Q: Once you get out of the business, it's like you have to re-establish yourself and build back the name in the music. And one good thing is to have the back-catalog back in print, not only some of the 45s but to reissue the 'Love Train' and 'Give Thanks & Praise' albums as well. At least give them a re-release on CD, they have been unavailable for way too long now. A: Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm doing right now, that's what I've gotta go do right now. Q: I've learned too that you had a dub album ready for release in the late seventies, but it never came out. A: Yeah, I had lined up a dub album but I didn't worry because Mr Hank Holmes was trying to get that. But I mean when I realised that he didn't have nutten to give me, and I got so much robbed, that's why I wanted to talk to you to tell him that I'm sorry an' t'ing like that. Beca' you see, speaking about 'Living In The Slum', you see what it done to me... it's like I don't wanna call it, because it's like it bring back so much memory from the slum, y'know, dirty water, broken bottles in the street - everything. It's like when you're in the slum, man, you're in the slum. You gotta have ambition to really get out of the slum, yunno, and that's hard. Q: But you did. A: And I did, y'know. 'Cause I raise five kids, I try my best to really get them on the track, but I try, yunno. Q: As far as I can remember, I think the first record I picked up by Well Pleased & Satisfied was 'Fast Mouth One' way back when. A: Yeah, 'Can't get the fast mouth one, they can only live so long...' (chuckles). Yeah. When you was in Jamaica when I sing all those songs, you was in Jamaica in Coxson's studio, you was in Randy's, you were in Channel One studio - you were everywhere, man, you're great. Trust me. Q: (Laughs) Well, I can hardly take credit for that, there's lots of people who are responsible for this information, y'know, it's a collective effort I would say. But anyway, the theme of that song is something we're all way too familiar with, the big-mouthed people. No action, just empty words. Blabber. A: Yeah, they just come along and you say something and don't realise what hurt it's gonna become for somebody else, and they just keep on pushing their nose where they shouldn't push their nose. And I say 'I can't take the fast mouth one because me and my Idren live so long, fast mouth one they just go wrong...', and so forth and so on. Wow! You were in Jamaica, man. Q: OK. It's still one of my favourites, no doubt. I love the horn arrangements on that one. A: Yeah, the arrangement? Yeah, yeah. I think it was Bobby Ellis and Tommy McCook, because I always use them as horns. Every song that I use horns in, I use them. They got that Studio One sound. They always... yeah...

Q: (Silence. He disappears from the phone again) You still there? A: (Silence) Yeah, I'm still here. Oh... OK, yeah, yeah. What I'm saying is that people doesn't think what they are doing when they are doing what they're doing, y'know. It's like one of those things I think... you know (almost sobbing). Q: About those solo tracks you did on Ball of Fire, like 'Macca Jungle' and 'Someone's Watching You'? A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Q: When did these come out - eighties? A: Yeah, it was in the seventies, man. OK. Q: Produced by someone called H. Green, who's that? A: Yeah, yeah. That guy - it was produced by Mr Green, 'Fire', we call him 'Fireball', yeah. 'Macca Macca Jungle', yeah. 'Someone's Watching You' was a number one song in New York, it was on the reggae charts, right. I didn't get no money from that neither, because he was trying to do some different business, and then he get (inaudible), and I don't know, we didn't hear nothing about it. All I got from that song was a guitar. Unlike Bob Marley, I figure like a bread or something like that. Man, sometime when I remember my musical history I wanna cry, man. Before I was crying, yeah, I was crying. Q: I know. You had something on the Heart & Soul label by this guy you were talking about, Paul Johnson, at least he put his own name on it, titled 'Dolly Down Deh'. A: Yeah, yeah! They do all kinda things. All of the guys, once I get mixed up with them, they just go along and do all kinda things, man. Once I get hold of my things, that's it. That was it, you know. I just want to give somebody a chance. You see, you was tellin' me about this guy who pirate two of my songs and not gettin' any money, and I was saying that look, if you got the proof, you could share something - you see what I'm saying?

