DESMONDS Daughter DESRENE DEKKER will be Joining and performing as part of the Desmond Dekker Tribute Tour next year.
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR ARTIST LINE UP.......................
DESMOND DEKKER
16th April 1969
Desmond Dekker becomes the first Jamaican music artist to top the UK singles charts with a song entitled 'The Israelites'.
Biography
“I just write what I see and hear happen and I present that to the people if they weren’t there to let them know what was happening.”
Desmond Dekker – 2002.
Rude-boys’ icon Desmond Dekker wrote his most memorable songs as an observer of everyday life. Here is an artist who still emphasises how he never really understood or has been interested in the weird and less-than-wonderful ways of politics. And so in his own words, he regards himself as a “newscaster”.
His first 1967 international hit 007 (Shanty Town) may have been adopted by rude-boys as an anthem celebrating – even glamorising - lootin’, shootin’ and gang violence in 1960s post-independence Jamaica. The song was certainly inspired by scenes of lawlessness witnessed by the songwriter… but Desmond was not taking sides in the same way that his mentor, Derrick Morgan, did before him with ‘Tougher Than Tough’ or Morgan’s rude-boys-go-to-court hit songs.
As with Bob Marley’s dread later on in the 1970s, Morgan joined in the political fray whereas Dekker preferred to be a reporter.
KINGSTON: THE CONTEXT & INSPIRATION FOR HIS MUSIC
In those first years after independence was granted in August 1962, Jamaica was a hot-bed of social divide and unrest in which gangs and turf wars were a whole way of life on the island.
Street and dance-hall entertainment during the late-1950s in different parts of Kingston took the shape of deejays with massive sound systems blasting out cutting-edge ska. Competition between these ‘selecters’ was literally cut-throat, and so the “mashin’ up” of rivals’ equipment was intrinsic to ska culture. It was the stylish but ruthless rude-boys who took care of business for sound system bosses such as Sir Coxsone, Duke Reid and Prince Buster.
But that volatile atmosphere (where, for a while, Rule of Law meant Rule of Gun Law) was also the very thing that informed and drove Jamaican music onwards.
Onwards from the late-1950s fusion of American blues, R&B, be-bop and big-band jazz - known as Jamaican R&B – to ‘skavoovee’ ska dance music and the more chilled-out rhythms of rocksteady ( 007 ) and reggae ( Israelites ) in the mid-1960s.
In the space of just that one decade in which it gained independence, Jamaica found its own musical voice partly because of the civil strife – not despite it. What’s more, that voice and unique rhythm would have a big ripple effect influencing white rock stars such as Eric Clapton, Sting, and then the whole 2-Tone movement during the 1970s,
Ska, rocksteady and reggae sprang from the music of a very wide array of Jamaican artists including Ernest Ranglin (the jazz guitarist and Skatalite who infused Millie’s big hit ‘My Boy Lollipop’ with such a strong ska-beat), Prince Buster, the Wailers, Derrick Morgan, Jimmy Cliff, Dennis Brown, Lee Perry and naturally the King Of Ska himself – Desmond Dekker.
The roots of ska partly go back to American R&B and shuffle boogie in the style of Louis Jordan which could be heard in Jamaica beamed in from US radio stations – in spite of poor reception.
But another big influence on ska – according to Ernest Ranglin – was music from late-1950s American cowboy westerns. Interestingly, the early rude-boy dress code also included cowboy neckties and Wild West cowboy bravado. (For instance, Duke Reid had been known to parade around his Treasure Isle studio wearing two guns, a Winchester rifle across his shoulder, and a big hat. Legend has it that when he didn’t like some of the music being demoed he’d let the artist know by entering the studio and firing a few blanks……
The word ‘reggae’ first appeared – spelt differently - on a 1968 single by the Maytals called ‘Do The Reggay’. But, then again, a Jamaican producer called Clancy Eccles claims he thought up the word ‘streggae’ when once referring to a hooker.
What cannot be disputed, though, is that it was Desmond Dekker who in 1969 (with Israelites) delivered this reggae music from Jamaica to the world, having already made a big impression with the rocksteady 007 (Shanty Town) two years earlier.
HIS FORMATIVE YEARS.
Born Desmond Aldolphus Dacres in Kingston on 16th July , his family moved to a farm in Danvers Pen in the parish of St. Thomas, where church life and gospel singing was central to Desmond’s upbringing. Sadly orphaned in their early teens, he and brother George returned to Kingston with their younger sister. Desmond then attended Alpha Boys’ School before becoming an apprentice welder at the South Camp Yard where another young trainee there went by the name of Bob Marley.
Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and Sam Cooke figured amongst young Desmond’s heroes and his workmates often remarked upon his special singing voice, By his teens it was second nature for him to write songs about everyday life in and around Trench Town.
Beverley’s, on Orange Street, was one musical focal point in Kingston: here was an ice-cream parlour that housed a basic recording studio and was headquarters of a record label – also called Beverley’s – which put out some crucial cuts by artists such as Derrick Morgan and Jimmy Cliff. Legendary producer Leslie Kong (a Chinese Jamaican) was Beverley’s chief and would become the driving force behind Desmond’s international career. Kong’s untimely death, aged 38, in 1971 came as a cruel blow to Dekker.
But in the early-1960s whilst making steady progress in his day-job, Desmond gradually found the courage to request an audition at Beverley’s for Leslie to check him out. (His self-belief still intact after having been turned down by two big league players on the sound system scene - Coxsone Dodd at Studio One and Duke Reid at Treasure Isle.)
Getting the ear of Leslie Kong proved to be a character-building process for Desmond: time after time the young hopeful arranged for an audition, only to be turned away at the appointed hour because Leslie was far too busy cooking up his next Jamaican chart-topper on the Beverley’s label.
Eventually – as his sympathetic boss at The Yard became far less so because of the hours he was taking off work - the normally mild-mannered Desmond blew a fuse and stormed in on a private rehearsal session at Beverley’s and demanded to be heard. Such a bold move could have landed him in serious trouble, but instead it got him respect: Leslie immediately recognised a big raw talent.
It would be another two years before Kong was persuaded that young Dacres had himself come up with a couple of songs worth recording and selling.
Honour Your Mother And Father and ‘Madgie’ climbed to the top of Jamaica’s charts in 1963. As a result of this, Beverley’s offered him a two-year recording contract and, after much soul-searching and time spent in prayer, Desmond decided to try and earn a living from royalty points – not welding joints. Graciously, his boss reassured him that there would always be a job for him back at the Yard…. so there was nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Now renamed Desmond Dekker, his follow-up, ‘Sinners Come Home’ and ‘Labour For Learning’ also charted but this early success was then really consolidated by the classic King Of Ska hit on which he was backed by the Cherrypickers – better known as the Maytals. As 1963 drew to a close
Get Up Edina was another hit in Jamaica and backing him this time were the Four Aces – Winston Samuels, Patrick Johnson, Clive Campbell and Barry Howard. When Patrick quit in 1966 they became simply The Aces.
ONTO THE WORLD STAGE.
In the England of those early-1960s when Desmond Dekker was establishing himself in Kingston, West Indian recorded music (calypsos as well as ska ) was released on Blue Beat, Planetone and Sway – small labels which served the recently settled and burgeoning West Indian urban communities.
Jamaican musicians such as trombonist Rico Rodriguez (a founder-member of the Skatalites who relocated to London around then) were cross-over pioneers who spread the ‘ska’ word by working with UK R&B fusion bands such as Georgie Fame’s Blue Flames. For that band home from home was London’s Flaming club with its black US GI audiences and exotic smoky atmosphere. (Rodriguez would go on to team up with the Specials during the late-1970s 2-Tone ska revival.)
British distribution for Desmond’s very early singles became possible when Jamaican patrician, Chris Blackwell, moved to London during independence year, 1962, and started Island Records as a small indie label working from his mews flat in Rutland Gate, West London.
Chris looked to Leslie Kong to send over commercial Jamaican recordings and in this way Honour Your Mother And Father came out in the UK on Island in 1963.
Blackwell’s first big ska hit came in 1964 when Millie’s ‘My Boy Lollipop’ (which he licensed to Fontana) sold 7 million copies worldwide. Then in 1965 he persuaded Jimmy Cliff to settle in London, but moves to make him into a star only met with success at the end of the decade.
Instead it was Desmond Dekker who was destined to be the world’s first rocksteady and reggae star, although he couldn’t possibly have known this in 1966 as rude-boy gun violence grabbed hold of Trench Town, and inspired him to write 007 (Shanty Town).
Desmond had a window on independent Jamaica’s new scary and troubled world when, during election year in 1966, a state of emergency was declared. Virtual civil war was breaking out between the Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP). Trench Town was at the heart of this cauldron during that exceptionally hot summer as ‘the newscaster’ watched soldiers and bulldozers move in to clear an area occupied by students demonstrating against homelessness.
Politics affected life on the island in a harsh way: if your party got voted in then you probably would have a job and somewhere to live – if not, prospects were bleak.
And in mid-1960s’ Jamaica politics and music-biz went hand-in-glove. For instance, Edward Seaga had founded WIRL Records in 1958, and was a JLP minister. In the run-up to the 1966 elections he hired the Tivoli Gang of rude boys (from his Tivoli Gardens constituency) to improve his chances of victory. Gun law coercion followed and so his political opponent, PNP’s Michael Manley, called on the help of some Duke Reid rudies called the Spanglers to help redress the balance.
But whilst the stifling heat aggravated flare-ups out on the streets, it slowed things down on the dance-floor during a summer when rocksteady, literally, was a cooler tempo to dance to than ska. 007 (Shanty Town) drew from all these influences as well as the movie worlds of James Bond, and Frank Sinatra starring in Ocean’s Eleven. In July a year later – ironically this being Britain’s first Summer of Love – 007 entered the singles’ charts, staying there for 14 weeks and peaking at number 14.
So within a year Dekker had become the newscaster relaying incidents in troubled Trench Town to a massive white audience in Britain. English Mods loved the music…..the fact that very few who bought the record understood the lyrics or, for that matter, had a clue about Jamaican politics didn’t matter in the least. This music was totally fresh and augured a whole new dance craze and dress code for working-class youth who despised the middle-class peacenik pretensions of hippies and flower-power. (These were the late-1960s armies of skinheads in their braces and boots.) But in 1967 it was the Mods in their mohair suits or Fred Perry shirts, loud socks and loafers who gave Desmond a hero’s welcome on his first visit to the UK.
It would take another two years for Israelites to consolidate Desmond’s mainstream chart success in Britain and America, but back in Jamaica he was now the hottest act: two follow-up singles to 007 – Rudie Got Soul and Rude Boy Train – topped the charts over there and did quite well in the UK. Then he won the 1968 Jamaican Song Festival with ‘Music Like Dirt’ (aka Intensified ).
Israelites was first released in 1968 but bubbled under in Britain for quite some time before charting in March 1969. Whilst the song takes in big themes such as repatriation (to Africa) Desmond’s initial inspiration came from an everyday incident anybody might witness.
One evening he was walking home from the studio through the park and saw a couple sat on a bench. As he went past them he couldn’t help but tune into their heated talk about hard times, not being able to pay the bills, and wondering where the next meal might come from.
In the ten or so minutes it took him to reach home Desmond had worked out the basics of the song: namely, when the going gets tough in a new land, thoughts of one’s spiritual home came as a comfort. This inspired vision – to view the misfortunate couple as Israelites - came from Desmond’s Christian Church upbringing. This had also informed his songwriting in 1967 after 007 with tracks such as Wise Man, ‘Writing On The Wall’ and Pretty Africa. (The 1966 visit to Jamaica by Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie – the Rastafarians’ spiritual leader – had also raised Africa’s profile in the hearts Jamaica – once a slave economy based on sugar plantations.)
Israelites greatest commercial significance was that it went Top 10 in the US Billboard charts making Desmond the first artist ever to achieve this with wholly Jamaican song. His next big hit It Mek originally came out as ‘A It Mek’ and had to be re-recorded to produce the stronger rhythm it needed in order to become a hit. Again, Desmond’s inspiration came from everyday life – the sometimes mischievous behaviour of his younger sister… It Mek means “that’s why”.
His next single – Pickney Girl – charted but didn’t sell as well in Britain, but this was offset by the success of his 1969 UK debut album released on the Trojan label – This Is Desmond Dekker. ( CD1 on this box set features fresh 2004 takes of Unity and Sabotage from that ’69 classic release.)
The early-1970s saw some big changes take place in Desmond’s life and career, some of them very traumatic. Firstly, he had moved permanently to Britain and was doing a lot of touring as well voicing over instrumental backing tracks sent over from Jamaica.
His next single was a real turnaround in that it was not written by him. Recording and releasing Jimmy Cliff’s You Can Get It If You Really Want as a single was producer Leslie Kong’s idea and Desmond took some persuading: “I enjoy singing my song in my words,” was his initial response but eventually he backed down and Kong was proved right – Cliff’s song was huge hit for him reaching number 2.
Then tragedy struck in 1971 when Leslie suddenly died of a heart attack.
For some time afterwards Desmond was in mourning for his mentor and guiding light and therefore in no real state of mind to record. Trojan maintained his profile during this spell with 1973’s Double Decker – that label’s first ever double album release, as well as a re-release of the single Israelites, which charted for the third time climbing to number 10.
When Desmond did start recording new songs again he was definitely missing Kong’s Midas touch. Thankfully, change set in during 1974 when he cut the title track of this box set. By then, Dekker had hooked up with pop writers Bruce Anthony (Tony Cousins and Bruce White) and together they did some sessions for the Rhino label.
The outcome was big production, more MoR style of music which marked a new beginning for Desmond; the third single released from the Rhino sessions in 1975 - Sing A Little Song – took him back into the Top 20 (to number 16).
The late-1970s were quiet years for Desmond with just a few single releases out in Jamaica. Then came the 1979 2-Tone ska revival led by Jerry Dammers and bands such as the Specials, the Selecter, Madness, and the Beat.
Desmond’s Beverley’s era music was back in fashion (fused with punk) and he was soon signed to punk label Stiff. The result was an album called Black and Dekker featuring some re-recordings of his hits with Graham Parker’s group, the Rumour. This band backed him in the studio and on the road as he toured extensively during the 2-Tone boom. Robert Palmer produced his next album –1981’s Compass Point.
Some financially hard times lay ahead for Desmond when that boom went bust in the early-1980s. He left Stiff and re-joined Trojan for some good live-album releases. Then an interesting twist of fate came during 1990: this took the unusual form of a TV commercial for Maxell audio tape which – with its witty use of Israelites as a jingle (“Me ears are alight..”) - raised Desmond’s profile once more.
Then in 1993 he went into the studio with the Specials to record the King Of Kings album on Trojan. This was followed by a solo project Moving On in 1996.
The new millennium finds Desmond Dekker youthful as ever and willingly performing to the delight of his huge and faithful following, which now spans two generations. The dance moves are still fluid and the voice mature and strong.
Long live the King of Ska.
16/07/61-24/052006 R.I.P
Greetings from The Dynamics!! Thanks alot for looking and listening and hope to see you soon.. Much love and kisses and respect..- flab-----+ Album out Super-Soon!! Paris gig 20 october!
PEACE AND BLESSINGS FROM THE C.O.I. FAMILY.. JUST PASSING THRU TO SAY THAT WE HOPE YOU HAVE A SAFE AND PRODUCTIVE WEEK... THESE ARE SERIOUS TIMES WERE LIVING IN SO KEEP YOUR ARMOUR ON AT ALL TIMES.. C.O.I.
"HOW DOES THE CITY SIT SOLITARY, THAT WAS FULL OF PEOPLE! SHE THAT WAS GREAT AMONG THE NATIONS, AND PRINCESS AMONG THE PROVINCES, HOW IS SHE BECOME TRIBUTARY!; SHE WEEPETH SORE IN THE NIGHT, AND HER TEARS ARE ON HER CHEEKS: AMONG ALL HER LOVERS SHE HATH NONE TO COMFORT HER: ALL HER FRIENDS HAVE DEALT TREACHEROUSLY WITH HER, THEY ARE BECOME HER ENEMIES,: JUDAH IS GONE INTO CAPTIVITY BECAUSE OFAFFLICTION, AND BECAUSE OF AFFLICTION, AND BECAUSE OF GREAT SERVITUDE; SHE DWELLETH AMONG THE HEATHEN, SHE FINDETH NO REST, ALL HER PERSECUTORS OVERTOOK HER BETWEEN THE STRAITS.: THE WAYS OF ZION DO MOURN, BECAUSE NONE COME TO THE SOLEMN FEASTS ALL HER GATES ARE DESOLATE; HER PRIEST SIGH, HER VIRGINS ARE AFFICTED,AND SHE IS IN BITTERNES, HER ADVERSARIES ARE THE CHIIEF, HER ENEMIES PROSPER, FOR YHWH HAS AFFLICTED HER FOR THE MULTITUDE OF HER TRANSGRESSIONS: HER CHILDREN ARE GONE INTO CAPTIVITY BEFORE THE ENEMY.:THEY HAVE HEARD THAT I SIGH; THERE IS NONE TO COMFORT ME; ALL MINE ENEMIES HAVE HEARD OF MY TROUBLE:; THEY ARE GLAD THAT THOU HAS DONE IT; YOU WILL BRING THE DAY THAT YOU HAVE CALLED, AND THEY SHALL BE LIKE UNTO ME.; LET ALL THEIR WICKEDNESS COME BEFORE YOU, AND DO UNTO THEM AS YOU HAVE DONE UNTO ME FOR ALL MY TRANSGRESSIONS, FOR MY SIGHS ARE MANY, AND MY HEART IS FAINT."
__LAMENTATIONS 1:1-5,21-22__
ALL PRAISES DUE TO THE ELOHIM OF ABRAHAM, ISSAC, AND JACOB..YHWH AND HIS ANNOINTED SON YASHUA..MORE MUSIC FROM THE C.O.I. FAMILY.
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Thanks for the add.
