But she's not. She started rich, married rich, and remained rich by either hoarding or shilling everything Lennon ever did. She's originated nothing. It's not sexist (as you might be implying), it's just fact.

The reviews also change. For instance, the '80s version of the RS guide had most Devo albums at one star. The '90s guides had several at four stars.

Reviews also tend to mirror what's popular at the moment. When grunge was emerging, suddenly Blue Cheer was the greatest band of the 20th century. When Wes Anderson's whimsical film soundtracks became all the rage, suddenly the largely forgotten Kinks were the the most influential band in the history of rock and roll.

Huh?

I don't know. Lennon had his head so far up his ass, and was such a hypocrite in so many ways that I'm not sure he could have pulled it off, especially with Yoko fucking Ono as his mentor.

^^^This. That's the one thing I can never understand in the whole Lennon/McCartney post-Beatles argument—Lennon's albums—musically—are largely crap. They're lyrically interesting, but as sconn said, they are for the most part the most absolutely pedestrian, lazy, generic boogie garbage imaginable.

And that jam album is indeed awful.

Well, what's he supposed to do? He knows the music, he was part of the scene, and he recounts the experience as he compiles the appropriate music. Should he instead snort a gram of angel dust and tell us what Satan thinks of each band? I'm not sure why being a subject matter expert with firsthand experience is a bad…

*mind blown* You know what, I think you're right. Uptown Rockers was Tubby dub, but I don't think Nile was dubbed. I never really thought about it!

Based on his acting skills, the present incarnation of Paul Walker would do just fine.

In terms of the overall reggae experience, sure, but strictly in terms of genre—which is the purpose of this Gateway—no. There was a dub Gateway a few months back that covered this.

No problem. Know going into this that the master tapes were six kinds of fucked up (I think they literally found them rotting in some corner of Black Ark), so it's never going to sound great. That said, Blood and Fire did an amazing job of restoring it, god bless them.

Yeah, they don't quite fit the bill. The Specials were probably the closest in terms of the 2 Tone bands (they performed Skinhead Moonstomp frequently, in fact). The English Beat were more of a ska-influenced pop band. That said, they were great.

It's not so much that, but making absolute statements like that is kind of silly: The only real rock and roll band is The New York Dolls!

Cool. Yeah, I think it's an underexplored genre, and one a lot of people dismiss outright because of the skinhead connotations, which is ironic because it's actually a great example of racial harmony and collaboration. (Although the skins would later go on to become National Front douchebags. Sigh.)

Yeah, "Ba Ba Boom" ftw—never has rocksteady been better, IMO. Love a lot of the Desmond Decker rude boy rocksteady singles: 007, Rude Boy Train, and Rudy Got Soul are all killer.

There was a bit of discussion earlier about Blackheart Man. It is a singular album—NOTHING sounds like it. I played it all the time for both of my kids when they were toddlers because it's so sweet and warm (except for "Armageddon").

If you like really strange production, check out Mikey Dread's African Anthem Deluxe. It's—as far as I know—the only version dub album out there, and it uses all the effects. ALL of them. It's like a dub from Dr. Demento.

I definitely agree with your opinion about Catch a Fire. There is such an odd irony in that the Island Marley albums—which are most people's reference standard for reggae—aren't really reggae, but a polished rock-and-roll hybrid, and moreover, often rerecorded versions of songs already released in Jamaica.

You might like skinhead reggae as well. Sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but it's basically upbeat early dance reggae created exclusively for the British hard mods of the late 1960s who had no use for the increasingly hippie-ish roots direction the Jamaican singles were going.