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1985 US issue, Mango MLPS 9786
Reggae Greats gathers ten Linton Kwesi Johnson recordings from three of his Island-era albums, and this is the American edition on Mango, catalog number MLPS 9786. Island issued it in the UK the same year as IRG 6, as part of its Reggae Greats series.
The object
The labels are pink with the green Mango script logo and a small Island mark, and each one prints its side number, MLPS 9786-A or MLPS 9786-B, beneath the word Stereo. Both carry a compilation copyright line to Island Records Ltd. dated 1984, and the rim text names Mango Records as a division of Island Trading Co. at 14 E. 4th St. in New York. The back cover runs the tracklist above a long biographical note compiled by Rob Partridge. Trevor Wyatt compiled the set, and Tony Wright designed the cover, which places a portrait of Johnson between two stacked REGGAE headings.
Context
Four tracks come from Forces Of Victory (1979), three from Bass Culture (1980) and three from Making History (1984). The compilation and this Mango pressing both date from 1985. Dennis Bovell mixed the collection and co-produced seven of its ten tracks with Johnson, who produced the remaining three alone; all words and music are credited to Johnson.
The album
Background on the compilation and its three source albums lives on the Reggae Greats album page.
Tracklist
Side A
- Reggae Sounds
- Independent Intavenshan
- Street 66
- Bass Culture
- Di Great Insohreckshan
Side B
- It Noh Funny
- Sonny's Lettah (Anti-Sus Poem)
- Reggae Fi Radni
- Fite Dem Back
- Making History