This Is Reggae Music: The Golden Era 1960-1975 (Trojan/Sanctuary, 2004)

How can you give a bad review to a box set that includes such masterpieces of reggae?  I can’t.  This Is Reggae Music: The Golden Era is a magnificent sensory map tracing the evolution of reggae from the early days of mento to the beginning of the reign of the roots sound.  This four-CD box set is chock full of classic material arranged in chronological order, starting with mento, R&B, and ska on the first disc, then rock steady on the second, early reggae on the third, and roots on the fourth.  Landmarks like "Cry Tough," "My Boy Lollipop," "Do the Reggay," "Vietnam," "Everything I Own," and "Marcus Garvey" are covered on this gorgeous package.  However, that doesn’t mean that this set is perfect.  (While I would argue that the "Golden Era" lasted later into the '70s, that would've made this a five or six-disc set instead of a relatively affordable four, so we'll dismiss this complaint.)

The only real complaints I have center around the song selection:

1)      Except for perhaps the early mento-flavored tracks on the first CD, most of these songs will be familiar to experienced reggae fans -- perhaps too much so.  Although Trojan's vaults are vast, they've been mined to death over the past few years with innumerable Trojan Box Sets.  Thus, the great majority of this material is readily available elsewhere.  Additionally, material beyond Trojan's reaches are not included.  Perhaps this is why there's no "Oh Carolina," "Satta Massagana," "Stalag 17," "Curly Locks," or "Carry Go Bring Come."

2)      Some artists are perhaps a bit too heavily represented in relation to others.  We have six songs from Toots & The Maytals and five songs apiece from Jimmy Cliff and Bob Maley, for instance, but only one from Burning Spear, The Heptones, Horace Andy, and Ras Michael, and two each from Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, and Alton Ellis.  Noticeably absent are luminaries like Count Ossie, The Skatalites, Justin Hinds, U-Roy, and The Techniques.  Granted, cutting the box set off at 1975 eliminates many acts, but these made splashes well before that cut-off date.  I'm not arguing against the greatness of Marley, Cliff, or Hibbert, but a few less tracks from them would've left room for others.

3)      Other recent reggae box sets -- like Tougher Than Tough and Reggae Box -- have similar content.  Both "Money in My Pocket" and "Westbound Train" are on both of these sets, for instance.  Dennis Brown has a lot of great material to choose from, and these two are the only ones they could find?  And aren't "Israelites," "007 (Shanty Town)," "Cherry Oh Baby," "54-46 (That’s My Number)," "Rivers of Babylon," "I Can See Clearly Now," and "Everything I Own" on every "best of" reggae compilation ever put together?  If you want the more obscure stuff, try Trojan's 2003 box set Muzik City: The Story of Trojan.

I will give the compilers credit, though, for reaching back to the mento and Jamaican R&B days to give exposure to those precursors to reggae.  Also, there are some reggae tracks included here that aren't the typical fare: for instance, The Tennors' "Ride Your Donkey," Andy Capp's "Pop a Top," The Stingers' "Give Me Power," The Righteous Flames' "One Love, One Heart," and The Willows' "Cool Iron."  Still, while I would like to have seen the compilers step out on a limb and include something like Fred Locks' "Black Star Liner," This Is Reggae Music is what the title implies: a wonderful introduction to reggae.  Veteran fans of the genre will likely already have much of it, although it is handy to have it all in one package.