Dread Beat an’ Blood was one of the first reggae records I bought. I’m sure I bought it the year it came out (1978).

Cover of record album 'Dread Beat an' Blood' by Poet and the Roots. Cover art shows two people in the foreground facing a group of police in the distance.

Back in those pre-internet days, we had to buy music magazines from overseas to know what was happening in the UK or the USA. In my case, that was New Musical Express and Melody Maker (for the UK), Rolling Stone (for the USA), and Downbeat (for jazz).

By then, I was hooked on reggae. The first Poet and the Roots was followed the following year when Lynton Kwesi Johnson released ‘Forces of Victory’.

Cover of record album 'Forces of Victory' by Linton Kwesi Johnson. Art shows a large microphone in the middle of the cover with the album title at the bottom of the image.

I haven’t heard a bad record by him in all these years. And my brother has bought me several of his books, all of which I have enjoyed.

I’ve only seen him perform once, and he did it as spoken poetry, which I’m not sure many of the audience were expecting. I know some were disappointed he didn’t have a band to play the music they were used to from his records. Too bad. It stands up well as poetry without the music.