Roots Train

When I wasn't enjoying the warmer-than-normal spring day, I spent yesterday immersed in Lloyd Bradley's "This is Reggae Music." Bradley operated a London sound system in the 1970s and now writes for publications ranging from the NME and MOJO to Black Music Magazine and The Guardian.
I want to make a warm-weather mix of reggae for this coming weekend, so I spent some time reading Bradley's book and listening to a bunch of stuff, including some of the fantastic 1970s sides produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry (pictured). Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves" is the most celebrated of the tracks, mostly because of its 1976 runaway success in Britain. The song served as a soundtrack for the Notting Hill Carnival riot from that year and I might anchor my warm-weather mix with it, too.
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