Bongo Herman & Bunny, "Know Far I" (1971)

(listen)

I found this song on an early-'90s anthology called Sufferer's Choice, which now unfortunately appears to be out of print and hard to find. The more's the pity because the whole thing is one of my favorite reggae anthologies, a fine album in its own right well worth tracking down. It sustains constant listening straight through remarkably well, and still holds up for me to this day. Most of the16 tracks were recorded in the rock steady period of the late '60s and early '70s with many well-known acts, including three tracks alone from Bob Marley & the Wailers (versions of "Trench Town Rock," "Redder Than Red," and "Nice Time"), along with the Abyssinians, Dennis Brown, U Roy, and others. Everything tends to be focused, as the title implies, on the hardships of ghetto life, although in "Know Far I" and many of them it's there mostly just in the feel (like, what's a "know far I"?). I don't know a lot more about this song than that, including much about either Bongo Herman Davis or Eric "Bingy Bunny" Lamont. What I know best is that the singer's range must be a good match for my own, because I'm nearly always moved to sing with it and I can do so with naturally occurring notes pushed right out of the bottom of my diaphragm. It's almost entirely a physical experience, except that it also touches something emotional, even profoundly felt, from where I don't know. This what I mean by proceeding by feel. "Know Far I" is built on a soulful twangy guitar figure, moody chords on an organ, gently propulsive rhythms, and that big vocal. As raw as it sounds it's remarkably poised. And it almost always sounds really, really good.