Blackheart Man
Pure spine-tingling, heart-swelling inspiration from foundation Wailer Bunny Wailer (Neville Livingston)--with his ex-Wailer mates Bob Marley and Peter Tosh lending backup support on some tracks. This is one of the greatest reggae albums ever, a 1976 solo debut that virtually defines roots reggae as the musical vehicle for the "reasonings" of the amalgam of Garvey's pan-Africanism and Old Testament thunder that is Rastafari. Virtually every track elucidates Rasta "livity" and offers an intensely visceral portrait of the struggles endured by the international "sufferah dem." And it's all leavened by the Rastafarian vision of a just future world united by One Love. Reggae--hell, pop music!--doesn't get better than these 10 tracks--especially "Dreamland," "Fighting Against Conviction," "Fig Tree," and the title tune.--Elena Oumano