I’m stuck inside of 1977 with those “can’t-get-shut-of-that-punk-rock-blues”. Again. To a lot of my peers and contemporaries of that period, this is the record that defines their trips into the Matthew Street underground. More than any punk rock 45, this seems to typify the sound of Eric’s, Liverpool’s musical wonderland basement. As is well documented everywhere, there wasn’t enough punk records to go round, and all other music had been denigrated to beyond parody. Something had to be found to fill in the gaps. The music of urban Jamaica chimed with the disaffected and the unwashed. It was rebel music that spoke the same language, albeit sometimes in an impenetrable patois. Punk’s adoption of reggae had an enormous effect on the market in Jamaica. The already huge export market to the UK was swollen by the extra sales and the recognition that the punk rockers afforded the music. Strummer and Rotten spoke of reggae music with spiritual lyrics and heavy, heavy dubs and that message spread out across the punk universe like a gospel. By the middle of the summer every spiky top worth his/her salt owned both the LP of Culture’s “Two Sevens Clash” and the 12″ of Augustus Pablo’s “King Tubby’s Meets Rockers Uptown”. During the 1970’s and no doubt due to that export market, Jamaican music had exploded both at home and in the UK. A proliferation of labels and producers had arisen in the late Sixties, hundreds, thousands of releases plenty of which became successful chart hits. Joe Gibbs, who owned an electrical/record store in Kingston was one of those pioneers. In 1966 he set up his Amalgamated label and scored many hits during the rocksteady period, which bloomed and boomed during 68/69 and became the defacto sound of the skinhead. The profits from that period set up the next formative years in Jamaican popular music. In 1972 he set up his own studio with former Randy’s engineer, Errol Thompson. Randy’s was the property of Clive ‘Randy’. Chin. Chin had moved his successful record store into a former ice cream parlour at 16-17 North Parade and built a studio in the rooms above. Errol Thompson was an integral part of its early flourish. Gibbs and Thompson would later become known as The Mighty Two. It was following this that the pair developed a whole new,
distinctive sound, racking up huge successes with the likes of Dennis Brown, Big Youth and Trinity. Their rework of Trinity’s “Three Piece Suit” – itself a DJ take on Marcia Aitken’s “I’m Still In Love With You Boy” – was “Uptown Top Ranking”, which made Number One in the UK in the post-Pistols snow of January 1978.
Alton Ellis, one of Jamaica’s biggest stars had recorded his massive “Why Birds Follow Spring” in 1967 to huge acclaim. Ten years later Gibbs and Thompson recorded the same tune with their house band, The Professionals at their studio in Retirement Crescent. It would prove to be one of the greatest Jamaican records of all time. It begins with the instruction “T’row it Joe…” before the the drums, piano and the magic flute transport you to the other side of your own smoke filled universe. It’s the horns and the melody that strike you first – they have a heart melting feel, seductive and powerful. That ridiculous x-factor that changes a perfectly alright record into an absolutely vital document, that renders life pointless without it.
The only reference I’ve ever come across as to who the mystery vocalist is, suggests it is none other than Joe Gibb superstar, Dennis Brown. The lyrics are typically undecipherable Jamaican, but that never held us back – it just adds to the mystique. Why this, out of all the tunes in that period, turned out to be
everybody’s favourite, I know not why, but it would be on everybody’s list of music they can just about remember from their teenage years.
Here we have a little 1977 bonus – both sides, cleverly edited together for your delectation. I take my hat off to the people I met at that period, the overwhelming majority of whom are still friends, people I love. We bonded over music and a thoroughly difficult present, during a moment in time that now seems dead important and seminal.
But it didn’t feel like that back then – we were just youngsters learning to turn our back on the audience for our own nefarious ends, with our own set of nefarious rules and our own nefarious needs. Thanks everyone, it was absolutely lovely. VIVA THE MIGHTY TWO! X
Joe Gibbs & The Professionals – No Bones For The Dogs. Town and Country (JA). 1977.
bernie@happening-things.com 