Q: Right, he had the Talent Corporation, some sort of talent scout, management, label and distribution all in one. A: Yeah, Talent Corporation he have, and at the time he was like handling Inner Circle productions, y'know, Jacob Miller. Some of the Inner Circle thing he was like a lickle manager for them, like. You know? And he have this place where he release Toots & The Maytals, Ras Michael, even Peter Tosh, and he have some of Bob (Marley) songs, I think he get one or two of Bob's song to release. So I went up there. Still at the time I didn't have no name, nothing in the business to really know me. So I went up there and I say, well, "Tommy, I've got this tune here, I've got it on tape" - because he used to have a reel-to-reel, a seven-inch reel-to-reel player, so I had the song mixed down on that. I took it to him, and I said, "Tommy, I've got this song on this thing here, could you listen to it, and if you like it can you press it and distribute it for me?" I was very naive, I didn't negotiate about any advance or anything like that, I just want my song to go out. And Tommy say OK, and he have it there. So I wait until about one week, and I went back and I said, "Tommy, did you even listen to the song, did you like it?" And he said, "Ahh, gosh, I didn't get the time to listen to it, y'know, so come back tomorrow". So I went back the next day, quick, quick, and he's tellin' me, "Oh, I still didn't listen to it. Listen man, my machine that, the tape recorder, it's broken down but this man is comin' in later to fix it, so I will hear it tomorrow again". I was eager again to get it done, for I know seh everybody say that's a good song. And I keep follow up Tommy for about three weeks, and he still haven't listened to the song! He still haven't listened, so I was gettin' kinda vex with him and I said to myself that if I go back up there tomorrow and he haven't listened I'm gonna take back my stuff from him an' fuck off, an'mek him go whey, and I was feeling them way. But there's something else that enter my mind, that 'go back to King Tubbys and let him give you a mix again, and put it on dubplate'. So if he still doesn't listen, then he can listen to it on a dubplate, on his turntable. So I said OK, I went to Tubbys and two more days, I say let me take it up there. When I went up to Talent Corporation on that day now with the dubplate under my arm, I went down where he sit in there, and before I even say anything to him, he say to me, "Oh, I didn't get to listen to your song, y'know, ya see the machine still don't fix yet". I said, "Tommy, I've got it here on dubplate, if you want to listen to it?" So he said, "Oh, you have it on dubplate?" I said, "Yeah man". So, like, I was going round the back where he was for the play, but when I look around there, I see Peter Tosh round there, I see Bob Marley round there, and I see some big star round there, and I kinda get cold feet, y'know. So I didn't went round there, I just lef' Tommy Cowan and I stay round the front. An' then I hear the music playin', the man them was talkin' and you can hear the voices talkin' loud and man laughin' and stuff. But the tune start to play, the place went quiet and nobody nah talkin' again there. I was around there, and they were listening. Then I hear it stop! After half-way through I hear it stopped, and it play again and I hear Bob say, "Who sing that song?" And Tommy walk forward to me, and seh, "David, come here, man! Come, come here in the yard! Come! Come on out!" And I walk round there, and Bob say, "Yeah man, that's a bad tune, man. So play it again, man". And it start play, and them man start... them say, "Bwoy, if them man ya a like it!" 'Cause Bob was my idol them times deh, and certain man if them man hear it and like it and them feel good, me say, well, if them big champion man them hear it and like it, it must be good (laughs)! So, two days after that the song was pressed and everyt'ing and it was running and it didn't get as much radio play as 'Far I', but it get more, like, sound system and every dance I go and every party I go I'm hearing it. And I'm saying yes, make me feel a bit better now, me say yeeesss - that sound, yunno! So I think that song also inspire Bob's 'Chase Them Crazy'.

