Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 311 - Culture

Two Sevens Clash - Culture

Joe Gibbs

Produced by Joe Gibbs

Released 1977

Personnel
    Joseph Hill – lead vocals
    Albert Walker – harmony vocals
    Kenneth Dayes – harmony vocals
    Lloyd Parks – bass
    Sly Dunbar – drums
    Lennox Gordon – guitar
    Robbie Shakespeare – guitar
    Eric "Bingy Bunny" Lamont – guitar
    Franklyn Waul – keyboards
    Errol "Tarzan" Nelson – keyboards
    Harold Butler – keyboards
    Uziah "Sticky" Thompson – percussion
    Herman Marquis – alto saxophone
    Vin Gordon – trombone
    Tommy McCook – tenor saxophone
    Bobby Ellis – trumpet

Singles on Two Sevens Clash Album

(not really sure of the order they were released or on what dates)

A-Side: Two Sevens Clash  - Culture

 B-Side: Version - The Mighty Two

1977 

Listen to A & B-Side Here

Two Sevens Clash was issued in the UK in 1978 on Lightning Records with I Am Not Ashamed on the B-Side

 

A-Side: I Am Not Ashamed - Culture

B-Side: I Am Not Ashamed (Version) - The Mighty Two

 1977

Listen to A & B-Side Here

 A-Side: Natty Dread Taking Over - Culture

B-Side: Natty Gone Clear - Joe Gibbs & The Professionals

1977

Listen to A & B-Side Here

 

 

A-Side: See Them A Come - Culture

B-Side: Version - The Mighty Two

1977

Listen to A & B-Side Here

 

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Two Sevens Clash by Culture is my second favourite Reggae album of all time. Like many I probably first heard the title track on John Peel and I've loved it ever since.

Joseph Hill (lead vocalist of Culture) said  Two Sevens Clash, Culture's most influential record, was based on a prediction by Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey, who said there would be chaos on July 7, 1977, when the "sevens" met. The prophecies noted by the lyrics so profoundly captured the imagination of the people that on July 7, 1977 - the day when sevens fully clashed (seventh day, seventh month, seventy-seventh year) a hush descended on Kingston; many people did not go outdoors, shops closed, an air of foreboding and expectation filled the city.

I cannot even think how many times over the years that I've played it nor how many copies I've owned of it and lost as well!

Whilst production wise it sounds quite dated I think none of the songs have lost their shine at all.

The song Two Sevens Clash was recorded twice for John Peel Sessions first in December 1982 (and broadcast in January 1983) and then again in November 1988 (and broadcast in January 1989). You can hear the 1982 session in full below (it was released as part of the Strange Fruit series of Peel Sessions in 1987). Regarding the Sessions, John Peel told Interzone magazine: "It’s really impossible to say which is my favourite… Perhaps Culture, I wish they’d done more."

Two Sevens Clash was reissued on CD for the first time in 1987 with a different artwork to the original on the Blue Moon label.

A repress of the album on vinyl in the US on Rocky One in 2000 restored the original artwork and 11 years later another US label,  17 North Parade, reissued it on CD with liner notes by Harry Wise.

(Blue Moon Cover Art - 1987)

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!