Q: So Mr. McDonald was not involved in your productions whatsoever, apart from taking care of the pressing and distribution of the tunes. A: Yeah. All of my songs, I never sing... away from Coxson, I've never sing for no one. Away from Mrs Pottinger, I sing two of their... I was gonna do an album for her, but I changed my mind when I see the result for 'Sweetie Come From America', because it was very big in England. 'Cause we even got a contract for it, for a soundtrack movie with Jimmy Cliff called 'Club Paradise'. So we got in the soundtrack of that movie, 'Sweetie Come From America' was the soundtrack recording in that movie. Q: I know, I've seen the album. How did that track end up on the movie soundtrack? How did it come about, and the song itself? A: Well, there was a man - the song was selling in England. The English people always like to tease the American people at times, y'know. Sometimes they like to have a joke, even though they are close they like to have a joke of Americans, because they're different. The American break away from the English and the English always say that they're leader for the Americans, the American always say they are not - or something. But they always have a little thing going there. So I just pick out that song, I say "Sweetie come from America, you should a hear how she a twang", but that mean she was talk in a different tone, and she was acting like she couldn't speak no patois, no broken English no more. She was acting up, she was in the high-zone, man. When money done, she would stop talk, all those things, she started to speak our language an' t'ing like that. It was telling you how people from America, when they come to Jamaica, people who come to see... who migrate from Jamaica to America, when they come back how they react, y'know. As soon as their money fade, they would start act in a way, because they ain't got nothing to show of. So the English people love that song, 'Sweetie Come From America'. They love it in London, I think I'm gonna do over that song. Q: But you were approached by the producers of the soundtrack, or you dealt with Mrs Pottinger to end up on the soundtrack? A: They was a guy who... I don't know if he heard it on the radio or what, but he was going to every record shop, every place that distribute music in London, everywhere. He was all over London, looking for Well Pleased & Satisfied. And there was all kinda guys... he was calling me all over the place, him want to come down and get the contract to go up back, to (inaudible) the money, to give the guy the OK or something. But he finally get to Mrs Pottinger, because he found out that she was the one who owned the song. She don't own the song, but she own the riddim, she's the producer. She own the riddim, so she automatically owns the song, but we own the writing and the publishing. But anyway, she made (inaudible) for us to sign the contract, but then I didn't wanna sign because I said we should get a lawyer or something like that. But my friend Hugh Lewis was very jumpy, he said no. Just because he said the contract is gonna - the guy gonna use a different song, because he can't wait no more, and this and that. So it end up that we signed the contract, and he gave us fifty thousand dollars. And that was just cheatin' us, because I know she could give us the deal for more than hundred thousand, or one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So I wrote to Warner Brothers and asked them about the royalty, and they say they can't find a statement even if it was a outright contract and all kinda things. So that's the end of the story. Q: So nothing after the advance in other words? A: No, nutten after. Even the sales, nutten from the sales from London. Nutten, because he claimed that the guy who was selling the record in London, the government confiscated his business, because he was into something, or something I don't know.

