Search - Lee Perry :: Roast Fish & Cornbread

5 Stars for the music, 1 for the sound quality

03/15/1999

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This is a seminal album from Lee Perry's Black Ark period but the sound quality on this reissue is extremely poor. It sounds like it was mastered from vinyl (which can be ok) but slightly off the correct speed (which is extremely annoying). Buy this at your own risk...'Arkology' and 'Super Ape' (both on Island) and 'The Heart of the Congos' by the Congos on Blood and Fire records (not the VP Records version) are essential Black Ark missives from the Upsetter that would be a much better use of your cash."

Great music, horrible mastering

S. Johnson | Washington, DC United States | 01/28/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The domestically available vinyl and CD versions of this would-be-great album are marred by uneven pitch, possibly the result of a problem w/the mastering of the original tapes. The songs are great but difficult to listen to if you're sensitive to these things...the pitch wanders up and down in a maddening cycle, not flat, now sharp, occasionally true. This is a shame as the songs are AWESOME, great productions compromised somewhere down the production line on their way to your home stereo..."

Someone PLEASE find the master tapes...

Chet L. Young | 10/19/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm giving this release of ROAST FISH, COLLIE WEED, AND CORN BREAD five stars because it's Lee Perry's tour-de-force...but the sound quality is just plain lousy. The tracks you hear on the CD come directly from an old vinyl copy of the album which was obviously in less than mint condition. Is this the best we can do for a genius like Scratch? ROAST FISH deserves a lavish re-release like the Congos' first album. Where are the master tapes?!

"Roast Fish and Corn Bread" is a great track, but it's the one that everybody and his brother talks about(tantamount to having a discussion about the Rolling Stones and saying, "'(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' is awesome!"). The real standouts here are the playful "Favourite Dish"(in which Perry repeats the crying-baby effect he first used in the awe-inspiring "People Funny Boy"), the saxaphone-driven "Big Neck Police"(with gorgeous backing vocals by the Full Experience), and--best of all--the paranoid, menacing "Evil Tongues". You can hear the anguish in Perry's gravelly voice as he sings the chorus, and a single withering note from Earl "Chinna" Smith's guitar drones on and on and on. Amazing."