Product Description

HEART OF THE CONGOS is a landmark reggae album whose initial obscurity was due to a dispute between producer Lee Perry and his label, Island Records. Perry's idea to create a roots vocal album took shape when Cedric Myton and Roy Johnson auditioned at his Black Ark Studio. The resulting album had Myton and Johnson wrapping their falsetto and tenor around one another in the sweetly rendered "Children Crying" and "La La Bam-Bam".
Perry's production lent HEART OF THE CONGOSa hazy, dub-like sheen that swathed the Rastafarian imageryof songs such as "Sodom & Gomorrow" and "Ark Of Covenant" in muted shadings. Backed by a number of legendary session musicians including Sly Dunbar and Ernest Ranglin, HEART OF THE CONGOS could have been a smash, had Perry not held back the record from Island Records who handled his international distribution. Instead, it became a lost classic cherished by countless reggae aficionados.

Track Listing

1. Fisherman
2. Congoman
3. Open Up The Gate
4. Children Crying
5. La La Bam-Bam
6. Can't Come In
7. Sodom & Gomorrow
8. Wrong Thing
9. Ark Of The Covenant
10. Solid Foundation

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24869 in Music
• Released on: 2006-07-14
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Blood & Fire edition of this album is the one to go for
I bought this hoping it had some different mixes of the Congos best album, but it seems to have been mastered at a slightly faster speed than the edition on Blood & Fire [which has more & longer tracks]. VP should pay attention to details like that if they want to match the other B&F edition [which also has bonbus tracks included]

This isn't the Blood and Fire edition, is it?
I'm giving this five stars although, in common with quite a few other reviewers here, I've only heard the release on the Blood and Fire label. That does not seem to be the one being sold here! This one is on the VP label. I haven't heard that one and nor, I would guess, have quite a lot of the reviewers here - maybe even all of them.

It's not unknown for a good album to get good releases and bad releases - whether or not the VP release is a good one I don't know. The Blood and Fire one is a goodie.

The Blood and Fire one has an extra disc - not sure if the VP one does.

So do a bit of research and find out if the VP release is really what you're looking for. Or seek out the Blood and Fire one to be on the safe side.

Pinnacle of human achievement
Rate alongside Mona Lisa, Ulysses etc. I bought this on vinyl on Go Feet records in about 1982 as a student desperate to get hip to the sounds of reggae, on the basis of a four star review in the NME.
This record is a revelation.It takes you into the beautiful black heart of Rastafari and the harrowing experience of the African diaspora via the poetry of the bible, the otherworldly vocal harmonising of Cedric Myton et al and Lee Perry's miraculous production. It is truly ravishing and without doubt one of the greatest records of all time.