Genre: reggae
Rating: 3 stars ***
Title: Steppin'
Company: TOP
Catalog: SKY LP17
Year: 1978
Country/State: Jamaica
Grade (cover/record): VG / VG
Comments: --
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 13
Price: $20.00
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"Steppin'" track listing:
(side 1)
1.)
(side
2)
1.)
Steppin' Out In Babylon
Where Were You
Peaceful Woman
Sweet Bitter Love
Why There Is No Love
The Way I Feel About You
I'm Hurtin' Inside
It's Impossible
Give And You Get
Where Is The Love
An alumna of the I-Threes, Bob Marley’s trio
of female backing vocalists, Marcia Griffiths has achieved great critical
acclaim for her subsequent solo albums. Her strong, gospel-inflected alto
voice is always a joy to hear, and there is no better way to acquaint
yourself with her artistry than with this exquisite album, which she cut in
the late 1970s for producer Sonia Pottinger and on which she is accompanied
by the Revolutionaries. The title track is one of the most insanely catchy
reggae songs ever committed to tape, and her rendition of Marley’s
“I’m Hurtin’ Inside” comes close to eclipsing the original.
Absolutely essential.
Jamaica's longest-running and perhaps biggest female vocalist ever. Griffiths began as a teenager in Coxsone's Studio One, racking up hit after hit, then joined with paramour Bob Andy as Bob & Marcia for the Top Five U.K. pop hit "Young, Gifted and Black." She formed The I Threes to back Bob Marley's international tours and recordings from 1974-1980 and scored a massive international hit with "Electric Boogie" in the '80s. Despite a few '70s Rasta tunes like "Stepping out of Babylon," she is known primarily for her strong, smooth-as-mousse love songs and captivating live performances.
Steppin' is the companion album to Naturally, which was also recorded for the High Note label under celebrated producer Sonia Pottinger just a year earlier. Marcia Griffiths delivers a program consisting primarily of love songs, including "Why There Is No Love" (based, strangely enough, on the chord progression to "People Get Ready") and Bob Marley's "I'm Hurting Inside." But the album's focal point is the title track, a stirring repatriation theme that stands out as both the only political number and the strongest singalong tune. "Give and You Get" is curiously Beatlesque; "It's Impossible" updates a rocksteady classic. The Revolutionaries provide solid professional backing but know better than to try to upstage Griffiths, who is at her finest on this album.