Roydel Johnson also had history with Lee Perry, having grown up in the same small town, Kendal in Hanover, Roy remembers seeing Scratch and recalls his dancing skills of the time. Roy went off to improve his guitar skills in the hope that maybe he could make it as a session musician rather than a singer. He briefly joined The Rightful Brothers band where he improved on his guitar playing and learned to become a skilled hand drummer.

Roy moved to Kingston at the age of 16 and would hang around the music studios meeting the likes of Gladdy Anderson, Winston Wright and Ernest Ranglin who taught Roy to play guitar. To be fair, I'm no reggae aficionado. As far as I know, there aren't a lot of acts in this genre putting out anything as soulful and original as Heart of the Congos. Of course, I could be wrong. I encourage those in the know to send me a heads up. For those who scoff at the genre, for whatever reason, I implore you to give this album a shot. I think you might like it. Special Thanks: Cedric and Yvonne Myton, Roydel Johnson, Barry Frankson, Andrea Lewis, Clive Chin and Mandy Campbell, Bob Perry, Lisa Barbaris & Max King, David Katz, Jeremy Collingwood and Trevor Wyatt. This first edition contained 10 of what Perry believed were the best of the songs recorded by The Congos and the mix was noticeably different from the version most of us know as the definitive second edition.THIS IS THEN THE ARK STARTED TOO get a little mad , perry and the congos get very upset, and it was alot of bad vibes and hate . Many reasons have been suggested including that Island records were more concerned in promoting Bob Marley and would shelve albums by other reggae artists, this claim is made by The Congos as well as Max Romeo and others who's follow up albums were poorly promoted by the label.

The time they spent together gave us this remarkable album, a piece of reggae history and one of the greatest albums of all time. The Congos album was coming together and Scratch would spend more time on this production then any of his previous efforts. The "second mix" (which is the mix you'll find on all pressings except the very first super rare pressing and the [equally rare] RSD reissue) is not one specific version of the album, there is a whole multitude of variations (for example differently edited) using that mix. Here is a bit of a release history: Eternal Thunder | Magazine | Out Of Africa Comes The Congoman Just a note about a confused comment about the Cow noise used, and referring that the Cow is out of place to the Ark topic . One should find out more before making such statements. The Cow is 'holy' in many cultures, including Christianity, and is symbolic in the Ark mythos.

Track listing

Watty Burnett, a regular figure at the studio, joined the group at this point as Perry thought his deep barritone vocal would help add a further dimension to the overall sound of The Congos. This is bad advise and the second post outright faulty. Yes, older VP masterings are awful (speed issues and wonky sound) and should be avoided, they are I think still being used on some single disc pressings. After a stint in the US Navy, stationed in the now infamous Guantanamo Bay, Roy returned to Kingston in the early seventies and again began hanging around studios in the hope that someone would record him. I think personal that if island have taken the album perry had produced , more albums after the heart of the congos haved been relesed , when the ark sound was on top :(((( Recorded between 1976 and 1977, Heart… is all about Perry’s own breadth of vision and ingenuity despite an impressive cast, including Ernie Ranglin, Sly Dunbar and Gregory Isaacs. Heart… is part of Perry’s string of roots classics, but good as War Inna Babylon and Super Ape were, this collection leaves them standing.

Lee Perry saw something in the Congos and in the songs they had written and he truely wanted to get the best out of the group and push the message given by the songs lyrics. The song went "Row fisherman row...keep on rowing your boat" and an impressed Scratch told Roy to come by his studio to maybe record the song.The Congos would go on to record for other producers and of course Perry would go on to burn down his studio to 'cleanse it from evil spirits'.