Lloyd Parks & We The People - Meet The People (Pressure Sounds)

'Meet The People' is een onderbelicht album dat Parks in 1978 opnam voor Joe Gibbs, maar dat hij uiteindelijk helemaal zelf financierde: "Joe Gibbs' Studio was like the hang out spot, like the chill spot for every artist. Every day you'd find Big Youth, Prince Far I, Culture and the Mighty Diamonds and all the musicians come around, and what we do is we play cards and we chat to each other and we have fun. Before each recording we would just tease each other, like find some joke to make off each other, and then we walk into the studio with that same spirit. So that just spin off into magic. Like sometimes when you're recording the engineer call out 'ready, ready!' and then somebody just draw a card, like we call it a card when we jive each other, and then we just have to stop the tune and start again because everybody just laugh. We would be there maybe Monday and Tuesday for a full recording session, but then also every other day just to hang out, cos it was like our recreation ground. And we become the resident band for Joe Gibbs and he called us the Professionals. Joe Gibbs himself didn't really contribute nothing to the sessions, he would just come in the night time to check what we had done. If there was a major session with a big artist, like the albums we did for A&M with Dennis Brown, then he might drop by, but Joe Gibbs was busy at his record shop downturn most of the day, and just swing by at night to check the works. So really he do nothing! In fact the engineer Errol Thompson was really the man, and he and the musicians produce the session.".    Gebrekkige distributie zorgde er vervolgens voor dat 'Meet The People' algauw weer in de vergetelheid raakte. Totaal onterecht, want alleen al de muzikanten die aan dit album meewerkten - Devon Richardson (drums), Winston 'Bopee' Bowen (gitaar), Franklyn 'Bubbler' Waul (toetsen), Neville Grant, Noel 'Scully' Simms, Ruddy Thomas (percussie), Dean 'Youth' Fraser (saxofoon), Lloyd Kerr (trombone), Junior 'Chico' Chin (trompet), Mighty Diamonds, Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths (backing vocals) - overlopen volstaat, om te beseffen dat het hier om het zuiverste Jamaicaanse reggaegoud gaat. Al van bij de eerste noten van opener 'Reality' is het raak en ook de rest van de tracklist, een mix van reality tunes als 'Life Ain't Easy', 'Ordinary Man' of 'I Want To Go Home' en heerlijke lovers als 'You Hurt My Pride', 'Trench Town Girl' of 'I Love You Girlie'. De originele 8 tracks tellende tracklist werd voor deze heruitgave uitgebreid met 6 extra nummers ('Grandfather Bogle', 'School Days' en het bekende 'Slaving', telkens vergezeld van de dubversie) en alweer uitstekende liner notes van de hand van Diggory Kenrick. Pressure Sounds opent 2018 alweer met een Jamaicaanse grand cru uit de gouden jaren zeventig van de vorige eeuw. Enjoy!