Singers & Players - War of Words

Lotta people seemed to have enjoyed the last Singers & Players that I posted up, so here’s another one. From 1981 on 99 Records in the U.S., released the following year in the U.K. on On-U Sound. Although Bim Sherman does the vocal duties on five of the seven tunes (& never sounded finer), this is the first album by Singers & Players with Prince Far-I & Jah Woosh.

War of Words has that heavy slow dub with early dancehall influences. Bim Sherman handles the vocals on "Devious Woman," "Fit to Survive," & "World of Dispensation", great funky rootsy skankers while "91 Vibration" has echoed dub with vocals he must have phoned in from another area code. However, when Prince Far-I steps up to the mike on "Quante Jubila" a re-working of Creation Rebels 's "Know Yourself" it is a thing of beauty, the juxtaposition of the Prince’s gruff vocals with the songs emotional lyrics. If you liked Leaps & Bounds, you’re gonna really groove to this one.

Singers & Players here are: Bim Sherman, Prince Far-I, & Jah Woosh - vocals; “Crucial” Tony - guitar, bass, keyboards, & vocals; Keith Levene - guitar; Geotge Oban - bass; Lizard - bass & vocals; Ari “Stepper”, “Bigga” Morrison, Doctor Pablo, & Nick Plytas - keyboards; Eskimo Fox & “Style” Scott - drums; & Mr. Ranking Magoo - percussion. Produced, of course, by Adrian Sherwood.

Singers & Players - War of Words, 99 Records 99-02LP, 1981.
decryption code in comments

This Side -
Devious Woman
Quanté Jubila
Sit & Wonder
Fit to Survive
Other Side -
Reaching the Bad Man
World of Dispensation
91 Vibration

Enjoy,
NØ