Laurel Aitken – Skinhead Train five-CD box set

138 tracks, many new to CD. The Laurel Aitken – Skinhead Train five-CD box set is a substantial affair.

Widely hailed as the Godfather of Ska, Laurel Aitken had a career dating back to the 1950s. But this box set doesn’t touch on most of it. This is a set covering the 1969/1970 era.

There was when the reggae explosion of 1969 exposed his work to a wider audience, with productions for Doctor Bird, Pama and Trojan Records establishing him as a musical hero for many of Britain’s young, white working-classes, notably those that had adopted the look dubbed by the national press as ‘skinhead’.

This five-CD box set collects the entirety of the singer-songwriter-producer’s output that saw issue on 7-inch singles between 1969 and 1970, with the set including big sellers alongside long lost rarities and unissued tracks that make their CD debut.

Of course, his singing takes centre stage, but it also features recordings he produced for other UK-based artists, their number including such celebrated acts as Rico, Winston Groovy, Pama Dice, the Pyramids, the Cimarons and the Rudies.

Among the 138 tracks collected here, two are previously unreleased and another 68 unavailable on any format for decades, with 70 tracks currently unavailable digitally and 50 of the tracks being new to CD. For completists, this is the dream.

I have listed the tracks below and if you want the box you can pre-order now ahead of the 27th March 2020 release date. It sells for £26.99.

Find out more at the Amazon website

Tracklisting:

Disc: 1
1. Laurel Aitken – Fire In Mi Wire
2. Laurel Aitken – Quando Quando
3. Laurel Aitken – Rice And Peas
4. The Classics – Worried Over Me
5. Laurel Aitken – Reggae Prayer
6. Laurel Aitken – Deliverance Will Come
7. Laurel Aitken – The Rise And Fall (Of Laurel)
8. Laurel Aitken – If You’re Not Black
9. Laurel Aitken – Haile Haile (The Lion)
10. Seven Letters – Call Collect
11. Laurel Aitken – Carolina
12. Laurel Aitken – Kingston Town
13. Laurel Aitken – Donkey Man
14. Laurel Aitken – Woppi King
15. Laurel Aitken – Mr Soul
16. Laurel Aitken & Girlie – Suffering Still
17. Laurel Aitken – Reggae ‘69
18. Laurel Aitken – Haile Selassie
19. Laurel Aitken & Girlie – Blues Dance
20. Laurel Aitken & Girlie – Lawd Doctor
21. Laurel Aitken & Girlie – Big Fight In Hell Stadium
22. Laurel Aitken – Run Powell Run
23. Rico & Laurel Aitken – A Message To You
24. Laurel Aitken – Save The Last Dance
25. Laurel Aitken – Walk Right Back
26. Laurel Aitken – Don’t Be Cruel
27. Laurel Aitken – (Sloop) John B

Disc: 2
1. Winston Groovy – Island In The Sun
2. Winston Groovy – Work It Up
3. Winston Groovy – (My Girl) Josephine
4. Winston Groovy – Champagne And Wine
5. Rico & Laurel Aitken – Babylon Gone
6. Laurel Aitken – Shoo Be Doo
7. Laurel Aitken – Landlords And Tenants
8. Laurel Aitken – Everybody Sufferin’
9. Laurel Aitken – Jesse James
10. Laurel Aitken – Freedom
11. Laurel Aitken – Pussy Price Gone Up
12. Laurel Aitken – Gimme Back Me Dollar
13. Laurel Aitken – Skinhead Train
14. The Gruvy Beats – Kent People
15. Laurel Aitken – Benwood Dick
16. Laurel Aitken – Apollo 12
17. Laurel Aitken & Girlie – Scandal In Brixton Market
18. King Horror – Frankenstein
19. Winston Groovy – I Can’t Stand It
20. Laurel Aitken & Girlie – Stupid Married Man
21. Girlie – Madam Streggae
22. Laurel Aitken – Think Me No Know
23. Rico – Trombone Man
24. Laurel Aitken – Pussy Got Thirteen Life
25. Laurel Aitken – Single Man
26. Laurel Aitken – Skinhead Wreck The Town
27. Laurel Aitken – – Laurel Aitken
28. Winston Groovy – Merry Xmas

