U Roy and Friends - With A Flick of my Musical Wrist: Jamaican Deejay Music 1970 - 1973 (Trojan Records)

Trojan put out a great record with this one. This shows off a nice mixture of U Roy and other better known deejays when they were just starting out like I Roy, Big Youth and Prince Jazzbo as well as deejays not really known like Charlie Ace, Ramon, Cat Campbell and others. All in all this is 16 tracks of top quality deejay music from the early part of the 70's.

The album starts with U Roy toasting over Delroy Wilsons "You'll Never Get Away". The track is good with a great rhythm, my only complaint is U Roy isnt recorded very well on this track and hes kind of hard to hear. In my opinion though, out of U Roys tracks on this record, his cut of the melody with my favorite three Ken Boothe songs ("Train Is Coming", "I Dont Want to See You Cry" and "The Girl I Left Behind"). U Roy is in top form riding the rhythms to the fullest. This also happens to be my favorite song by U Roy from all of his stuff that I have heard. Other U Roy tracks are just as good, "Love I Tender", "Festival Wise", "Hard Feeling" and "On Top of the Peak" where he proclaims that hes "on top of the peak" and "music is what I seek".

Next I'll talk about the two tracks provided by Big Youth, first, a toasting version of The Wailers classic "Keep On Moving" as well as "Oppertunity Rock" over the "Midnight In Moscow rhythm. "Moving Version" is great but my favorite of the two would have to be "Oppertunity Rock" just because of the great rhythm. The Big Youth songs are interesting though because they were done right before he got really well known for his cultural lyrics. In any case, Jah Youth is a great deejay and everyone needs at least some of his stuff.

I Roy is also here with two tracks, "Space Flight", including a spoken intro by Lee "Scratch" Perry and also "Musical Drum Sound" over Audley Rollins' "Repatriation" rhythm. These songs are both good but he seems kind of derivative of U Roy at times. For a better picture of what I Roy can do, his "Don't Check Me With No Lightweight Stuff" album is a classic. But these songs arent too shabby at all.

Unfortunantly, Prince Jazzbo is only represented here with one song, "Free From Chains". It's classic Jazzbo with a great rhythm and I only wish there was more by him on here.

Out of the lesser known deejays on this album, King Tony shines with "Speak No Evil" and also Cat Campbell proclaiming that "this is the number one station" over a Nicky Thomas song. Cat's voice is great because it gets really high at some times and he even incorporates "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" into his lyrics and pulls it off.

King Sporty is also on here with "For Our Desire" over the reggae version of Justin Hinds classic "Carry Go Bring Come". The song is not specatular but the rhythm is great of course. Ramon is also here with the odd "Golden Chickens" over a Crystalites rhythm. In this song he pretends to be a mexican cowboy. The song is good though, but again its based on the rhythm more than the deejay.

So all in all, I definitly recommend this record to those interested in other early deejays besides U Roy. Trojan did a good job with this one.


  1. U Roy & Delroy - You Keep On Running
  2. King Sporty - For Our Desire
  3. Charley Ace - Ontarious Version
  4. U Roy - Love I Tender
  5. Ramon and the Crystalites - Golden Chickens
  6. Cat Campbell and Nicky Thomas - Hammering
  7. Big Youth - Moving Version
  8. U Roy - Festival Wise
  9. U Roy and Ken Boothe - Melody Train
  10. I Roy - Space Flight
  11. U Roy - On Top Of The Peak
  12. Big Youth - Opportunity Rock
  13. King Tony - Speak No Evil
  14. U Roy - Hard Feeling
  15. I Roy - Musical Drum Sound
  16. Prince Jazzbo - Free From Chains

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