Prince Buster – National Ska: Pain In My Belly
welcome back to the Skaject folks! today we’re looking at Prince Buster’s 1964 record, National Ska: Pain In My Belly:
(for this record imma be mentioning who discogs lists as the artist/collaborator, since only a couple feature Prince Buster on the track and the rest are produced by him, and spotify just lists the whole thing as by him) alright starting things off with I Got A Pain, featuring the Maytals and Prince Buster, and this is a very catchy track, with the saxes pulling off that off beat in a neat way. He Is Real is just the Maytals – this one’s got a fun hymnal energy. Cast Your Faith To the Wind is by Tommy McCook, and its a real nice instrumental track. good vibes here. Buster comes back for Faith, a real dark and sax heavy track. this one’s cool. The Ska Busters feature on Georgia, and this one’s got a toe-tapping beat, but on the whole i’m not bog on it. Have Mercy has Buster back, and man i can def tell when its him doing the vocal work, haha. he’s got a backup singer here doing a real fun effect with two parallel vocalists that i really like. I Love You So has the Maytals on a very mellow track, it’s p good. Eric Morris does the vocals for Those Teardrops, which is a mellow lil ballad. the keys are subtle on this one and it’s got a nice lil sax solo. Buster brings back his beef with Derrick Morgan on Chinaman Ska. Super Charge is by the Skatalites, and it’s a pretty good instrumental track. Don Drummon is the artist here for Ska Town, another solid instrumental track. Buster returns to close the record out with Ska School, which is a pretty fun and solid way to wrap things up.
faves – I Got A Pain, Mercy, Super Charge
dislikes –
yeah this was a real fun lil collection of tracks – i know Prince Buster was working on producing music for his sound system in this time period and so it’s cool to get a taste of what he wouldve been spinning around that time, as well as hear some tracks from the man himself. fun times.
National Ska: Pain In My Belly – 6/10
next up we’re gonna check get our full LP introduction to the Maytals with Never Grow Old!
previous: Dance the Ska | next: Never Grow Old
previous Prince Buster record: I Feel the Spirit | next: What a Hard Man Fe Dead
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