Regarding my puzzlement over the phrase "Pound Get a Blow", I happened to go to Allmusic to look up some other Tosh song (Reggae Mylitis, if you are curious). This is what they write....
allmusic:
In 1967, Britain's ever burgeoning trade imbalance resulted in a major devaluation of the pound, which dropped a massive 40 cents against the dollar, down from two dollars and 80 cents. As can be imagined, the knock-on effect to Jamaica and other former British colonies, whose economies and currencies were tied to the U.K.'s, was severe.
Jamaica was soon forced to devalue its own currency and watched in despair as the cost of crucial imports went through the roof. The inevitable result was that everyday necessities were suddenly priced beyond many people's reach.
This dire economic situation was reflected in numerous songs released during 1968, the Wailers' "Pound Get a Blow" included. The group attempts to soften the blow with a sweet rocksteady melody, lovely harmonies, and a brightly upbeat arrangement. The lyrics, though, offer no hope at all. "Prepare for starvation," the Wailers warn, taking the opportunity to remind listeners, "Remember I told you, you're gonna bend down low," a line from their recent hit single "Bend Down Low."
Like that song, "Pound" was released on the group's own Wail N Soul M label. More crucially, here, for the first time, Peter Tosh takes on production duties. He does an excellent job, and thus many date the beginnings of his solo career to this lovely, timely number.
I used to use AMG quite extensively, checking out their little synopsis of music history. However, since Allmusic updated their site a few months ago, I hardly ever visit it anymore. Loads incredibly slow (on Safari and Camino, and probably Firefox too) on my T1 internet connection, and forgets that I 'registered', leading me to conduct searches twice (I don't understand the reasoning, but once you 'log in', you are kicked back to the AllMusic home page instead of back to your search results). They may have spent money adding nicer graphics and so forth, but I think the new site sucks. Thus I missed important information about Pound Get a Blow!
Damn you Allmusic group webmaster!!
