Survival Is the Game

Jarrett, Winston & the Righteous Flames – Survival is the Game (Young Tree)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 10/6/05
Collection of older (mostly 1970’s) reggae songs and dubs from a singer highly regarded by his compatriots and less known here. Jarrett and the Flames are a decades-old vocal trio; he’s also a competent producer. Some songs feature the Wailers (band), some feature the also fantastic Roots Radics. Many songs previously unreleased, as noted, and often the originals have been lost physically or in the morass of Jamaican studio politics. Disk 1 is more basic; most production is pretty sparing musically, lyrics are thoughtful. Reminds me a bit of the Heptones. Disk 2 is roots rock reggae, fatter and slicker production, think Mighty Diamonds or Culture.
(Nyahbinghi is basically hand drums and chanting; Africa by way of collie weed.)
No FCCs that I could hear. I like 4, 8, 9, 12, 13, 17 on Disk 1; tracks 1, 4, 9, 12, 13, 15 on Disk 2.
Disk 1:
1. 3:02 (1975) uptempo and bouncy, not very “deep” dub, high hat echo
2. 3:03 (1969) midtempo waist-winder with drums, keyboards and horns in front of mix. Well produced and sung given time period.
3. 2:45 (1969; previously unreleased) uptempo, rather more ska than reggae, cool harmonies, but rather thin-sounding production.
4. **3:18 (1975; prev. unrel.) down tempo, lovely vocal and harmonies; should have been a hit.
5. 3:14 (1969; prev. unrel.) mid tempo, bumpy syncopation, upful lyrics.
6. 3:07 (1969; prev. unrel.) starts with spoken bit over music intro, mid tempo, prominent piano, odd guitar interlude.
7. 2:42 (1969; first time on CD) downtempo, very dubby, sparse, solo vocals (sounding pretty stoned)
8. **3:10 (1970; first CD) spoken word over music intro. Midtempo, rather odd harmonies, nyahbinghi chanting a la Burning Spear.
9. **2:21 (1979; first CD) midtempo, driving guitar skank, rather African-sounding falsetto vocals.
10. 2:59 (1979; prev. unrel.) slightly uptempo, slightly tinny solo vocals with Marley-esque flourishes.
11. 2:42 (1982) very bouncy midtempo beat for song about Babylon burning. Lots of vocal harmonies.
12. **3:02 (1979; first CD; features Wailers) very dubby – music in and out, reverb on everything, most of all on vocals, distortion on guitar.
13. **2:57 (ditto) fatter musical sound (esp. low end) than prior tracks; cool vocals, good lyrics.
14. 4:06 (ditto) slow tempo, long intro with funny vocal noises, rasta-nyabinghi singing and chanting. Lotsa herb on this one…
15. 3:32 (ditto) slow, rich instrumentation, sweet, rambling love song.
16. 3:38 (ditto) dub of previous track – tracks do run together but a bit sloppily. Everyone sounds stoned.
17. **4:07 (ditto) starts with a bang, very dubby dub of track 14.
18. 3:22 (1975; prev. unrel.) dub of track 4, although the “dub” here mostly consists of the vocals disappearing frequently.

Disk 2:
1. **3:22 (1972) lovely roots reggae with lots of fun percussion and wacky noises; a bit like Burning Spear or Culture.
2. 4:29 (1972) slow, drums and percussion prominent, cool groove with a bit of fatty dub at the end.
3. 3:59 (1972) midtempo, chorus of “beat dem, beat dem”
4. **3:28 (1991; feat. Roots Radics) great midtempo beat and really nice harmonies – a stand-out! O
5. 3:42 (1991) thick production with lots of extras, female backup vocals, Marley-esque vocal flourishes, rat-a-tat-tat on the tom.
6. 2:59 (1972) nice midtempo canter with lots of percussion.
7. 2:30 (1972) keyboards prominent in mix, solo vocals. This and previous track all about smoking pot.
8. 2:52 (1972) somewhat up tempo bubble, high harmonies, cool lyrics.
9. **3:27 (1991; feat. Roots Radics) version of previous track 20 years later and with the Radics great music (sounds like pan pipes)
10. 5:08 (1995) nyahbinghi riddim, slow, female backup singers. Tune of “Crying in the Chapel”!
11. 4:58 (1995) starts with spoken invocation for at least the first minute, then slow riddim with horns, vocals very like Burning Spear.
12. **4:12 (1991; feat. Roots Radics) nice midtempo swing, sweet vocals (as I recall, “Selah” means Peace in Amharic, Ethiopian language.)
13. **3:47 (1991; feat. RR) LOTS of horns, somewhat uptempo, cool!
14. 3:42 (1991) dreamy and dubby, fairly uptempo, Spear-ish.
15. **3:50 (1991) mystical sounding production, starts with nonsense chanting, nice melody, cool percussion.
16. 3:58 (1995) uptempo cover of Peter Tosh’s “Downpressor Man”.
17. 3:25 (1991; feat. RR) short spoken intro, fairly slow, dub of track 4 (not very “dubby” though), nyahbinghi groove, almost no vocals.
18. 4:04 (1972) upbeat, rather rocksteady vocals over reggae riddim.