Born Maxie Smith in the Jamaican parish of St Ann on November 22, 1944, he recorded his first single in 1968 called ‘Put In Your Finger’. The next year, he met the ubiquitous Bunny Lee (then just a plugger for Coxsone Dodd) and, together, they came up with a tune that was so rude they could find no-one to sing it. Slim Smith turned it down, as did Roy Shirley and, eventually, Max Romeo had to sing it himself. The song was called ‘Wet Dream’ and, from its release on the Pama label in the UK, it was a skinhead smash. It was banned by the BBC and and went UK top 10! Max Romeo argued that the song was about a leaky roof (“lie down girl, let me push it up, push it up”…???) but the ban remained. On a roll, Max Romeo did ‘Wine Her Goosie’ and ‘Pussy Watch Man’ but the moment had passed and they had limited success.
Max Romeo was a Rastafarian by the time he began working with producers Lee Perry and Winston 'Niney' Holness in 1972, and, from this point onwards, his music had the conscious lyrics of Rasta, even though Max Romeo’s sense of humour was still apparent. ‘Revelation Time’ (produced by Clive Hunt, engineered by Scratch Perry) was considered one of the best reggae albums of 1975.
By the mid-70s, Max Romeo was working exclusively with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. Songs from this period include ‘Let the Power Fall’, ‘Pray for Me’, ‘Every Man Ought to Know’ and ‘Black Equality’. It was with Perry that Max recorded his greatest album: ‘War Ina Babylon’ (1976). Max sang and wrote (or co-wrote) all the songs yet most of the album's credit has gone to Scratch and many consider this one of his finest albums ever.
Then there was a famous bust-up between Max Romeo and Scratch - with Perry recording 'White Belly Rat' about Romeo, and scrawling 'Judas' over the singer's picture in Perry's studio – and Max Romeo left Jamaica for New York in 1976 where he recorded the albums ‘I Love My Music’ (with the help of Keith Richards) and ‘Reconstruction’. Max Romeo moved to the Wackies' label in the early 80s.
He returned to Jamaica in 1990 and, in early 1992, London producer Jah Shaka recorded the roots album ‘Far I Captain Of My Ship’ on Jah Shaka Records and Max Romeo was back in the mainstream.
In 1999, Max Romeo recorded an album for Satta Records in Italy called ‘In This Time’. Accompanied by the acoustic ensemble Tribu Acustica, the album is a beautiful folk/world music version of Max Romeo’s roots lyric, a million miles from the rude boy beginnings of his music.
In the last 15 years, his reputation as a stage performer has earned him a steady stream of live performances in Europe, though it is only in the last few years that the UK has come to recognize him as the talent he is. It was sampling that brought his name back to the fore. The using of his lyric from the song ‘Chase The Devil’ by Prodigy (‘gonna send him to outa space, to find a better race’) and Jayz on his Black Album.
Blessed Luv Max, Happy Earthday to di I zeen, 21 again!! wat can I say!!! The last time I actually saw u perform waz at ur press conference which waz brillient at the Jazz Cafe.. I waz the one who told u that I saw ur first performance at WEMBLEY stadium, the first REGGAE festival to come to LONDON, I was 11yrs old then...My eldest granson is nearly 15yrs, now thats giving it away...I can say it feels like yesterday, an I dont even have to shut my eyes to see that perticular time! Looking as good as ever, Keep Up the Brillience, an leave some of the good old brandy for I zeen lol! It would be very nice to one day link up too! please feel free to check out my page, any feed back welcome! RASPECTS EVERYTIME Max!! xx
wat can I say!!! The last time I actually saw u perform waz at ur press conference which waz brillient at the Jazz Cafe.. I waz the one who told u that I saw ur first performance at WEMBLEY stadium, the first REGGAE festival to come to LONDON, I was 11yrs old then...My eldest granson is nearly 15yrs, now thats giving it away...I can say it feels like yesterday, an I dont even have to shut my eyes to see that perticular time! Looking as good as ever, Keep Up the Brillience, an leave some of the good old brandy for I zeen lol! It would be very nice to one day link up too! please feel free to check out my page, any feed back welcome! RASPECTS EVERYTIME Max!! xx
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