Q: Right. A: Right, that's how I'm stayin', that's how I stay. Because once you give something for me, I want do back something for you. Still if I do anything for you, I no really want nutten for me. I'm that guy. Q: 'Fast Mouth One' was issued on the Uptown imprint, you had 'I Want To Be Loved' on this label as well. A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, all those tunes produced by me and Ken Quatty. We start a business and we start a different label until we gonna start produce some songs together. But just because we have a song called 'Row Fisherman Row', it was a big song in Holland. The country called Holland, it sell a lot over there. So the Khouri people, Federal people was distributing that song. So the royalties we take from that song was very large, so we decided to do more and go and do an album. But we needed to distribute a lot more songs, so we say OK, we gonna distribute all those songs first. But after a while Ken Quatty now, he take out some of the money and do the promotion big now, he want to do the promotion, he take that money out and he couldn't get back the money, so I said to him forget it. All now I (inaudible) away some of the label for the song and we start press, but we never get forward that song. Q: What became of Ken? A: Well, he migrate to New York, he and his wife and children, Ken Quatty. Q: He's been out of the business since then, not active currently? A: No, no, no. I haven't spoken to him in a while. Q: So there's two duets with you and your friend Shanti Dixon, 'Sympathy' and the one you mentioned, 'Water The Garden'? A: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, 'Sympathy' and 'Water The Garden'. We do other songs, but it's like every time the lead voice changes, it's like the people don't buy it. Is like one time I'm not leading the song, is like the people don't buy it. If one time you're not leading, the sales slow, nobody would buy again. You see, I leave 'Water The Garden' and do some of the harmony track on the tape, and Ken Quatty lead some of the thing. But it's like once we leave that, something change, y'know, we no pick up no sales. But he's done a song, he's done some more tracks now, and he's trying to get some things together. We got another album called 'Strong Love', we gonna put out that album. So I don't know what he's gonna do, with 'Strong Love' album, I don't know what he's gonna do with it. Q: I believe the easiest Well Pleased & Satisfied track to obtain on the market is 'Chat Chat', that track is included on Heartbeat's CD 'The Reggae Train', their anthology of High Note productions. Did you know about this? I think this one has been on the market for the past twelve years or more. A: Ah... I would like with 'Sweetie Come From America', to redo that song back. I could find out who is distributing the song and maybe I could get some royalty - Heartbeat you say? OK. Man, if I could get ten per cent of my royalty, I could be the richest man. The other day I found all my master tapes and I gave my daughter them, and I said this is millions of dollars, and she put them in the house, and I got to go and (inaudible) them. Can you imagine me go hook up with you all now and you are so deep in the music and show me the value of all this and... you know? That's what I'm saying, we need support with everything, man. And look at 'Chat Chat' now, I gave her that song to distribute, and she don't give me nutten. She said that that no sell nutten, right. 'Sweetie Come From America', it don't sell nutten more than I get fifty thousand dollars. 'Pickney A Have Pickney', everything she... some of those people, man! I don't know. I go to Coxson, like I told you before, and I've gotta cry to get thirty-five pound from Coxson. We are the biggest paid artists at recording company Studio One. Can you imagine how much artists come to Studio One: the Gaylads, the Wailers, the Heptones, Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson, the Silvertones. All of the groups, man, you name it: Lord Creator, Larry Marshall - all of the groups. Everyone who started the business: Toots & The Maytals, Jimmy Cliff - everyone of those artists come through Coxson. We are the only Actions - former Actions, who turned into Well Pleased & Satisfied - was the biggest paid artists, thirty-five pound we collect. You understand? It's hard, man. Sometime during this interview I cried, man. I gotta cry, man. It's hard. Q: The hardships of life, yes. A: Yeah. I've done a number one song, the last soca-calypso song, I sung that song, I don't... they rip it off in the company. Pirate the song inside of the company, can you imagine? The same guy who is looking after the books, he press the record under the counter and sell it to a next country, and it's number one there. And when you go there to be shown the statement, he's not givin' you no money, and when you check the statement it's almost blank, man.