Q: Would that be Chips Richards from Sky Note? A: I don't know, I don't remember his name. But they say the government confiscate his things and all those... I don't remember his name. He gone without paying tax or... I don't know, I don't recall the whole story. I know that's what they told me. And even the song 'Water The Garden', that's the same way it end up. Because I and the guy Shaune Dixon, I wrote that song and we produced it together an' t'ing, do some harmony tracks an' t'ing, Shaune Dixon and Jerry Baxter. So we did 'Water The Garden'. It was number one song in Guyana, but we never get nutten. So when Hank Holmes (a retired radio DJ from Los Angeles, founder of the renowned 'Reggae Beat' show with Marley-historian Roger Steffens) called me and tell me that he need some material from me. I said "Yes man, I understand, I feel you need a song". But I've been robbed from... I don't know how to explain, man. Everyone robbed me, I don't know - everyone! I don't get no pay. So music just give me a lickle small something. I don't figure it would give me a lot of money, just give me something, no matter how small it is. So he say he didn't have no money at the time, because he was trying to get everything together and all kinda t'ing. So I understood his problem, but I'm sorry I didn't give him, because he helped me so much. Because at least he did me something what you are doing now, so I mean he helped me. Q: He did a lot for lesser known names in the business, giving them airplay and exposing the music for a wider audience, Roger did the same but covering different ground. Well Pleased & Satisfied was one of those names. A: Right. Yeah, he did even tell me one time that we were bigger than... I don't even gonna call the group's name, because that gonna give Baxter group. But he say that that group was a number one group in Jamaica, he see Well Pleased & Satisfied as the strongest group. So I've got the number one group in Jamaica. Because he say, the way I sing my songs is like an energy that I put in it, it's like a force coming through. It's like - I don't know, I've got an energy there, man. Because I sing from my toe, I don't sing from my mouth. The sound come from my mouth, but I sing from my toes, the bottom of my feet. When I sing, I stick my toe in the ground, that's how I sing. Q: (Chuckles) You have a special sound, if not a bit peculiar. I can't say that anything else reminds me of Well Pleased & Satisfied, you have that originality. I mean, where's the influences? It pretty much was your own origination, the sound there? A: Yeah, I come up with that myself. Like, I listen to a lot of Temptations, Impressions, or Jerry Butler. I listen to all American classic singer, Nat 'King' Cole, everyone that sing those. So I pick out how they sing and I try to place my words. And I try to preach, I try to sound like a messenger, and I try to really go out there deep. So I always ask my friends, who even try sing like me - David Jahson is one of my best friends, I always trying ask him to whistle and go with me, ca' I and him do 'Natty Chase The Barber', but he just put his name alone. He just make his name alone with it, but is the two of us. We voiced 'Natty Chase The Barber' together, and 'Give Thanks and Praise'. He was talking to me the other night, he was saying, "Man, from I did those songs there it's like..." - you know I can't come up with the song, so I'm gonna go and revive back David Jahson. We've got some songs which I am gonna go and overdub and overdub, and try to lick back some songs. Because I think he did a Dennis Brown song that sounds very good, and he did two more songs. I'm gonna overdub them. But when I go to London, I don't know if I'm gonna revoice him. I'm lucky and he's lucky. I mean, he got a chance with me that he got that help with me, so I'm gonna draw and try pull him out some more. That a very humble guy still. But I mean, I've got to pull him out some more, because I've got a lot of faith, man. I don't give up.

