Dread Doctor Alimantado & The Sons of Thunder all-star tribute showcase session
Continuous mix 2 hrs 14 mins
Dr Alimantado aka Winston Thompson started out as a deejay on Coxsone's Downbeat Sound & Lord Tippertone before finally voicing sides for Lee Perry & Bunny Lee in 1971 with the nom de guerre Winston Prince. A long string of 45s followed as the Doctor. An astute businessman, he quickly took full ownership of his music, releasing on his own Ital Sounds & Vital Food labels from 1973 and Keyman Records later on. Two immensely successful LP compilations of these singles came out on Greensleeves in the late 70's; Best Dressed Chicken In Town & Sons Of Thunder that cemented his place as a premier deejay artist of the day
Alimantado voiced with several producers at various studios but most often with Lee Perry & Bunny Lee so this compilation frequently alternates between tunes from both with vocal versions from singers like Horace Andy, Cornell Campbell & David Isaacs. Version galore again! This rhythm selection features recordings from 1971 until 1976 when he voiced the amazing Born For A Purpose/Still Alive at Channel One. You will hear here that he was big into recyling, often revisiting the same riddim several times. The Love Is LP from 1982 basically contained new or unreleased versions of older, familiar rhythm tracks. The 1979 Kings Bread (& accompanying Kings Bread Dub) album on Ital was pure roots. An outstanding 70's artist...
In the 1980's Alimantado was drawn more to singing rather than chanting and focused on solo production with much less success though he had an excellent eye for album art which helped maintain his popularity. He put out a series of dub albums entitled In The Mix into the 1990's. That material is not included here
Friday Night Rewind on hearticalfm.com June 2021