Jerry Baxter

Q: If you would like to reflect a little on what you've done over the past twenty years or so... I'm sure there's several collectors and others who has come across your name and wonder what became of you, 'what became of Well Pleased & Satisfied?', like. A: Well, what I've been doing over the past years, I write songs the same way, and I sing the same way. Because I sound like - the voice I've got now, it's like thirty years ago, you understand? I can't believe it, my voice is still young. Q: Still intact. A: Yeah, my voice is young and I feel much more better now. I can take a note and, y'know, it's like a joke. Doing a song is like fun, man. Everywhere I go, every studio I go, they're just crazy. Some use to say, if I go to market and somebody hear my voice, they say: "What are you doing here?!" This mornin' when I go to a supermarket and I sing a song, I was tryin' to sing a song, and I say: 'I don't wanna be in love with someone who don't love me'. And I just have the melody of the song, and the lickle lady said: "What are you doing here? Why are you shopping? You should be in the studios!" I said: "I'm tryin', I'm tryin'!" (laughs). She didn't know that I'm a singer. Q: I was told you have a studio in Kingston? A: Yeah, that's where I record at a... Q: I heard there was some burglary down there, so the studio is no more? A: No, well, that's where we finish up most of the album that we got now here. We've been finish up, remixin' all those old tracks, overdubbin', and doing some new tracks. Q: What's the name of your studio? A: Dub Station Recording, 73 Bell Road. So I get some larger equipment. When I come to London I need to buy one of those analogues, bigger 24-track and get some bigger board. I've got a bigger board down there a'ready and some other things. So I'm gonna hook up the studio. When I get to London and that store, I'm gonna try and go back home and then come back to America, and then I'm gonna go back to Europe again. I wanna reach Japan and get a branch there, but I don't know. All over the world, especially Japan, I need to go to Japan. I'm gonna be on a tour thing. I'm na gonna stay, ca' I stay there on the white floor and doing business, things in America. And it is that when Bob Marley come to America he was drivin' a forklift, now I'm in America workin' towards going on my tour, doing all kinda things, y'know. But I hope the people in Europe see this interview and help me. Q: I suppose that's partly the intention with this interview, a large part of it. When I went to New York last year, I saw a bunch of Dub Station singles. From what I can recall there was a French distributor, Wa Do Dem, on these blue labelled 45s, there was some David Jahson titles and some other artists I can't remember at this moment. A: Yeah, what we do now, we distribute to... there's a guy called Ernie B in California, he got a company. And there's some guys from France and there are some guys from - I don't know if it's Japan or what, but they have some company in Jamaica what we distribute. So we press and we give them record to distribute for the export market. So we have a song called - we have 'Open The Gate'... we have, man, I've got to have the catalog here, I can't remember the other songs again. We've got probably about nine or so 45s that we repressed, that we re-released and distributing. But we don't start repress no albums. We was tryin' to get the album jackets and t'ing, but we never reach to do that so far.

Q: Right, the 'Love Train' and 'Give Thanks & Praise' albums. A: Yeah, we was gonna try to repress that. But at the same time I gotta migrate to America, because I say well, if I come over here maybe I could save some money and move to Europe, because I need to come to Europe. Yeah, I need to see the people who love me and support me for so long. Europe, here I come!! Wow! (laughs). Q: What about a reunion of the original group? Maybe you're not too keen on that considering the group's past, with Hugh Lewis and Paul Johnson. Or have you settled this by now? A: Well I was tryin' to do some other guys, but the guys they are singin' like they are... 'Cause you see, I'm a man... if you're not singin' strong with me, it's like you sing with a feel, it's like you kill my feelings. If I'm workin' or if I'm not workin' really fast or with a tempo that I can raise some energy to really open the work, it's like I get tired. Once I'm not workin' with a feeling, I become really like I'm gonna fall. So if you sing with me and not singin' with a feeling, it's the same way. You've gotta come with me, come with me, you can't sing like you're talkin'. You've gotta sing from your feet and put your toes in the ground and stick it in the ground and rock and keep diggin' the beat and... you know, do something. You've gotta wake up, man. Yeah. Q: So the next project we can expect from you will be what you've been talking about over the course of this conversation, 'Reggae In The Bag'? That is what's ahead for you now? A: Right. Yeah, that's the album, I feel it will do something, man. I just feel it, man, 'cause it sound like Channel One in the seventies. Some of the tracks are done in my studio and then I come and I overdub and do all kinda things and it's very different, man. There's a song called 'Rocking We Rocking', that song. And I sing on it, one of the version sound like Pat Kelly, y'know. When I sing like him and I change myself, it's like I'm doing it... man, I'm experimenting. This album is very great, y'know.

Q: I believe it was David Jahson who placed one of your tracks titled 'Come With Me' on an album of various UK and JA artists, the LP's titled 'Grass Roots' on the L.A Records label. I believe it was out in the early nineties, did you know about this? A: Yeah, yeah. 'Come With Me', we take that from the 'Love Train' album. Q: Ah, OK! He credited it to Jerry Baxter though, not by the group. Same thing anyway (laughs). A: Yeah, yeah. That's right. If I could get two guys to really work with me, I would form back the group, Well Pleased & Satisfied, ca' I love the name. Q: Live performances, did the group do a lot of that back in those times? A: Yeah, mostly Actions, the Actions. Beca' when Well Pleased & Satisfied burst out, that were between... on Total Sounds. I didn't have no money to go on tour to really come to England or Europe to really establish the group the right and proper way. Well, Miss Pat - Pat Randy's - that a the only... is VP Records now, she was offering to give me some money to really do what I wanted to do. But at the same time I didn't want to take money from them. And then now, whenever time I sell my record I have to pay back everything, then I have nutten left. So I would say I would work and sing, but I couldn't work and sing because then I couldn't do a tour. Because I didn't have no money to do a tour, y'know.

