Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Ali Baba - John Holt
2. Riverton City - Tommy McCook
3. C N Express - Clancy All Stars
4. Running Around - Owen Gray
5. Rum-Bum-A-Loo - The Message
6. Step Softly - Bobby Ellis & the Crystalites
7. Lucky Seven - The Skatalites
8. Sweet Sul Music - The Gladiators
9. Musical Fever - The Enforcers
10. Renegade - The Zodiacs
11. Spyrone - Harry J All Stars
12. Lonely Feeling - The Gaylets
13. Dr. Kitch - Lord Kitchener
14. Gun Fever - Baba Brooks Band
15. Delilah - Tyrone Taylor
16. Good Time Rock - Hugh Malcolm
17. Lindska - The Vagabonds

Disc 2:

1. Storm Warning - LynnTaitt And The Boys
2. The Ugly One - King Stitt
3. A Yuh - The Uniques
4. Gun Man Coming To Town - The Heptones
5. Last Night - Laurel Aitken & The Soulmen
6. Wiser Than Soloman - Lester Sterling
7. Stranger In Town - The Crystalites
8. Country Town - Baba Brooks
9. Fat Man (1968 Version) - Derrick Morgan
10. Nevada Joe - Joe Gibbs & Destroyers
11. Next Door Neighbour - Owen Gray
12. Kimble The Nimble - Lee Perry
13. The Man - Jimmy Cliff
14. Oh Babe - Ewan and Jerry with the Carib Beats
15. Thunderball - Tommy McCook
16. Build My World Around You - Slim Smith & The Uniques

Disc 3:

1. Music Is My Occupation - Don Drummond & Tommy McCook
2. The Upsetter - Lee Perry
3. El Pussycat - Roland Alphonso
4. Tell Me - The Maytals
5. Do The Dog - Syko And The Caribs
6. The Jerk - The Clarendonians
7. I'm In A Jam - Derrick & Patsy
8. Bombshell - Derrick Harriott & The Crystalites
9. I'm Ashamed - Little Willy
10. Zigaloo - Lester Sterling
11. Kitch You're So Sweet - Lord Kitchener
12. Hot Shot - Dermott Lynch
13. The Rude Boy - Duke Reid
14. Girls Like Dirt - Slim Smith & The Uniques
15. Lonely Days - Owen Gray
16. I Am Coming Home - Pat kelly
17. Good Girl - Ed Nangle

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #110854 in Music
• Released on: 2002-06-25
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Box set, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered

Album Description
UK budget-price box-set highlights the influence of Jamaican music on the Mod scene. Features 50 classic tracks compiled by some of the leading experts in the field of mod reggae including many recordings not previously available on CD. Highlights include, The Skatalites 'Lucky Seven', King Stitt 'The Ugly One', Lee Perry 'Kimble The Nimble', Jimmy Cliff 'The Man', The Maytals 'Tell Me', Duke Reid 'The Rude Boy' & many more. Deluxe slimline box.

Customer Reviews

Little Masterpieces and Unknown Gems
Reggae collectors have complained at the dominance of the Trojan label in the mainstream record stores, but when the music in the grooves is of this calibre, it seems churlish to criticise, especially when offered at such a reasonable price. These sixties tracks first appeared on labels such as Island, Blue Beat, Rio, Doctor Bird, Treasure Isle and Black Swan, and are gathered here because of their popularity in this country, both at the time and in subsequent revivals. Introduced by West Indians who had settled in areas like Brixton and Notting Hill, Ska and Rock Steady were quickly adopted by the Mods and played in their clubs as the music evolved into Reggae. Jamaica had an abundance of excellent jazz and dance hall musicians from the forties and fifties who were recruited into the new musical forms, explaining why the playing on bands such as the Skatalites, who feature in various guises on many of the tracks, was of such a high overall standard. Furthermore there was no shortage of street corner vocal groups and aspiring singers at the studio door. Many classics are here, such as John Holt's Ali Baba, Baba Brooks' Guns Fever, Lee Perry's The Upsetter and the Crystalites' Stranger In Town. Most of it is original material but Rosco Gordon's No More Doggin' turns up (uncredited) as Owen Gray's Running Around; Lee Perry produces the Gaylettes on Brenda Lee's Here Comes That Feeling; Roland Alphonso covers Mongo Santamaria's El Pussy Cat in ska style; the unknown (to me) Syko and the Caribs revive Rufus Thomas' The Dog as Do The Dog (also uncredited, but possibly the source of the Specials' version using the same changed title a few years later) and Laurel Aitken and the Soulmen provide a version of the Mar-Keys' Last Night that arguably surpasses the original. Some are obscurities which were well worth rescuing from oblivion. The Zodiacs' Renegade (aka Little Renegade), written and produced by Duke Reid, only appeared here as the B-side of Baba Brooks' Duck Soup, and was their only ever appearance on vinyl, but is a minor classic. The proliferation of this music over such a short period in Jamaican history is quite astounding and as little masterpiece follows unknown gem one wonders how this tiny poverty-stricken island could have got it so right so consistently so uniquely

