Ken Boothe – black, gold & green

Posted by: urbanology on: August 23, 2007

• In: beat | Music
• 10 Comments

Last post for four weeks, closed for the season, urbanology is on vacation! Thanks for visiting and come back later for more updates!

Many people know “Everything I know“, Ken Boothe´s reggae take on David Gates song which was an international chartbuster. But Ken Boothe is on the spot for 40 years, started as teenage sensation in the early sixties. “Mr. Rocksteady” excelled in making rocksteady covers of pop and soul hits for Studio 1. After several singles, first in 1963, he released his first full length record 1968. The list of his producers reads like a who is who of Jamaican music history: Duke Reid, Leslie Kong, Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, Sonia Pottinger, Keith Hudson, Phil Pratt, Winston “Niney” Holness.

1971 he teamed up with producer Lloyd Charmers on the UK Trojan label and 1973 Ken Boothe released “Black, Gold & Green”, his voice still deep and gritty, earning him a reputation as Jamaica’s answer to Wilson Pickett. The record was the first of three produced by Lloyd Charmers and you can already hear that proto-roots musical accompaniment, but with heavy soul and R&B influences. Even the love songs are tinged with a brooding melancholy not heard in his discography until this point. Ken Boothe writes, records and performs until today.

BG&G.

Tags: Early Reggae, Ken Boothe, Reggae, Trojan