Jerry Baxter

Q: The Actions were up there on stage at the various theatres in Kingston, those kind of places? A: In Jamaica like the Ward Theatre, I would perform in the community. But mostly Ward Theatre, I perform at some clubs and doing stage shows, but we didn't go on tour. But Ward Theatre was a big thing, when you perform at Ward Theatre it's like... you know? And Majestic Theatre, or Ambassador Theatre. But Majestic Theatre a the number one spot, Ward Theatre was a big spot too, and that was the Actions performing there. Q: What about performing at Heineken Startime in Kingston, you've never been invited or tried to approach them for a show there? That seems to be the main stage for vets in the business nowadays. A: Well I've never tried to go to them and approach them. Because they are so... money sometimes, it's like a favour, they do something for you and, y'know, it's like it's so hard. Sometime you have to be friend with them and... I just say forget them. It's no good, but I just say I'm not interested. If they wanna big up my story and find out that I was existing and do a t'ing, if they do not wanna give me. 'Cause I see a lot of artists not agreeing doing a lot of things, they never been performin' at that show. And I know those artists are good artists, you understand. But it's like everything is everything, so it's like you just have to let some people stay. Q: What do you feel about the modern roots music coming out of Jamaica these days, artists like Luciano, Bushman, and so on? There is a resurgence of veterans too, I suppose these new artists has opened up some doors again for them. A: Yeah well, it's coming back. But what they need to do if they could get a studio, what they should try now is to get some acoustic, some real sounds. Get some acoustics in the studio and get some real sounds and rebirth the reggae back and come out of the dancehall t'ing. Beca' dancehall t'ing is like - it's not that it's not good, it sounds very good for the young kids. But for the reggae to really move up, you can't play dancehall music until you have the reggae beat. Dancehall music is what sells nowadays. Dancehall music is just a drumbeat, yunno, or maybe some guys playing a percussion or something, or maybe playing around there 'bing! beep!' There's nutten really going nowhere, y'know, but it's selling still. But they need to get some acoustic in the business.

As with so many other veteran artists, the time is now right for a second coming of this group. Well Pleased & Satisfied has such a strong grip on the vintage market and is still highly regarded in many parts of the world it would hardly be a failure if they made a serious approach for a comeback. The heartfelt, unmistakeable and energetic vocal style of Jerry Baxter has been deeply missed among those who appreciate original reggae music, the classic way, and the coming album should be proof of this when it arrives; that the group still has a place in modern times. Mrs Pottinger has constantly reissued 'Sweetie Come From America' on 7" and kept the name alive over the years because such a tune never dies in the minds of the reggae public, and she knows this; go find it if you haven't heard it already, it is made of that timeless quality you've heard from other such seventies recordings. Baxter has repressed several of his vintage titles on the blue Dub Station label over the past five years and it would be even better to see the 'Give Thanks & Praise' and 'Love Train' LP's get the final reissue treatment as well. A collection of the very best of them could be a good start to relaunch the name to reach even more people as there is several European companies making only the best presentation of that period in Jamaican music currently. How about giving Blood & Fire, Pressure Sounds, Makasound or Auralux a ring, Mr Baxter? 7" single information courtesy Roots Knotty Roots.

This piece is dedicated to our good friend Bob Schoenfeld of Nighthawk Records who passed away recently in St. Louis, USA. Bob was one of the world's biggest supporters of authentic Jamaican music and a contributor to these interviews from the start with a healthy supply of material from his vast collection, he also scanned some labels featured within this article. Bob was an avid blues fan and started the Nighthawk label in the mid seventies alongside Leroy Pierson, a label which later switched direction into the reggae field and produced some of the most memorable albums the music has seen, starting with the classic 'Wiser Dread' compilation in 1981. In later years Bob put together the Roots Knotty Roots discography of Jamaican singles alongside Mike Turner, an enormous contribution to the documentation of the music and culture of Jamaica. Bob, you will be sadly missed. Thanks for all you've done. May you rest in peace now. I learned a lot from his long experience in the reggae business and he had a big heart for what we term as vintage reggae music. Earlier this year he put it like this to me and I want to share it with those of you who read this piece because it speaks so clearly what it was about back in those days: One of the things that has never been brought out much in public print or discussions is that reggae music is really a heart break business in many ways. Despite the undeniable talent of the Jamaicans, the number of obstacles facing reggae artists and labels has historically been huge and have only declined slightly over the years. Ignorance is wide spread on all fronts and many artists have sabotaged their own careers in various ways. Greed and stupidity are not uncommon both within and without the industry and many see it as a lump sum game. That is, they think that if there is a winner others must lose, so jealousy, back-biting and concealed hostility are widespread despite the platitudes of unity. (Bob Schoenfeld)

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