Q: I guess this is the typical sort of novelty tune of its day. A: Yeah. I mean, well you have some guys in Jamaica who are singin' some songs they call dancehall songs, but it's not really reggae. Because in Jamaica right now, most of the artists are not playing reggae. They are kinda mixin' some (imitating a machine-like sound). Q: I think it should be distinguished from what reggae is, or what ska is. It is more like a Jamaican form of hip-hop. A: Yeah, it is like a hip-hop thing, it's not reggae. I don't call it reggae, ca' I don't sing those songs. So I'm here working over a studio called On Beat Recording Studio and I'm doing a new album, and it's called 'Reggae In The Bag'. It's songs dealing with the system, y'know, it's like I can't give away the songs on the air, but it's gonna be called 'Reggae In The Bag'. So I've got them published and everything, I've got them at a stage where the album is very close to be finished. That (title) song is telling you you're going through a system, and the guy is saying to you 'what you got?' And I say 'well I've got it in the bag', y'know. It's a bad song. Man, it's a song like when Bob Marley was out in the seventies, that's how that song sounds. Q: The classic way. A: Yeah, right. It's like it got some guitar pickin', some real mean guitar pickin', you know what I'm talkin' about. And some horns blowing, and the drum, foot-drum kickin', and the bass bouncin' all over. Man, it's terrible, man. It's mad, I don't know what to describe it. It's a bad song. Q: OK. So back to the Actions again. A: After Coxson the group just break up from that because we didn't go anywhere. Ranchie was playing with his band and I was going solo. So from solo to solo, Ranchie going from We The People - no, R&B Invincibles, then I go solo and sing 'Open The Gate Bobby Bowa'. But before that I formed a group now called Well Pleased & Satisfied. And that was my big debut, that was because the name of the group was so strong, it's like it was commanding. 'Cause we got this guy on the radio, Don Topping, and when he was playing my song it was like a preacher on Sunday mornin'. When he call the name of the group, it was like, man, it was something. Q: How did you come up with that name for the group? A: Well, I always think of things very properly and I always think of names of songs, because I even wrote a song of the group - I wrote a song off the name of the group. I love the name so much and I said (sings): 'I'm dealin' well pleased and satisfied for the things you have done for me, people!' You know, it was that crossover reggae. But I didn't record that song all now, so maybe on my next album. Because I've got about eight albums to take with me to New York, so probably on my ninth album I may be... havin' that song, I don't know. Q: So when was the group founded, to be a bit more specific? A: Well Pleased & Satisfied was formed... I think it was in 1971 or '72, either '71 or '72. But it was formed in the early seventies. It was formed around the time after I leave Coxson, because Nicky Thomas the guy who was 'livin' the 'Love of the Common People'' and all those hit songs, we used to sing with him, I and him and a guy called Hugh Lewis who is a member of Well Pleased & Satisfied, Everand Miller was the guy who was doing the bass in the group, and he was a member of the group who sing with Nicky Thomas. But Nicky Thomas break away and go to Coxson, and go on an audition. But Coxson didn't select him because he was singin' in his nose. Like he got a sound like a goat, like the words wasn't comin' out of his mouth, it was like comin' out of his nose. So he went to Derrick Harriott, and Derrick Harriott select him and he sing a song called 'Run Mr Nigel Run'. And then he went to Joe Gibbs and do about three or four songs for Joe Gibbs, and then he just took off like that. And then Nicky Thomas go to England and I never see him. Q: He has passed away now. A: Yeah. And then now, because our group with Nicky Thomas was called the Sammarcands. Yeah, the Sammarcands. So we used to rehearse with the Gladiators, we were workin' out for the same producer, a man called Mr. Lee, living in Washington Gardens, that is out at Washington Boulevard. That is on the other side of Waterhouse, on the next side of Waterhouse like you're going to the country.