Tommy Cowan

Q: 'Crazy Baldhead', right. A: Yeah. Because he was really in answer with that song, and even after a while I was like a member of the Twelve Tribes, and they did have this function of His Imperial Majesty's birthday. And I was singing, I went and I sing the song 'Natty Chase The Barber', like how I will do a one song and I sing it. And while I sing it I see Bob come up after me and he was singin' 'Chase Them Crazy', and I say yeeeahhh, y'know, that's me give Bob the idea. 'Cause I remember the day at Tommy Cowan, how he was going on about the song, and it kind of just give him that inspiration there, I know that. So it was going and that song went well and everything, and it was going even bigger than I expect. 'Cause I think I didn't get my fair share of that, because I did see some paper from Canada, and some paper from England, and the song was in it. You know, it was way up there in the chart and sellin', and I'm saying to Tommy, "Tommy, what's this here?" And him say, "Oh, that's just promotion", and blah blah blah, an' t'ing. So, all dem royalties I didn't get. But actually, I spend round about one hundred and fifty dollar to make that song at the time. And because when he was paying me back some money at his quarters, he give me round about one thousand five hundred, and I was thinkin' oh, that was the biggest money I hold for music really at the time. And as a matter of fact that was the biggest money I ever hold at one time in my hand in Jamaica. So I was feelin' like oh, but that wasn't even a quarter of my royalty that they give me. But at the time, y'know, I didn't make much bother about it. 'Cause I was thinkin' it was coming in the other quarter, that I would get some more in the other quarter. That was the only money I get from them, until when I look I see people come from abroad, man come from England and they say, "Is you sing that tune deh, man? Bloodclaat!" And some of the man deh them say, "John! Come see the bredda weh sing the tune here, man! Come look 'pon him!" And they would be tellin' me that everywhere they go in England that tune there play! When me go America... when I went to America the man dem say, "Is you sing that tune deh?" And it did like, say, the tune was really all about the place. To me, I didn't get much offa that! Q: They put that 'Natty Chase The Barber' tune out on Vulcan's Grounation label in the UK at the time. A: Yeah. When I come to England I see it, get a copy of it on the Grounation label, and they put a version that I did in the studio down at Tubbys, I was like deejaying. But in Jamaica I didn't bother with that, because I didn't think it was deejayed proper, y'know. And when I come up to England that was the version they put on the back, that was the deejay version. I said blower, this t'ing I neva know! All that, and it's like I wanna know who control the Grounation label, and some man was tellin' me it was Chips and Bunny Lee and some man I didn't know. But I know that there again I get anedda weh yu call it 'robbery'... Q: The usual rip-off. A: Yeah, I was ripped again. But they say you have to pay to learn some of these things. So, it was just my payment. So far that was my biggest hit. Q: They had that in Jamaica on Cowan's Arab label, and also it was credited to 'David & Jahson', look more like it could've been by a duo! A: Yeah. They fuck me up again, and that was Tommy Cowan. I went to him and I was complaining to him about that, and I'm saying, "Tommy Cowan, why you put 'David & Jahson'?" "David Jahson?" It jus' happen that nobody knew anything about 'David Jahson', I was just like coming up. So they just do all these things. First of all, Dynamic did the 'David Janson', and now they do 'David & Jahson'. So I was feelin' really pissed off inside of me for that t'ing. And when I hear they play it on the radio, they said: "Now that was 'David & Jahson'". I said, "Fuck, look at that!", y'know. So I wasn't feeling really good about that. But before all that, me and Jerry (Baxter) was in a group they call Well Pleased & Satisfied.

Q: When did this start, when did you link up with Jerry? A: Jerry was living nearby in Waterhouse where I was living at the time, and he had some songs out already which was like a song called 'Black On Black' and 'Westman Rock', some songs. It was good. King Tubbys and King Attorney and Tippatone, all dem big sound in Jamaica used to play their music. You didn't hear their music on the radio anyway, but if you go to some big sound, that's where you will hear them songs. So Jerry was like big in the dancehall anyway. Q: Underground name. A: Yeah, in a kinda underground way. And he was tellin' me that he want me to sing a harmony on one of his songs. There was a chap name Earl, he used to have a sound called Earl's Disco, so... Q: Earl's Discoteque? A: Earl's Discoteque. He was a technician as well, he used to make his own little sound, he make it himself. But he used to gwaan have a look to see what Tubbys was doing sometime. Tubbys didn't like him, because everything that Tubbys did he could do it as well. So Tubbys didn't like when he come round and lookin', y'know. I tell you one day we had this gas-tank, it come from afar truck or something like that. When I was knockin' it, it sound like a congo drum. So, Earl Disco he did have a riddim track, and he have a reel-to-reel tape. So he kinda link up some mic an' t'ing, and I was playing that drum t'ing onto the mic, onto a instrumental riddim, and when they was playin' it back it sound so real and sound so good like a congo drum was playin'. So that inspire Earl to want to make a studio, he make a transistor studio. So Jerry now, we all lived together to help build up the studio, like we mix the cement and get the wood and whatever to make it up, and Earl make the studio from transistor. But he used to go around Tubbys to have a look and see how certain things go, and he actually build the studio and he put out one song from the studio called 'Baba Boom Time'. It was the same riddim offa weh The Jamaicans sing 'Baba Boom', but he have a deejay onto that song. And it was soundin' good at the studio that this man make up from transistor. So we was like sayin' yeah, and then me and Jerry used to do some harmony in there offa some other song - we used to play back version of some songs, and I used to sing back some Dennis Brown songs or something, and then Jerry used to come harmonize to it. All these things Earl Disco still have on his tape, he's livin' in America now, he have all his tapes same way. That's how me and him and Jerry link up, and Jerry want me to harmonize on a song name 'Please Mr DJ' he was gonna put out. So I went to the studio with him and harmonise it and then, y'know, differently from... We used to make handbags, we used to take the pattern off some handbags that come from abroad and we used to cut them out and used to make them back, and sold them. So we used to make like handbags, woman handbag, man handbags, and sell them. So, me and him was linkin' after that, or be a part of his salesman team so we could make money to put together and get our music out. We used to do that. So me and Jerry kinda get close after that now. We start do some songs together, harmonising. He even harmonising 'Natty Chase The Barber', and there was another song I did after that named 'Give Thanks & Praise', that was out on the Arab label as well but it didn't do as much as 'Natty Chase The Barber'. So from that, then Jerry them... we do just do one or two lickle t'ing that we was doing, harmonies and stuff like that. If he got a song to sing, we harmony to it, and if I have a song to sing, he harmony on it. That's how we was movin' until one day I say to Jerry, "Jerry, one of us gotta go to foreign, yunno". Because I heard that a man in England pirate one of Jerry's songs named 'Open The Gate'/'The Gates of Zion'. There's a man named Shelly in England, he pirate that song and it was like a lot of man was...

