#dreader than dread

Akcept Dreader Than Dread (2018)

Honey Boy Martin w/ Tommy McCook & The Supersonics “Dreader than Dread” (1976, b-side to another great tune, “In the Mood”)

A swing of the musical pendulum has put me back into Jamaican music, an interest rekindled by the elusive Boss Sounds 2 book, the 2012 update of Marc Griffiths’ original 1995 book.  

My first stop in the book was the page dedicated to Ken Lack’s Caltone label, where the opening paragraph launched immediately into Honeyboy Martin’s “Dreader Than Dread” and Roy Shirley’s “Get On The Ball”.  Writing from an Anglo-centric vantage, authors Marc Griffiths and Dave ‘oldwah’ Sandford note:

A subsidiary of R&B Discs, Honey Boy Martin’s Dreader Than Dread and Roy Shirley’s Get on the Ball are…the two most crucial cuts on this label of just 22 issues. …Dreader Than Dread is really the classic here.  Utilising the rhythm from The Tartans’ It’s All Right, it was one of the best discs issued on the rude boy theme.