Bob and Marcia: Young, Gifted, and Black

Jamaican popular music was heavily influenced by American soul and R&B for decades, starting at its very inception with ska in the 1950s. You could argue that the musical transition from ska to rocksteady to reggae to roots reggae mirrored the changes in American black music and consciousness during that same time. As the 60s became the 70s, Jamaican artists were encouraged by the powerful messaging of Black pride in the U.S. This came across in the music. The popular themes of love and loss inherent to rocksteady turned toward Black liberation, as the message from across the Atlantic merged with the increasing prominence of Rastafari philosophy on the island itself. Reggae was beginning to come into its own.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, reggae was actually enjoying the chart success that it could never find in the States. Reggae releases were bought by large swaths of British listeners, especially by the West Indies immigrant community, but also by white youths, members of the skinhead subculture particularly. But since the BBC was still so unwilling to play Jamaican roots records -- explained more or less by racist ethnocentrism and fear of an immigrant takeover in popular culture -- producers would favor cover versions of tunes that were already popular in the UK. They would also dress them up with strings and orchestration to make them sound more Western.

Bob and Marcia's version of Nina Simone's "Young, Gifted and Black" is a telling example of this trend. The song sounds quite different from the roots reggae that would become popular across the world as the 70s progressed. Tracks like these served as a palatable transition for British listeners and radio executives and helped break open the doors for acts like Bob Marley, Burning Spear, and Big Youth over the next decade.

Bob and Marcia:


The Gaylads:


Aretha Franklin:


Donny Hathaway:


And Nina Simone, of course: