Gavin B.

I'm flattered. My mission in life is accomplished and there are no more mountains to climb. Now I'll have enough free time on my hands to start experimenting with hard drugs.

I might even get lucky enough to get thrown in the slammer for possession of heroin and drug paraphenalia like my idol Trey Anastassio. Saaaa-weet!

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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

Gavin B.

Three Scientist Dub Productions


Scientist-The Lion of Dub

Babylon- Sugar Minott- This song is dreader than dread. Heavy on the one drop drum, a rolling bassline and plenty of dubwise echo echo echo



Cannibas Dub- Scientist and Roots Radics Cannibas was a favorite cut of selectors and toasters in Jamaican dancehalls in around 1980. It's slightly slack tempo which makes it a great dub plate for toasting improvised lyrics over.



Ganja Dub - Scientist and Roots Radics This is another Scientist dub plate that was an early Eighties selector's choice in the dancehalls. The song really highlights the Radics ability to lay down a hypnotic groove that bubbles up the riddim and leaves you smiling.

__________________
There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

Gavin B.

The History Behind A Classic Reggae Song

1865 (96 Degrees in the Shade) by Third World

The Third World song 96 Degrees in the Shade is a retelling the events of the October 1865 Morant Bay rebellion led by George William Gordon and Paul Bogle.

Slavery ended in Jamaica on August 1, 1834 with the passing of the British Emancipation Act, which led to emancipation on 1 August 1838 - the date on which former slaves became free to choose their employment and employer. On paper, former slaves gained the right to vote; however, most blacks remained desperately poor, and a high voting fee effectively excluded them from the franchise. During the elections of 1864, the ratio of black Jamaicans to white was 32 to one, but out of a population of over 436,000, fewer than 2,000 were eligible to vote, nearly all of them white.

George William Gordon a wealthy mulatto member of the Jamaican National Assembly, was the son of a black slave woman and a wealthy British plantation owner. Gordon's father, like many other British colonial elites lived most of the time in England sired second surrogate families with native Jamaican women, unknown to their families back in Britain. George William Gordon was his father's common law heir under Jamaican law.

George William Gordon was considered a troublemaker by Edward Eyre, the newly appointed colonial governor of Jamaica because Gordon's high profile activities on behalf of disenfranchised newly freed slaves. Gordon had assisted a group of former slaves draw up and circulate a petition to Queen Victoria asking her to bequeath a small amount Crown owned land in the bush of St. Ann's Parish for the local landless farmer to cultivate as they could not find land for themselves. At least, the Queen's worthless land would produce some tax income for the Crown and provide a means of living to many wretchedly poor Jamaican citizens who had no other means of survival.

For the newly installed British colonial governor Eyre, it was unthinkable that a group of uppity "maroon negroes" would have the comeuppance ask Queen Victoria's permission to cultivate a few hundred acres of the vacant undeveloped land in a remote colonial town 4000 miles from Buckingham Palace. Eyre immediately regarded the charismatic mulatto legislator as a political enemy with a subversive agenda.

On October 7, 1865 a black man was put on trial and imprisoned for trespassing on a long-abandoned plantation, creating anger among black Jamaicans. The black man was nothing more than a squatter using part of the property of an abandonned plantation to plant a subsistence crop for his family's needs. When one member of a group of black protesters from the village of Stony Gut was arrested, the protesters became unruly and broke the accused man from prison.


George William Gordon, the mulatto plantation owner

Governor Eyres and the local constabulary suspected that George William Gordon and one of his protégé, Paul Bogel a deacon at a local black Baptist church, were the key organizers of the protest and the subsequent prison break. Paul Bogle soon learned that he and 27 of associates had warrants issued for their arrest for rioting, resisting arrest, and assaulting the police.


Paul Bogle the black Baptist deacon and leader of the protests at Morant Bay

The historical record doesn't confirm whether either Gordon or Bogle were involved in any of the events up to that point but it's likely that Gordon wasn't involved and Bogel probably was. It's an undisputable fact that Bogel was firmly in command of a large contingency of protesters who marched on the Morant Bay courthouse, four days later.

When the group arrived at the Morant Bay court house, they were met by a small volunteer militia (ie.. vigilantes) who panicked and opened fire on the group, killing seven black protesters before retreating. The black protesters then rioted, killing 18 people (including white officials and militia) and taking control of the town. In the days that followed some 2,000 black rebels roamed the countryside, killing two white planters and forcing others to flee for their lives.

Governor John Eyre sent government troops to hunt down the poorly-armed rebels and bring Paul Bogle back to Morant Bay for trial. The troops were met with no organized resistance but killed blacks indiscriminately, many of whom had not been involved in the riot or rebellion: according to one soldier, "we slaughtered all before us… man or woman or child".

In the end, 439 black Jamaicans were killed directly by soldiers, and 354 more (including Paul Bogle) were arrested and later executed, some without proper trials. Other punishments included flogging for over 600 men and women (including some pregnant women), and long prison sentences. Bogle was lynched and hung without a trial, moments after the British troops took him into custody.

Gordon, who had little - if anything - to do with the rebellion was also arrested. Though he was arrested in Kingston, he was transferred by Eyre to Morant Bay, where he could be tried under martial law.

Ever the politician, Governer Eyre saw a public hanging of Gordon as a high profile opportunity to assert his authority as the newly appointed governor of Jamaica. A kangaroo court convicted George William Gordon of sedition and treason in two days, but Gordon wasn't informed of his sentence until an hour before his hanging.

Gordon was paraded through the streets of Morant Bay and led to the his hanging by a contingency of 10 thousand soldiers. And presiding over the surreal and carnivalesque events was none other than the portly Governor Edward Eyre dressed like a British dandy attending a night at the opera.

People from all over the island attended the grotesque spectacle and the narrator of the story in the song, 96 Degrees in the Shade is none other than the condemned man, George William Gordon. The lyrics to the song are very close to the same final words of Gordon as he stood before the Governor. Gordon even began his remarks with a polite remark about the stifling humidity of the October day.



[B]Lyrics to 96 Degrees in the Shade[/B]

George William Gordon issued final prophecy, faithfully spoken in lyrics of 96 Degrees in the Shade. Bogel's final defiant words to Governor Eyre were: "Today I stand here a victim but the truth is I'll never die ." And Bogel's final words came to pass. His courage made him immortal in Jamaican history.

Shortly after the hanging of Gordon, Jamaican governor Edward Eyre was recalled back to England and following an investigation was fired by the Queen's Colonial Office. Today a statue of George William Gordon in memory of his contributions and martyrdom stands in front of the very Morant Bay court house where he was placed on trial in 1850.


The courthouse in Morant Bay where the rebelllion began and the court where George William Gordon was placed on trial.

__________________
There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

Gavin B.

Three 60s SKA & Bluebeat Songs Resurrected in the 80s Ska Revival


Rudy, A Message to You -Dandy Livingstone- Dandy's song was notably covered by the Specials in their 1979 2-Tone debut album



The Tide Is High- The Paragons w/ U-Roy Blondie did a great cover of this song their 1980 album Autoamerican. Debbie Harry had a great love of ska and reggae music Blondie frequently included one or two reggae covers in their live performance song lists. The group also had a minor hit in 1979 with the Debby Harry/Chris Stein reggae influenced song Die Young Stay Pretty.



Madness- Prince Buster The Prince Buster bluebeat hit Madness was covered by none other than Camden's favorite sons, Madness on their 1979 debut One Step Beyond. The song was one of the first bluebeat songs to hit the charts in the UK, way back in 1963.

__________________
There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

Gavin B.

Thee Songs Ina A-1 Style

The songs below are songs I've come across over the years that I thought typified the what Reggae's golden age was all about. Each song is carefully crafted, perfectly executed a contains one or two melodic hooks that put the listener under the spell of the song upon the first hearing.

The truly amazing part is that none of these three great songs were any more or less exceptional than thousands of 7' and 12" being sold in record stores across Jamaica in the late Seventies and early Eighties. There was such a glut of killer singles released on any given Tuesday in JA, and lot of the best singles got lost in the shuffle. Gregory Isaacs once told me that in the early Eighties he was releasing 3-5 new singles a week on his African Museum label and he estimates that from 1975 until 1985 he released 400 albums (including compilations).

My point is that as much as 50% of the musical treasures from the golden era has yet to be heard outside of Jamaica. The challenge is to find a map that leads to the lost treasures so they can be unearthed.

Gregory Isaacs is a man that lives very much in the moment and I doubt he doesn't remember what happened to the master tapes of all the recordings he made at African Museum. At least he told me he didn't know where the master tapes were. I asked him once about it and Gregory hesitated and touched his hand to his brow as if trying to recall somthing really important and then said, "Is a good question, mon, me nuh no."

I'm betting that those and many other lost masters are around in somebody's basement, some warehouse storage space or in a private or public music archive somewhere on the island. Until Gregory's memory is refreshed, there plenty of fatastic music that was released in the USA and still has gone unheard.

Tune In- Gregory Isaacs



I Nuh Everything- the Gladiators



Roll Jordan River- The Itals

Gavin B.

Ras Gavin's Reggae Remix Project


Good News for Reggae Fans!

I just pulled together all of my movie making software and meshed with my digital mixiing board and I'm starting convert my collection of nearly 2000 rare albums into studio quality digital wmv. files for people to download for their own enjoyment. I'm fairly confident of my mixing skills but when I heard the finished product on these, I have to say they are among the best remixes I've ever done. The sound fidelity sounds better than the songs when they were on virgin vinyl. Please stop me from gushing all over my own work. Two songs are now posted, both are out of issue.

By way of explanation, Ras Gavin is both a steet and trade name I've used for years. If you want to hear the high definition version hit the button that says HQ at the bottom of the YouTube player when the video starts play, it will turn red HQ as demonstrated if you're successfully in the high def mode.

I recommend high def for maximum listening pleasure. On other the second song Black Star Liner, Robbie Shakesphere's bass grabs you right in the face on the high def version.

Walk On By- The I-Tones

I chose launch my YouTube reggae remix project with song that meant a lot to me for sentimental reasons of my own...read on.

