The Reggae Scrapbook |  | Author: Roger Steffens
Creators: Peter Simon, Toots Hibbert
Publisher: Insight Editions
Category: Book
List Price: $45.00
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Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 430654
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 124
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.2
Dimensions (in): 11.3 x 10.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 1933784237
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.646
EAN: 9781933784236
ASIN: 1933784237
Publication Date: October 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
From its birth in the vibrant Kingston ghettos through it phenomenal popularity in the 1970s to its iconic standing in today's global culture, reggae and its close relations--ska, rock steady, dj, dub, dancehall, and raggamuffin--have taken the world by storm.
In The Reggae Scrapbook, scintillating words and images propel our appreciation of Jamaican music into the 21st century. Accomanying us on this journey is one of the men who introduced reggae to America and helped rock the world with its syncopated beat, Roger Steffens.
Through lectures, books, magazine articles, radio, and television, Steffens has shared his knowledge of reggae around the globe as the world's premier archivist and collector of reggae memorabilia. Here he traces reggae's history and roots, supplemented by an audio CD featuring interviews with such reggae greats as Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff and "Toots" Hibbert.
Divided into chapters on "Roots and Ska," "Rock Steady," "The Golden Age," "Rockers," "Digital and Dance Hall" and "Internationalization," and enhanced by sidebar features on historic figures, styles, and events, The Reggae Scrapbook is all you could wish for in a celebration of the rise of this irresistable musical and social force.
The Reggae Scrapbook also conveys reggae culture through a treasure trove of memorabilia, the cream of Steffen's collection of more than 30,000 photographs, 800 T-shirts, 3,000 buttons, 10,000 posters and flyers as well as innumerable, seven-inch singles and album covers, posters, postcards, and tickets.
Photographer Peter Simon presents a stunning collection of evocative images, from reggae's rough beginnings to the latest festivals, providing a stunning visual accompaniment.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
 a reggae bounty December 2, 2007
reggae culture reader (USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Steffens and photographer Peter Simon, two long-time chroniclers of Jamaican music, have emptied their files into a deeply satisfying guided tour of reggae in chronologico-topical form. Simon's photography has been seen in such works as Reggae Bloodlines and Reggae International. As many readers of this magazine know, Steffens has written and lectured extensively about Bob Marley and reggae music and is also co-founder of The Beat. Reggae Scrapbook brims with the contributors' knowledge as well as their infectious love of the genre and the culture that produces it.
And their memorabilia is now ours, in handy facsimile form. Produced in the same vein as James Henke's recent Marley Legend, Reggae Scrapbook surveys reggae from origins to present and handsomely houses removable reggae artifacts by the fistful.
Page after page, Reggae Scrapbook delights. If you're like me, you'll get your hands on this and wonder whether to read it properly as one should with all books, from start-to-finish, or consume it giddily, turning at random for the treats. At one point, the Scrapbook opens to a splashy little 12-page magazine gummed to the page about the phenomenon of Jamaican dances. Page 43 contains an envelope with three gorgeous postcard-sized photo/illustrations of Haile Selassie. Fastened elsewhere in the book are concert handbills (pages 11, 91 and 129), two panels of peel-away stickers (page 81), miniature reproductions of singles in little white sleeves (pages 85 and 139), some of them autographed by the artists. (Among the latter is Cornell Campbell, who writes a sleeve note correcting a mis-identified 45 of "You're No Good.") Steffens and Simon, mighty repro men for the reggae generation, leave no dead space anywhere in this deluxe volume.
Lodged in a pocket inside the front cover is a dvd culled from the many hours of interviews Steffens has conducted over the years. Steffens likes to query for defining moments and he elicits fascinating replies. After a sound check one night, Joseph Hill narrates, with a riveting performative quality, his harrowing near-fatal encounter with Jamaican police. Luciano explains his decision to leave a high-profile concert in mid-performance in order to trod forward to the hills for sabbatical. Betty Wright gives a memorable explication of the charisma she witnessed of Bob Marley when she toured as opening act for the band in 1979. Judy Mowatt describes the pandemonium of the Wailers' epochal Zimbabwe concerts of 1980. The Wailers Band, Peter Tosh, the Heptones and Alton Ellis are the other interview subjects. The memories and insights are rendered with engagingly varied levels of formality.
