Beautiful copy of: Selassie is the Chapel, featuring Bob on lead vocals / guitar, Rita, Bunny and Peter with flawless, heavenly harmonies and percussion. First pressing of this deeply, spiritual acoustic was on white label back in 1968 and as far as I know, just a handful of copies were made. My own personal copy is on the Wail n Soul label which was formed by the Wailers in 1966-ish and located at 18a Greenwich Park Road, Kingston 5, Jamaica. Production and hauntingly beautiful binghi drumming is by Mortimer ‘Kummi’ Planno, one of the key figures in the early Rasta movement and one of Marley’s first managers. Planno, a revered elder in the Nyabinghi Mansion (on 5th Street, Trenchtown) must also be credited as the first person to garner a record contract for the Wailers, after introducing them to American record producer Danny Sims at a Grounation ceremony at Planno’s yard in Trenchtown. The late Danny Sims (2012), wily businessman, controversial publisher and multiple label owner, signed the Wailers around 5 years before Island Records. That same year, they would sign their first non- exclusive long term contract with Cissi Music, one of JAD labels associated music publishing companies. Incidentally, JAD was co-owned by Johnny Nash (the ‘J’ in JAD) who is considered to be one of the first foreign musicians to record multiple reggae hits in Kingston, Jamaica. His rendering of: I Can See Clearly Now (1972) achieved the #1 spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart, where it remained for four weeks and sold over 1 million copies. In Roger Steffens book: So Much Things To Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley, Sims is quoted as saying : “If it wasn’t for Johnny Nash, reggae would have never been a worldwide, international music.” That’s quite a bold opinion, so his statement is open to debate. At the end of the day, if it wasn’t for Jamaica - REGGAE would not exist! Something else that’s quite interesting is that the JAD contract was drawn up by the lawyer father of much loved Jamaican Radio Broadcaster, the late Neville Willoughby (2006). Arthur Jenkins and Danny Sims are the A & D of the acronym. Fast forward to 2011 and: Selassie is the Chapel (this time, sung by Stephen and featuring big bro Ziggy) resurfaces on Stephen Marley’s second studio album: Revelation Pt.1 - The Root of Life. The album went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 2012 and like Nash, 40 years prior, shot to #1 on US Billboard’s Reggae Album’s Chart. The journey of this song, it’s origins and the complexity of the history interwoven by the threads that bring the fabric together are simply fascinating. Part folklore, part fact. But isn’t that what history really is after all? A perspective, a memory, a curated memory? We choose the viewpoint that suits us comfortably, one that fits right. Yet, regardless of perspective, a fact that is indisputable is this: Reggae Music and the Wailers transformed the musical landscape in less than a decade after its documented birth. And this is why ‘Triumphantly we must all sing and sing and sing...”
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