The I-Tones are a reggae band that I occasionly played guitar for and almost always did the sound board for at their live gigs. The I-Tones made one album in 1980 and released this song Walk On By as a 12" single around 1983, if my memory serves me. The band broke up in 1989 and I really haven't seen any members of the band since because I moved halfway across the country shortly after the I-Tones broke up.

The band was built around three principle performers, Ram who had a beautiful Smokey Robinson type soprano, Jah Shirt a Jamaican toaster and deejay of some noteriety and Chris Wilson a white Jamaican national who moved to the USA during his college years. I am no longer in touch with anyone in the band but I know that Chris is Heartbeat Record's primary executive producer.

The little youth girl whose picture graces the video is my daughter I-Ayna whom I promised to put on the cover of the first YouTube video I produced.




Black Star Liner - Jah Thomas The second video is a 1978 rendition of Black Star Liner by Jah Thomas which is murderous toast that I promise you won't find anywhere else on the face of the earth but this YouTube video. I searched for years for a second copy and its was nowhere to be found. There isn't even another copy of it anywhere on YouTube, which usually 50 copies of every song in the world posted.

My personal feeling about the Black Star Liner" is it's the only toast that I've ever heard that was good enough to shake my faith in the mighty U-Roy.

If you want info on the musicians who played in the session just double click through to the YouTube site and read my notes.

There a rather annoying 10 second lapse of silence before this song starts is because it's embedded in the vinyl pressing of the original song. I was afraid of destroying the sound fidelity of digital file if I tried edit the gap, so instead I just threw up a title card for most of the lapse. When I learn more about editing vinyl to mp3 to wmv formats I'll take more chances on the cutting and editing.

zeppy111

The most stellar thread of the lot man. You have put alot of good work in and im sure inspired alot of people to go out and explore reggae in more depth, including myself.

Although I don't download the songs like you mentioned further up, I have purchased close to 25 albums within the last 2 and a half months and spent copious amounts of hours reading articles and a what not.

Wouldn't mind hearing your opinion on The Mighty Diamonds? Their album "Get Ready" was the first reggae album I bought and a stellar one at that.

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My Blog (album of the day): http://musicfromthesouth.blogspot.com

Gavin B.

Your kind words are alway welcome and deeply appreciated. Music is largely a labor of love for me, be it my deejay gig, my remixing work, my writting about music or my collecting of music, so the occasional nod of recognition is the payment that rewards my labors.

Mighty Diamonds are irie, mon. Did I miss them on this thread? I'm not sure but I'll make up for it by posting a couple of rare singles tommorrow. I think I might even have some old 12" dub plates I can transfer, mix and upload.

Now on to the music side of the blog:


Don Carlos, Roots Radics and Nunz on Drugs Booming remix

From this point on, all of the music I'm posting is from my personal collection of reggae music. I've used up most of the good stuff currently posted to YouTube so I'll post my own 12" singles and remixes I do under my Nunz on Drugs alias. Which brings me to the topic of my current posting:

Booming Dub- Nunz on Drugs

This is my own dubwise remix of an old Roots Radics track that first appeared as the as a Don Carlos single Booming Ball in the late Seventies. I love doing remixes of the Radics because they alway have so many things going on riddimically. I decided to pull in the stable elements of Style Scott's ornate drumming , Flabba Holt's rock solid bass, and Sky Juice's conga playing and then destablizing their solid sound by wrapping it with flashing waves of echo, mostly from Dwight Pickney's guitar track. I did a slight downtempo adjustment to Don Carlos original bouncy version to make it more dub friendly.

Don Carlos' vocal is completely mixed out of the dub version because his gorgeous voice will always be at the center of tracks he performs on. I will also post the Don Carlos vocal version of Booming Ball you to compare.

I fell completely in love with Don's vocal and the Radics playing when I first heard this song in 1979 on my first trip to Jamaica. The genius of Lee Perry, Mad Professor, and King Tubby is they do a mix straight from the sound board on one take, right while the tape is rolling. On the other hand it took me several days of lost takes and howling frustration to studio quality remix. On this particular song I was at the point of giving up on it because I had to delete at least 2 dozen unsucessful takes and start the remix from scratch all over. Then last night I woke up around 3am sat down at the computer, did a one take remix, did a one take storyboard for the song and did a one take upload to YouTube. All in fifteen minutes.. for that short moment in the middle of the night I knew what it felt like to be King Tubby. Warning: If you are offended by PG13 images of seductive herb smoking nuns don't watch this. Nunz on Drugs projects reflects my own lurid fascination the holy order of the sisterhood.

Read more: Music Banter


Booming Dub- Nunz on Drugs




Booming Ball- Don Carlos and the Roots Radics Band

Gavin B.

Dis one goes out by special request to Zeppy.

Mighty Diamonds live and direct from the soundboard at Dread TV

Have Mercy- Mighty Diamonds

zeppy111

That was one really sick track man, definitely going to keep that one bookmarked.
Much appreciated.

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My Blog (album of the day): http://musicfromthesouth.blogspot.com