My Reggae Music Confession
When I was in my teens I was basically into two musical genres: Heavy metal and progressive rock – often combined in the form of Yngwie, Queensryche and similar artists.
We all know that metal heads and prog frogs can be kind of a snobbish crowd (no offense, just sayin’), and two musical genres in particular were simply not considered OK by my friends – one was synth pop and the other was… reggae.
I love reggae music, but I would never have admitted it when I was a teenager – peer pressure can be tough at that age. So, sporting a very stylish Iron Maiden T-shirt I would secretly sneak away and listen to roots reggae albums by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Burning Spear. Those albums instilled a sense of calmness in me, and I suddenly felt that it was OK to play music other than 180 BPM 16-notes in the Lydian mode. The reggae music was so laid back and groovy and it quickly became a huge guilty pleasure.
A few years later I stumbled upon Frank Zappa’s reggae versions of classics such as Bolero, Stairway to Heaven, Whipping Post – and his extended guitar solos over reggae vamps that perfectly married the laid-back music with some real guitar chops. I know, I know – Zappa is pretty far from roots reggae, but his reggae adaptions had a huge impact on me. And it made the most hardcore prog frogs consider reggae legit. Yay!
So, I’m out of the reggae closet – and I don’t consider it a guilty pleasure anymore (Barry Manilow however is a guilty pleasure, but that’s a whole ‘nother story).
Now for something completely different, but in this context TOTALLY appropriate: A reggae version of Detroit Rock City (made by Andy Rehfeldt):
What is YOUR relationship to Reggae music? Go ahead and comment below!
Cheers,
Per
Related blog posts:
[intlink id=”53″ type=”page”]Reggae Drum Loops[/intlink]
[intlink id=”595″ type=”post”]Frank Zappa style reggae sound clip[/intlink]
[intlink id=”584″ type=”post”]Free pack updated with reggae drum loops[/intlink]
[intlink id=”501″ type=”post”]Sneak preview of the Reggae Pack[/intlink]
Although I am not a reggae fan…I, too, am a metalhead who loves non-metal types of music–so i can appreciate the inspiration behind your post. However, I hope your closet-reggae-ness doesn’t mean that the next OddGrooves release will be reggae! I mean, I’ll buy it whatever it is because OddGrooves has such a good track record. But I’d rather see a release that reflects your metal roots rather than your reggae roots! But I enjoyed the video.
Hey Brian,
Sorry to break it to you, but our next pack will indeed be reggae (ouch!). Not to worry though, we have something just around the corner that will definitely appeal to the metalheads out there.
But for now, the topic is reggae 🙂
Per
That’s fine. I have lots of metal libraries but no reggae libraries, so this will help round out my MIDI collection.
And I’m sure these reggae riffs will sound great with Drumkit From Hell or Metal Foundry drum sounds!!!
And I still look forward to the metal odd grooves release whenever it comes.
I know what you mean about the peer pressure!
Iron Maiden, Metalica, Slayer, Judas Priest etc in public – it wasn’t for many years until I would admit that Tom Petty, The Talking Heads, and Elvis Costello were often listened to in private.
But bands like Rush (my life-long favorite) and The Police would bridge the gaps across various styles including Raggae.
Oh yeah, The Police… Definitely should have mentioned them in the blog post.
one of my alltime favs is “The Rage” !! guess what band ?? hahaha !
cheers
d
I love reggae !!!!
Ever hear the entire Dark Side Of The Moon in reggae? Its called Dub Side Of The Moon
Videos on youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGki_hLBEI8
Wohooo, can’t wait for the Barry Manilow pack! Kidding!
I just say 1 thing: Dread Zeppelin.
\m/(^_^)V
@Dirk – Judas Priest?
@Steven – Awesome stuff, gotta check out more!
@Rog – Keep dreaming 🙂
@Andy – Their version of Kashmir is actually pretty good <>
I have long preferred Reggae over Metal, so I’m glad to see this post. Interestingly, Jon Anderson of Yes fame is also a big Reggae fan. Yes’s album “The Ladder” included a song about Bob Marley. And while Reggae by Prog guys hasn’t been that successful, Prog by Reggae guys has been brilliant, with the recent releases by the Easy Star All-Stars.
Oh yeah, the Messenger… Well, that song is proof that reggae should NOT be played on a Rickenbacker.
Or by Chris Squire, for that matter 🙂
Easy Star All-Stars is definitely one of my new favorites! Just ordered Dub Side of the Moon and SP Heart Dub Band. Unbelievably cool stuff.
Looking forward to a dedicated reggae groove pack.. Normally You only get a couple of token reggae grooves in a bundle of world music etc.. so this will be amazing… .
Oh yeah forgot to mention.. i used to play rock guitar in a reggae band years ago… worked really well.. best of both worlds…
cheers Per… paul..
Cool, anything from that band on Youtube?
bass player in reggae bands since 1989 here..
to me it s been a strange evolution…being musically born listening classic rock, then new wave came in and got hooked…then again when the band i was playin with started to focus on reggae mostly, i was kinda dubious, as, yeah, i liked the sound of jamaican reggae artists, like Culture , Burning Spear , Gladiators and all the rest (of course Tosh and Marley too) but what really really moved me 100 per cent into reggae was the “heavy metal” side of it..a very good friend of mine, actually the singer of the band, lent me his copy of Black Uhuru “Showcase” , the album that came out around late 70 with the 7 single tracks made with their new singer Michael Rose..pure revelation! deep lyrics, not necessarily always “love and peace with anything happening”, heavy dark sound with huge hypnotic bass and drums (Simmons drums before the abuse later in the years), minor chords everyfrigginwhere, and minimalistic arrangements…i got nuts about reggae and never came back..Shine eye gal is STILL my fave reggae bassline of all time and its mostly 2 notes…Robbie Shakespeare (or Basspeare as it was nicknamed on the albums , while Sly Dunbar was Drumbar) is still my premiere font of inspiration when it comes to creating a bassline..
Peace
Thanks for sharing!
I gotta check out that Black Uhuru album!
Cheers,
Per
Err!.. Yeah kind of….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvi5BHZyppU
bit embarrassing because it sounds so bad… definitely a candidate for the worst sound on youtube, but (heres the disclaimer)… It is a vid from about 1985 when we first got together and just started experimenting.. it’s just a bad recording from the side of the stage so no pa sound involved.. and if you think camcorder mics are bad now.. in 1985 they were beyond terrible… it doesn’t really represent what it eventually developed into but i guess gives the general idea.. please be kind it was maybe 25 years ago and one of the first gigs we did.. the rock thing kicks in after about 3 mins if You can get that far lol!..
It’s really interesting how many of us rock guys have such an interest in reggae…
cheers paul…
ps… loved the new demo’s… can’t wait to get hold of this collection….
Hey, never mind the sound quality – this is good stuff!
Loved the shreddy guitar solo too 🙂
Per