Search - Susan Cadogan :: Hurt So Good

Excellent reissue of an odd Black Ark gem

Michael Crowley | Albany, CA USA | 04/23/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is some of the best production work Lee Perry ever did, but at the same time this is basically pop reggae, which is not a bad thing at all. It's fun. I mean, I like Jah Rastafari as much as the next guy, but it's interesting to hear Scratch do something a little differrent and still keep that same heavy sound. It's still the Black Ark at it's peak--the backup singers and players of instruments are the same ones who appeared on tunes with names like Dread Lion, Ethiopian Land and Babylon Falling.



The material does vary a bit. Some of the songs are unquestionably great: In the Ghetto (yes, the song Elvis made famous--you know you want to hear a Lee Perry production of an Elvis tune), Nice and Easy (very sexy), the title track, If You Love Me (although perhaps a bit too Motownish for some, but fantastic guitar solo in the middle), Feeling is Right (also very sexy), and Fever (yes the tune Peggy Lee made famous, in an incredibly rootsy version, and yes, is sexy). But most of the other songs are pretty mediocre, kinda like reggae versions of generic 70s Nashville songs. Although they've all still got that thundering Black Ark groove. At times it's a strange combination. Congratulations starts out very dubby, with a deep bass and a haunting echo-drenched flute in the background, and then in the middle of the song there's Here Comes the Bride played on a cheesy keyboard.



The bonus tracks almost double the amount of material here and show the brilliant way Scratch was able to rework the same material, remixing and laying new tunes over existing rhythms. There's the English single mix of Hurt So Good), a "version" of the same song (Loving Is Good) and a dub (Rub a Dub). Dub It is a dub of Nice and Easy, the second track on the CD. The remaining bonus tracks are all based on Fever. There's a Junior Byles cover of Fever and a dub of Cadogan's cover, Influenza Version. Lick the Pipe Peter has a guy toasting over the Fever rhythm (I know I should spell that riddim but, you know, I'm a white American guy so I just can't bring myself to do it). Hot and Cold Version is basically a dub of Lick the Pipe Peter with some great melodica and sax lines, and This World is a haunting new song using the same basic Fever rhythm."