Prince Far I
Silver & Gold 1973-79
Blood & Fire BAFCD049

There's no let up in the gems Blood & Fire are unearthing or reviving for our jaded ears. The latest is a neglected Jamaican deejay named Mike Williams, but known to us as Prince Far I. He had a voice like a wizened pirate with a peg-leg and a snoot full of rum. None of the LPs I have by him has any liner notes so it's great to listen to him again and also learn a bit about his career. Silver & Gold kicks off with a track I have never heard before: a version of one of my all-time favourite reggae songs, the Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad," this one called "Johnny Get Worse." It's crackin! Then we get really Biblical, well Methodistical, as a version of the old chestnut "You Are My Sunshine" or is it "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam"? Anyway I recognized it from Sunday school and it's called "Yes Joshua." But what we are awaiting for is the crumbling dub that shows up with "Let Jah Arise": some gravelly toasting over a pounding bass (Flabba Holt). Melodica (must be Augustus Pablo) floats by. Fish Clarke on drums grounded Far I's band the Arabs who bring a lot to the sessions. "Jah Dub version" continues with some religious remarks over what appears to be the tune to "Slavery Days" by Burning Spear. In 1976 Far I started his own label, Cry Tuff (named after the Alton Ellis song), and released a couple of singles by Errol Holt with his own toasts on the B-side. These are both included in their entirety here, along with three versions of another early gem that is the title cut. In the late 70s Far I's Under Heavy Manners album was a huge hit in the UK. Trojan put out the Cry Tuff Dub Encounters which did well, and Virgin signed him to a five-year contract. In the event he only did three albums for Virgin. A newspaper clipping from Jamaica's paper The Weekend Star, September 1983, tells the grim story with its mundane headline: "Gunmen invade homes, kill two men." There are still good recordings by Far I on the market. Under Heavy Manners has been reissued by Trojan as a double CD with extra material, and Pressure Sounds have put together the songs and versions of the suite of Psalms (PSCD35) he recorded in 1975 over well-known Bunny Lee and Lee Perry rhythms. If you haven't used your Old Testament for rolling spliffs, you can read along and discover Far I's exegetical skills on well-known homilies such as "tis easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Jah!" --Alastair Johnston