The readings shift from overview to close focus. While not exhaustive, the narrative is invariably absorbing and inclusive of career surveys of seminal artists and many wonderful sidebars ranging from aspects of Jamaican culture to such things as a fable composed by Gregory Isaacs and a verbatim eyewitness account by Junior Reid of the shooting death of Hugh Mundell. The book weighs heaviest on artists from the 70s and 80s, although coverage of soundsystems, festivals and a few dancehall artists bring the subject forward to the now moment.
Steffens writes with authority and wit and a heightened ear for poetic utterance.
Nicely Done February 22, 2008
To Be Simple
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Steffens and Simon have put together something very cool for fans of reggae music. This book is great for a person just getting into reggae music and trying to learn about its history. It's also excellent for people who have a lot of knowledge of reggae, because this book has a ton of photographs and memorabilia that few people have seen. I've been avidly listening to and reading about reggae music and culture for around 20 years now, and I found quite a bit of stuff in the scrapbook that I had never come across.
The book itself is of very good quality. Photographs and reproduced memorabilia are what will initially grab the reader's attention, but there are also quite a few articles chock full of information. There is a DVD included as well. At less than $30, this book is a bargain.
Roger Steffens is an icon in the area of reggae history and culture. His legendary "archive" is allegedly incredible. It is great to see him share some of it to fans of reggae. I would love to see him put out more scrapbooks in the future.
An Impressive Reggae Collection in One Book March 29, 2008
D. Wendt (Rocky Mountain Front)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Roger Steffens & Peter Simon's THE REGGAE SCRAPBOOK is an amazing amalgam of obsessed/compulsified righteous reggae flotsam jammed with hidden passaged treasures and unearthed groundations. It's like having a full and impressive collection of reggae memorabilia that would normally take a lifetime to accumulate all in one source with the fun of discovery built in. Jahsome!
Jah Rastafari ! April 6, 2008
Michael Kolman (Santa e, NM)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Astonishing! Anyone into any kind of musical history will have nothing but the deepest respect for this 21st century multimedia presentation. I am "agog" at its depth and quality. I went through it's loving pages slowly. It's a volume of unparalleld significance. The writing, by Roger
Steffens is so insightful and present. The photography by Peter Simon is
so full of life. A must for any Reggae fan. It's beautiful!
P. Michael Kolman
Buy it if you are a serious reggae fan/aficionado April 12, 2008
N. S. Greer
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As someone who has been involved in the reggae music scene for over 30 years, I recommend this book to those who want a real feel of the reggae pulse from the Golden Years. This is an enormously entertaining and informative book, filled with information, color, and zest for the world it addresses. The book is the brainchild of Roger Steffans and Peter Simon, two of the greatest and most knowledgeable reggae warriors of all time who are not native to Jamaica, and it brings forth not only a lot of information, but reproductions of a lot of the letters, ticket stubs, colorful record labels, old bumper stickers, promotional materials, etc., etc., from the Third World creative juices that is the reggae scene in Jamaica. The pictures from Simon are unparralleled, as usual. The guy belongs in the Reggae Hall of Fame as the top photographer for the genre, if they ever come up with a Hall of Fame. Be aware that the book does not pretend to be a comprehensive look at anything or the last word on any given topic. Not every star is included, or every movement within the music documented. Lord knows these authors could have done this if they wanted to but the point of the book is to bring forth the vigor and color and richness of the reggae scene through the rich momentos that they had available in their collections. If they did not have the momentos, they did not include the topic/person in the book. What emerges from these two authors/reggae legends in their own right is a lot of interesting material/grist for anyone's regggae mill and some wonderful items that you have never seen and will enjoy thoroughly. The book will also bring back a lot of memories for a lot of readers. It sure did for me! This is a fun book for those who want to get totally immersed in the reggae world for a few hours, and it is so unique with its reproductions of, dare I say, informational and promotional paraphernalia that you will be going back to the book time and time again because of the entertainment and wonderment value. There are enough texts on the reggae music business/world at this point that another one would probably not be so special. This book is special because it goes where no book before has gone. It brings the true reggae culture and music business to your living room. In summation, your collection will be missing something without this book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
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