Heart Of The Congos

Product Information

The song went "Row fisherman row...keep on rowing your boat" and an impressed Scratch told Roy to come by his studio to maybe record the song.

This first edition contained 10 of what Perry believed were the best of the songs recorded by The Congos and the mix was noticeably different from the version most of us know as the definitive second edition. THIS IS THEN THE ARK STARTED TOO get a little mad , perry and the congos get very upset, and it was alot of bad vibes and hate . To some of those that attribute hipster appeal to this title and also claim there was no interest in this LP until the mid 90's, is very confused. Go-Beat reissued this in 1980, and a few other times, among others including the famous Blood and Fire issue.Lee Perry saw something in the Congos and in the songs they had written and he truely wanted to get the best out of the group and push the message given by the songs lyrics. Watty had recorded a number of singles with Perry but none of them were selling in numbers until his cover of a Brook Benton tune adapted to become "Rainy Night In Portland" sold well. The time they spent together gave us this remarkable album, a piece of reggae history and one of the greatest albums of all time.

After a stint in the US Navy, stationed in the now infamous Guantanamo Bay, Roy returned to Kingston in the early seventies and again began hanging around studios in the hope that someone would record him.Recorded between 1976 and 1977, Heart… is all about Perry’s own breadth of vision and ingenuity despite an impressive cast, including Ernie Ranglin, Sly Dunbar and Gregory Isaacs. Heart… is part of Perry’s string of roots classics, but good as War Inna Babylon and Super Ape were, this collection leaves them standing. Many reasons have been suggested including that Island records were more concerned in promoting Bob Marley and would shelve albums by other reggae artists, this claim is made by The Congos as well as Max Romeo and others who's follow up albums were poorly promoted by the label. The Congos album was coming together and Scratch would spend more time on this production then any of his previous efforts.

Watty Burnett, a regular figure at the studio, joined the group at this point as Perry thought his deep barritone vocal would help add a further dimension to the overall sound of The Congos. The "second mix" (which is the mix you'll find on all pressings except the very first super rare pressing and the [equally rare] RSD reissue) is not one specific version of the album, there is a whole multitude of variations (for example differently edited) using that mix. Here is a bit of a release history: Eternal Thunder | Magazine | Out Of Africa Comes The Congoman Jewel case and Slipcase version that was released after the production of the original Digipak-style release was stopped. Roy went off to improve his guitar skills in the hope that maybe he could make it as a session musician rather than a singer. He briefly joined The Rightful Brothers band where he improved on his guitar playing and learned to become a skilled hand drummer. Special Thanks: Cedric and Yvonne Myton, Roydel Johnson, Barry Frankson, Andrea Lewis, Clive Chin and Mandy Campbell, Bob Perry, Lisa Barbaris & Max King, David Katz, Jeremy Collingwood and Trevor Wyatt.

The first version however was considered poor by all involved and so Scratch arranged for the two of them to return the next day with a different set of musicians. The words “ Lee”, “ Perry” and “genius” crop up together frequently; yet these days evidence of the producer’s excellence seems to be limited to erratic stage performances and wilful eccentricity. Heart of the Congos, however, is the most vivid example of what he’s capable of. I haved the to first relesses maybee not first printed with the yellow paint but on the same sleeve blue and same label LP-4049-A