Yasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer—
Kenrick ‘Lord Creator’ Patrick (right) and his wife, Neseline.—
The thanksgiving service for calypso, ska, and rocksteady great, Lord Creator, will be held at the Prosper SDA church in Hanover,on Sunday, July 30, starting at 11 a.m., his widow, Nesline, confirmed to The Gleaner.
Kenrick Randolph Patrick, better known as Lord Creator, passed away at home in Golden Grove, Hanover, on June 30, having been unwell for some time. He was 87 years old.
The influential singer who wrote Independent Jamaica – a track that is remembered as Jamaica’s official independence song – was originally from Trinidad but had made Jamaica his home since the ‘60s.
In paying tribute to Lord Creator, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange hailed his “significant contribution to Jamaican music” and noted that Independent Jamaica “captured Jamaica’s joyous mood when we gained Independence 61 years ago”.
“We consider it an honour that the Trinidad-born Lord Creator adopted Jamaica, where he made what was his biggest hit, along with other popular songs such as Evening News and Don’t Stay Out Late. Worthy of note, too, is that the UB40 version of another of Lord Creator’s hit songs, Kingston Town, went platinum in March 2023,” Minister Grange said.
Lord Creator’s story is one of Caribbean unity on a musical level, success, fame, and the withdrawal of the same, only to discover it again on a greater scale. His obituary notes that “as reggae became heavier in sound and subject matter across the ‘70s, interest in Creator’s much lighter material began to wane … changing fashions and the onset of alcoholism increasingly pushed him to the sidelines. By 1984, poverty had forced him to relocate to Trinidad”.
But fortune again smiled on Lord Creator when British reggae band UB40 featured Kingston Town on their 1989 album, Labour of Love II. The second single to be released from the album, Kingston Town sold more than one million copies, reaching number four on the UK Singles Chart and number one in France and the Netherlands. As the song-writer, Lord Creator received enormous royalty payments, which he described as comparable to winning the lottery. At the time, he had been hospitalized for a stroke in Trinidad.
UB40’s interpretation of Kingston Town, therefore, came as a welcome intervention.
He returned to Jamaica in 1990 and built a house for himself in St James and purchased houses for some of his children and also shared some of his wealth with producer Clancy Eccles, who had overseen the Kingston Town recording session.
Reacting to Lord Creator’s death, UB 40 wrote on social media: “We’re so sad to learn of the passing of Kendrick Patrick, better known as Lord Creator, Trinidadian calypso, ska, and reggae singer and the originator of the classic Kingston Town and many others. Our deepest sympathies and condolences to his friends and family. Rest easy, sir. Your music lives forever.”
An obituary in The Guardian stated that Lord Creator was born Kenrick Patrick in San Fernando in southern Trinidad. His father, MacDonald Patrick, worked in the local oilfields, and his mother, Enid (née McDougall) was a housewife. He attended the Wesleyan Methodist School in San Fernando. He worked in construction while making his early moves into the music business. A gifted singer who modelled himself on American crooners such as Nat King Cole, he soon tasted local success under his stage name.
Soon, Creator began performing regularly in Jamaica, settling there in 1962, the year the island became independent from the UK.
History records that Lord Creator was passing through the island in January 1962 with a group of musicians on a Caribbean tour when he was intercepted by Vincent ‘Randy’ Chin and asked to compose a song about Jamaica’s Independence. The recording became the No.1 song in Jamaica in 1962.
The lyrics state: “ Manley went up to England to seek for Independence/and although Busta was late, he still attended the conference/Although from two different parties, it was very good to see/how these two politicians were shaking hands when they gained victory. Independence is good for the young and the old, also for me and you/Independence is good for the whole population, including our children, too.”
Chris Blackwell was in the process of founding Island Records at the time, and he licensed the song as the label’s first release in the UK (Island 001).
In 2022, on Jamaica’s 60th anniversary of Independence, the Government conferred on Lord Creator the Order of Distinction (Officer Class) for his contribution to the development of Jamaican music.
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