Jerry Baxter

Jerry Baxter

Q: What was his label? A: I didn't remember the label, because I think... ahhh, man! If I could... oh, man. Q: You never recorded for him? A: No, I didn't record something for him, because Nicky Thomas and the guy who was supposed to sing the bass in the song - the song was called 'Compare The Lovin' I've Got For You', until now Nicky Thomas didn't remember that song, until the moment when he died. 'Cause I don't think he remembered the song, 'cause it was a very powerful song. It was a song that must be a hit. Sometime the man who we was gonna sing the song for was in his living room, and when we go there, we got to eat some dinner, and we got to sing 'Compare The Loving I've Got For You' for him in his living... not his living room, in his dining room. We just go inside there, and the four of us got to form up the group together, and like... man, it was something! 'Cause that song was very strong, 'Compare The Loving I've Got For You'. Q: What about the other members, Hugh Lewis and David Paul Johnson? A: Paul Johnson? Well, Paul Johnson wasn't a member of Well Pleased & Satisfied. He was workin' at the Ministry of (inaudible) where a guy called Ken Quatty who was to deejay for I, whe help him to make him a deejay, use to know him. And then I told him that I need someone to go to England for me, 'cause I know no one in England, to get some distribution, to get that to a company. So I gave him two albums and I bought his ticket, gave him some recordings, give him some money and send him to England. But he rip me off. He collect some advance and he take the money for himself, and go to another place, New York, and open a business for himself. Q: So that was Johnson. What about Hugh Lewis? A: Well, Hugh Lewis he was a member of the group, but he wasn't active with me. Because I had to do all the roadwork, I gotta press the label, I got to find the money for myself, I got to arrange the songs, I got to write the songs - I got to do everything for the group, you understand. No one never really helped me. Q: OK. So Lewis never co-wrote any of the songs? A: Well, he didn't really write no song, he never write a song. But just because he's my friend, I shared the writing. I write all of the songs, I write and compose a theme. One time he tried to write a song, it was a song what John Holt sing, and he was using the melody off John Holt's song, to get to write the song. But all of the song was what I write, but I shared the write. I said OK, I've gotta share 'cause he's my friend. That's how it is. We still share the writing now, because once you give someone a share or the other guy get account within the business, you can't change that no matter what you do unless someone compromise, you know that? Someone gotta compromise, sign over their right and give to you. So it's like that, that's it y'know. Q: But apparently you never gave up that Actions name from what I could see, a few mid seventies releases bearing that name came out like 'Please Mr Deejay', 'Holy Mount Zion' and 'Run Society' for Randy's. Was Clive Chin involved in those? He's credited on the label. A: No, no, all those songs was produced by me. I did everything, I arrange, I produced (coughs)... Whenever time you give - like those guys in the recording studio, they would just put a label and they put 'produced by Randy's', or 'produced by Keith Chin', or something. And we're just glad for them to distribute that for you, you don't really pay that much of mind, you don't think of your rights. You just want to get your song playing on the radio, or to get some money to start a next song, you understand me? It's like a fund. I didn't know that the business was so big, I didn't know. It's when people like Bob Marley really come on the radio and seh well, man, it's very big, I said "Wow!" And I always see him there in the studio, and where he was selling his songs, some of his material, our group Well Pleased & Satisfied was one of the group who was selling. Because we have a song called 'Black On Black', we got 'Living In The Slum', we got 'Open The Gate Bobby Bowa', we got 'Chat Chat, 'News Carrier', and we were selling. So Bob Marley albums were going very good an' t'ing deh, it's the same company, Total Sounds. So I realised then that, look, there's money in it. But all those time I didn't have no money to really put myself on the rail and write the proper way.

Q: Right, but the Randy's stuff was just distribution, no other involvement you said? A: No, I produced them. I paid the musician, I rent the studio, but they used their label. Q: But why didn't they put 'Well Pleased & Satisfied', instead you got this mix-up with your former group? You wanted both names out there in case something big happened to any of those names? A: I don't know, I don't quite remember what that fusion was like. But I think first we used the Actions, and then after a while to change over back to... we decided to perform Well Pleased & Satisfied. When we do the song 'Black On Black', I think that's the biggest song for Well Pleased & Satisfied. And then we have 'Chat Chat', 'News Carrier', that's the way. But the rest of the songs I think it was the Actions. Yeah. But the Actions was the same guys from Well Pleased & Satisfied, but original Actions was me and Bertram McLean, Ranchie, he used to play with Jimmy Cliff. He was playing instrument along with Skin Flesh & Bones at the time, he had a band with Sly Dunbar, Skin Flesh & Bones, and they were playing at a club, for Tit For Tat on Red Hills Road. That's a guy called Dickie Wong who booked them at that club. So after a while that band break up, and they start a band called the Revolutionaries with Sly Dunbar. And then I think Lloyd Parks was in that band but break away and start We The People. I don't remember what the fusion or how the mishandling/dismantling of the band go. But if you could get Lloyd Parks you can get how it was, I don't remember. Skin Flesh & Bones was at one club called Stables and another one called Tit For Tat. I think Skin Flesh & Bones was playing at Tit For Tat and We The People at Stables, so that's where he started the band-thing and opened a record shop. But I'm surprised that most of these guys that have a good history, a very nice history that can make reggae music influence other people and other artists to come in the music business and start lower than how they start, and start better... they don't tell people how they really start. It's like they're afraid of their history. I do really see through that. So I really like Bob Marley. Bob Marley to me is like - I don't know, I don't even know how to describe him. He's the greatest along with Dennis Brown. My favourite artists in Jamaica was Dennis Brown and Bob Marley. Dennis Brown is very special. He did one of my songs, and when he realised that it was my song, and King Tubbys introduced Dennis Brown to me, he hugged me. He said "My brother! Wow, man!" He did the song 'Open the Gate Bobby Bowa', y'know, but is only that he changed the lyrics. But it's my song anyway. So that album is called 'Joseph Coat of Many Colours'. Yeah.