Q: This is Count Shelly? A: Yeah. And I say, "Bwoy, Jerry, we cyaan afford to do our song here in Jamaica and people abroad eatin' food offa it". I said, "No, one of us got to go abroad". But at the time I didn't know how it go abroad and what's happening, beca' I never travel, I never even leave Jamaica yet. But at the same time I was movin' in-between there and Talent Corporation where I was minglin' up with Inner Circle, they was the uptown boys. They was drivin' their Mercedes Benz and even Jacob Miller at the time he sing a song named '(Dreadlocks Can't Live In A) Tenament Yard'. At the time he wasn't even dread! I was sayin' to him, "Listen man, if you a come inna Waterhouse and man know seh yu no dread deh weh yu a sing 'bout, they will jus' catch you an' beat up, give yu a blow!", and everything like that. Ca' he have his big soul hair, yunno. All them have soul hair, all of them is big an' fat. Q: Right, the 'fro. A: Yeah. They used to be going in and out of foreign regular, y'know, so... Q: This is when they got signed up. A: Yeah, they usually sign up with Columbia Records or Atlantic (actually the Circle was signed first by the Capitol label in the US, then Island). Those companies used to sign up these guys and put out albums for them, and me say "Blower, the man deh big", yunno. Q: But Jacob wasn't middle class like the other Circles? A: Well, actually he was from the ghetto, yunno. When he get into Inner Circle he was livin' at Maxfield Avenue, 'cause Roger and Ian was the uptown boys really, 'cause they come from middle class family weh have some kind of money in a way. And Jacob could sing, so they wanted a singer for the group after they split up with Third World. But it wasn't Third World, it was Inner Circle, so when they split up the rest of man like Ibo (Cooper) and certain man, they went an' form Third World. And Inner Circle was lookin' for an artist now, so they found Jacob Miller down Maxfield Avenue and they took him in their arms and took him uptown. So he was just livin' up in Beverly Hills and them place, so that's where he is. But I used to meet them down at Talent Corporation, down at Tommy's. That's where I used to see them. Sometimes I used to have a quick talk with them and they used to gone in their Benz, and I'm jumpin' on my bicycle and I gone back down to Waterhouse, down the ghetto (chuckles). Anyway, I found that I have an auntie that live in Beverly Hills, and my other auntie always asking me to go up there and look for her, 'cause they've got money, man. "Go up there an' look fe dem". But I never really took the time out to go. So one day she give me a taxi fare and say her mom is up there, which is my granny and I didn't know my granny at the time, and that was about me going until about 19 - 20, y'know. I didn't know my granny. So she give me the money and say, "Go up to Beverly Hills, ca' that's where yu granny is, and give my mom that money for me, and you can meet your granny and meet some other family that you don't know". So when I went up there with the cab, and I went over there, right in front of them that was where Inner Circle was livin'. And actually they used to come to that house, come raid the fridge and all dem t'ing deh, and gone back over to them house with food and stuff. So when them see me, they say, "'Chase The Barber', wha' yu doin' up here?" And I say, "Well, I t'ink I have an auntie live up here, yunno". Them say, "What?! Miss G. a yu auntie?" She was a rich woman, very rich with some runnings they was doin'. And I say yeah, and when I talk to Miss G. and when she found out me and her was family, she listened and she said, "Yeah, I hear that song before, I hear that song played on the radio all the while". So she was a bit more proud to find out that it's her family, so she kinda indulge me, say, "There's a room there for you and if you want, you can come and you can stay anytime, you can stay for as long as you like", and blah blah blah. So I was feelin' good because in the ghetto it was very hot and in any minute now... 'cause even in my area, because I'm not coming out to fight the war with them, they have you as the enemy in their area, because you're not joining up with them to go and fight the next area.

Jacob Miller

David Jahson

Q: You had to be 'loyal', like. A: Yeah, I can't see anything good in fightin' my own people down there, and fightin' my next own people some cross way for nutten. Why them fightin' for? Just because they might be votin' for Labourite and next one are saying they are PNP, and I'm not gonna go and fight! And so, I'm not gonna fight, I'm not gonna take up no gun or no cutlass and chop off anybody because of any political thing, 'cause that's what it's all about. Sometime when I'm walkin' in my area in the ghetto they say, "Rasta, what 'appen? How come yu haffe find a gear, yunno. Yu cyaan neutral, yunno. Find a gear!" And I know seh, I say, "Right now me a Rasta, yunno. Rasta no really go inna dem madness hole, how de man dem a deal with, ca' me no support dat!" And me can see dem a whisper, whisper, sometime when I'm passing, like, I know seh sooner or later they gonna want to do me somet'ing. So when me Father just took me out of there, and took me straight up to Beverly Hills I say well, if I get the offer to come an' stay up here in the Hills, up here is so nice and quiet and it's just peaceful and, y'know, I feel so different. I was on the hill lookin' down on the city down there. I say yeah, I feel better here so I was thankful. So me and Inner Circle dem kinda get a lickle bit more and then with Jerry t'ing, is not I no see Jerry every day again. I even stop sellin' the bags now with Jerry, and we find that I no see him regular either. 'Cause with Inner Circle dem, everywhere Jacob is going he used to come for me, and me and him gone all about and him just love the company of me. So we used to be close brethrens, me and Jacob. So one day him said to me, he used to call me 'Chase The Barber', "What 'appen 'Chase The Barber'? When we go a foreign sometime, yunno, you can come if you wan' to, we can carry you if you want to come, yunno". Me say yeah, me don't mind. So round about six months after I know them, they get this contract with Island Records to do about five or six albums, and to do touring and all dem t'ings deh. So me say, "Yeah man, me open to come with you". So they say OK. They took my passport and first place we went with them was Nassau when they was finishing off the album they call 'Everything Is Great', and we did a full tour on that album. All over that was. We was touring so much that we was fed up being abroad, we want to go back home to Jamaica now. I think we were on the road for round about six months going on for about... we just get fed up, and people start to bawl fe dem want to go home an' t'ing. I didn't went back to Jamaica, I didn't know Miami, so my auntie that was living in Beverly she have a big house in Miami, so I stopped there and get to know Miami. When the tour start again, they come from Jamaica, meet me in Miami and then we're gone again. Go to England and Europe and the whole a that place and we was touring again until the people dem start to complain again, saying that them homesick. And they send us home and I think that's when Jacob get killed. Q: Right. In Jamaica, 1980. A: Yeah, I didn't went back to Jamaica with them. I stopped in New York at the time, 'cause they say at the company that I don't have to go back to Jamaica if I don't want to. Anyway, they would come and pick me up back and the tour start again. I was playing percussion in the band and even backing harmony. They promise me that they would let me sing some of the songs. Because at that time I did an album with Inner Circle, and that's the 'Natty Chase The Barber' album. But that title track wasn't on the album though. Because they see how the song sell well they say, "What 'appen 'Barber'? Come we do a session, you know like how we do an album". And so me say yeah. So I would just do six songs and they put the version. Q: It's basically like a 'showcase' album, vocals followed by dub versions. Strange that it begins with a dub though. A: Yeah. So I didn't really know these guys proper to give them a full - but I should give them a full twelve side version, ca' I did have some other songs at the time which was good, and it was played by Sly & Robbie. All the best crew, they was friends of Inner Circle so they all come and they gladly do it for them.

	Page:  | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
	[ Previous ]      [ Next ]

Article: Peter I (Please do not reproduce without permission)