Duke Reid & His Group - "Duke's Cookies" (2:23)
The Skatalites - "Yard Broom" (3:12)
Stranger Cole & Patsy Todd - "Hey, Hey, Baby" (2:54)
Roland Alphonso - "Blackberry Brandy" (2:41)
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes - "Carry, Go, Bring, Come" (2:38)
Tommy McCook - "Starry Night" (2:50)
Alton Ellis - "Cry Tough" (4:12)
The Paragons - "The Tide Is High" (2:38)
Don Drummond - "Thoroughfare" (2:54)
Baba Brooks & Eric 'Monty' Morris - "Strongman Sampson" (2:34)
The Skatalites - "Occupation" (2:51)
Marguerita & Don Drummond - "Woman A Come" (2:41)
Duke Reid’s Group - "Pink Lane Shuffle" (3:35)
The Silvertones - "Midnight Hour" (2:31)
The Valentines - "Blam Blam Fever" (2:47)
The Coolies - "On The Bank" (2:10)
Stranger Cole & The Skatalites - "Rough & Tough" (2:51)
The Melodians - "Come On, Little Girl" (2:18)
The Techniques - "Oh Babe" (3:05)
Review: The first of a new two-part series by LMLR charting the best of the original wave of rocksteady: that crucial intermediary Jamaican genre, seen on the sonic pedigree chart sometime circa 1966, and hemmed in between the grandmother, ska, and the son, reggae. Eschewing any of the rocksteady's 21st Century manifestations or updates, the two-part series, Ska & Rock Steady Classics From Treasure Isle, hears only the most incipient musical genii in the sound - the likes of Alton Ellis, The Paragons, Don Drummon, The Skatalites and Jackie Mittoo - battle it out for a sound whose provenance is still contested to this day.
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