DREAD BEAT AN' BLOOD
POET AND THE ROOTS
(1978)
A1: DREAD BEAT AN’ BLOOD (3:02); A2: FIVE NIGHTS OF BLEEDING (4:30); A3: DOUN DI ROAD (2:25); A4: SONG OF BLOOD (6:27).
B1: IT DREAD INNA INGLAN (FOR GEORGE LINDO) (4:02); B2: COME WI GOH DUNG DEH (3:48); B3: MAN FREE (FOR DARCUS HOWE) (6:02); B4: ALL WI DOIN IS DEFENDIN (2:54).
CATEGORY: ROOTS MUSIC | DURATION: 34 MINUTES
The high point of English-Jamaican roots music, a collaboration between “dub poet” Linton Kwesi Johnson and dub producer/musician Dennis “Blackbeard” Bovell. Set to ominous home-grown rhythms, Johnson’s dark declamations portray a bloody London wracked by internecine violence and stabbings, police brutality and racial discrimination, unlawful imprisonment and rife social injustice. The grim visions of Dread Beat An’ Blood would become reality just a few years later, when Brixton’s black community erupted with nights of rioting, looting and arson.
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ROBERT YOUNG (1964-2014)
“ÆTERNUM VORTICE LACRIMARUM SOMNIAT”