Los Angeles, California: When the young Wilburn Theodore Cole was first nicknamed “Stranger,” it was because he didn’t resemble anybody else in the family. And when he first stepped into a Kingston recording studio in 1962, he was a stranger there as well, just another teenaged hopeful on an already seethingly competitive music scene.
Nobody could ever have guessed, let alone predicted, that close to 65 years later, that same Stranger would be one of the most familiar best loved and most recognized names and faces in reggae history. And, with his latest album Rough and Tough scheduled for release on October 24, that familiarity is only going to grow.
Rough and Tough is Stranger unleashed, exercising that still exquisite voice across thirteen tracks, placing his unmistakable stamp on such beloved (but surely unexpected!) classics as Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and War’s “Low Rider” … and more!
He delves into the reggae/ska songbook for an impassioned take on Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry,” an astonishing reinvention of The Beat’s “Mirror In The Bathroom,” Prince Buster’s “Madness” and, most audacious of them all, Symarip’s unsurpassable sixties shocker “Skinhead Moonstomp.”
He revisits his own mighty catalog, all the way back to the 1963 hit “Rough and Tough,” originally recorded with Duke Reid for the producer’s idiosyncratically-spelled Dutchess label; and then on through 1966’s “Drop The Ratchet”; 1968’s “Bangarang” - widely proclaimed the first ever “true” reggae (as opposed to ska or rocksteady) record; and “When I Call Your Name” - first recorded as a duet with the fabulous Patsy Todd, but just as effective as a solo excursion.
And then there’s “Crying Every Night,” released today as Stranger’s latest single, but originally a smash hit back in 1971, when he recorded it with Kingston supergroup Tommy McCook and the Supersonics for producer Byron Smith - a legend in reggae history as the creator, albeit inadvertently, of the first ever dub record!
Stranger is certainly overjoyed with the album. “I’m feeling great to have worked on this great project,” he says, “and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I have put all my love into it."
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/strangercole_cryingeverynighttheseeyes
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=stranger+cole
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/strangercole_roughandtough
Track listing
1. Crying Every Night (These Eyes)
2. Just Like a River
3. Rough and Tough
4. Low Rider
5. Bangarang
6. Madness
7. Drop the Ratchet
8. Skinhead Moonstomp
9. Mirror in the Bathroom
10. When I Call Your Name
11. Everybody Wants to Rule the World
12. No Woman No Cry
13. Don’t Stop Believin’
