Fred Locks’ 1976 LP Black Star Liner sits on any short list of classics from reggae’s golden era of the 1970s. The LP, available in print again on February 9, 2024 in a newly remastered edition, evokes the earnest vision of repatriation that Marcus Garvey articulated and attempted to actualize a century ago.
Writers Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton put the release in context in Reggae: The Rough Guide: “’Black Star Liners’ became an enduring roots anthem and was soon followed by an album that helped define the period. Fred Locks’ voice was totally opposite to the deep roots rhythms that supported it as well as to the serious themes of iniquity, faith, and repatriation.”
At the time of the album’s initial release, the singer simply recalled, “I wasn’t so versed in Rasta but it’s really because of sufferation over the years why you find more to write about. Even ‘Black Star Liners’ was a song I start to write about two years ago (in 1973). It never reach completion until the day in the studio, you know, the very last words.”
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