Disc: 3
1. Laurel Aitken – Sin Pon You
2. Laurel Aitken – Everynight
3. Winston Groovy – Cut Up Munno
4. King Horror – The Vampire
5. King Horror – Cutting Blade
6. Winston Groovy – Leaving Me Standing
7. Winston Groovy – Little Girl
8. King Horror – The Hole
9. King Horror – Loch Ness Monster
10. Rico & The Visions – Zion I
11. Winston Groovy – Funky Chicken, Part 1
12. The Cimarons – Funky Chicken, Part 2
13. Winston Groovy – Funny, Version 1
14. The Cimarons – Funny, Version 2
15. Pama Dice – Sin, Sun And Sex
16. Pama Dice – Honky Tonk Popcorn
17. Pama Dice – Bongo Man
18. Pama Dice – Reggae Popcorn
19. Pama Dice – The Worm, Part 1
20. Pama Dice – The Worm, Part 2
21. Laurel Aitken – Only You
22. Winston Groovy – I Can’t Go On
23. Dice The Boss – Funky Monkey, Version 1
24. Dice The Boss – Funky Monkey, Version 2
25. Trevor Lloyd – Give Me Back Your Love
26. Trevor Lloyd – Hold Me
27. Trevor Lloyd – Chinee Brush
28. Dice & Cummie – Real Collie
29. King Horror – Loch Ness Monster (Alt. Tk.)

Disc: 4
1. Pama Dice – The Worm
2. Winston Groovy – You Can’t Turn Your Back On Me
3. Dice The Boss – Funky Duck
4. Dice The Boss – Funkier Than Duck
5. King Horror – The Naked City
6. King Horror – Wood In The Fire
7. Laurel Aitken – Mr Popcorn
8. Laurel Aitken – Share Your Popcorn
9. Laurel Aitken – I’ve Got To Have Your Love
10. Laurel Aitken & Gruvy Beats – Blue Mink
11. Tiger – Souls Of Africa
12. Laurel Aitken & Gruvy Beats – Dallas, Texas
13. Winston Groovy – Standing On The Corner
14. Winston Groovy – You Send Me
15. Laurel Aitken – Nobody But Me
16. Laurel Aitken – Baby Please Don’t Go
17. Winston Groovy – Yellow Bird
18. Winston Groovy – For Your Love
19. Laurel Aitken – I’ll Never Love Any Girl
20. Laurel Aitken – Take Me Back
21. Laurel Aitken – Reggae Popcorn
22. Winston Groovy – Here Is My Heart
23. The Gruvy Beats – Birds And The Bees
24. The Freedom Singers – Election
25. Fleece & The Live Shocks – Tomorrow’s World
26. The Versatiles – Pick My Pocket
27. The Freedom Singers – Freedom
28. Laurel Aitken – The Outlaw

Disc: 5
1. The Classics – So Much Love
2. The Classics – Same Old Feeling
3. Joe Lace – Nobody Else But You
4. The Live Shocks – Version Of Nobody
5. Laurel Aitken – Baby I Need Your Loving (1970 Version)
6. Laurel Aitken – Think It Over
7. Tiger – Musical Scorcher
8. Tiger – Three Dogs Night
9. Laurel Aitken – Sex Machine
10. Laurel Aitken – Since You Left
11. Winston Groovy – Groovin’
12. Winston Groovy – Sugar Mama
13. The Inner Mind – Witchcraft Man
14. The Inner Mind – Night In Cairo
15. The Inner Mind – Pum Pum Girl
16. The Inner Mind – Freedom
17. The Classics – History Of Africa
18. The Classics – Honey Bee
19. Laurel Aitken – Pachanga, Part 1
20. Laurel Aitken – Pachanga, Part 2
21. Winston Groovy – Tennessee Waltz
22. Winston Groovy – Old Man Trouble
23. Laurel Aitken – Why Can’t I Touch You
24. Laurel Aitken – (You) Can’t Turn Your Back On Me
25. Laurel Aitken – Mary’s Boy Child
26. The Rudies – Mary’s Boy Child (Instr.)