12.

Burning Spear – Studio One Presents Burning Spear

You hear these talent shows on TV, all these singers talking about how it’s a matter of life and death to them to be a singer, it means everything – I wouldn’t dare be on a panel, I couldn’t be that cruel to them, shattering their dreams, everyone’s got dreams like the next person. But the thing is, they might be brilliant singers but they’re not artists. What makes a singer special is something unique about themselves – like Bim, or Gregory Isaacs or – I love Rod Stewart, he’s got a great voice, it’s a shame about his head. I’d love to have made an album with him.

But Burning Spear, when I first heard this, I thought, fuck me, this sounds like it’s come from the sound of creation itself. It’s in my top three of all-time albums ever. It’s what got me into deep roots music, and appreciate the power of what’s coming from Jamaica, the history of slavery, that appalling legacy. And that voice, it sounds like it’s coming from underneath the earth, from Heaven, from history itself. The songs, the arrangements, they keys, the backing vocals, the Clement Dodd production, it’s one of the most haunting, brilliant records ever.