Why not Bob and the Wailers? I prefer the likes of Burning Spear, Culture and Dr Alimantado but this is a staggering piece of work.

At the risk of being shot, the only reggae CD I own is 'Catch A Fire' which I use as a kind of bookend for all the ska and rocksteady CD's that precede it.
I've always thought of reggae as a sort of progressive rock version of Jamaican music.
Too much pot and way too much meaning bestowed on stuff that isn't as vibrant or artistic as the Skatalites.....also all the punks liked it, so I'm obliged not to.
Lamarr's show on Radio 2 has made me think again but only slightly.

Best Jamaican CD's?
The Skatalites 'Ska-Boo-Da-Ba' (where the group were paid upfront and so played the best they ever played!).
'Jamaican Memories', a rocksteady compilation of the Blue Cat label.

what of ska and skinheads?

This album was an absolute classic. I still love it nearly thirty years later.

most of my reggae is on compilations and it's very difficult to name a favourite artist/ favourite album. However on the compilation front I'd probably go for the Don Letts compiled "Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown"

Favourite song: probably this

The reggae Mel & Kim, an' ting?

Favourite album: The Congos - The Heart of the Congos

Favourite artist: I don't have one

Favourite song: perhaps Chase The Devil by Max Romeo

I got into reggae by way of the Clash and their version of Police & Thieves. The original of which (thanks for post Steven C) is probably my single favourite track.

As an adolescent in the late 70s/early 80s - one could not fail to be aware of the connection between Reggae and Politics. And the division between home grown Jamaican stuff and that produced in UK. The Jamaican stuff was seen as more "real" but to these ears Aswad and Steel Pulse were almost as good - if not quite in the same league as U-roy, Toots and the Maytals, Black Uhuru, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown or Burning Spear.

My favourite all-time reggae album is Two Sevens Clash by Culture. Although if we were to include Marley it would be Rastaman Vibration.

Ashamed to admit, I know nothing of contemporary reggae - except I cannot stand Ragga/Dancehall and its attendant attitudes

Anyway, because it reminds me of my youth (Big Youth?)
- and any time I want to alarm the neighbours* I put on some Linton Kwesi Johnson

*actually they ususally pop round and we reminisce about strikes and NF marches and the Brixton Riots - aah happy days I know...

Tomorrow would be different, and I would have to treat ska as a different genre, but today I would nominate my reggae favourites as:
ALBUM: "The Harder They Come" OST (Obvious!)
ARTIST: Toots and the Maytals
SONG: Hmmm. How about "Kimble The Nimble" by Lee "Scratch" Perry?

As I'm off my hols - this is all-time fave and redolent of summer sun and cocktails

(R.I.P)Tyrone Taylor

"War Ina Babylon" is my favourite album

Favourite track: Steel Pulse and "Ku Klux Klan"

I also like "Jungle Beat" by Zap Pow and "Funky Kingston" by Toots & The Maytals.

Although I got into reggae like Sheev via The Clash but mainly through THE RUTS (hey Sheev, you sure about The Ruts??) who did a lot of gigs with Misty In Roots and played far more authentic reggae than The Clash did.

Reggae is one of those style of music that I prefer in compilation form - as someone mentioned above the Don Letts compilation was superb as were a lot of the Trojan box sets.

My good old prophet Marcus Garvey prophesize, say:
"St. Jago de la Vega and Kingstown is gonna meet"
And I can see with mine own eyes
It's only a housing scheme that divides

What a liv an bamba yay - it dread - when the two sevens clash

My 10 bob's worth:

King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown

Marcus Garvey/ Garvey's Ghost 100th Anniversary - both good but as a double pretty unbeatable

U Roy - Dread in Babylon

A lot of stuff by John Holt or Gregory Isaacs

I was lucky enough to live in JA for six years in the 1970's so I am strictly roots.
Best artist, hard choice, but I'll go with Burning Spear.
Best album, easy, Haile I Hymn by Ijahman.
Best song, hard choice, so I'll go for non-roots and have Gregory Isaacs Night Nurse. Saw him at Reggae Legends in Mo Bay on a return trip to JA some years ago.

Apologies Tony - as I believe the wonders of Spotify have yet to reach Down Under.

But I've taken liberty of putting suggestions to date (as available - or with alternatives and other additions) on a Spotify playlist

http://open.spotify.com/user/sheevmaster/playlist/4nYuSlZ2P89zu8XWxZhlBJ

It's collaborative - so feel free to add.

And Tony what with the cricket - and no Spotify...

Smiles, winks etc

Most of the greats from the purple period 70s have had a mention above, and anyone looking to investigate has been well served by these suggestions.

There's one exception I haven't seen anyone champion, and that's the fab Super Ape album from Scratch.

