Social Classics Volume 2: Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown is a compilation CD of various bits and pieces of
dub and
reggae, compiled by
DJ Don Letts.
Subtitled "The soundtrack to London's legendary Roxy Club December '76 - April '77".
As the subtitle suggests, DMPRU is a compiled mainly of the kind of tracks you'd have been likely to hear in punk hangout The Roxy back in the late seventies. Letts himself was the original DJ for the Roxy, a club that was founded in mid 1976 after the 100 Club started refusing to serve punks. Dub and reggae was the music of choice for most punks before any of them (the Clash, the Damned, the Sex Pistols) had released anything.
The inlay notes are pretty interesting, although they haven't much to do with the music. They're basically a short autobiographical piece by Letts about his experiences during the punk explosion. He's well qualified to write about it; friends with Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, he used to hang out at their notorious punk shop (variously known as Too Fast To Live, Sex and Seditionaries), and himself worked in Acme Attractions, London's other punk shop. The reggae and dub he played there were as big an attraction as the clothes he sold, and when the Roxy club opened, he was asked to DJ. Hence this compilation.
Letts' other punk credentials include:
The line-up includes veteran reggae crooner
Horace Andy (who's now more famous for his work with
Massive Attack),
Damon Albarn's
melodica hero
Augustus Pablo, and nutcase
Lee Scratch Perry, who recently got paid a huge amount to spout absolute gibberish for a
Guinness ad.
The track listing is:
- Bag A Wire Dub - King Tubby
- Fade Away - Junior Byles
- Marcus Garvey - Big Youth
- Fisherman - The Congos
- Rush I Some Dub - Tappa Zukie
- I Need A Roof - The Mighty Diamonds
- Black Harmony Killer - Jah Stitch
- Train To Zion - U Brown (Discomix)
- King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown - Augustus Pablo
- Two Sevens Clash - Culture
- Wear You To The Ball - U-Roy
- Pure Ranking - Horace Andy
- M.P.L.A. Dub - Tappa Zukie
- Deuteronomy - Sylford Walker
- Police And Thieves - Junior Murvin
- The Tackro - Lee Perry & The Upsetters