Take it cool by Jonathan Pinnock
Jonathan Pinnock goes through that “where did I come from?”
moment that many of us get. Wondering about the family history, the origin of
his last name etc. At the same time he is intrigued as to why there is a black
reggae singer with the same surname and the fact that there are a lot of
Pinnocks from Jamaica. Being a fan, and becoming slightly obsessed with Dennis
Pinnock, the reggae singer, Jonathan goes off in search of the history behind
the name and attempts to meet with Dennis and interview him about his
career. However how do you go about tracking down an obscure reggae singer
anyway? Obviously Facebook will come into it, and email, but how do you get
people you don’t know to speak to you about this sort of stuff?
Pinnock writes with verve and humour and gently leads you
through his somewhat odd quest, blending information about the records
themselves (all singles), the musicians, the producers, the reggae scene and
the history of the Pinnocks in Jamaica. The format of the book will be familiar
to fans of Dave Gorman or Tony Hawkes perhaps but still feels fresh in
Pinnock’s hands. There are plenty of footnotes, a discography and the
descriptions of the singles were great. If anything, and this is a only very
minor niggle, there was a bit too much information about the records in the
main text which maybe could just have been put in the discography. For some
people this may break the narrative perhaps. This is recommended for fans of UK
reggae, music lovers, record collectors, family history aficionados and people
interested in Jamaican history and the history of slavery.
Overall – Entertaining and informative, well worth checking
out.
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