Serious roots raggae?

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Its something I never got into just because I never had the connections. Thinking about Youtube recently and a song that had been on the Belly soundtrack (where the guys down in Jamaica are planning to do Ox for killing their leader) I decided to research it and find it. Sister Nancy - Bam Bam, from 1982 and some seriously sick s---. Another thing I found pretty quickly after that was No No No by Dawn Penn, of course what built instant kinship with that one is I have a mix by a California dub raggae junglist who mixed in her vocals over, of course, lots of Amen and cooked sine bass.

Still, I can't get enough of these two tunes - I'm not one to sit there and listen to songs over and over again but its real tough for me, with these, not to hit the play button again and again. I get the impression they're pretty high toward the top of the genre, after all Bam Bam being from 1982 and still big for movies and dj's, for Dawn Penn's No No No, geez....1967 that came out and its been remixed by Dawn herself, and its even been redone by Rihanna (who has to sing the hooks with her voice layered in 4ths to get the same intended affect across). Something about driven and creative people, people who had a real inwardly originating sense of what they were doing and what they wanted to get out, even a couple generations later on faded vinyl you can look back in time and really see someone who you could relate to.


So I'm curious for anyone who's into that genre, aside from Bob Marley (not really as much my vibe), is there anything else real major out there that I'm missing? By major I mean classic, epic, Kingston gangsta isht, the stuff that made it what it is and really put it on the map.

And heck, for the easy I'll put some links up like so:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNDrFTLl27w[/youtube]
Sister Nancy


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy2Gctc11FE[/youtube]
67'


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy1YF54rZZM[/youtube]
Dawn Penn's revamp

Australian band Blue King Brown. From their outstanding album Stand Up, which was a favourite of mine amongst last year's album releases. It's a bit more contemporary than the ones you've listed, however.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJVoslo_xdM&feature=related[/youtube]

Michael Franti & Spearhead. They don't really do just reggae though, though it's a major influence in their music.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSeuLsNV4CA[/youtube]

There's something about the authentic reggae sound that the white/western bands really don't hack (unless its Sublime on some of their tracks, Snow's surprised me too with some of what he's thrown down). I don't know if you've ever seen the add for the Infiniti, Lexus, or whatever where that one guy's describing some old jazz/blues tune from the 1930's he loves, they're playing it in the background, and its real slow and heavy but every chord hits harder and harder, picks up more steam, and its supposed to parallel the emotion and situation of the words. For me I like that kind of intensity and interplay, having the music being real personified and gut-level, real intense, etc.

With the tunes I posted, the difference which I think a lot of white bands (aside from Sublime and maybe Snow on some of his older stuff) never seem to hack because for all the weed they can smoke day in and day out it still doesn't lead their mind to the right place - they're generally too strung up in their own little mental space to really understand what the good stuff is or what makes it what it is. I listen to Dawn and Nancy and I see a lot of wisdom in the music, they seem to really get all of that. Some of the things I love for instance, with No no no its the chord change ups between major and minor, its got that emotionally burned feel going on and its almost indicative real directly of a person feeling like they're bathed in their own sort of internal hell but managing to stay tough and crack a smile trying to laugh it off. With Bam Bam its the way it works in and out, its got a real thick pot haze to it and its very stylized, the instruments, the vocals, lyrics, the melodic choices, the fidelity of the recording, it all culminates and synergizes.

In the end I guess I probably am looking for, quite directly, Jamaican, British Jamaican, or other such diaspora in terms of artists. Its the humility I think, most white kids can't get their head in the right place to make it right unless they themselves are either coming from a really rare place in terms of who they are (always had a different way of hearing it all), grew up on the authentic stuff until they understood it, or on the other hand just did so much in the way of drugs that they were able to hurdle themselves over that conceptual barrier with music.

I still appreciate the response, hope that didn't come off like I was blasting it - just trying to direct future responses though and get across the specifics.

i like punk rock with a little raggae influence such as operation ivy..

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... &plindex=0

Tenor Saw's got something going here, he's probably got better but this is the top hosted on Youtube for him.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRCao607WH4[/youtube]

Another thing I'm dying to get my hands on though, there are two different mixes of Freestylers feat. Navigator - Warning. There's the one that used to get played all the time with the rock guitar behind it, that one's so-so, there's also a more rare one that's a more typical reggae beat and i really wish I could find it, it was pretty sick.