Linval Thompson: I Love Marijuana (180g, translucent yellow vinyl) [MUSIC ON VINYL]

Why you'll love it

This Music On Vinyl edition is limited to 750 numbered copies on 180g translucent yellow vinyl. It was Linval Thompson's first self-produced album, with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare's Revolutionaries behind him.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Translucent yellow vinyl
• Limited to 750 numbered copies
• Stereo mix

About the album

Linval Thompson learned the trade the hard way, bouncing between Kingston and Queens, cutting sides for Phil Pratt, Lee Perry and Bunny Lee before he decided he could do the producing himself. This 1978 album for Trojan was where he started, following the success of a single with the same name. Raised in Kingston, he had cut his first single in Brooklyn at around 20.

The Revolutionaries, with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare at the core, give it a heavy, rolling roots sound. "Dread Are The Controller" and "The Children Of The Ghetto" carry the conscious message, "Don't Push Your Brother" pleads for unity, and "Roots Lady" and "Big Big Girl" lean toward lovers rock. It closes on a dub version that shows off the band's weight. Thompson's own voice, light and earnest, rides on top of all that bass.

Thompson went on to produce Barrington Levy, the Wailing Souls, Eek-A-Mouse and Freddie McGregor, and his productions fed some of Scientist's best-known dub albums, and in 2000 Blood and Fire gathered his early Bunny Lee sides as Ride On Dreadlocks. Not bad for a chap who once left Jamaica to study engineering.

Also at Kops: more Linval Thompson on vinyl · browse Reggae & Caribbean

Tracklist

Listen

On Music On Vinyl (cat# MOVLP2346), a reissue of the 1978 album.