| Dread Beat an' Blood | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1978 (UK) | |||
| Recorded | 1978 | |||
| Studio | Gooseberry Sound Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Dub reggae,dub poetry | |||
| Length | 37:52 | |||
| Label | Front Line | |||
| Producer | Linton Kwesi Johnson; Vivian Weathers on "Song of Blood" | |||
| Poet and the Roots chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [1] |
Dread Beat an' Blood is the debut album by British reggae bandPoet and the Roots released in 1978 on theFront Line label. It was produced by Vivian Weathers andLinton Kwesi Johnson. The "Poet" isdub poet Johnson and "the Roots" areDennis Bovell, 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 attendedTulse Hill Secondary School. Most of the tracks are based on poems that first appeared in Johnson's 1975 book of poetryDread 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 ofreggae:dub poetry.
In subsequent re-releases of the album, the artist is sometimes given as Linton Kwesi Johnson. The album was listed in the 1999 bookTheRough Guide: Reggae: 100 Essential CDs.[2]
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 theVirgin Records Front Line releases.[3] While at a recording studio, Johnson suggested recording a poetry reading, whichRichard Branson agreed to finance.[3]
After recording three demos, Virgin agreed £2,000 to record the album, which was recorded with Bovell, whom Johnson had previously interviewed for aBBC programme.[3] Bovell and Lloyd "Jah Bunny" Donaldson were both inMatumbi.
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Johnson was the first person to accurately describe the situation of the black British youth in theinner cities 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 the1981 Brixton riot in some detail and justifies it before it had even happened.
All tracks by Linton Kwesi Johnson
On some later re-releases on CD the following tracks also appear
