One of the most uplifting tunes I know, and I know it'll be in my head the rest of the day. Not a bad thing.
For those not keen on the old school version, with what's either lip synching or a badly out of synch audio/video track (particularly plain given Dekker's rather extreme oral stylings), here's a more contemporary version, recorded live, December 31, 2003, on Jools Holland's New Year's Eve Hootenanny special for BBC2.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Desmond Dekker - Israelites
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3 comments:
The lip sync stuff always drives me crazy....but as long as we're inclined as a culture to judge people based on looks it is bound to happen.
In the wine industry it happens as well, female winemakers or owners get lots of extra credit and attention.
Judging from the clothes and the decor, I'm willing to bet a good bottle of Burgundy that this video is c. 1978, and Desmond Dekker was the opening act for Donna Summer or The Bee Gees at a US venue.
For contemporary Roots and easy listening reggae, I highly recommend the following artists/cd's:
a. Luciano - Where There is Life
b. Morgan Heritage - More Teachings
c. Glen Washington - Next to Me
d. Culture - One Stone
e. Gilberto Gil - Kaya Ngandaya (Brasil's star sings reggae)
@WoMC The first half of your comment makes perfect sense in the context of today's girl and boy bands that are clearly just marketing vortexes to suck away at the disposable income of the American teen set. I saw the Jonas Brothers on Conan O'Brien's show the other day -- lip synching away, and freaking horrendous to boot. As for the Dekker clip, I'd hardly say he was on stage for his looks. The lip synching in that scenario was more typical of the times, as it's much easier from a production perspective to play a recording and have an artist mime than it is to stage a live performance and engineer a good sound mix.
As for the second half of your comment, that came right out of left field. Do I sense an ax to grind?
@TomH I'd be happy to drink your Burgundy but I can't find any info about exactly where that clip was filmed and you may very well be right. There are other Dekker clips that were clearly from Disco-era clubs, many of them even feature a disco mix. I liked this one as the music is true to the original... and Des's jumpsuit is just super bitchin'.
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