Thursday, June 23, 2016

Day 236 of 365 Day Jamaican Music Challenge - The Hot Tops - Give It To Him

You know what is amazing about Jamaican music?  Regardless of how much you immerse your ears in the various sub-genres, artists, labels, producers and sounds of this music you always come across something you've never heard before or perhaps overlooked and it is so damn good you don't know how you ever lived without it!  Take for instance today's tune, the 234th in the 365 Day Challenge, "Give It To Him" by The Hot Tops.  Last week in preparation for a live gig we had lined-up for last Saturday I got to work putting together a playlist.  I was in a rocksteady mood and once I had gone through the record boxes and dug for what seemed liked forever I had a healthy stack of vinyl ready to hit the turntables but I had a couple holes in the set that needed filling.  I rifled through my LPs and CDs as well but still felt something was missing.  Finally as a last resort, I cracked open the Spooktacular vault, a case in which I keep all my coveted 7" "duppy" tunes which I utilize every October, and went to exploring the b-sides (or sometimes the a-sides) of the records inside.  I came across the 2001 repress of Derrick Morgan's 1968 song "Father Killam" on the Hop label, flipped it over and saw on the ridiculously mangled label what you are about to hear.  The Hot Tops were in actuality The Viceroys and this tune "Give It To Him" recorded in '68 for Derrick Morgan and featuring Lynn Taitt & The Jets is absolutely killer!  It just goes to show that undiscovered or forgotten treasures abound in Jamaican music... some which you can devote hours locating and laying out the cash to obtain and some just sitting idly in your own record collection right now!  Ya dig?

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