The Ultimate Guide to Great Reggae - The complete story of Reggae told through its greatest songs, famous and forgotten - Michael Garnice
Great mento-reggae by Stanley Beckford and others
The Ultimate Guide to Great Reggae - The complete story of Reggae told through its greatest songs, famous and forgotten - Michael Garnice
Michael Garnice [+]
Freelance writer
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Description
The 1970s saw the advent of mento-reggae, reggae with mento musical elements and/or a strong mento feel. Though there were not a great number of songs in this style, and they were not totally uniform in their arrangement, the body of work was large enough for a classic mento-reggae sound to emerge. This was sunny reggae with happy piano and an exaggeratedly springy guitar chop that alluded to banjo. The rhythm is a simplified interpretation of a mento rhythm remembered from the past. The singer often had a country voice. Songs were frequently renditions or adaptations of old mento standards. And when they were not, they were lyrically mento-like, often a detailed observation of one of life’s ribald predicaments. Woefully neglected by the CD format (with one exception), these songs are worth the effort to track down.