One of my favorite Trojan boxes
Trojan's Mod Reggae box offers a bit more sonic variety than some of the other sets, which is nice. I really enjoy the ambience of this set; though the recordings span 1960-1970 and who knows how many studio settings, they tend to have a unified sound, not unlike classic fifties and early sixties Atlantic R&B recordings. So many of the tunes make me smile, whether just because of their supple, joyful playing or the throwaway humor of a song's content -- enough so that Lord Kitchner can get away with chiding a "stupid girl" in his double entendre "Dr. Kitch" and it comes off as playful rather than malicious. (Mick Jagger could have taken a cue from this, had he wanted to.)

I give the box five stars, and that's even more subjective than most usual ratings. You might adjust it according to your own values, because the box ain't perfect. The music itself is probably about a 4 1/2, and it's tempting to dock the set half a star for having skimpy annotation Yes, it's a bargain set, but a booklet wouldn't jack the price up that much, would it?

But maybe that's as it should be -- it's all about the music, after all. And if I start thinking that this lack of thorough annotation is a disservice to the artists, listeners, and history, I also check myself and say, "Yeah, but the sounds are available, pretty widely, and for cheap."

So, what the hell. Five stars. Snag a copy.

Good Job Trojan!
I think this compilation is one of those that just shocked people a bit. It is well-known that skinheads were into reggae; but mods? The kids that zooted around on scooters listening to The Who and The Small Faces and looked like poster children for Vidal Sassoon? Well it's a bit more accurate to say that mods were into a lot of stuff; whatever they saw as "trendy" for the time. And Black music, was trendy...and being in the UK, Black music often included Jamaican music.

Nevertheless, although I am not an expert on the mod movement (nor do I know any British mods/ex-mods), I do feel that some of the tracks in this collection are a stretch as far as defining the musical tastes of mods (Lester Sterling's "Wiser Than Solomon" for example) but that does not mean the music still isn't good. The collection contains a lot of early ska (like "Country Town" by Baba Brooks and "Music Is My Occupation" by Tommy McCook and Don Drummond) some calypso treats from Lord Kitchener ("Kitch You're So Sweet" and "Dr. Kitch" respectively) as well as some songs that step out of the reggae genre a bit and go back to rock-n-roll's R&B roots (like "Renegade" by the Zodiacs). But my favorite track in this entire collection has to be "The Ugly One" by King Stitt; which is just a very cool song. As good as these individual tracks are...I don't know how well they fit together. In fact, stylistically, they're just all over the place...not even presented in chronological order (which Trojan doesn't generally do anyway so...)

So this set does not really fit nicely into any one category; but then again, neither did the mods. From a purely musical standpoint, you don't get enough of any one genre of early reggae to really satisfy you. But then again I'm grateful still because I feel that if it weren't for the mod set, some of these songs would not be released at all. Or maybe they would have been released, but just overlooked if they were presented in a different way. Anyway, this is not a set that I regretted buying...even if it is a little awkward to listen to in its entirety.