''Screaming Target'' is the debut album by

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

deejay A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...

Big Youth Manley Augustus Buchanan (born 19 April 1949, Trenchtown, Kingston, Jamaica),Thompson, Dave (2002) "Reggae & Caribbean Music", Backbeat Books, better known as Big Youth (sometimes called Jah Youth), is a Jamaican deejay, mostly known for his ...

. It was recorded and originally released in 1972 on the Gussie and Jaguar labels in Jamaica.Big Youth - ''Screaming Target''
, ''Roots Archives'' It was issued in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in 1973 by

Trojan Records Trojan Records is a British record label founded in 1968. It specialises in ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub music. The label currently operates under the Sanctuary Records Group. The name ''Trojan'' comes from the Croydon-built Trojan truck t ...

Recording and production

The album was produced by Big Youth's childhood friend

Augustus "Gussie" Clarke Augustus "Gussie" Clarke (born 1954) is a reggae producer who worked with some of the top Jamaican reggae artists in the 1970s and later set up his own Music Works studio. Career Clarke started working in the music industry by cutting dub plat ...

. Some of the tracks on the album had previously been hits as singles, including "Screaming Target", which used K.C. White's "No, No, No" rhythm, "Tippertone Rock" (though the single version was different), and "The Killer".Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (1999) "Reggae: 100 Essential CDs", Rough Guides, Several other tracks employed rhythms from Clarke's other productions, including

Leroy Smart Leroy Smart (born 1952), is a reggae singer-songwriter and record producer from Kingston, Jamaica. Biography Smart was born in 1952 and orphaned at the age of two. He was raised at Maxfield Park Children's Home and educated at Alpha Boys Scho ...

's "Pride & Ambition" (on "Pride & Joy Rock"),

Lloyd Parks Lloyd Parks (born 26 May 1949) is a Jamaican reggae vocalist and bass player who has recorded and performed as a solo artist as well as part of Skin, Flesh & Bones, The Revolutionaries, The Professionals, and We the People Band.Larkin, Colin: ...

' "Slaving" ("Honesty"),

Dennis Brown Dennis Emmanuel Brown CD (1 February 1957 – 1 July 1999) was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of l ...

's "In Their Own Way" ("Be Careful"), and

Gregory Isaacs Gregory Anthony Isaacs OD (15 July 1951 – 25 October 2010)Thompson, p. 127. was a Jamaican reggae musician. Milo Miles, writing in ''The New York Times'', described Isaacs as "the most exquisite vocalist in reggae".Miles, Milo (1992),RECORDI ...

' "One One Cocoa Fill Basket" (on "One of These Fine Days"). The 2006 CD reissue adds the aforementioned tracks and more as a bonus.

Critical reception

The album was a favorite dub LP for music critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

in the 1970s, although he omitted it from '' Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981), lacking the comprehensiveness for import-only albums at the time.

Track listing

All tracks written, arranged, and produced by Gussie Clarke.
The track "Tippertone Rock" is listed as "Tippertong Rock" on the cover of the 1973 Trojan Records release (TRLS 61-A), while it's listed as "Tippertone Rock" on the vinyl LP itself. Later releases added "Screaming Target (Version 2)" (as track 6) and "Concrete Jungle" (as track 12). The 1976 Gussie LP releases only added "Concrete Jungle" (as track 11).

Credits

* Vocals :

* Backing vocals :

, K.C. White

Recording Information

* Recording : Dynamic Sounds (Kingston, JA) & Randy's (Kingston, JA) &

Harry J Harry Zephaniah Johnson (6 July 1945 – 3 April 2013), known by the stage name Harry J, was a Jamaican reggae record producer. Biography Born in Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica, Johnson started to play music with the Virtues as a bass player bef ...

(Kingston, JA) * Engineers :

Karl Pitterson Karl Pitterson is a Jamaican record producer and sound engineer. Pitterson began his career in the early 1970s as house engineer with Jamaican studios such as Dynamics, Federal, Randy's, Studio One, Treasure Isle and Aquarius. Over the course of ...

& Sid Bucknor & Errol Thompson

References

{{Authority control 1972 albums Big Youth albums Trojan Records albums