Q: What about your stuff for the late Junjo Lawes? 'Ruby & Diamonds' came out in '79 for him.

A: I was just one a them kids that used to be around all of them singers and then when them hear my work weh I just start record and them just said, "Bwoy, Dave, you nice yunno!" And then everybody want me to work with them and I used to be at the studio with Junjo an' Barrington Levy, we'd be on the same session and all that. We used to record at Channel One, me and Barrington Levy, used to record on the same session. It was fun, it was fun.

Q: What was that studio like to work at? Channel One had a tough area, the notorious Maxfield Avenue area. Were you comfortable there still?

A: Yes! Yeah, good point, good point. 'Cos one time I was going to school too an' I was going up to Tubbys to do some recording. I think I was doing 'Redemption Time' an' - I don't remember, but I was doing two songs for somebody and they came and got me and took me up there and that time it was some politics time and... oh maaan!! I was coming back from the studio and they stopped me, man! A lot of gunman, they stopped me, right. And they asked me, "Where you coming from?" I said, "I'm coming from studio, me name Dave Robinson yunno". And they aks me like seh, "A whe you live?" I said I live downtown at such and such and such. And one in the crowd was dark and then one in that crowd seh, "Yeah mon, Dave. A Dave Robinson, mon. A singer, mon, singer". You know (laughs)! That's how I got away, man! Those days it was tight, man! It was political war all that, man. I was just a young kid going to school and going to studio and as I was coming back I run into those guys, man. It was... wooow!!

Q: Then the pulse went way up (laughs).

A: Yeah, yeah. When I tell them... one a them in the crowd...

Q: You were at gunpoint by these people or what?

A: No, but they had it and them didn't point it at me but somebody in the crowd... When I said: 'My name is Dave Robinson', and then one a them said: "Sing!" And I sing like one verse, y'know (laughs)! Sing like one line for them and then one a them at the back say, "Yeah mon, a him, mon! Him one a the singers , mon". Yea, I was going to King Tubbys that night.

Q: Tubbys was surrounded by a heavy area too - Waterhouse, Dromelie Avenue.

A: Yeah. I don't remember but the neighbourhood was wild! In those days the neighbourhood was really wild.

Q: What's your recollections of Tubbys?

A: Oh, it was nice 'cos he had his t'ing, it wasn't a big studio, it was really small, but his sound! Voicing and mixing facility. But I think the best studio I worked though was Channel One. Maxfield Avenue, that's where I grew up, that's where I came from when my mother had me. The first place she was living at was there, Swettenham Road. Swettenham was just a few blocks from Channel One studio, down the street. Was close to Spanish Town Road.

Q: I suppose we move up to the early eighties for this one, when you did 'On the Rocks' for Dennis' Yvonne's Special label.

A: Yvonne's Special... 'On the Rocks', yeah. Well, 'On the Rocks' wasn't really produced by Dennis Brown, it was produced by (the late) Junior Delgado. He gave it to Dennis Brown to distribute. Yvonne's Special, right, that was Dennis Brown's wife, Yvonne. Was early eighties, like '81 when Bob Marley had died, I think it was.

Q: Then this Love Linch tune 'I Can't Stand It' for Delgado, must've been cut at the same session?

A: Yeah. 'I Can't Stand It' was for Delgado and 'On The Rocks' was for D. Brown, you had it right, yeah. And it was distributed by Dynamic Sounds that time.

Q: So what became of those songs, did they take off or most of them died a slow death?

A: No, I think they sell mostly over there in Europe. They was playing in Jamaica but they wasn't selling like they were supposed to, but in Europe they was selling.

Q: You wrote those songs on the spot, or at least much of it, or how did it work? Like with 'Black Man Dance', you didn't go around with a notebook full of lyrics at the time, did you (chuckles)?

A: No, I would just write it. Like, I get that inspiration and I would just write, would just write my songs. And it don't take me real long, y'know. Some people write twenty songs a day, I just don't get up every day and seh then I'm gonna write five song, or write six songs, I just write my songs when I get the inspiration. That's how my songs get so solid, I don't just get up and say 'I'm gonna write a song', I don't do that. It come through spiritually, the inspiration.

Q: The right circumstances.

A: Right, and these songs are different from all my prior songs. I sung good songs before but these songs I love them more, I think they are more stronger than the songs I did before.

Q: You had one for Clocktower in New York too, 'Freedom Chant'. Did you know that 'Chant To Jah' was reissued a while ago on a 7" on that particular label, Clocktower?

A: 'Chant To Jah' - is the same song I did for Dennis Brown, but in New York that was Brad (Osbourne) producing it. He owned the Clocktower label, him and D. Brown did some agreement and they put it out in New York and they changed the name to 'Freedom Chant', but it's the same song - 'Chant To Jah'. And it was a different cut they was releasing up in New York, a different cut from what was out in Jamaica. I had two different vocals on them, we did two cuts in the studio. He keep one for Jamaica and do the other one for New York, Dennis. When I came to New York I went up by Brad's studio and I was in the record store and they played it and I see the name and then, 'Oh, that gotta be D. Brown'. And then he told me, "Yeah, it's out in New York on the Clocktower label". It's a lot of things that they do that the artists, a lot of the artists don't know what's going on in Europe, they just stay down there in Jamaica and they don't get to know what's going on. I need to register these new songs too, I need to write to these people that they can send me some papers, some forms, and have them for copyright. Is a lot of things I don't know, like it reissued. Wow! Is a lot of things I don't know about.

Q: What was that tour like, the one you did with Tyrone Taylor?