David Jahson

Q: How did you meet Jahson? A: Ahh! Well, it's just through... Q: He was a member of Well Pleased & Satisfied at some point too. A: Yeah, right. Sometime he played with me, sometime he play with drums and all those things, percussion and all that. So we just linkin', like a friend thing. We always have a thing going. He was a part of the group too. I met him when doing the business with the bags, that's where we met. He used to be the distributor for the handbags. So he used to move with a guy who was a custom broker and a guy who had a lot of contacts with the stores. So he linked that guy with me, that's how we get to distribute the bags to all the stores, Sangsters, all those places. So he got the contact with that guy, the custom broker, and then we meet. And then now, he was singing for a long time, then we start save back some money now to go back to the studio, and we link up back and do 'Natty Chase The Barber' and then 'Give Thanks and Praise'. And then he toured with Jacob Miller and Inner Circle, then he come back. Then he was trying to leave Jamaica, so I said no, you can't leave me, man. He was still leaving, and I said "Man, you got a ticket? OK, I buy you a ticket". And I said OK, let's go back in the studio. I'm gonna let you go back to England, man, and before you go back we gonna do two album, man. And I said "OK, hold this, take this with you to America", and he tried to go back to England. So me and my friend Shaune Dixon, we helped him to put that together, and that's when he reach back in England. He got married and stay there for a while. Q: You and Jahson did like a duet of the Wailing Souls classic 'Mr. Fire Coal Man'. A: Right, right! Right, man, you was in Jamaica (laughs). You must've been living in Jamaica, Peter! You were living in Jamaica, man. Q: (Laughs) Right, you never know. Jahson put that out on a compilation he titled 'Past & Present' some years back. A: Yeah, yeah, yeah! Yeah, 'Past, Present and Future'. Yeah man. Q: Since you had a bunch of singles out on this imprint, was there any intention at the time to do an album for Total Sounds? A: No, Total Sounds wasn't really... Q: I mean, you had 'Fight Against South Africa', 'Gates of Zion', 'Living In The Slum' and... A: Ah OK, hold on, hold on! Don't go no further. With 'Fight Against South Africa', the only person on the radio who played 'Fight Against South Africa', is the same ET. And I was the first man to sing an apartheid song. Long before Bob Marley, long before everybody, because I think so deep of the African history. And I always keep in touch, you understand, but I don't have no friends in Africa. The other day I met an African lady, and I said, "Lady, you are the first real black African woman I've ever met". She said, "Why you said that?" I said, "I see you are from Africa, straight, undiluted. I'm from Jamaica, I pass through the slave system and go there and come back to America. But you come straight from the Motherland, so I respect you. Can I do something for you?" And she gave me five dollars, and I said, "Why you doing this?" She said, "No, no. I see you thinkin' like an American". And she put the five dollars into her little bag and I got hurted. But I mean, I still forgive her. She was the first real African person I've ever met. I've met woman, but I've never really met an African woman. I still long to see her, but I don't know if she move away and I don't see her, so I don't know. She move away from the apartment complex. Anyway, 'Fight Against South Africa', man, that was the first apartheid song recorded in the history of Jamaican music, wow! And Mr Mac was the distributor for that song, that man is very strong, you understand. That man know a musician, that man is for music, y'know, that man is deep. But Errol Thompson was the only guy that played that song in Jamaica. It didn't sell a lot in Jamaica, it sell a few copies. Because the people in Jamaica didn't really care if the black people... they didn't know much about apartheid. So it's not that they don't care, but they don't know what to care for at that time for apartheid, or what we're talkin' about with apartheid. So when the song was playing, the beat was heavy, it was like the beat was coming out of a mountain, it was a very heavy standard beat, it was one of the heaviest songs I've ever recorded. But I mean - a strong riddim, the people did not fetch that song in the music, what it was askin', you know. But that was the song I feel that everybody could buy, but they just buy a few copies of that. Q: I assume the massacre in Johannesburg in '76 partly inspired that song? A: Yeah, I watch it on tv. I watch all those things, and I read in the newspaper and watch how they were slaughtering, and I watch how the guy 'Vastor the Imposter Smith', you got Ian Smith that time. Q: Rhodesia, yes. A: That's it. Smith say he ain't got no limit to shoot the black man dead, I say, Vastor the Imposter say he would be doing the very same. He called himself the partyhead, y'know, just to shoot the black man dead, but the whole world should fight against South Africa and the racial issues you see down there. And it was a very strong song, y'know. Man, you are deep, man. I never thought you would know everything about me (laughs)!

