Heart Of The Congos

Product Information

Jewel case and Slipcase version that was released after the production of the original Digipak-style release was stopped. The words “ Lee”, “ Perry” and “genius” crop up together frequently; yet these days evidence of the producer’s excellence seems to be limited to erratic stage performances and wilful eccentricity. Heart of the Congos, however, is the most vivid example of what he’s capable of.

Watty had recorded a number of singles with Perry but none of them were selling in numbers until his cover of a Brook Benton tune adapted to become "Rainy Night In Portland" sold well. Watty Burnett, a regular figure at the studio, joined the group at this point as Perry thought his deep barritone vocal would help add a further dimension to the overall sound of The Congos.

88 Reviews

The Congos album was coming together and Scratch would spend more time on this production then any of his previous efforts. To some of those that attribute hipster appeal to this title and also claim there was no interest in this LP until the mid 90's, is very confused. Go-Beat reissued this in 1980, and a few other times, among others including the famous Blood and Fire issue. The Congos would go on to record for other producers and of course Perry would go on to burn down his studio to 'cleanse it from evil spirits'.

The "second mix" (which is the mix you'll find on all pressings except the very first super rare pressing and the [equally rare] RSD reissue) is not one specific version of the album, there is a whole multitude of variations (for example differently edited) using that mix. Here is a bit of a release history: Eternal Thunder | Magazine | Out Of Africa Comes The Congoman This first edition contained 10 of what Perry believed were the best of the songs recorded by The Congos and the mix was noticeably different from the version most of us know as the definitive second edition. To be fair, I'm no reggae aficionado. As far as I know, there aren't a lot of acts in this genre putting out anything as soulful and original as Heart of the Congos. Of course, I could be wrong. I encourage those in the know to send me a heads up. For those who scoff at the genre, for whatever reason, I implore you to give this album a shot. I think you might like it. Roy went off to improve his guitar skills in the hope that maybe he could make it as a session musician rather than a singer. He briefly joined The Rightful Brothers band where he improved on his guitar playing and learned to become a skilled hand drummer.

I haved the to first relesses maybee not first printed with the yellow paint but on the same sleeve blue and same label LP-4049-A After a stint in the US Navy, stationed in the now infamous Guantanamo Bay, Roy returned to Kingston in the early seventies and again began hanging around studios in the hope that someone would record him. Recorded between 1976 and 1977, Heart… is all about Perry’s own breadth of vision and ingenuity despite an impressive cast, including Ernie Ranglin, Sly Dunbar and Gregory Isaacs. Heart… is part of Perry’s string of roots classics, but good as War Inna Babylon and Super Ape were, this collection leaves them standing. Roy moved to Kingston at the age of 16 and would hang around the music studios meeting the likes of Gladdy Anderson, Winston Wright and Ernest Ranglin who taught Roy to play guitar. Roydel Johnson also had history with Lee Perry, having grown up in the same small town, Kendal in Hanover, Roy remembers seeing Scratch and recalls his dancing skills of the time.