Customer Reviews

Big Seven: The Best of Judge Dread

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Judge Dread is not exactly well known despite his run of UK hits (or perhaps because of his run of UK hits). The songs are all early white ska, way before the more well known music of the eighties--the rhythm is quick and sprightly, the mood light and the lyrics clever and raunchy. This is quite funny and quite smutty--not overtly in your face filth. His singing style seems half Jamacian toasting (close to the sing song of Eek a Mouse) and half English dancehall. This is a fun fun CD and well worth owning. In my opinion it is the best white ska.

Judge Dread regularly visited the UK singles charts from 1972 to 1978 without any airplay. These songs are not for the politically correct, however, since Dread's lyrics were intended to offend and most of these songs were banned by the BBC.

That only served to propel them into the Top 20, starting with Big Six. The Judge's art consisted in taking nursery rhymes, adapting the words to the downright rude and backing these with foot-tapping riddims and hummable tunes.

My favorite is Je T'aime, a side-splitting cover of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg's famous erotic hit, but the Judge gives it a hilarious twist as the mood shifts from the sensual to the shocked after a certain discovery is made.

Judge Dread had more UK reggae hits than any other artist, had the highest number of songs banned by the BBC and was the first white singer to have a reggae hit in Jamaica.

Unfortunate omissions here are Come Outside (a hilarious dialogue between him and a girlfriend), Y Viva Suspenders, a lovely parody of the 1970s European holiday hit Y Viva Espana, and his last hit Hokey Cokey/Jingle Bells from December 1978.

The Legendary Judge Dread