Burning Spear

I looked at a list of Grammy Award 2024 winners and saw that Burning Spear was nominated for ‘Best Reggae Album’ which blew my mind.

Burning Spear is still alive!?!?!?

Thanks to his Wikipedia page I’ve now learned that he’s 78 years old. I don’t know a ton of his music, but I have a bootleg/reissue of his first album which is insanely good. That first album is from 1973 and he’s only 28! That voice is coming out of a 28 year old?! It sounds like he was 78 back in 1973, which if true would make him 129 in 2024. Hence my surprise.

That album is not on streaming services, but thankfully someone put it on YouTube.

I have strong memories of buying that album, because I went to the record store to kill time before meeting my new girlfriend’s family for the first time. This was in 2005 and that girlfriend is now my wife.

I can remember the other records I bought on that trip:

• Ray Barretto - Acid
• Horace Andy - Dance Hall Style
• The Electric Prunes - S/T

I often remember what albums I bought with other albums, which is not a very valuable skill.