Creation

For years this was a real rarity. Recorded back in 1979 by the Jamaican singer Freddie McKay, Creation has been out of print for four decades, and reggae fans have been known to pay three-figure sums to get hold of original vinyl copies. But now it has been re-released at last and it’s time to pay tribute to ‘one of the forgotten men of reggae,’ who died in 1986 at the age of 39. McKay had a powerful, but intimate and gloriously soulful voice, and was happy to re-interpret other peoples’ songs alongside his own compositions. The album starts with two such cover versions. There’s ‘Creation Rebel’ by Burning Spear, and Dennis Brown’s ‘Here I Come’, both treated in easy-going style, with fine sturdy backing from ‘the top-ranking band of the era’ The Revolutionairies and production work by the celebrated keyboard player Ossie Hibbert. McKay’s own songs include a rousing lullaby ‘La La Bye Woman’, the upbeat and cheerful ‘The Rainbow’, and moral advice to the mother of a young girl on ‘Nah Mek It Look So’. This is what was called a ‘showcase album’, meaning that there’s a straightforward version of a song to showcase McKay’s voice, most times followed by a dub treatment of the same song. A welcome reissue.