Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Gregory Isaacs.
JUST AFTER 11:00 p.m. on Sunday, Genesis blasted the disco message 'we all need love, I swear it's true' over Rae Town, Kingston, from its base at the Capricorn Inn. A few minutes later they set a dancing mood and going past the midnight hour again went disco with The Beat Goes On, then going up to 1:00 a.m. yesterday pulled the soulful Imagination on the chorus, to the delight of the people lining both sides of the road.
Rae Town Sunday night oldies, street dance style, was on in full effect to a crowd which, though not the largest, cheerfully jigged and twirled away as required, the rounds of disco, rockers and soul getting shorter as the night went on.
CLEAN FUN UNDER A QUARTER MOON
Short blocks of certain performers found their way into the mix on a night that was short of 'pull ups' and long on clean fun under a quarter moon, the smell of roasting fish and soup mingling with a touch of good grades.
Toots and the Maytals got the first consecutive play in the early gathering shortly after 11:00 p.m. Voices chorused I walk and I talk, 54-46 and Peeping Tom. Toots rolled off the books of Moses before the music turned to matters of a more earthy nature with the urging to 'push wood in the fire'.
Start All Over Again got just that treatment, as it was started over and a pair of Sunday songs, Remember That Sunday and Sunday Coming were appropriate to a day which was fast ending.
The police kept a constant, though far from menacing, presence, a third patrol vehicle rolling easily down the street as a block of Marcia Griffiths began.
The crowd kept building, as the 'first cup' drew a symphony of voices, before the beat picked up into appreciated disco, many shaking it up in the early hours of yesterday morning.
STEADY, SOUL BEAT
From the uptempo it was down to a steady, soul beat, of Imagination, couples clutching on So Soon We Change. Sitting In The Park, one man in full white and dark glasses, dancing by himself, gesticulated eloquently, head back, as he sang along.
The return to rockers came with a triple rub-a-dub bang of The Mighty Diamonds' Right Time, Have Mercy and I Need A Roof, followed by The Tamlins' Baltimore, the signature horn line of the classic rising into the refrain before it was taken from the top.
The crowd was at its peak by the time the coaxing 'come on little girl come on' went out over the adjacent Michael Manley Boulevard and bounced off the wall of the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility.
When John Holt sang 'someday somebody' the music was stopped and the voices joined in 'will break your heart'. The song proved a real singalong, the same reaction coming for 'you're riding for a fall' as Genesis pulled it yet again.
A Cool Ruler triple, ending with I Don't Wanna Be Lonely Tonight, ended the rockers.
Coming up to 3:00 a.m., as The Gleaner left Rae Town for more uptown climes, it was Marley time with Natural Mystic, Real Situation and War.
