“Return Of The Super Ape” by The Upsetters - album review

features in: Album Chart of 1978Album Chart of the Decade: 1970s

TJR says

Following “Scratch The Super Ape” and “Roast Fish Collie Weed And Corn Bread”, Lee Perry continued his fine form with “Return Of The Super Ape”, a quite brilliant affair, and the best of the eleven Lee Perry albums that I own. Early highlights are “Dyon-Anasaw” and the Rufus & Chaka Khan cover “Tell Me Something Good”, both of which benefit enormously from the wonderful vocals of Lee’s Full Experience Girls (Aura Lewis, Pamela Reed and Candy MacKenzie). He really should have made more of them. “Psyche & Trim” is a big highlight of side 2, as Lee takes to the mic to condemn the exploitative ruling class: “Mister Top Ranking, you gonna get a spanking!”. Lee’s great vocal form continues on “The Lion”, as he toasts and sings over a wonderfully eccentric backing track which seems to place a piano player slap-bang in the middle of the jungle. Only Lee Perry can conceive these ideas. As if concluding thematically, the great “High Ranking Sammy” finds Lee on the rampage again, having another dig at the power-abusing top-dog. Is Sammy the Super Ape?

The Jukebox Rebel
22–Jul–2007

Tracklist
A1 [03:39] 9.8.png The Upsetters - Dyon-Anasaw (Rainford Hugh Perry, Aisha Morrison) Reggae
A2 [03:40] 6.4.png The Upsetters - Return Of The Super Ape (Rainford Hugh Perry) Reggae
A3 [03:28] 7.4.png The Upsetters - Tell Me Something Good (Stevland Judkins) Reggae
A4 [03:27] 6.0.png The Upsetters - Bird In Hand (Rainford Hugh Perry) Reggae
A5 [03:36] 6.2.png The Upsetters - Crab Years (Rainford Hugh Perry) Reggae
B1 [03:37] 7.3.png The Upsetters - Jah Jah A Natty Dread (Rainford Hugh Perry) Reggae
B2 [03:48] 8.2.png The Upsetters - Psyche And Trim (Rainford Hugh Perry) Reggae
B3 [03:29] 9.0.png The Upsetters - The Lion (Rainford Hugh Perry) Reggae
B4 [03:29] 7.2.png The Upsetters - Huzza A Hana (Rainford Hugh Perry) Reggae
B5 [03:29] 7.5.png The Upsetters - High Ranking Sammy (Rainford Hugh Perry) Reggae

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