{"id":6360,"date":"2023-06-30T09:24:58","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T09:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=6360"},"modified":"2023-06-30T09:25:38","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T09:25:38","slug":"back-to-babylon-with-junior-byles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=6360","title":{"rendered":"Back to Babylon with Junior Byles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The genius of Junior Byles \u2014 who recorded some of roots-reggae\u2019s greatest songs \u2014 is recalled on <\/span>\u2018Still Beating Down Babylon\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, a 10-song album released June 23 by DubShot Records.\u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Largely produced by legendary guitarist Earl \u201cChinna\u201d Smith, it comprises acoustic versions of songs such as <\/span>\u2018Beat Down Babylon\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, <\/span>\u2018Fade Away\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, \u2018<\/span>A Place Called Africa\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> and <\/span>\u2018Curly Locks\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Smith, who wrote <\/span>\u2018Fade Away\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, started work on the project two years ago. He was determined to do the original versions justice but kept things fresh with the Nyahbinghi style of his Binghistra band.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t do it like di originals, wi have some different arrangements. It\u2019s jus\u2019 like yuh writing (songs) with a guitar an\u2019 bring in some instruments,\u201d Smith explained.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Beat Down Babylon\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> is done by Freddie McGregor, Mykal Roze and Inner Circle; <\/span>\u2018Fade Away\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> is covered by Chiney KiKi; <\/span>\u2018A Place Called Africa\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> is done by Itral Ites and <\/span>\u2018<\/span><\/b>Curly Locks\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> is covered by Little Nate, a singer from Israel.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are also renditions of <\/span>\u2018Long Way\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, <\/span>\u2018Nebuchadnezzar\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, <\/span>\u2018Fever\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, <\/span>\u2018Chant Down Babylon\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, <\/span>\u2018I Don\u2019t Know\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> and <\/span>\u2018Heart and Soul\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Byles began recording music in the 1960s as part of a harmony group, but his career took off when he went solo during the root\u2019s revolution of the early 1970s. Several of his hit songs including <\/span>\u2018Beat Down Babylon\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, <\/span>\u2018Curly Locks\u2019 <\/span><\/i><\/b>and <\/span>\u2018A Place Called Africa\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> were produced by Lee \u201cScratch\u201d Perry.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That promise was curtailed by psychological problems which saw Byles aimlessly roaming the streets of Kingston. There has been renewed interest in his music during the past 25 years due to regular playing of <\/span>\u2018Beat Down Babylon\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> and <\/span>\u2018Fade Away\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> at dances and on radio in Jamaica.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The genius of Junior Byles \u2014 who recorded some of roots-reggae\u2019s greatest songs \u2014 is recalled on \u2018Still Beating Down Babylon\u2019, a 10-song album released June 23 by DubShot Records.\u202f\u202f\u00a0 Largely produced by legendary guitarist Earl \u201cChinna\u201d Smith, it comprises acoustic versions of songs such as \u2018Beat Down Babylon\u2019, \u2018Fade Away\u2019, \u2018A Place Called Africa\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6361,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360\/revisions\/6361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}