Two Sevens Clash remains my biggest favourite, not least because I was lucky enough to witness Culture at their peak playing at Trinity Church in St. Pauls, Bristol. The fug was intoxicating.

Honourable mentions should also go to Third World, Count Ossie, and anything blessed by King Tubby or Augustus Pablo. There are many, many more too...

that I would have nominated is here.
However I can add Augustus Pablo's Original Rockers.

You Don't Know is probably one of my favourite reggae tunes of all time, a weird Bob Dylan meets Smokey Robinson flavoured early 70s thing. I can't Youtube it right now because of the office firewall, but it was on there. Go and search it out. Well worth a listen.

Other than that I love my dub, I love my King Tubby and Augustus Pablo and his melodica, I have every one of the Trojan box sets, which still rank as some of the best collections of reggae across it's evolution that I think exists.

And to put a spring in my step the Harry J Allstars and Liquidator, musical pro-plus!

I hadn't heard this 12" mix with its dub for years since hearing John Peel play it one night in the 70s, but found it on Youtube recently to my great delight:

Brit mention - Aswad's "Hey Jah Children" dub from the recently-reissued-on-CD soundtrack to "Babylon". Many more, as said before.

Somehow not all of the stuff I fairly randomly bought in the 70s/80s has stayed in my vinyl collection (damn), but there are still a few LPs, some 45s and 12" singles. I had a soft spot for Joe Gibbs' "African Dub" volume 2, and Misty in Roots are the only band I've ever seen who've made me start dancing the instant I entered the hall they were playing in (missed the start of their set), and what's more, before I even realised it myself.

I'd better ID it as "Love is a Treasure" by Michael Scotland (Carlton Patterson), King Tubby at the controls...

If this ain't summer - what is?

that I forgot to mention Michael Smith above.

Horace Andy...who turned up on Massive Attack's Blue Lines a lot later on.

Both the record shop and the record label, particularly early 80's 12 inch singles. Another One Bites the Dust by Clint Eastwood & General Saint is my most played record ever - I have not kept count but it exceeds everything else by at least 2 to 1.
The record shop in Shepherds Bush was the most intimidating shop I have ever been to - I went in white and came out translucent.

This one by Valton Craigie is less than a decade old, but stands up with some of the best of the seventies stuff, in my 'umble.

Buy Steel Pulse's Handsworth Revolution tonight.

And while you're at it get The Heptones' Night Food

Mojo did an excellent Trojan compilation cover CD a couple of years ago (actually it was 2002, a quick google tells me)

Black Uhuru - Red - tremendous combination of great vocals and Sly n Robbie
Steel Pulse - Handsworth Revolution - the best UK reggae album ever?
Misty In Roots - Live at the Counter Eurovision - awesome, good luck finding a copy
Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse

Here's a couple of additions:

The Peter Tosh catalogue has some good stuff - Wanted Dread or Alive or Mama Africa my favourites

Augustus Pablo - I have a compilation of early stuff - mellow and spiritual dub

If it's just one track :

Dr Alimantado - Born For A Purpose

One Artist

Prince Alla

One Album

Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey / Garvey's Ghost

and lastly, skipping the light fantastic for a source of pure joy :

Anyone see the revival at the Massive Attack Meltdown?

Slowly and steadily over the years, Linton Kwesi Johnson's 'Forces of Victory' has risen up the (up town top) rankings to become one of my favourite albums, irrespective of genre. LKJ's use of, and obvious delight in, language, is compelling. His voice inhabits the songs perfectly and the production and arrangements are dubtastically first rate. He is one of very few living poets to have a penguin classic volume (Mi Revalueshionary Fren' - that love of language again). The stand out track is Sonny's Letter.

I really like Jimmy Cliff, he is also responsible for my favourite ever live gig (at the leadmill, sheffield). Probably not proper reggae though?

Really chuffed that I'm not the only reggae fan on t'board, I love a host of artists from the 1974-1988 period especially.

It always frustrates me that when you ask some people about reggae they will claim to really like it, and then just as I'm about to launch into a deep debate about King Tubby vs Pablo, or the merits of the digital age, they admit the only albums they own are Marley's "Legend", and "20 Reggae Hits" (which usually include a lot of s*ite filler anyway).

Anyhoo, to choose single favourites is a toughie, but I'll go for :

Number One Artist - Lee 'Scratch' Perry
In a world that chucks the term 'genius' around too easily, this guy is the real deal (completely bonkers genius, but genius nontheless).
http://open.spotify.com/track/36JioPtiYeKoMB8zqHuQ97

Favourite Album - "Jesus Dread" by Yabby You.
http://open.spotify.com/track/2PC3LHxhdrAH8oIophmI3Q

Favourite Song - bloody 'ell, that's impossible!! - Ok then, but this changes on a regular basis -
"Natty Dread She Want" by Big Youth.

