and particularly British Reggae music then “Dread, Beat An’ Blood” is an essential record.

Dread, Beat An’ Blood - https://youtu.be/Ta9ve3MN6_8?si=7Q4XVmm_-9mxPHKu