WAR INA BABYLON by MAX ROMEO & THE UPSETTERS (1976, Island)

Max Romeo is a dub reggae musician who's has joined the illustrious ranks of artists such as Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Serge Gainsbourg who have had songs refused airplay by the BBC for being too saucy. Despite his protestations that his 1969 song 'Wet Dream' was about a roof with a leak the record was banned. It's infamy made it a big hit that rose to No. 10 in the UK and kept it on the charts for months. 

Skip forward seven and years and Max Romeo has become a little more respectable. 1976 sees him in Jamaica working with leading dub-reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry on what would become one of the definitive classic dub albums of that era.

WAR INA BABYLON was produced by Perry and features Perry's in house band The Upsetters as Romeo's backing. It was recorded at Perry's legendary 'Black Ark Studios'  and is considered to be one of the producer's classic records, one of the Black Ark 'Holy Trinity', the other tracks being Junior Murvin's Police & Thieves and The Heptones Party Time.

A reggae 'Whats Going On' it is a melodic but socially conscious album with lyrics that focus on inequality, Jamaican politics, and the best and worst elements of Rastafarian briefs. 

Despite it's somewhat un-menacing name the track 'Norman' is gangster noir which is the kind of track 50 Cent would have sung if he grew up in 1970s Kingston Town rather than Queens, NY. We follow a very bad Rasta loaded with money and surrounded with pretty girls as he cruises about town doing deals and shaking down those with a lot less than he. Similarly toned 'One Step Forward' is a challenge to those Rastafarians who are 'conmen' and have lost their way from the rough but rewarding road to Babylon. Naturally this being a dub record there's the token song dedicated to smoking cannabis, the cheery 'Smokey Room'. But the best and best known track on here is the excellent 'I Chase The Devil' which has been sampled by both Jay-Z for the Black Album track 'Lucifer' and also by The Prodigy for the early single 'Out Of Space'.


'I CHASE THE DEVIL'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fl91GQlET4&feature=fvst

'ONE STEP FORWARD'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NHNIgYRKVQ

'NORMAN'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHf3V0IrBjI