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Pressure Drop: Reggae in the Seventies
The music that developed as rocksteady and early reggae gave birth to deejays, dub, rockers, lovers rock, early dancehall and 2 Tone was by turns brutal and revelatory.
Including an extensive analysis of the decade’s major singles and albums, Pressure Drop includes eyewitness accounts and experiences of the decade from the likes of Burning Spear, Chris Blackwell, Gregory Isaacs, Bunny Wailer, Jimmy Cliff, Black Uhuru, U-Roy, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Augustus Pablo, Toots and the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, Sly & Robbie, Dennis Bovell, Don Letts and members of the Specials, as well as first-hand anecdotes of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.
Including an extensive analysis of the decade’s major singles and albums, Pressure Drop includes eyewitness accounts and experiences of the decade from the likes of Burning Spear, Chris Blackwell, Gregory Isaacs, Bunny Wailer, Jimmy Cliff, Black Uhuru, U-Roy, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Augustus Pablo, Toots and the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, Sly & Robbie, Dennis Bovell, Don Letts and members of the Specials, as well as first-hand anecdotes of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.
- GenresMusic
654 pages, Hardcover
Published October 8, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 23, 2025
Got this for Xmas and was seriously looking forward to reading it. I've just finished it, having increasingly skim-read, but I'll keep going back to it because it's both fascinating and frustrating in equal measure.
First off, the quality of Masouri's research and knowledge is second to none. The reams and reams of song titles, lineups, labels, who did what and when, etc. is incredible.
The problem is that all this knowledge is presented in such an overwhelming, nonstop way. Paragraph after paragraph, without a section break, jumping from one producer to the next, then to the history of a band, then some politics, then another band, then a label, with song titles at every turn. It's such a massive topic presented so completely that it's hard to get a grip on a narrative, and so, for me, everything started blending into one and I ended up just flicking through, looking for mentions of my favourite artists.
Overall, this is an incredible resource that I'll keep dipping into. Sadly, though, as a "story", I feel like the book is let down by the editing.
PS. It's got an amazing cover, though.
First off, the quality of Masouri's research and knowledge is second to none. The reams and reams of song titles, lineups, labels, who did what and when, etc. is incredible.
The problem is that all this knowledge is presented in such an overwhelming, nonstop way. Paragraph after paragraph, without a section break, jumping from one producer to the next, then to the history of a band, then some politics, then another band, then a label, with song titles at every turn. It's such a massive topic presented so completely that it's hard to get a grip on a narrative, and so, for me, everything started blending into one and I ended up just flicking through, looking for mentions of my favourite artists.
Overall, this is an incredible resource that I'll keep dipping into. Sadly, though, as a "story", I feel like the book is let down by the editing.
PS. It's got an amazing cover, though.
October 13, 2025
When I was 14 in the 80s in white suburban USA no one around me had ever heard of Bob Marley or Reggae yet somehow I became a fanatic of 70s Roots Reggae. This book was perfect for my nostalgic self and to fill in the gaps of what I had to figure out myself in an era of zero information technology. This book is a historic gem, but I give it a 3 star rating because unless you are a Reggae fanatic, I can’t imagine finding this level of detail interesting at all.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews