[5] Virgin's representatives set up a table at a Sheraton Hotel with $100,000 and, after police intervention calmed the resultant excitement, left with such artists as the Mighty Diamonds, Prince Far I, Johnny Clarke and Big Youth on their roster.
"[12] At the time of the album's release, violence within the music industry in Jamaica had led to the banning of official record charts there, but according to Rolling Stone, the Mighty Diamonds were the second-most popular band in the country after Burning Spear.
The title track, a "roots masterpiece" according to Allmusic, hit big in both places, although Virgin Records lacked the foresight to release the number as a single.
[13] Other Jamaican hits on the album include "I Need a Roof" and "Africa"[14][15] Rolling Stone suggested that if charts had been permitted, "the Diamonds' brilliant singles, like 'Right Time' and 'Have Mercy,' would have been on top all last winter.
"[6] Although the music is sometimes unconventional, the themes are typical of reggae, focusing on what critic Robert Christgau encapsulates as "broken bodies" and "the exultation of oppression defied.
"[19] Garvey, Jamaica's first national hero and a recurrent referent in Rastafarian music, doesn't only feature on "Right Time", but appears on several other songs on the album, establishing what would become a persistent theme in the Mighty Diamond's work.
[23] The album's British single debut, "Have Mercy", is another religious appeal to Jah, described by 1998's Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music as "perhaps" the band's "best song.