Blazing Fires And Conquering Rulers: Derrick Morgan Posted by Junior

Derrick Morgan: Blazing Fire and Conquering Ruler From: Seven Letters [Trojan, 1969] The sunny days of May already seem like a distant memory as the rain continues to drizzle all over my expectations of a great British summer. Add to this that I seem to have contracted a particularly nasty case of Man flu and my mood isn't the greatest. So, working from home with the rain lashing down outside and dosed up to the eyeballs with the best over the counter numbing pills money can buy, I naturally turn to music for release. Having your music on random can sometimes be more of a pain than a pleasure when you're constantly inundated with shite jazzfunk that you forgot you'd ever ripped or 5 million skits off a Cam'ron album but today the shuffle gods were smiling on me and blessed me with some Derrick Morgan which seemed like an excellent sign that I should share it with you. Often seen as one of the pioneers of the reggae single, Morgan enjoyed considerable success in the sixties as he successfully rode the changes in the genre from harder ska to more soulful rocksteady and I've got two tracks from his 1969 Seven Letters album for your ears to enjoy today. Now I'll happily hold my hands up and confess that my knowledge of reggae is pretty much non-existent but, I know what I like, and that is Blazing Fire. This is not only a fantastic tune in it's own right but also has the bonus that underneath its lilting uplifting melody it's actually a barely veiled attack on Prince Buster who had a long running rivalry with Morgan. If only all beef records sounded this great. Conquering Ruler is another uplifting slice of rocksteady with Morgan taking on all challengers, the skat style breakdown where Morgan laughs in tune to the track always cheers me up no end as well. It seems like it's another one where getting hold of the original album is a bitch but thankfully you can get a reasonably priced collection of all Morgan's early work on the Moon Hop album listed above. Here's hoping it brightens up your day wherever you are....