Bob Marley

Dennis Brown

Q: And no compensation for it. A: No, I didn't get nutten from that, I didn't get nutten from it. 'Cause I didn't have my publisher Ted Powder toward the songs... was that he migrate back to the United States or somewhere in Europe. The Khouri people who are responsible for the publishing, I don't know how it really got to them, because there's nutten. Then it's like everyone is giving you the runaround, you got no lead, you got no money to go to no lawyer, everything was low down. It's right now how I realise how the business should go; first you should get your publishing write up t'ing, copyright everything. See a lawyer, a good lawyer to really get a contract straight before you sign. You know, I didn't understand nutten, now I understand. So I am singin' more better now. Q: Ted Powder, wasn't that guy associated with Johnny Nash and Cayman Music, the JAD offshoot or spin-off? At least Danny Sims was the head of that company. A: Woodwater Music. Q: That was with Danny Sims. A: Yeah, Ted Powder was doing I think some publishing for Bob Marley too, I think so. Yeah, yeah. So you see, everywhere Bob go, we always there. I even record a song the other day, I think it was 1988 or '89, it's a soca song called 'Water The Garden'. It's a very, very popular song in Jamaica, very big in Jamaica. And I gave Bob Marley's Tuff Gong for them to distribute it, and it was some guys working in the company, and they pirate the song within the company. And they press the song and sent to Guyana, and it was a number one song in Guyana, and a number one song in Jamaica. But I didn't want to buy a spot on the radio to push it. Because no matter how much songs you sell, or how much thousands you sell, you've got to buy the spot - all over the world it has got it like that. I don't know, it's running from Motown days to right now. You've got to buy the spot or you give the guys something to play the song. So I didn't buy the spot for the song, and it didn't reach number one. But it was on the charts in Jamaica. It was very big. They still sell that song. One of the biggest calypso songs in Jamaica, 'Water The Garden'. So I have that album 'Water The Garden' taken with me some time when I go to Europe.

Q: Which was the first single as Well Pleased & Satisfied? A: The first record by Well Pleased & Satisfied to come out was 'Black On Black'. Q: That was on the King Town label. A: Yeah, yeah. 'Black On Black' is a song... they say civilization began in Africa, the Garden of Eden where Adam & Eve was born according to the Bible story. Then with 'Black On Black' it told you how black people, like a black woman, say for instance she can produce any other nation that exist in the world today. Now if you check it out, like she can produce a Chiney baby and it almost look close like the father, a white baby - even though she is black it look almost like the father, it's like that. It's being very, very white - or so called white you see, I don't see they are white people, or they're black people. I don't see people black or white. I don't know, but in those days I was thinking different, but now I see it different. Anyway, it was telling you that the people that they call black people - or black woman - can produce any other nation that exist in the world today. A black man, if he go to the barbershop and get his hair cut, he can take one piece of the hair and take the other pieces up, it's inside a black man's hair you got unity. You've got a magnet, a magnitude of united steel or magnet always sling the steel, and we always like a magnet. So it shows, yunno, that the culture of the black, what they can do. It's not even the race like, say, the white is not good, the Chinese are not good, it's not no racial discrimination thing. It's just saying that what the black man can do, you understand, it's just showing you some of the things that we can do. So be proud of yourself and don't look down on yourself. The potential of the African man, just like that. 'Black On Black', that was one of my biggest selling 45s, 'cause it was distributed by Total Sounds, and that man treat me very good, man. I could get money to go on and make other records, I could go to the radio station and... you know? Do a lot of t'ing there (chuckles). Q: The head of Total Sounds was a guy from Australia called McDonald, right? A: (Chuckles) OK. You see, he... Q: A white guy, aussie, even. A: Yeah, he was a guy from Australia. He wasn't fully white, like he was a... half-white. Anyway, Mr. Mac. OK, he got a nephew called Paul Fuller, I think he was working at JBC at the time, I don't quite remember. In those days you got I think - what's the name of the other guy...? Q: Not Free I, was it? A: Errol Thompson. Q: OK, 'Turntable Time'. A: Free I do the same t'ing. No, Free I and Jeff Dixon... Q: Jeff Dixon was called 'Free I' actually. A: OK. And ET now was the top DJ that time. Anyway, we take the song to a company called - it wasn't Micron at those days, it was called... man, wow! It was a company run by a guy called Winston Blake, he was married to this lady... Q: You mean Merritone? A: Merritone! Man, Merritone Records! Man, you were living in Jamaica...

