"Oh great Caesar, could you come and let Cleopatra dance this dance? Dance Cleopatra, dance,"
Prince Buster commands, and the Egyptian queen obeys, to a simmering set of songs drawn from the rocksteady and early reggae era. That includes "Madness" and "Al Capone,"
HRH's ska hits, now deftly recut for the new musical climes. The former is positively sultry, the latter appears in a five-minute-plus extended extravaganza. No longer a brass showcase, the horns now have to share the stage with flashy guitar, although Val Bennett grabs the spotlight for a solo at one point. The new loping rhythm is superb, the musicians in top form, with
Buster excitedly the gangster king gunning the listener down one more time. Not content with covering his own hits, the singing producer also versions others. A trio are grabbed straight from the Jamaican charts -- a splendid western-flavored take on
Hopeton Lewis' "Take It Easy," a less successful stab at the Paragons' "On the Beach," and a magnificent cover of
Desmond Dekker's "007 (Shanty Town)" boasting both brass and surf guitar. And in keeping with the rudie theme of that latter number, "Waiting for My Rude Girl," is an inspired version of
Lee Dorsey's classic chestnut "Ya-Ya." Of the
Prince's compositions, the stand-outs are the R&B-flavored "Sounds and Pressure," the funky "Move Over" (mistitled "More Over" on the set), and the sizzling, brass-driven instrumental "Cincinnati Kid," although all the tracks are worthy of note.
Modern critics have shown little interest in
Buster's work during this period, beyond the almighty "Judge Dread," but as this set, initially released in 1972, well illustrated, the
Prince was unleashing a stream of royal singles throughout the era. ~ Jo-Ann Greene