with with Roots Reggae Selections by Jay Spaker of JBB
Big Youth was part of the first wave of Jamaican DJs inspired by
U-Roy. After a series of chart singles in Jamaica, he released dozens
of albums, toured internationally and helped set the standard for a
whole generation of DJs to follow. Throughout his career, Big Youth
emphasized the natural Rastafarian lifestyle and adopted the political
message of Bob Marley and the Wailers and other Jamaican artists of
his generation. Born Manley Augustus Buchanan on April 19, 1949, Big
Youth's career began as a sound system DJ, and brought a Rasta
perspective into his lyrics and expressing a disdain for violence and
positive view of black history. He first recorded for Gregory Isaacs
and Lee Perry, then charted with singles for a variety of producers
including Gussie Clarke with The Killer and Tippertone Rocking and
Phil Pratt with Tell It Black and Phil Pratt Thing.A bad motorcycle
accident inspired two songs: Instant Coma and Ace 90 Skank, for which
producer Keith Hudson took the unusual step of bringing a motorcycle
into Byron Lees Dynamic studio to record the engine racing for the
intro. The lyric, in typical Big Youth fashion, was in the form of
advice to the youngFor if you ride like lightning, you might crash
like thunder. Other early singles that dominated the Jamaican charts
included A So We Stay over a version of Dennis Browns Money In My
Pocket for Joe Gibbs, Mosiah Garvey over Burning Spears Marcus Garvey
for Jack Ruby, Medicine Doctor over the Gaylads for Sonia Pottinger,
and Cool Breeze and Dock Of the Bay for Derrick Harriot. Beginning in
1973, Big Youth produced and issued singles on his own labels (Nagusa
Nagast, Nichola Delita and Augustus Buchanan) with a string of chart
shots including Hell Is For Heroes, Every Nigger Is A Star, Wolf In
Sheeps Clothing, Jim Sqeeachy and Ten Against One.The album Chi Chi
Run (1973 Melodisc), produced by Prince Buster, has been touted as the
first DJ album release, even though strictly speaking it is a various
artists compilation featuring Dennis Brown and Alton Ellis to round
out the Big Youth tracks. The corresponding dub album, The Message,
has also been called as the first dub album, though, as with the first
anything in reggae, there are a couple of other contenders for the
title. Either way, the vocal album does contain some very early Big
Youth tracks for which, he alleges, he has still never been paid. Some
other great early works include the Impact 7" Notty No Jester, and I
Pray Thee on The Abyssinians Clinch label and Natty Warning on a
version of Glen Browns Turn Around.Screaming Target (1973 Trojan),
which may have preceded the Prince Buster album, was produced by
Gussie Clarke and utilizes rhythm tracks first voiced by Gregory
Isaacs, Dennis Brown and K.C. White. It is, to this day, one of the
all-time great DJ albums and Big Youths blood-curdling opening screams
make it clear this is not going to be like any other kind of music
youve ever heard. Pride and Joy Rock is the first in a series of Big
Youth tunes that draws inspiration from American R& B tunes and
underscores Buchanans own argument that he was the first Jamaican
sing-jay, as he often stopped his chat to actually sing the chorus of
the song. Certainly, his melodic sense is strong from the very
beginning, and unlike many later fast-talking DJs, he incorporated
song into his chants in a way that later DJs, like Tony Rebel, would
emulate.His next release, Dread Locks Dread (1975 TR Intl; 1978
Caroline), was produced by Tony Robinson but recorded at Joe Gibbs
studio with outstanding cuts like Lightning Flash Weak Heart Drop and
Some Like It Dread. Big Youth had his finger on the pulse of Kingston
and flung the street lingo in a manner that is still startling today.
His voice manages to convey equal parts joy and an unstoppable sense
of humor. Visually he was astonishinglong dreadlocks, multi-colored
jewels inset into his front teeth and, on the cover of his next album,
Natty Cultural Dread (1976 Trojan), a monster spliff in his mouth.
This album gathered singles and balanced DJ bursts like Keep Your
Dread, spiritual chant I Light and I Salvation and a fairly straight
vocal rendition of Touch Me In the Morning.This set the pattern for
what was to come from Big Youth. The title track of Hit the Road Jack
(1976 Trojan), produced by Big Youth himself and recorded at Randys
Studio 17 North Parade in Kingston, somehow managed to improve on the
Ray Charles original. The track includes Jamaican folk rhymes and Ike
and Tina Turner-style interplaywith Jah Youth doing both partsthat
took it way over the top. He could always come back with serious
sermons like Jah Man of Syreen or The Way of the Light but his
re-workings of Marvin Gayes Whats Going On and even Bob Marley and
Peter Toshs Get Up Stand Up added an indescribable element of
surrealism, in which something familiar had been completely displaced
by something alien.Reggae Phenomenon (1977 Trojan) was the first DJ
double album and, partly because these songs were twice testedin the
sound system dances and as popular records in Jamaicayou can listen to
all four sides without your attention faltering. Riverton City, Tell
It Black, Mammy Hot Daddy Cool and Plead I Cause are among the
all-time favorites and once again his re-telling of American hits like
Al Greens Love and Happiness and The Temptations Papa Was A Rolling
Stone makes them Jamaican classics. At this point Big Youth began
releasing his albums on his own label in Jamaica. Isaiah First Prophet
of Old (1978 Nichola Delita) was produced by Devon Russell and
recorded at Joe Gibbs & Harry Js. Backed by The Ark Angels, his own
band name for the Soul Syndicate, the album contained Upful One and
World In Confusion and was reissued on compact disc in 1997 on the
Caroline label. Progress (1979 Nichola Delite) contained one of his
strongest blasts, Pope Paul Feel It, the topical Green Bay Killing and
the original Stepping Out A Babylon. Rock Holy (1980 Negusa Nagast),
like Progress, was produced by Big Youth himself.In the early
eighties, Big Youth was one of the first artists to sign with the
Heartbeat label, which released his next three studio albums. The
Chanting Dread Inna Fine Style (1982 Heartbeat) featured songs like
All Nations Bow, African Daughter and Streets In Africa. A Luta
Continua (1984 Heartbeat), produced by Herbie Miller, was dedicated to
freedom fighters Marcus Garvey, Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, and
others. Manifestation (1988 Heartbeat) featured No Nukes, a crooning
take on No Way To Treat A Lady, and one of those songs only Big Youth
could pull off: Spiderman Meet Hulk (In A Rub-A-Dub Style).Though he
rarely toured, his performances were powerful--especially in the early
days when he was backed by The Ark Angels with Santa Davis, Chinna
Smith, Tony Chin, Fully Fullwood and Keith Sterling. Two live releases
capture Big Youth at different points in his career. Live At Reggae
Sunsplash 82 (1984 Sunsplash) is a classic run-through of hits.
Jamming In the House of Dread (1991 ROIR) was recorded live in Osaka,
Japan at Reggae Japansplash 8/30/90 and features some later material
as well.Higher Grounds (1995 VP) was produced by former Black Uhuru
front-man Junior Reid and Big Youth, his sideburns greying, shows hes
still got the stuff on songs like Free the People, Mr. Wicked Man and
Why Do the Eden Reign. A couple of excellent 10" from 2006, Lions Den
and Love Is What We Need were cut for Ryan Moore of the Twilight
Circus Sound System. By the time of Musicology (2007 Vizion Sounds)
the grey had spread to his beard but the new set of music recorded at
Leggos, Bobby Digital and Tuff Gong, including songs like Glory To the
King, Joy and Where Were All Them Bwoy uphold the standards Big Youth
himself set about thirty-five years earlier.
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25/02/2018 Last update