Dread Locks Dread (Virgin, 1975)

*GUEST REVIEW*
This is one to avoid.  I've never really got Big Youth and all the praise that's heaped on him. Deejay music is probably my favourite kind of reggae and I can appreciate how Big Youth brought the chanting style of Rastafarian religious ceremonies into talkover, but too often he just sounds like a very stoned Rasta continually repeating one phrase over and over and over again until his brain is too befuddled to think of anything else to say.  Dread Locks Dread is a classic example of a reggae ripoff and is one of the primary reasons why so many releases on the Virgin/Front Line label of the late seventies got a bad reputation.  There's 11 tracks spread over about 33 minutes but only six of them actually feature Big Youth (although that may be a blessing). The other five tracks are simply instrumental fillers. A couple have some nice harmonica playing, but they're old, tired rhythms that we've all heard a hundred times before played without any real spark or interesting dub effects.  As for the Big Youth tracks, has there ever been a more boring toast that "Lightning Flash (Weak Heart Drop)"? What is the point of drivel like this?  Big Youth has recorded maybe half a dozen vital tracks and about 200 substandard ones. Dread Locks Dread collects half a dozen of the latter.

- Gibby's Ghost