VA - Explosive Rock Steady - Joe Gibbs' Amalgamated Label: 1967-1973 (1992)

If ska reflected the clamor for Jamaican independence in the early '60s, rocksteady signified the hopeful innocence of a new beginning. It bubbles through the stuttered bassline and pre-reggae skank but primarily in fragile lead vocals and yearning choruses perpetually on the verge of a swoon. Except of course for Lee "Scratch" Perry, whose "Upsetter" signature song bristles with understated menace -- and whose pointy producer's ears honed classic performances by Roy Shirley, Errol Dunkley and the lost-in-the-mists-of-history Overtakers.