Q: So why did you move back to Rocky Point after the success with a few of those songs, now when your name was out there? A: I did always live in Rocky Point in those times. I used to go to Kingston weh I stay for a while an' then leave back to Rocky Point. So meanwhile I was doing this I was livin' just the same, 'cause there was no money from the singin' thing to support me at that time, you understand. Q: So you lost contact with Niney at this point? A: Yeah. Q: The meaning of that song, 'No Portion A Gal', it's spelled 'potion' on the label instead of 'portion', what's the sense of it? That's what it was meant like, or just a misspelling by the printing shop? A: It's a person who don't have no... like you say don't have no food and don't have the ability to but they look good, you know what I mean, in clothes and so forth. So they used to have some shoes, like high-heeled shoes and some mini-skirt, and so forth, and the girl look good but don't know how to react to a person proper, yunno. So, I called out to a girl once and then it happened that she don't answer me, y'know. It happened that I just said, 'You gwaan like you a portion a gal'. So the guys pick it up just the same time, and start to use the words, y'know what I mean. Then I lean on to the song, and that's how it come up. It's like action within the song, y'know. Q: So the reason for the 'split' with Niney, this was because of his going to England for a longer time, or what happened? A: I was dealing with Lloydie more than Niney, Niney used to be an adviser in the recording studio for Lloydie. So I stick to Lloydie more as my producer from the beginning, 'cause he put the 'Rasta No Born Yah' on the single - it wasn't on the Observer label. And Lloydie did create his 'Thing' label, with the goerilla head an' everything, so I stick to him more.

Q: That tune now, 'Last Call Fe Blackman', this was Soul Syndicate backing again? A: Yes, Soul Syndicate too. Q: Recorded at Dynamic as well? A: No. I think we recorded at this guy... one of the... Scratch I think we record it. Q: Who? A: Lee Perry. Q: Ahh - the Black Ark. A: Yeah. Q: I tell you, the trumpet on that song make my body shiver every time I hear it, that melancholic, mournful sound stays in your mind after you've heard this song, some brilliant playing there. Who did it? A: Yeah, it's 'Dizzy' (Johnny Moore of Skatalites/Jamaica All Stars fame), I think it's Dizzy. As I recall Dizzy, I don't really remember. But I always waan work with horns, 'cause I like songs that blow horns, yunno. Q: The lyrics to 'No Portion A Gal' and the 'follow-up' 'Woman A Follow Man' is not without controversy when the woman liberation movement swept over the world, and to some degree took hold in Jamaica too, but hardly as much. Did you get any fight at the time for these kinds of 'degrading', sexistic type of lyrics? A: Yeah, in some way. All the time you have off and on, half and half people. But woman don't like the song I sing most of the time, about the woman, y'know. But the guys like it, so it's like half and half, whether on the woman's side or the man's side in those times. So I observe to see what I can put in, y'know.

Q: You recorded a few songs for Lloyd F. Campbell apart from those mentioned, like 'Rum Crisis' (more known as 'Where Has All The White Rum Gone')? A: Yeah, yeah, I do that song. I do a lot of songs that don't really release neither. I have three songs that never show up from early. Q: Can you recall how much you did for Lloyd all in all, did you plan to put together an album eventually? A: I think so. Yeah, I planned to do an album. But because him sick he never take the road that serious, y'know. He think that he's gonna die, so he just leave it to himself . Q: There was the 'God's Children' track that came out, this was with Lloyd, not Niney? A: Yeah, yeah. I did it for Lloydie too. Q: What about 'No Call Dread Name'? A: OK, um... you know, I don't really remember that song proper (chuckles). Q: (Chuckles) Right, it's been a while. A: Yeah. You remind me of so much of the song I sing too, y'know, I never really remember I record those songs, y'know what I mean, 'cause my mind was away from the music business for a long while. And because I write a lot of songs, I don't remember which of the songs that I record from which I don't record. But now I think I have one of the great hit songs, if it gets to record. Q: What inspired you for that song, 'Where Have All The White Rum Gone'? A: Yeah, I would get boost to sing that song. When I come up from Canada, Lloydie give me the idea to sing that song, so I sing it. And then the white rum just come on back, y'know (laughs)! It used to play very often. Q: How come you left for Canada, it was just a short visit? But you didn't want to settle there? A: It's never my type of living, I never too wise for the city, y'know. So I would have to go to a lot of struggle, and then you never have reggae music that establish much in that area. You only have this guy Jackie Mittoo, and I sing with him once. Just the opportunity, and I sing at Center Island once. So I only get two years singin'.

