Reggae At The BBC
(Currently Available on BBC Iplayer)
11.00 pm – 12.30 am As The Grand Finale The Station Broadcast A Reggae Revival Night With A Retropsective Look At Previous Reggae Performances From Various Reggae Artists On Different BBC Platforms (Including Top of The Pops).
In Addition To The Music What Made This Particuarly Enjoyable Was The Little Snippets of Info. So Much So We’ve Picked Up On Some of Them, Added To Them And Done A Little Further Research.
Most Notable Is Confirmation of What We Already Knew, But Is Not Addressed Enough, Which Is How Much The White Music Scene Borrows or Simply Takes From The Black Music Scene (Often With Very Little Official Recognition). How Multi-Talented Many Reggae Music Artists Are And Why The Black Community Needs To Control It’s Own Narrative In Order To Keep Breakin’ Down Certain Destructive Stereotypes. And Sadly How Many Reggae Artists Seem To Pass Prematurely From Illness (Includin’ Marley Himself Which Is Addressed In The Aforementioned Documentary).
There Were Over Twenty Performers And Here’s Our Take On A Interestin’ Fact or Two On Each of Them In No Particular Order. Use The Links At The Top of The Article To See Who You Like And Take A Bite From Our Generous Specially Orchestrated Menu.
Nicky Thomas
One: Nicky Thomas ~ Love of The Common People, 1970 (See Video Above). He Gives A Very Unique Physical Performance In His Rendition of The Song At The BBC In 1970. The Song About The Common Man Livin’ In Poverty, Has A Long History Though.
Interestingly, He Got To No.9 In The UK Charts In 1970. And Paul Young, The White 80s Pop Singer Who’s Style Is Largely Covers of Black Soul Music Tracks, Got To No.2 With It In 1983. Initially Young Released His Cover Version In 1982 And It Failed To Even Chart. However After His Cover Version of Marvin Gay’s 1962 Track ‘Wherever I Lay My Hat’ Got To The No.1 In 1983, He Released It And It Got To No.2 Spot In The Same Year. Young Also Got It To No.1 In Ireland, Italy And Holland. Young’s Version Included A Trombone Solo By Cuba-Born Jamaican Reggae & SKA Str Rico Rodrigues.
The Everly Brothers Released It In 1967 And Their Version Also Got To No.1, In Canada, But Not The UK. Elsewhere Their Version Bombed, As Did The Original Version Also Written & Released In 1967 By Folk Singers The Four Preps And Wayne Newman (AKA Midnight Idol And Mr Entertainment).
Nicky Thomas Also Worked With Bunny Livingston In The UK At Trojan Records, He Also Had A Number of Jamaican Hits, And He Also Undertook A Number of Music Tours. However Despite His Stunnin’ Performance on The BBC In 1970, He Was Later Said To Be Unimpressed With What He Perceived As Their Underplayin’ of Reggae Music. Thomas Was Only 41 When He Reportedly Died of Suicide.
The Wailers ~ Bob Marley & The Wailers ~ Desmond Dekker
Bob Marley’s Grandson. Skip Marley. The DNA Talks For Itself. Skip Just Does The Singing! He Made His Birmingham Debut At The Birmingham Town Hall Concert Exodus: With The Chineke! Orchestra (Recorded Live Tuesday July 26 2022 For The BBC) In Honour of His Grandfather And The 60th Anniversary of Jamaican Independence Day Sat August 6th
Two: Bob Marley & The Wailers ~ Stir It Up, 1973. Marley’s Version, Produced By Chris Blackwell of Island Records Was Featured On The Wailers UK Debut Album Catch A Fire The Same Year (April 1973). Marley Had Written The Song In 1967 And Allowed His African-American Musician And Producer Friend Johnny Nash To Record It Four Years Earlier (In 1971). The Album Burnin’ By The Wailers (Originally Bunnie Wailer, Bob Marley And Peter Tosh All From Jamaica) Was Also Released In The Same Year (December 1973).
Whilst Stir It Up In The UK Was Their Debut UK Album, It Was Their 5th Group Album And Burnin’ Was Their 6th (As They Had Been Recordin’ Together In Jamaica Before Comin’ To The UK). As Well As The UK, It Was Also A Hit In The USA. So Much So, That In 2007 The US Library of Congress Deemed It Asthetically, Historically, And Culturally Significant Enough To Be Added To The US National Recording Registry. Ironically, After The Success of This Track The Trio Decided To Pursue Solo Careers. Seein’ His Mass Appeal Island Records Became More Influential Over Bob’s Development As An Artist, And Tosh And Livingston Stayed More Aligned To Their Musical Perspective of Jamaican Roots Reggae.
After This Instead of Bein’ Known As The Wailers, Bob Marley Became Bob Marley And The Wailers, Whereby He Was Freed To Select A Series of Backin’ Singers To Support His New Style of Singin’. Bunny Wailer Had Generously (or Unwittingly) Allowed Him To Keep The Wailer Name.
Guitar Legend Eric Clapton Recorded I Shot The Sheriff From The Burnin’ Album In 1974 Givin’ It A More Rock Guitar Emphasis. His Rock Reggae Version Reached No.1 On The US Billboards Chart. His Only Hit To Do So. ‘Tears In Heaven’ The Deeply Movin’, Heartbreakin’, Tragic Yet Ultimately Beautiful Song About The Tragic Loss of His Baby Boy (After He Fell Out of A Window) Reached No.2. In 1992.
Three: Bob Marley & The Wailers ~ Exodus, 1977. An Album of The Same Name Was Released In The Same Year By Island Records. Marley Suffered A Political Assination Attempt In Jamaica The Year Before And So Escaped To London, Where He Wrote It Whilst Recouperatin’ In London’s Notting Hill. This Brings To Mind The Insanity of Richard Curtis Makin’ A Film Called Notting (The Home of The Carnival As Well As Bob Marley) Not Featurin’ Any Black People At All! Wrong Is Not Even A Big Enough Word. And Yet This Is The Same Guy Behind Comic Relief Charity That Works With Sir Lenny Henry. Go Figure!
Four : Desmond Dekker & The Aces ~ The Isrealites, 1978. This Upbeat Reggae Tune Is About The Twelve Tribes of Isreal Central To The Rastafarian Interpretation of The Bible. In 1968 It Was The First Reggae Song To Reach The UK No.1 And The American Top 10 (In At No.9). He Had Various Other Hits Includin’ “007 (Shanty Town)” In 1968 And The Harder They Come (Written By Jimmy Cliff) In 1970. The Latter Went To No.2 (A Film of The Same Name Starrin’ Jimmy Cliff Was Released The Same Year). Born In Kingston Jamaica In 1941 Dekker Died of A Heart Attack, In 2006, In Thornton Heath, Croydon).
TheOrator.Press ~ A New, Monthly, Online, Independent Magazine 