Jerry Baxter

Q: (Laughter) A: Anyhow, Merritone was run by Winston Blake, and we take the song to Winston Blake, and when Winston Blake play the song, he look at me and said, "Look, tell me somet'ing" - and my friend Hugh was standing there too because he was in Well Pleased & Satisfied, "Why you sing so much t'ing about black people? This is racial discrimination". I said, "No, we are not disputing out of how few things they can do". He said, "But the other day you talk about the black man, the black woman, what about the black woman and black man - what about that?" I said, "I'm not saying nutten wrong, but the good t'ings about it is what they can do an' t'ing". But he was causing a fuss, like. Because he didn't want to distribute that record because it was too much about black people for him to play. And I remember I lived to see that guy come on tv and talkin' a lot of good t'ings about black people, and I said: "Look, look at that guy, man!" I told my wife, "You see that guy?" She heard that guy talking now, and I said, "You should have heard that guy what he told me about my song 'Black On Black', man, you'd cry". Anyway, there was Paul Fuller who with Mr. Mac who would run Total Sounds, who owned Total Sound recording and distributing company, and Paul was standing up right round by Merritone, go by Winston Blake's place at his shop - he got his distribution place there, and he said to me, "Come, follow me. That song is a good song. Come, I'm gonna let my uncle hear the song, come with me". So I follow him, and we go right around Total Sounds, because is the same building, and we signed the contract immediately. And we take the song to this guy ET. Man, every evening that guy played that song three times, four times, and he was the number one DJ in the country in those times at JBC radio station. And man, that song took off like a bomb, man! It was a bomb! It wasn't on the charts, ca' we didn't pay for it to reach the chart. But it was my biggest selling song, along with 'News Carrier' and 'Chat Chat', 'Open The Gate Bobby Bowa' in Jamaica, man. Q: I guess the problem with the 'payola' was as much a problem then as it is today within the industry in Jamaica? Not Jamaica alone though, it is widespread. A: Yeah, you gotta pay for it. In the recording business right around the world, I don't know if it's in Germany or Scotland or in France or in England or around Europe, because I've never been to no radio station there, but in my country - even America, you gotta pay. Because if you watch some of the movies, like with Marvin Gaye and the Temptations, that show you how Motown was started and how Temptations was created and all those things. So you see from the fifties coming right up, there was a payola system in the music, that's how a lot of songs hit. Because even independent producers don't have a lot of money to give discjockey, so they get stifled. Q: So the smaller producers rarely got any airplay, but who was going beyond that in those days, supporting the lesser known producers, like ET for example? He was a bit different I heard. A: Yeah, he was a good guy, ET. But sometime I found this guy Junior McGlashin and we know somebody who know him, and we take the song to him - Junior McGlashin was workin' at RJR, and man - as I speak my head raised, my head is... currently going through my mind, there is a current charting through my body, y'know, it's like an energy and it vex very good - and we take the song to him. And the first guy, Hugh Lewis know someone who was working in the army, and he tell us about Junior, that he knew Junior at RJR, and we asked him to see what he can do. And we offered to give the guy money, and the guy say "No! I don't want a penny!" You understand what I'm saying, man - the guy never stick a dollar in his pocket, man! And man, that song was a bomb. I think it was 'News Carrier'. Mr. Mac was distributing it, and he treat me very good. Treat us very, very good. I gave Mrs Pottinger one called 'Chat Chat', and that was selling like hot bread. When I go for royalties she said that... man, she just give me a few dollars, y'know. Not even biscuit money.

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