i think gregory isaacs is reggae’s equivalent to backseat makeout music. i first heard his music when i was a little tyke, listening to KPFK. there was a show on saturdays called “sounds of jamaica” with miss wirewaist. i remember hearing this song, and thinking that it was the sexiest thing i had ever heard (besides sade’s “is it a crime?”), but i was a teenage boy at the time, and had alot to learn about what sexy even meant. at almost 40, looking back, i think i was further ahead than i gave myself credit for back then.

when i was a kid, i used to listen to “sounds of jamaica” every saturday, and record it onto cassettes, and carry those to school with me in my walkman. those tapes are long since lost, but i can still remember them. i couldn’t afford alot of blank tapes (i always used good ones like TDK SA’s), so i had to reuse them alot. one weekend, i bought a pack of three tapes, and just cycled them through the weeks.

over the years, miss wirewaist was like a friend to me, exposing me to music that i never could have stumbled onto on my own. you have to remember, there was no internet, no cell phones, and no myspace. in order to find new and interesting stuff, you had to get out and adventure.

thanks, miss wirewaist, for all the great adventures.