Desmond Dekker – Action! (1968)

Desmond Dekker – Action!

Desmond Dekker may have been the first artist to chart in the U.S. with a reggae song. He was certainly the first to take a song to number one in the U.K. back in 1969 with what would arguably becomes his opus, “Israelites." But a year earlier Dekker was releasing his great first album, Action!, a collection of delightful first-wave ska songs that are effortlessly enjoyable. Action! also featured his earliest hit 007 (Shanty Town). That song and the album as a whole typified the cool rude boy aesthetic of Jamaica that was just beginning to leave its impression on the rest of the world. Dekker had grown up in Kingston and spent much of his time as a welder before breaking into the music scene. He would go on to great things in the years following his debut, helping to secure fellow welder Bob Marley his first record deal as well as defining the early ska and reggae genres outside of Jamaica. On Action! you can still hear the fun and peaceful island escapism that the American listeners latched onto in the late 60’s, but you can also hear the beginning of a greater movement towards a dominating cultural force in the years that would follow.

~9.0

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