By Howard Campbell—
Garnet Silk (right) and Richie Stephens performing at the Mirage nightclub in St Andrew in December 1994. Silk died three days later. (Photo: Observer file)
Today, the Jamaica Observer begins its daily 20-part series, 20 Days of Silk, which looks at the life of roots singer Garnet Silk. Next month marks 20 years since his death.
ON December 9, 1994, singer Richie Stephens got that early-morning wake-up call most people fear. He remembers the knocking on the door of his St Andrew home as loud and ominous.
“The knocking was so desperate I expected something bad. When I opened the door it was General Degree, he’s the one who gave mi the bad news,” Stephens told the Jamaica Observer.
The ‘bad news’ was that singer Garnet Silk and his mother Etiga Gray had died just hours before in a fire at her home in Manchester. Stephens, who had performed with Silk just three days before at the Mirage nightclub, was stunned.
“It knock mi right over,” he recalled.
Stephens and Silk had done a raucous performance of their hit song, Fight Back, at the Mirage show. Stephens wrote and recorded the song solo early that year but approached Silk to share vocals after hearing the first take.
“I listen to it an’ sey, ‘this woulda soun’ good with Garnet pon it’,” he said.
Both artists’ careers were on the up. Stephens had recently stepped out of a contract with Motown Records and got a second wind recording for Main Street Records, where Fight Back was recorded for producer Elon Robinson’s Top Ranking Records.
He and Silk were neighbors in the Millsborough area of St Andrew and spoke regularly. Stephens remembers him jumping at the idea of a duet but it took some time before the Fight Back collaboration took place.
“Twice him didn’t show up at the studio to record his part, but he called an’ apologised an’ when it happen it was a hit before it leave the studio,” said Stephens. “He had so much energy dat I decided to do over my vocals same time.”
The only song they ever did together, Fight Back was not only a hit in Jamaica, but on ethnic charts in the United States and United Kingdom where Silk had a growing following.
Stephens, who first met Silk at a recording session at the Mixing Lab studio the previous year, said he had “a unique sound”. He believes he had more to give.
“He was a branch on the tree who was growing into something great,” he said.
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