Reggae Titles: Footlong Skanking

IN RECENT MONTHS Riffsters have written paeans to the gritty nudisco and rapperound 12-inch song-and-dances now heard blasting from the shiny boxes on the street and the shiny rockadance clubs where people hide from the street. But though I'm no reggae expert, for my money there's a Third Force of bigbeat bigdiscs that ought to slip right in there, if for no other reason than that the consumer already knows the words and tune: uplifting (off your butt, that is) reggae versions of Stateside hits that have nought to do with either Jah or Marcus Garvey.