Gregory Isaacs - Mr. Isaacs + Ossie All Stars - Leggo Dub (17 North Parade/VP Records)

'Mr. Isaacs' first appeared producer Ossie Hibbert's Earthquake label back in 1977 and was already re-released in 2001 in an updated version by Blood and Fire. The nine tracks on the original album, a mix of covers like 'Storybook Children' (original by Billy Vera and Judy Clay, but in Europe much better known in the 1967 version by Sandra Reemer and Dries 'Dre' Holten) or 'Get Ready' (the 1966 soul smash by The Temptations) and self-penned creations like 'Storm', 'Slave Master' or 'Set The Captive Free', have all become reggae classics and were the catalyst for Gregory's later superstar status. For the occasion, 17 North Parade/VP Records completed the track list with 6 bonus tracks, but the real icing on the cake is a second disc containing 'Leggo Dub', the 1978 dub version of 'Mr. Isaacs'. Again the label completed the original 10 dub track list with six bonus tracks in the form of 'War Of The Stars', a dub version of 'Mr. Know It All', and 5 deejay versions by Dillinger ('Take A Dip', a version of Isaac's 'Slave Master' riddim and 'CB 200', for which the deejay did the same with 'The Sun Shines For Me'), Clint Eastwood ('Jump And Pawn' over 'Smile'), Big Joe ('Lik Her She Gone' over the riddim of 'My Conversation') and U Brown ('Sister Dawn Down A Farm', again over 'The Sun Shines For Me'). Gregory Isaacs, gone but certainly not forgotten... Mash it 'Mr. Isaacs'!