V/A Young, Gifted and Black 2
V/A Sucker Punch:Jamaican Boxing tributes
The follow-up to the hugely successful Young, Gifted and Black 2 compilation takes its cue from the 70s to the present day. A wide ranging trawl of reggae hits reveals sparkling hits plus poppier cousins reggae-lite if you may. So you get the good: Jimmy Cliff, the bad: Boris Gardner, and with Shabba Ranks' Mr Loverman, the plain ugly. Still, fans of both reggae and pop will get some satisfaction from rediscovering treasures such as Errol Dinkley's OK Fred.
Sucker Punch is the kind of compilation reggae reissues should be aiming at. This handy comp rounds up of boxing related cuts from JA. It was the early 70s when boxing at its peak met reggae at its apex. It all happened on January 1973 at the National stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, where George Foreman tore into Joe Frazier and became world champion.
Its no surprise that the first chunk of this album concerns itself with that fight including Big Youth's swift rappraisal of the events - he's backed Frasier before the fight took place!
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