I Admire You In Dub

When the Heartbeat label reissued Larry Marshall's classic album I Admire You in 1992, it was a revelation to many American reggae fans; though relatively obscure compared to some of his contemporaries, Marshall was one of the finest reggae singers of the 1970s, and his work on I Admire You was among his best. This album is the dub counterpart to that one, including dub mixes by King Tubby of all of the songs from the original album. Not all of these versions show Tubby at his most creative, but there are some brilliant moments here, though strangely, the most brilliant ones are repeats from the Heartbeat issue: the exquisite sufferer's anthem "Heavy Heavy Load" is presented here in the same extended mix as that on Heartbeat's release, and the dub version of the equally fine "Oh Girl" is also identical to the dubwise extension presented on the Hearbeat album. (Identifying these two as "bonus tracks," when both were included on the original album, seems somewhat misleading.) Still, this album is highly recommended as a companion to I Admire You, Rovi