''Dread Beat an' Blood'' is the debut album by British reggae band

Poet and the Roots Poet and the Roots are a reggae band formed to record dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson's poems with dub backing tracks. The recordings were on the Virgin Records label.

Front Line A front line (alternatively front-line or frontline) in military terminology is the position(s) closest to the area of conflict of an Military, armed force's Military personnel, personnel and Military technology, equipment, usually referring to ...

label. It was produced by Vivian Weathers and

Linton Kwesi Johnson Linton Kwesi Johnson Order of Distinction, OD (born 24 August 1952), also known as LKJ, is a Jamaica-born, British-based dub poetry, dub poet and activist. In 2002, he became the second living poet, and the only black one, to be published in th ...

. The "Poet" is dub poet Johnson and "the Roots" are

Dennis Bovell Dennis Bovell (born 22 May 1953) is a Barbados-born reggae guitarist, bass player and record producer, based in the United Kingdom. He was a member of a progressive rock group called Stonehenge, who later changed name and became the British r ...

, Lloyd "Jah Bunny" Donaldson, Desmond Craig, Winston Curniffe, Everald Forrest, Floyd Lawson, John Varnom, Lila Weathers and Vivian Weathers. Vivian Weathers and Winston Curniffe were school friends of Johnson's. They all attended Tulse Hill Secondary School. Most of the tracks are based on poems that first appeared in Johnson's 1975 book of poetry ''Dread Beat an' Blood''. This album was the result of collaboration between Johnson, who had been active as a journalist and reggae critic as well as a poet, and musician and producer Bovell. The combination of Bovell's heavy dub rhythms and Johnson's monotone intonation of his poetry created a whole new genre of

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

dub poetry Dub poetry is a form of performance poetry of Jamaican origin, which evolved out of dub music in Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1970s,

. In subsequent re-releases of the album, the artist is sometimes given as Linton Kwesi Johnson. The album was listed in the 1999 book ''The

Rough Guide Rough Guides is a travel company that offers tailor-made trips planned and arranged by local travel experts based in destinations around the world. Originally established as a guidebook publisher in 1982, Rough Guides expanded into customized t ...

: Reggae: 100 Essential CDs''.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (1999) ''Reggae: 100 Essential CDs'', Rough Guides, .

Background and recording

Johnson first got involved in recording after an acquaintance at the Natty Dread ABC project in Brixton asked him to write copy and advertisements for the

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

Front Line releases.An accidental reggae artiste
, ''

Jamaica Gleaner ''The Gleaner'' is an English-language, morning daily newspaper founded by two brothers, Jacob and Joshua de Cordova on 13 September 1834 in Kingston, Jamaica. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the Western Hemisphere. Original ...

'', 31 January 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2016. While at a recording studio, Johnson suggested recording a poetry reading, which

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

agreed to finance. After recording three demos, Virgin agreed £2,000 to record the album, which was recorded with Bovell, whom Johnson had previously interviewed for a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

programme. Bovell and Lloyd "Jah Bunny" Donaldson were both in Matumbi.

Lyrical content

Johnson was the first person to accurately describe the situation of the black British youth in the

inner cities Interior may refer to: Arts and media * ''Interior'' (Degas) (also known as ''The Rape''), painting by Edgar Degas * ''Interior'' (play), 1895 play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck * ''The Interior'' (novel), by Lisa See * Interior de ...

in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This theme runs through most of the songs on this and his other albums, but is particularly evident in the last vocal song on the album, "All Wi Doin' Is Defendin, which is remarkably prescient as it foresees the

1981 Brixton riot The 1981 Brixton riot, or Brixton uprising, was a series of clashes between mainly black youths and the Metropolitan Police in Brixton, London, between 10 and 12 April 1981.J. A. Cloake & M. R. Tudor. ''Multicultural Britain''. Oxford Unive ...

in some detail and justifies it before it had even happened.

Track listing

All tracks by Linton Kwesi Johnson #"Dread Beat an' Blood" – 2:51 #"Five Nights of Bleeding (for Leroy Harris)" – 4:32 #"Doun Di Road" – 2:25 #"Song of Blood" – 6:26 #"It Dread Inna Inglan (for George Lindo)" – 4:04 #"Come Wi Goh Dung Deh" – 3:44 #"Man Free (for

Darcus Howe Leighton Rhett Radford "Darcus" Howe (26 February 1943 – 1 April 2017)"Civil ...

)" – 5:53 #"All Wi Doin' Is Defendin – 2:57 On some later re-releases on CD the following tracks also appear

"Command Counsel"
"Defense" (dub)

Personnel

*Linton Kwesi Johnson - vocals, percussion *Floyd Lawson - bass, rhythm guitar *Lloyd "Jah Bunny" Donaldson, Winston "Crab" Curniffe - drums, percussion *Everald Forrest - percussion *

- guitar, keyboards on "Doun di Road" *Vivian Weathers - bass, rhythm guitar, vocals on "Song of Blood" *Lila Weathers - vocals on "Man Free (for Darcus Howe)" *John Varnom - guitar on "All Wi Doin' is Defendin *Desmond Craig - keyboards on "All Wi Doin' is Defendin ;Technical *Dennis "Blackbeard" Bovell - engineer, remixing *Una Howe - sleeve drawing *Julian Stapleton - sleeve design

References

{{Authority control 1978 debut albums Linton Kwesi Johnson albums Front Line (record label) albums