Recorded August 18, 1976, in Kingston, Jamaica, Man in the Hills is the follow-up to Burning Spear’s seminal Marcus Garvey from the year before. The reggae album contains several songs that reminisce about Spear’s childhood in Saint Ann. Its cover was designed by Neville Garrick (1950–2023), who takes credit for many of the covers to Bob Marley’s albums. Coincidentally, Marley was from Saint Ann as well (and so was Marcus Garvey).

Man in the Hills is one of the more prominent in-use examples of Rustic No. 2, an 1840s oddity that’s equally cherished and ridiculed. A woody typeface for roots reggae.

“Burning Spear” is visualized by a perspective setting of Firebug, an aptly named variant of Dom Casual with added flames. I don’t know where this mod originated. Dan X. Solo showed it in his book Special Effects and Topical Alphabets from 1978.

[More info on Discogs]

Song names and credits on the back cover are set in ITC Souvenir, mostly in all caps.

Front and back cover

Gatefold with liner notes by Carl Gayle from Black Music magazine