Live Good

AMG Review of Live Good

Jo-Ann Greene
All Music Guide

Ken Boothe already had notched up two big British hits by the time United Artists launched their Anthology of Reggae Collectors Series. Live Good was the second volume within, and gives an inkling of the esteem the singer was held in at the time. At least in Jamaica, it had been four long years since Boothe had graced the British charts, and he was never to enter them again. But that was besides the point; Boothe's name had some cache, and that was important for a label looking to jump on the eggae bandwagon set rolling by the success of Bob Marley. For collectors, this album was a godsend, filled as it is with Jamaican hits. The entire compilation is culled from his recordings for Studio One, drawn exclusively from 1966-1968, when Boothe unleashed a flood of smash singles for the label. In fact, all of side one is crucial Boothe, and includes many of his classic songs. Side two is entertaining, but not as mega-hit packed. The standout on this second side is the singer's ferocious cover of the Otis Redding masterpiece "Try a Little Tenderness." This showcases Boothe at his most soulful, with a backing band kept well out of the picture until the second half of the song. At that point, all hell breaks out, the musicians barge in, and Boothe lets loose with a fire that burns the wax to ashes. This remains one of his best performances ever recorded. "When I Fall in Love," in contrast, in one of his most nuanced. Here he brings an obsessional quality to what was originally a moody love song. "Thinking" is just as potent, if not quite as oppressive, across another remarkable cover. And much of the singer's best work is on other people's songs, such as Manfred Mann's "Tomorrow," remade into a C&W-tinged ocksteady classic. From the emotional fortes of such tear-jerkers as "You're on My Mind" and "Moving Away," the impassioned declarations of love of "Sherry," to the defiant "You Don't Like Me" and the cultural consciousness of the title track, Live Good beautifully wraps up the power of Boothe.