A: It was nice, it was fun, I did some recording there in London too. We did a couple songs for the crew who sponsored us, y'know.

Q: Who was that?

A: His name was Alphonso Fox, he was the leader for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Yeh, he was living there in Ladbroke Grove. They took me and Tyrone Taylor, we did a couple shows. We went to London, up in Leeds. Not all of them was great still, but we did about three shows. The one up in Leeds wasn't that crowded but the ones in London was alright, 'cos Leeds was really country. Man, I can't really remember the name of the band, this was 1983... It was a pick-up band, it was different, different musicians.

Q: 'Prophecy' was another song for Lizzy you did at the time too.

A: Who? 'Dizzy'? Oh, Lizzy... Yeah, there's so many songs that I don't remember, I did so many. Right now for real I'm really concentrating on my new project I'm writing for, it got to come out good, got to come out good.

Q: I hope you maintain that level of consciousness in the new songs, the same consciousness most of your vintage songs were rooted in.

A: Yeah, and you see the changes we were going through then - tribulation, make you kinda write them tribulation songs. Like even when the Diamonds gave me 'Chaga Chaga Warrior', it was because of what was going on, and then it was at the right time we did it, that's why it was a hit.

Q: And 'Black Man Dance' for Gregory was...

A: Yeah, I did one too for Clive Hunt named 'Dub Dance', it was on the Ruff & Tuff label, it was an album named 'Ruff & Tuff ' and that one was released in Europe a long time ago - years. It was a various artis', y'know. It was a dancehall song too, because I sing 'Them don't want I and I to survive and lick down downpression'. Clive Hunt, yeah, Clive Hunt is a great musician, he produced that one. Great arranger, Clive Hunt, he was the one that arranged 'Foul Play' for Dennis Brown, the 'Foul Play' album. And I hear Clive Hunt is asking for me now too, but he is in and out of the States. He works with a lot of big people, too.

Q: Has there been any offers during the nineties to record in New York, or you've just been hiding, just out of it all, giving the business a rest?

A: A lot of people try to get me to do like dancehall specials and all that, I tell them no, is jus' some people say, "Come and rap", and I seh no, I'm not a rapper, I'm a vocalist. 'Cos I'm in it so long and I didn't get paid well and so I'm gonna do a good project now and see what will happen, y'know. Out of six I'm telling you I have at least two monster hits out of six, I know that. I'm trying to get thirteen songs on this CD. I sing a lot of good songs without the backing behind it, the financing backing behind it like the producers. And then you have all the brethren like it, but it's not selling. But back then I was just happy being played on the radio, 'cos I was just starting. I was feeling good hearing my song on the radio, I was on tv sometime and all that. Yeah, compensation, right now he gave me a payment recently from Blood & Fire, a statement, and the statement is saying like '2000 - 2003', right. And the last statement I got from them people in London they send it directly to my ex-wives account, it was 1999. So what about '2000 - 2001'? He is telling me he pay me for 2000 to 2003, so what happened with the nineties? What happened up to 2000? Or 2001, he missed two payments... Anyhow, I have to call them and find out what's going on. A lot of things is going on behind the artists back, like that Derrick Harriott thing in French country - I don't know nutten 'bout that. And I don't live in Jamaica no more so, y'know, is a lot of things they do. They never tell you either. Never. You gotta find out.

Q: Who do you work with on this new project?

A: Well, so far I have four tracks weh I did with a dread named Barry Dread, but I have the rights to go and get them from him. They have my songs, I have them on tape. But that's the start, I have four. Three with him and one with a guy named Cuttin' Edge, it's called 'Love Axe', and that's the title to the album, 'Love Axe', right. That song is a crossover, it's not reggae. I have one with computer and a live one. I think the live one is like a Billboard hit. You know, that kinda song, a simple, simple song. Simple like A B C, y'know. It's just one crossover, try to do something different. If you're an artist you can't sing one kind of song every day. You gotta sing a song that somebody can say, 'Damn! Dave, that sound different on this track', y'know. That's what I'm working on right now, building my repertoire. I know I've got stronger songs now. I learned that it's not the big, big writing, is what you're saying if it's the positive, what you're writing about. If the message is in the music, then they could understand what you're saying, what you're getting across.

As mentioned in my introduction to this article, the last record of note (as well as the last up to now) by Dave Robinson came out circa '86 through Leggo Beast's JA based label entitled 'Have To Get Thru'; it did little in terms of wider circulation at the time and after that things went quiet, partly because of his new residence and, probably, a lack of focus on most things music and, just as likely, a difficulty in getting a decent opportunity to record. I guess our man has been biding his time since then. 'Chant To Jah' appeared on a Clocktower repress in the late nineties and a further pressing of the same was re-released a couple of years back through Emmanuel Music in the UK. The latter 'edition' seems to be still in print and is well worth an investigation, fine roots music from the era as it is. We'll just have to wait and see what the man comes up with regarding the 'new' recordings he has done over the past few years. If there's any interested parties then we could be in for a treat, but they have to pop up first to make things moving for Mr Robinson. Right now it's difficult for the vintage artists to come back strong on the market when so much concentration and investment goes into the jump-up music, the youthman style, the bashment or hardcore, whatever you'd call it - it is music that has moved on from the same old formula. We're not knocking that though. But please, Mr Money Man, reconsider if you could; there's simply more than one side to the coin and as such vintage music has its place in the competition as well. I get the feeling that it is the most lasting of the two, even if, financially, it doesn't fill your pocket as fast as the other choice. Money speaks the most in a lot of ways, but it is far from all.

7" single information courtesy Roots Knotty Roots.