However, Experience was more traditional, it seemed that with Experience he was trying to create a reggae sound that could be identified as the Royal Rasses sound. A sound outside of mainstream reggae. Burning Spear is perhaps still the most successful example of this idea. Even so Prince Lincoln filled Harry J’s studio with the top session men in the business. They included Leroy Wallace, Wire Lindo, Pablo Black, Geoffrey Chung, Ernest Ranglin, Bagga Walker and Val Douglas, plus horns. Musicians of this standard could virtually create any reggae sound. And they gave Prince Lincoln a punchy bass drum driven sound. To this steady rhythm were given fine songs like Nobody Here But Me, Blessed Are The Meek, and Slave Driver featuring a superb afro horn arrangement. A more relaxed pace is to be found on You Gotta Have Love (Jah Love) making it possible to enjoy more easily Prince Lincoln voice and that of Keith Peterkin and Clinton Hall. Jungle Fever picks up on the afro-rock which could have taken the Rasses into very interesting directions, unfortunately it didn’t.
The last summer of 1980 saw the release of Natural Wild despite the title it was neither natural or wild. What it represented was yet another confused attempt at mixing reggae with rock music. On this occasion the method was to bring a reggae artists Prince Lincoln together with a rock artist – Joe Jackson. The results were predicable Natural Wild was greeted with complete indifference, if not contempt. Only Chris May, editor and main reggae writer of Black Music, showed any enthusiasm for the project.
What record companies, their artists and certain music journalists seem to forget is that most forms of contemporary music are constantly borrowing and sampling other forms of music. It is an ongoing process. Occasionally those processes will lead to a new form or forms of music. Reggae grew out of a mixture of R&B and Mento. While more recently Soca came out of a combination of Soul and Calypso. The ongoing process as been proved to be the best way. The other way produces abominations.
Soon after the release of Natural Wild, Ballistic Records folded. Prince Lincoln and the Royal Rasses then took a break from the record business and concentrated more on touring, visiting most of Europe. By then the Rasses band were Bagga Walker on bass, Pablo Black on Keyboards, Mikey Boo on drums, Lawrence White on lead guitar, and George Miller on rhythm guitar. Prince Lincoln played guitar as well. Harmonies were now provided by the very talented Bunny Brisett and Viviene Clarke, Jennifer Lara and Johnny Cool.
It was this group which recorded the Rasses fourth album Ride With The Rasses released on God Sent. The album was not quite up to the standard of Humanity or Experience, but it was an encouraging album in that Prince Lincoln was now once again involved in the production of the original roots reggae music.
By 1983, the album Roots Man Blues was released on Target. It was much the same style of album as Ride With The Rasses and was well received. Today the Royal Rasses may not be the force they were in ’78/’79 but they still have to plenty to offer.
(Prince Lincoln sadly passed away from cancer on 23rd January 1999. A great talent who is badly missed.)