Ken Boothe - Got to Get Away

Ken Boothe - Got To Get Away from 1978 with additional vocals by Jah Walton and produced by Phil Pratt. Features extensive sleeve notes. Original sleeve design by Anthony Nero.

Ken Boothe, “one of the most distinctive voices in Jamaican music”, remained in tune with the ever changing styles and fashions of Jamaican music and, when disco mixes, extended versions of songs segued into dub or deejay outings, became the order of the day he created the ‘Got To Get Away’ album with Phil Pratt and a deejay named Jah Walton. Born Silbert Walton in 1957 in the rural parish of St. Ann on Jamaica’s North Coast he worked for a year in the Jamaican police force before becoming a deejay and in 1976 began recording with ‘Gourmandiser’ for Joe Gibbs, a version to Dillinger’s Channel One smash ‘Ragnampiza’, ‘Gals Dem A Watch Me’ for Winston Riley’s Techniques label, ‘DJ Christmas’ for Carlton Patterson’s Black & White label and ‘Jah Walton Chant’ for Lloyd ‘Spiderman’ Campbell. He also supplied the ‘Part Two’ on a number of High Note twelve inch disco mix re-issues of Treasure Isle rock steady classics including ‘My Best Girl’ with The Paragons and ‘Queen Majesty’ by The Techniques. And, as a lucrative sideline, Jah Walton also used his talent for mimicry and insightful sense of humour to voice-over innumerable advertisements at the studios of RJR and JBC. In the mid-eighties he relocated to London and, after adopting the name Joseph Cotton in tribute to Joseph Cotten the American star of film, stage, radio and television, he hit the UK reggae charts with ‘Shubeen We Deh’ for Pioneer International. His next release, ‘No Touch The Style’ featuring an un-credited Janet Lee Davis, remained at the Number One position in the UK Reggae Charts for an unprecedented seven weeks.