The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond
Book by Paul Morley
DETAILS
Publisher : Gallery Books (June 7, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 352 pages ISBN-10 : 198217269X ISBN-13 : 978-1982172695 Item Weight : 1.19 pounds Dimensions : 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches Best Sellers Rank: #35,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #3 in Reggae Music (Books) #82 in Rock Band Biographies #1,113 in Memoirs (Books) , In the vein of Sound Man and The Soundtrack of My Life , a lyrical, warmhearted, and inspirational memoir from the founder of Island Records about his astonishing life and career helping to bring reggae music to the world stage and working with Bob Marley, U2, Grace Jones, Cat Stevens, and many other icons. Chris Blackwell, like the paradigm-shifting artists he came to support over his sixty-plus years in the music business, never took the conventional route. He grew up between Jamaica and London, crossing paths with Ian Fleming, Noel Coward, and Errol Flynn. After being expelled from an elite British school for rebellious behavior in 1954 at age seventeen, he moved back to Jamaica, and within five years, founded Island Records—the company that would make an indelible mark on music, shifting with the times, but always keeping its core identity intact. The Islander is the story of Blackwell and his cohorts at Island Records, who time and again, identified, nurtured, and broke out musicians who had been overlooked by bigger record labels, including Steve Winwood, Nick Drake, John Martyn, and Cat Stevens. After an impromptu meeting with Bob Marley and his bandmates in 1972, Blackwell decided to fund and produce their groundbreaking album Catch a Fire . He’d go on to work with Marley over the rest of his career, remain his close friend, and continually champion Jamaican culture and reggae music. In the ensuing years, Blackwell worked with U2, Grace Jones, the B-52s, Tom Waits, Robert Palmer, Tom Tom Club, and many other groundbreaking artists. He also opened the first Jamaican boutique hotel, on the property of Ian Fleming’s former home, Goldeneye, where all the James Bond books were written. Blackwell is a legendary as well as deeply humble raconteur, and reading The Islander is like spending a day with the most interesting man in the world. Read more
REVIEW
When he was 18, Chris Blackwell set out on a boating expedition with friends and ran out of gas in a remote section off the coast of Jamaica. It was 1955. One of his friends ventured to the shore but came back bloody and scared. There was nowhere to go. The island there was all thorns and mangroves with almost no beach and the tide was rising. They were stranded. The next day Chris set out on foot walking for miles on cracked hard dry ground. In one section the ground appeared to be moving - it was a writhing mass of hundreds of thousands of crabs. If they chose to come at him as predators, there was no escape. After miles and many hours he spotted a tiny, lopsided shack held together by string. He was weak and desperately thirsty and thought he was hallucinating. Then he saw the first Rastafari he had ever seen in his life: The Man's hair was long, matted, and looked like tree bark. His clothes looked as if he had made them himself. Blackwell was terrified. He had been told stories of what could happen to him when encountering these people. He thought this was the end, as these people had been horribly mistreated by white people for centuries. But he sensed an ethereal gentleness about the man. He gave him water and fixed a place for him to sleep. When Chris woke up, he saw five more Rastafari Men in the hut, all sitting around reading softly from the Bible. They offered him food. Blackwell was overcome by the incredible, mystic gentleness that surrounded him there. Several years later, Chris Blackwell became an icon of music by bringing the sounds of these people to the World. He worked most famously with Bob Marley but there were many, many others and his Record Company brought Reggae to the World. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall that day Bob Marley, Peter Tosh & Bunny Wailer walked into his London Office. By all accounts, it was a powerful sight: Like Three Kings walking in. Other musicians such as U2, Traffic, John Martyn, Nick Drake & Black Uhuru were on his label. Blackwell grew up with neighbors like Errol Flynn, Ian Fleming, and other legends before becoming a legend himself. What a Life. What a Book. Amazing Adventures. The sections on Bob Marley brought tears to my eyes. One Love ❤
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