G. T. Moore & The Reggae Guitars: G. T. Moore & The Reggae Guitars - 1974

This is a great "forgotten" seventies album. I used to own it back in the mid seventies. It is possibly the finest reggae album from a white group, before The Clash, The Police, Stiff Little Fingers and the like started to dabble in reggae. 

In 1974, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones were experimenting with reggae, but this London-based group went the whole hog and were a reggae group, as their name suggests. It is a shame that they never got the success they deserved. 

The only way of getting hold of the album now is via this download, which sounds to me like a "needle drop" i.e. recorded straight from a vinyl record. It highlights the limitations and frustrations of vinyl for me - scratches and crackles. They are only slight, though, and I am prepared to accept a bit of a dull sound in order to hear this album once again and bring back those memories of 1975. G.T. Moore's name, incidentally, was Gerald Thomas Moore. 

Book Of Rules is a superb cover of The Heptones' hit. It was this song that first attracted the teenage me to this group. The reggae rhythms sound completely authentic. It is only the vocal that mars the group out as not Jamaican. The music they have down pat. 

Painted Ladies, Bye And Bye, Way Over There and Move It On Up are good ones too. Bad Johnny is more bluesy bar-room fare than reggae, however, despite the skanking beat. 

I'm Still Waiting is actually a cover of the Diana Ross hit, and although the reggae sounds are impressive, it doesn't quite do it for me, although it features some catchy reggae horns. The album ends with possibly the finest ever cover of Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door. In fact, ever since hearing this in 1975, I have always subconsciously sung "knocking on Heaven's door - I never felt like this before..." as this is how Moore sang it at the end of this version. The rendition has stuck in my mind ever since. Great stuff.

Also impressive was the follow-up album, Reggae Blue, from 1975.