Q: Did you record while you were up there in Canada, because there's one tune you did called 'Pot of Gold' on a Canadian label called Prestige (issued '76), and to my ears it doesn't sound like it was recorded in Jamaica. Would this have been done in Canada? A: 'Pot of Gold'? Maybe somebody used the name, I think. 'Pot of Gold'...? Q: That's the title anyway. Can you recall if you recorded up there, if you entered a studio just for the odd voicing? A: No. I never been doing any singin' up there for anybody. But there was a guy I used to move with that do recording, and he have a record store. So I don't know if he used the name, y'know what I mean. Could be another guy. Q: Niney claims he has a few unreleased tracks you did, such as 'Man A Go Nyam Man In A Babylon' and 'Must Get A Beatin''. A: Yeah, yeah. That song that I sing, 'Must Get A Beatin'', Dennis Brown do 'Wolf & Leopards' on that riddim. Yeah. Once I get a hit then I could move around that proper, yunno, in that time. And they age good, ca' the riddim was a good riddim. So they worked on it. They were harmonising the song when I tried to do it, y'know, and then I don't know what's wrong. Maybe it's a sabotage I get from that riddim for them to do it, y'know wha' I mean, for him to do it. So I leave the riddim for a while and then Dennis put 'Wolf & Leopards', that's the last thing a man like me could get.

Q: I don't know much about the tracks you did for the 'Caribbean' label, so could you enlighten me about songs like 'Love Is Hard' and 'Story of Grandma'? A: Yeah. It was made for a guy from MoBay who tried to make a label, and then we never get to move around with that song proper. So he send it to England to one of his friend or something, a producer over there. And then it just get flop, because it never get to move around really that much. No promotion. Q: Then you did something called 'Mama Don't Cry' on the Truths & Rights mark. A: Yeah, yeah, I do that too. Yeah. Q: Who were the people behind that label? Williston and Henry, just local friends of yours? A: Yeah, Henry die but Williston is still around. Q: But nothing remarkable happened to it? A: No, no. That label get flop. It's like mafia were workin' with the most, so they try to buy out their way, y'know. It's a lot of money, so it never work the way to how they approach things, y'know what I mean.

Q: Wasn't there talk a couple of years ago, like the late nineties, that you would do an album for Bob at Nighthawk Records? A: Yeah, he called me about the album, and then I tell him yes. But then he said he got into an accident and then he never had the money to work it out that time, so I should wait a while. And then he never called, so I just put it off, y'know. Q: And this was... around when? A: Just a few years, maybe three or four years I think we talked to eachother. Q: I truly hope that project comes off the ground at one point or the other. What I have understood, like you mentioned earlier, you have a bunch of new songs. You've never stopped writing over the years, thankfully. A: No, I always. Q: Like 'Begging Begging'? A: How you get to learn of the song (laughs)?! Q: (Laughs) It's always good to have big ears... Sista Irie mentioned this title for me. A: That's my present song, right now. Q: What's more in your bag of recent songs? A: Yeah, I have more. You'd like to hear the name of most of the songs? Q: Sure. A: I have 'Fire Fire', and more. Q: But would you approach Niney to record the new stuff? A: No, I don't approach no promoter in this time. I think if I do sing a song now there must be a promoter approach me, y'know what I mean, for my age also. I'm not gonna approach no guys in these years.

