The Islander: My Life in Music & Beyond

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Blackwell, founder of Island Records, delivers a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of his consequential career as a record producer. Following his family’s move from England to Jamaica in 1938, less than a year after he was born, Blackwell lived a comfortable, cloistered life. That changed when, at age 18, he and two friends took a boating trip that left them stranded on an unfamiliar stretch of shore; eventually they were rescued by a community of Rastafarians. As the impresario observes, his encounter with people he’d been taught by “white Jamaican society” to regard as a threatening “gang” was life-changing; most significantly, it planted a seed within Blackwell that ultimately led him to partner with “Rastafarianism’s most celebrated... ambassador, Bob Marley.” His career began humbly in the late 1950s, as a selector, responsible for picking out songs for jukeboxes around Kingston to play, and eventually led him to start his own label, Island Records, in 1959. Throughout, Blackwell provides engrossing details of his road to success—including discovering such famed musicians as Bono and Cat Stevens—but most impressive is his refreshing self-awareness; as he writes, “There’s no two ways about it: I am a member of the Lucky Sperm Club. I was born into wealth and position.” Music lovers shouldn’t miss this. (June)