The Ultimate Guide to Great Reggae: The Complete Story of Reggae Told through Its Greatest Songs, Famous and Forgotten by Michael Garnice (review)

The Ultimate Guide to Great Reggae takes a highly subjective but very informative look at what the author considers to be the best reggae songs ever recorded. In some cases, the author uses reggae as an umbrella term to cover the myriad of subgenres of Jamaican music, while at other times he uses it to refer to the classic 1970s-era reggae style perhaps most familiar to American listeners. A writer for numerous reggae Web sites and magazines (including articles on Bob Marley for Reggae Beat magazine), Michael Garnice is also known for his Web site devoted to mento, a Jamaican folk style that was an early precursor to reggae.

Since the 1950s, the island of Jamaica, with a population of less than three million, has produced a truly mind-boggling number of recordings relative to its population size. The author's stated mission is to help readers discover the highest-quality examples of all the various reggae subgenres he describes.

The author begins with a brief introduction, in which he addresses his reasons for writing the book and the challenges he sees as common misconceptions about reggae. This section also includes a list of frequently asked questions and a very helpful "Jamaican Music Roadmap," which provides a useful graphic detailing the history of Jamaican popular music from the 1920s through the first decade of the twenty-first century (p. 4). Garnice is upfront about the subjective nature of the book, declaring in the first few sentences of the introduction, "This book will write about the great songs amidst the tremendous amount of reggae that has been released, and won't waste time on anything less" (p. 1).

The first chapter provides a minihistory of reggae and all its variants, including mento, calypso (not strictly Jamaican but still important in the development of reggae), Jamaican R & B, ska, rocksteady, reggae proper, dub, instrumentals, Nyabinghi (a sort of Rastafarian religiously themed folk music), DJ style, and dancehall, among others. Other chapters examine specific performers and producers, such as Bob Marley, whose work consumes seven of the fifty-plus chapters in this book.

The chapters are arranged in roughly chronological order. Although the book focuses on certain songs, performers, producers, labels, and studios, taken together it serves as a highly informative history of Jamaican music in the twentieth century and the first few years of the twenty-first. Very apparent throughout the book are the author's deep love for and knowledge of this music, though the level of detail can be slightly overwhelming at times.

Among the notable features of the book are the early chapters on mento and calypso. Mento, an indigenous Jamaican folk style, was particularly influential on the development of Jamaican R & B and, later, ska and reggae. Garnice accurately points out that reggae histories have tended to give short shrift to this crucial period, though this situation has changed somewhat in recent years with the reissue of a number of mento recordings, usually with informative liner notes and vintage photos. The author performs a valuable service by highlighting this sometimes-overlooked genre.

While there is a broad discussion of the history of Jamaican music (specifically in the first chapter, "Jamaica's History of Great Records"), the heart of the book is the extremely detailed discussion of individual songs and artists. It lacks specific information on obtaining recordings, but between online retailers and digital music services, the vast majority of the songs included in the text should be easy to find (though there may be a few instances in which an original vinyl copy of the record is the only version available).

Within the text of the individual song entries, the author provides many key details about...