Going for Broke

Another one man does it alone album, this 1984 release by Eddy Grant is essentially all him. All the songs are written, arranged and produced by this British reggae artist who has since relocated to Barbados. He is responsible for all the vocals and plays all instruments on the album except the horns on the track Political Bassa-Bassa which are played by the Blue Wave Horn Section. The horn arrangements on this song, however, are by him also. This is a wild album. Categorized under the reggae genre, this album is much more than that with some good rocking tunes, including the track Romancing the Stone. It was composed for the soundtrack of the movie of the same name starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, but only its guitar solo was briefly in the film during an action sequence.

I like Eddy Grant’s voice. It has a distinctive quality to it and his singing and songwriting are catchy, delivering a deep, reggae-like quality sound. Songs I especially like on this particular album are Boys in the Street, Ire Harry and Blue Wave which is a beautiful, mellow ballad that conjures up imagery of a laid back, picturesque Caribbean setting.

Here is the video of Romancing the Stone, complete with trailers from the movie woven into Eddy Grant's singing and guitar solo. The guitar solo (just the audio) is the only part that made it into the movie.