You know, we’re approaching a half-year into this and haven’t dipped into any pure Dub, which is clearly unsatisfactory. Winston Rodney a.k.a. Burning Spear has already contributed a Song, but if you’re gonna dub, you just can’t dub any deeper than Burning Spear. Dread River (Jordan River) came up on random shuffle while I was walking to the train the other day, and I smiled heavily for 3:13.
Burning Spear’s most famous album is Marcus Garvey, and this all-dub collection is called Garvey’s Ghost. It’s almost superfluous to pick out just one song, the album’s a continuous smooth lyrical bass-heavy flow, the rhythm as deep as Yggdrasil’s roots. Whatever you do, please never listen to this tune, or any other dub, on a reproduction device that cannot reproduce a hearty healthy bass line.
Dread River is maybe a little slinkier and livelier than your average dub, there are parts you could sing along to, and I do.
This is part of the Song of the Day series (background).
Links · Spotify playlist. This tune on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon. There’s live video of Winston in that earlier blog entry, but most dubs are studio assemblages not actual performances, so you wouldn’t expect to capture a performance.
