No apologies here for including a lot of questions on Bob Marley and the Wailers. Reggae snobs may moan ‘There’s more to reggae than Bob Marley, you know . . .’ but Marley is by some distance the most successful and far-reaching reggae artist ever.
Yet there are also questions here on other pace-setters and pioneers as well as a few on the modern scene - although Jamaican music is now failing to penetrate the market in the way it did in the classic roots era.
Answers: here
1 he 1976 album CB200 was by which reggae star, born Lester Bullocks, but naming himself after an American gangster? Where did the album title come from?
2 By what name were Marcia Griffiths, Rita Marley and Judy Mowatt collectively known? What was their primary employment?
3 What sweet chorus did the ‘Three Little Birds’ sing on Exodus?
4 Which Tina Turner B-side provided a surprise UK number one for Aswad in 1988? Where did they get their name?
5 ‘Fighting Against Conviction’ was one of many heavily political songs on whose brilliant 1976 first solo album, Blackheart Man? His 1990 album Time Will Tell was affectively a tribute to which other artist?
6 Which two brothers supplied the rhythm for the Wailers in their seventies heyday? With which Lee Perry house band were they previously employed?
7 Marcus Garvey was a classic Island Records album released in 1975: who made it? And who was Marcus Garvey?
8 What were the two UK Top 20 singles recorded by Bob Andy and Marcia Griffths (as Bob and Marcia) in 1970 and 1971?
9 Who performed live on US TV singing ‘Bush Doctor’, a song about the legalisation of cannabis? Who duetted with him on the lead single from the Bush Doctor album, ‘(You Gotta Walk) Don’t Look Back’?
10 In which London auditorium was Bob Marley and the Wailers’ famous 1975 live album recorded? What was the title of the other live album released in Marley’s lifetime, in 1978?
11 Pato Banton had a number one hit in the UK with a 1994 version of ‘Baby Come Back’, performed with two members of which prominent band? Who wrote the song and also had a number one with it in 1968 with his multi-racial band the Equals?
12 Which 1984 compilation went in to become the best-selling reggae album of all time? Which is the only album to have spent more weeks on the US chart?
13 Who released the 1995 dancehall album Til Shiloh, reflecting his new Rastafarian beliefs? Why has he not released any more albums since 2010’s Before the Dawn?
14 Which two members of the original Wailers left the band in 1974 to pursue their own careers?
15 Shaggy had the first reggae-based number one in the UK for some years with his 1993 smash ‘Oh Carolina’. Who recorded the original song in 1960? What was Shaggy’s next number one, two years later?
16 In which city did the late seventies ska revival begin with the formation of The Special AKA? What was the name of the record label they formed?
17 What was the UK Top 10 album for dancehall pin-up Sean Paul? Which Jamaican DJ collaborated with him on the hit single ‘I’m Still in Love with You’?
18 Which 1973 Wailers album featured the original version of ‘I Shot the Sheriff’? What was the name of the sheriff?
19 Which ragga duo had the 700th official number one in the UK in January 1994 with a cover of a Chubby Checker classic? What was their debut single from the previous year that reached number three?
20 Which reggae cover was the longest track on the first album by the Clash? Who recorded the original version a year previously?
21 Who blended roots reggae with softer lovers rock on albums like Night Nurse and Private Beach Party? What was the nickname accorded the star?
22 Bob Marley’s ‘No Woman, No Cry’ is an account of growing up in which deprived area of Kingston? To which country did Marley relocate from Jamaica in 1976?
23 Dawn Penn had been around on the Jamaican music scene for some while before hitting paydirt with a 1994 revival of which song? Which major recording artist covered it on her 2005 debut album, Music in the Sun?
24 Cecil Campbell helped to give birth to ska and reggae music: what is his stage name? What was the name of his famous backing band?
25 Skylarking (1972) was the debut album of which roots reggae singer? With which British hip hop band did he become associated in the nineties, singing on all of their studio releases?
26 What was the last Bob Marley and the Wailers album released while Marley was still alive? What was the compilation of previously unreleased material released in 1983?
27 Whose 1997 debut album Maverick A Strike saw him hailed as a saviour of British reggae? In which city was he born into a family of jazz musicians?
28 Which record label, famous for its series of reggae box sets, was originally set up as a sister company to Island records before being sold to Saga in 1975? Which youth movement identified itself with the label before being hijacked by racists in the seventies and eightes?
29 ‘The Tide is High’ was originally released by which rocksteady band? Who was the song’s composer who later had a successful solo career, including a UK Top 10 hit with a cover of ‘Help Me Make it Through the Night’?
30 Which Bob Marley hit the UK Top 10 when it was remixed by DJ Funkstar Deluxe in 1999? On which 1971 album did it initially appear?