Day 322 of 365 Day Jamaican Music Challenge - Little Roy - Rich Man Laugh
Earl Lowe AKA Little Roy had his first hit "Bongo Nyah" for producer Lloyd Daley in 1969. "Bongo Nyah" holds the distinction of being the first Rastafari oriented song to meet with commercial success in Jamaica and lead Little Roy to recording with the Wailers in 1970 and Lee Perry in 1972. Little Roy continued to work with a string of producers before self-producing his debut album Columbus Ship on the Copasetic label in 1981. It would have been easy for me to feature my all-time favorite Little Roy track "Tribal War" but if memory serves me correctly I already did John Holt's cover of the song a few months back so I decided to dig deeper. Originally titled "Boof And Peng" when it was pressed in 1975 as a 7" on the Earth label, today's track "Rich Man Laugh" as it became known, is one helluva roots tune. Now I could lie and tell you that I've known this one forever but I honestly owe my discovery of Little Roy to Pressure Sounds' excellent 1995 compilation Tafari Earth Uprising. A must-own for any roots reggae fan!