Q: It's listed somewhere, the singles directory. And the 'Gates of Zion'? A: 'The Gates of Zion' was when I was going to school, and that's my teacher down by Boys Town School, he always told me... always tell us about that, black history. And how they teach the black man that a fruit called breadfruit must boil in a big pot, cut it in two and give them, rub them in crocus bag - a bag whe you put like sugar and all those things in those bag, was a luggage bag whe they carry loads in those bag. And they would give to the black man to wear, and they would send their dog on them. They would cut the black woman belly, to know if the black pregnant woman was better. They would say, "I bet you don't tell which baby is inside this belly". One man would say a boy and the other would say a girl. But to know that, the woman is not gonna have baby at the same time, so therefore to know that they gotta cut the belly with their sword, and let out that baby, from inside to outside. So that's how I come up with that song, 'The Gates of Zion'. It's the same song as 'Open The Gate Bobby Bowa'. But when I did 'Open The Gates Bobby Bowa' is that we did that disco 45 and give the solo song with a guy, my wife brother, he's called Joe Banner (aka Jah Banna). Now, he sounds like Big Youth, Manley Buchanan it is, and I take him to the studio and he do a deejay version for the disco 45. So when I finish sing, he started deejay for the remainder of the disco 45. So that's how we call that 'The Gates of Zion'. Then we put a gate, the both of us would open a gate, and there was like a lickle policeman - something like that, and we were going through the gate to Zion, y'know. It was distributed by Total Sounds, on their label. Q: And there was 'Living In The Slum'. A: Well, 'Living In the Slum' was... oh, I was living in Majestic Garden, and I see how the system goes down there. 'Living in the slum, and your needs get numb, you try to sleep but yu mouth got to be dumb, so you face brutality and all kinda mentality, you get victimized from the society, you get brutalized by the people living around you. But still you got to have freedom - freedom, freedom, freedom. Free to walk the streets at nights and days, your kids go to school so nice and sweet, they come on back just the same, then we say we got freedom...' (sighs). Q: There was 'Sweet Music' on Total Sounds as well. You recall that one? A:... Yes (silence). Q: You remember that tune? A:... Yeah man. Yeah. Q: (At this point Jerry vanishes from the phone. In the distant I can hear him sighing and sobbing, telling himself to calm down, "yeah, yeah" and "OK, OK" is whispered in the background. I'm asking if things got a bit too much for him at this moment, if we should stop). It's all coming back now, isn't it? A: (Long silence) Yes, it come back, man. Q: No problem. Take it easy, it's a long time. It can be overwhelming at times, like now. A: Yeah (silence). Yeah. It's like that, man. It's like... Q: Nuff work for pennies only, it hurts when you think back. A: Yea. It's very hard, it's like... it a hard life (sobbing). Yeah, I come back to the real world, man. People got to understand (sipping a glass of water). Q: A long time now, and 'wear and tear' as they say. A: Yes, very difficult times. Very difficult times to get by, and get back to the system deh ya.

Q: You feel ready? A: Yeah. You can go ahead now, I'm OK. That song was very touching, 'Living In The Slum'. 'Cause every day you face the slum, it's hard. Every day rough. Q: Watch your back, like. A: Yeah, all kinds of people, y'know. Very difficult. And it still go the same, still go the same. It still go the same unless the people unite. What I'm trying to do, I wanna make an album called 'Living In The Slum', so it will have that track on it. Q: What was behind the content of 'News Carrier'? A: Well, you're living in the slum, people they just have a style. On the sidewalk, they stand on the other side longing to see somebody fight someone to take a news to say this and to say that that they see somebody fight, and they don't realise that they're hurting their own self, the rest of the community. So it's like... you know? They will always be fighting each other, there's no unity. They always been carry news like the Gleaner, like a newspaper or a radio station, or something. That's how that song come about, I always think about people and how they live. I don't really write a song offa... if I see an individual person do something, I can write a song offa that, but I would turn it around. If I see someone do something bad, maybe I say OK, too bad, I'm gonna protest. But I mean, I don't write a song off an individual person. Yeah. I don't deal with it that way. Q: I sort of like the marching riddim on that one, particularly the drumming stands out on 'News Carrier'. A: Yeah, it was Sly Dunbar in his early days, man. It's like he was the star. In his early days, it's like he was bursting out, he was just anxious to be what he is today. He was trying to make his stride, it was like Jackie and them riddims, write an artist's drums, man. Was very good. Even 'Black On Black', 'Open The Gate Bobby Bowa', he never play... He tells - everywhere I see Sly, he tell somebody about them songs, it's like he never play the song like that again. Never. All the songs that he done for me, those drum beats, it's like it's the best of Sly Dunbar. He can play drums, he is the best, one of the best drummers in Jamaica. I would say he's the best, because he made it in the drum business and the music. But the drums that Sly play for me, he never play for nobody. He played in a way that, y'know, it was different. Q: You had another song for Total Sounds named 'Tenament Yard'. A: OK. Well, y'know it's like I look around in the system and see people sit down and how they watch what you buy, taking it to your house. And if you cook something in your pot, just because it's a tenament yard where everybody see everybody and know everybody, they will always watch what you cook, what you eat, it's like they are the CIA or the KGB, always snookin' around, snookin' around, lookin' around for some clues, the CIA do the same thing. That's what people do in a tenament yard where they watch everything, they're lookin' for clues, y'know, they're trying to get to you. So that's how 'Tenament Yard' come around. It was lookin' at the system surrounding a tenament yard. I don't like it.

	Page:  | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
	[ Previous ]      [ Next ]

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