CLINTON LINDSAY » Entries tagged with "The Wailers"
VETERAN SINGER GARTH DENNIS RETURNS TO TRENCH TOWN!
By Howard Campbell– Garth Dennis— Garth Dennis belongs to a select group of reggae artists who have been members of two successful groups. In his case, Black Uhuru and the Wailing Souls. Dennis, 64, takes the spotlight on Trenchtown 19 3rd Street, his first solo album. The title is a nod to the area he grew up in Kingston which was a hub for artistic creativity in the 1960s. The diminutive Dennis lives in Los Angeles, but is in Jamaica for his father’s funeral. Since Trenchtown 19 3rd Street’s release in February, he has done a handful of shows to promote the set which belatedly introduces him as a lead singer. “It just goes to show that even though I was so low-profile, this is what I’m capable of,” Dennis told the Jamaica Observer. Work on … Read entire article »
Filed under: GUEST RUNDOWNS
UNDOCUMENTED EVIDENCE LEADS TO MANY CLAIMING TO BE ROCK STEADY’S FIRST!
By Roy Black—- Hopeton Lewis— BY LATE 1965, the ska beat, which had dominated Jamaican popular music since late 1961, and which was highlighted in last week’s article, was giving way to a smoother, slower, and more rhythmic form of music, which by year-end 1966, would become known as rock steady. The stage was being set for a plethora of such songs that would transform the Jamaican musical landscape forever. All of a sudden, there was a rhythmic shift in the focus of recordings from the fast horns-dominated songs to more emphasis being placed on the bass and the drum. This feature, which has remained a major ingredient of Jamaican popular music, lasting into the dancehall era, has helped tremendously in bringing to the fore several vocalists, some of whom found the frantic pace of … Read entire article »
Filed under: GUEST RUNDOWNS
BUNNY WAILER REMEMBERS JOHN HOLT!
BY CECELIA CAMPBELL-LIVINGSTON AND RICHARD JOHNSON— Wailer remembers John Holt— In tribute to singer John Holt who died on October 20 in London, England, the Jamaica Observer presents ‘Holt a Day’, a daily feature leading up to his funeral, which is slated for November 15. BUNNY Wailer was a member of The Wailers when John Holt was rocking dancehalls with The Paragons in the mid-1960s. But Wailer’s memories of the singer go beyond music. He knew of Holt while he (Wailer) was attending Camperdown High School in east Kingston. “I was very keen on listening to him as I knew him from he was playing Matcham (Cup) cricket, making centuries for his team. JK Holt, his uncle, was a major player for the West Indies cricket team,” recalled Wailer. “He recorded with Duke Reid with the … Read entire article »
Filed under: GUEST RUNDOWNS
TODAY (OCTOBER 19) IS PETER TOSH’S 70th BIRTHDAY!
By Howard Campbell- Peter Tosh- KINGSTON, Jamaica — With powerful songs such as ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ and ‘400 Years,’ Peter Tosh ranks among pop music’s most militant artists. Tosh, who was killed September 11, 1987, would have turned 70 today. It is unlikely his hard-hitting songs would impress today’s record company executives, who are into bouncy beats and acts who grab tabloid headlines. Copeland Forbes, Tosh’s former manager, says the artist never conformed to music industry trends. “Peter was never into the commercial business of the music. He always said he’s tired of hearing people singing about ‘Darling I love you and get down and shake your booty’,” Forbes told the OBSERVER ONLINE. “He was hooked on singing songs to uplift and educate the mind, eradicate suffering and poverty and to work towards building a … Read entire article »
Filed under: GUEST RUNDOWNS
“DEM A GO TIRED FI SEE ME FACE” SAYS FABIAN MARLEY AS HE MOVES ON WITH HIS CAREER!
By Richard Johnson— Fabian Marley— FABIAN Marley, the 44-year-old Jamaican who claims to be the eldest child of reggae legend Bob Marley, is moving ahead with his musical career. This, despite a written request from the family of the late reggae king in August last year, that he “cease and desist” proporting to be a Marley and using the name, or prove through DNA testing that he is who he claims to be. “Dem ask me for my DNA and me do that long time and give dem, and up to now, I can’t hear nothing from dem. So me just a go through with my music career,” Marley told the Jamaica Observer. He, however, said he had received some word indicating he should redo the DNA test at a lab prescribed by the family. “Me … Read entire article »
Filed under: GUEST RUNDOWNS
“THE LIQUIDATOR” SEEPS THROUGH A CATALOG OF JAMAICAN COVERS!
Delroy Wilson – File The 1972 gospel-based recording I’ll Take You There by The Staple Singers soared to the top of the American Billboard charts that year. It triggered a protest by Jamaican record producer Harry Johnson, now deceased, who claimed the song’s introduction was lifted from his instrumental The Liquidator. It was an unusual break in the accustomed pattern of Jamaicans covering foreign recordings. While there is no denying that the large majority of early Jamaican recordings were original compositions, a significant portion were either copied directly or modified from other songs. In 1964, trombonist extraordinaire Don Drummond modified Johnny Cash’s country and western hit Ring of Fire to create the lasting ska instrumental Occupation. The Mexican horns that infiltrated Ring of Fire (something previously unheard of in country and western music) must have inspired Drummond. Clement ‘Sir Coxson’ Dodd, owner of … Read entire article »
Filed under: GUEST RUNDOWNS
BUNNY WAILER THE REGGAE WARRIOR, SPEAKS AGAIN!
Bunny Wailer says he is a survivor and the last keeper of the reggae flame, and he has little time for record companies, legal issues or stars such as Snoop Dogg Survivor: Bunny Wailer formed The Wailers in Kingston, Jamaica with his friends Bob Marley and Peter Tosh By Jim Carroll— There are certain things which get Bunny Wailer very angry, but we’ll come to them in a bit. Let’s start with the history lesson, one the man himself brandishes with great and warranted pride.Neville O’Riley Livingston is the last of the original tribe of men and women that emerged in Kingston in the early 1960s as The Wailers who is still making music. The others are either dead (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite, Cherry Smith) or are seemingly retired (Beverley Kelso), but Wailer continues … Read entire article »
Filed under: GUEST RUNDOWNS
BUNNY WAILER SCOLDS THE JAMAICAN GOVERNMENT FOR ITS SLOW PACE ON THE DECRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA!
By Richard Johnson— BUNNY WAILER… I am looking for the details on sacramental rights— VETERAN reggae artist and ganja legalisation advocate Bunny Wailer is describing the Government’s recent move to facilitate the decriminalisation of small amounts of marijuana as “too little, too late”. According to Wailer, Rastafari has already done the job that the Government is tip-toeing around and, therefore, efforts must be made to expedite the process. “For I and I, ganja has always been legal. My father was a distributor since I was born — the biggest in western Kingston in the 1940s and ’50s, up till his passing in the ’90s. I grew up in the ganja trade, from it was donkey weed. It put us all in school as a family,” said Wailer, who is presently in Stockholm, Sweden on a … Read entire article »
Filed under: GUEST RUNDOWNS
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