I've got a single of the Australian cricket team -Ian chappell era

"We Are the Aussies" ..and cricket is our game
We are the aussies and winning is our aim

Almost a double A side

With

"Bowl a ball swing a bat"...tell me what you think of that
Don't you think we play real fine

Inspirational stuff

Bunny Wailer's Blackheart Man, from 1976, is in my probably controversial opinion every bit the equal of Marley's contemporaneous Rastaman Vibration and Exodus, if not a little bit better.

It was a golden time for reggae albums. Gregory Isaacs' Soon Forward, Burning Spear's Social Living, the aforementioned Congos masterpiece, Keith Hudson's Pick a Dub--in fact practically anything recorded in Kingston in the 70s, before the digital scourge set in--will enrich anyone's life.

Man - so much great stuff is popping up on this thread I barely have time to post my own...

Album: Dennis Brown - Wolves and Leopards (brings me to a deep deep place
Compilation Album: Lee Perry - Chapter 1: The Upsetters (I could just put the Arkology box set - a landmark collection from a true genius).
Songs (I gotta have 5):
Slavemaster - Gregory Isaacs (The cool ruler at his best)
Let Me Down Easy - Derrick Harriott (Pure joy)
I'm Still In Love - Marcia Aitken (So, so sweet)
Wood For Me Fire - Black Uhuru (Biggest skanks ever on this one)
River - Zap Pow (Musical hypnotism)

For the record: I listen to reggae year round - I think I'm part Jamaican! Dig the Rockers OST over The Harder They Come. Jimmy Cliff is OK but I'm perfectly fine not hearing him for years at a time.

Right Time by The Mighty Diamonds. Gorgeous harmonies, dreader than dread rhythms, just an absolutely perfect album. I remember hearing this the same summer I heard a new Steely Dan album, The Royal Scam (with its kind of charming stab at reggae, Haitian Divorce) and beginning to grapple with the notion that reggae, at that point in time, was a whole lot more vital than rock.

And, from the same period, The Abyssinians' Satta Massaganna and Israel Vibration's Same Song. Damn, I wish I had a time machine...

Just received the weekly email from Word Towers, and mention of this very thread is prominent.

However, even our beloved scribes are falling into dismal clichés.......

"MUSIC: summer's here, so naturally
our thoughts turn to reggae."

Shouldn't that be

"summer's here, so naturally we want to get to the pub and can't be bothered to write anything vaguely intelligent about reggae."

"Dat" by Pluto Shervington?

I only ask.

(perfect pop, BTW)

I know someone mentioned it earlier but The Congos - Heart Of The Congos is a brilliant album

Also a really good starting point for the dub stuff is Lee Perry's Reggae Greats on Island which includes War In A Babylon and Police And Thieves as well as this amazing cover of I Forgot To Be Your Lover.

This is getting heavy rotation across di nation on wi vacation

Well, frankly there's only so much bouzouki music one can stand

Boat to Zion, great album from 78.

Abyssinians

Barrington

Culture

...

Tappa Zukie

Lots of great stuff mentioned already but these are a few of my favourites:
Keith Hudson - Flesh of My Skin, Blood of My Blood
Jackie Edwards - Get Up
The Rulers - Wrong 'em, Boyo
The Revolutionaries - Green Bay Dub
Junior Byles - Fade Away
Dance Crasher - Alton Ellis and the Flames

...and most things on Blood and Fire are great

authentic Jamaican, authentic jazz guitarist, good combination, not well enough known. The album "Below the Bassline" has a truly wonderful take on King Tubby meets the Rockers: real time performed dub!(but not on Youtube, maybe Spotify?)But this is..

.. but it got lost somewhere in the CD switchover

Humanity by Prince Lincloln Thompson and the Royal Rasses. I just remember that the opening track San Salvador was fantastic. I went to see him at that nice Mr Branson's The Venue but was disappointed as he was the only singer, with no Rasses on harmonies. I see from a quick google that this finally came out on CD in 2001. mp3 downloads seem hard to come by

Some cracking tunes in this thread. I too have the NME Smile Jamaica, still sounds terrific to my ears

to this

to this

to this

(All versions of "Baby I Love You So" in case you can't see the titles).

Try sitting still to this one!

Also, for something recorded this century check out All Over The World by Dennis "Blackbeard" Bovell. Most of the songs have been part of his set for years but a fresh lick of paint makes them worth hearing all over again. It's almost as good as a Radio 1 'In Concert' show shared between LKJ and his backing band that I taped off the radio years and years ago.

Picture on the wall...

(Just joking!)