| features in: Album Chart of 1978 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1970s |
Following royalty disputes with Joe Gibbs, Culture had been “looking around” for a new production partner and had recorded some demos with engineer Sylvan Morris at Harry J’s Studios. Whether they were unsatisfied with the deal or the actual recording results remains a story untold, but the sessions were abandoned in any event. To their eternal horror, the semi-finished works surfaced in the United States as a bootleg titled “Africa Stand Alone” (April Records, 1978). To add insult to injury the bootleg did really well and the import into England saw it voted the 5th best album of 1978 in NME’s annual Top 50 albums poll. It was a real sweet and sour scenario all around. The “proper” third album “Harder Than The Rest” (the band’s first for Virgin’s Frontline imprint) would spend the rest of its life competing for sales with the bootleg, with five tracks crossing over between the two. In a move which surprised many in Jamaica, the band hooked up with Sonia Pottinger for this set, a producer whose pop success with the likes of Marcia Griffiths and Bob Andy didn’t seem like the most convincing credentials for handling the crucial third from Jamaica’s leading conscious roots group. We needn’t have worried. Not only did Miss P keep the band’s momentum strong, she pushed it forward with even more vitality. Two Studio One cuts from the preceding Baldhead Bridge LP get a reworking – “Behold I Come” (as “Behold”) and “Love Shines Brighter” (as “Love Shine Bright”). Did they think I wouldn’t notice? The former delivers the definitive version of the classic song, as bright as a button “This world is like a mirror, reflected in what you do, And if you face it smiling, it will smile right back at you… and I know that it was the voice of the most high he say Behold”. This is the mighty Culture in full flow. Single “Work On Natty” is another terrific highlight – a militant tale of ghetto life set to a super tough backline. This is vital Culture…
The Jukebox Rebel
27–Aug–2009
| Tracklist |
| A1 | [04:30]  Culture - Behold (Joseph Hill, Albert Walker, Roy Dayes) Reggae |
| A2 | [03:34]  Culture - Holy Mt. Zion (Joseph Hill, Albert Walker, Roy Dayes) Reggae |
| A3 | [04:44]  Culture - Stop The Fussing And Fighting (Joseph Hill, Albert Walker, Roy Dayes) Reggae |
| A4 | [03:46]  Culture - Iron Sharpening Iron (Joseph Hill, Albert Walker, Roy Dayes) Reggae |
| A5 | [03:45]  Culture - Vacancy (Joseph Hill, Albert Walker, Roy Dayes) Reggae |
| B1 | [04:06]  Culture - Tell Me Where You Get It (Joseph Hill, Albert Walker, Roy Dayes) Reggae |
| B2 | [02:46]  Culture - Free Again (Joseph Hill, Albert Walker, Roy Dayes) Reggae |
| B3 | [03:51]  Culture - Work On Natty (Joseph Hill, Albert Walker, Roy Dayes) Reggae |
| B4 | [03:59] Culture - Love Shine Bright (Joseph Hill, Albert Walker, Roy Dayes) Reggae |
| B5 | [04:06]  Culture - Play Skillfully (Joseph Hill, Albert Walker, Roy Dayes) Reggae |