Cocoa Tea (Photo: Sis Irie)

Sang Hugh (Photo: Sis Irie)

Q: I've heard about you being a mentor of sorts to Cocoa Tea in his formative years. A: OK. We were friends before him even start to record. He used to rehearse with us, y'know, and then the first song he sing, that's I write that song, 'I Need Love'. Q: Was that really the first song he recorded? A: Yeah. Q: But he would do his early work for a guy called Willie Francis, the Little Willie label. A: Yeah, that's the first song he sing for Willie Francis too, I think it's only one song he sing for Willie Francis. Q: If you would sum it up, how has your life been over the past twenty to twenty-five years? A: OK, I've been up and I've been down, y'know what I mean. But now I feel more steady, more than any time else, like within my mind, you understand. Yeah, I feel more comfortable towards life, like I'm workin' for myself and like more serious now, y'know. Q: But you have basically been based in Negril over the past twenty years, doing fishing. A: No, through the years Negril and Montego Bay. And then I used to plant herbs for living too, y'know what I mean, in the country. So I spend some time in the country and MoBay most of the days, y'know. Q: So what happened to your slot on the Western Consciousness concert this year (spring '04)? A: OK. Sista Irie called me and she sent a CD with three songs, and I never talked to the guy (Worrell King) but his wife answered and said she would pick it up, and then she never turn up. So I never call again, and I heard that they put up the posters for the concert. So I never bother to call him again. Q: Are you reluctant to travel these days or would you like to do performances overseas if the opportunity came up? A: Yeah, I would like to, but only if I record a song that make a hit. Q: Is there anybody you have been talkin' loosely to about a recording project, that you could be workin' with futurewise? A: No. I keep like... I move like I'm hidin' from the system, I don't front up with those systems no more.

Which partly explains why this man never got the attention he's due; hiding away from the recording scene will simply never be beneficial if you want to get back in the artistic line. But I hope Sang Hugh will reconsider. The time is now right for him to make the impact I'm sure he's capable of; at least the voice is in very good shape, and I hear he hasn't lost the bite in songwriting terms either. Currently he has a cookshop down at the fisherman's cove in Negril and is still fishing regularly. In the summer of 2004 he appeared alongside Ken Bob and Carl Dawkins at a small venue in Negril, which must've been the first gig by Sang Hugh in many, many years. It is truly such a waste of natural born talent to have these sort of names hidden in the dark, probably frightened by a music industry which partly alienates and hurts the most expressive of singers and songwriters and turn them away from a public that would love to have the real deal back in action, and partly because of a music which doesn't carry the same spiritual vibes anymore. But times have to change; sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse; time is waiting for no one, and time is longer than rope. And the Sang Hugh catalogue is not exactly the length of a rope, it needs to be cleaned up and be made available for a hungry new audience out there. Naturally they never thought this music would last so long at the time, but time has proven everyone different. The time is now right to get stuff like 'No Call Dread Name', 'Man A Go Nyam Man In A Babylon', 'God's Children', 'Rasta No Born Yah', 'Story of Grandma', 'Last Call Fe Blackman' and several other hard shots from the pen of Keith Morgan out there where it belongs, among a public which would love to hear and learn more of one of the overlooked talents from the golden era of Jamaican roots music. In getting such a project out, best of all would be if the man was involved himself in issuing it, and seeing the monetary benefit of such a release. Anyone willing to get this done out there? I cross fingers that this will be realized in the immediate future. And why not a bunch of modern updates to some of these classics along with new and other unrecorded material, that would be something to look forward to. Apart from the Heartbeat CD's mentioned within this space, not to forget all the scarce and long-out-of-print singles that exist as trades in collectors' circles, not much else other than scattered tracks are available by this man presently, and they are hard enough to locate. I hope things will change for the better, and soon. Sang Hugh deserves it. For a more detailed story on Sang Hugh and Niney's early adventures together, check Leroy Pierson's excellent tale in The Beat magazine, vol. 17, no. 1, 1998. 7" single information courtesy Roots Knotty Roots.

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

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