NOTE: this blog is no longer active as of 12/07. New one: http://blog.kirchhof.com
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
Fri, 26 May 2006
Desmond Dekker
Desmond Dekker Came First
Toots & The Maytals
Sing a song yeah
reggae soul my brother
There is a right or a wrong way
Just to do everything
There's a right or a wrong way
Just to do everything
Desmond Dekker, he came first
And The Techniques, they came third
Clancy Eccles, he runs fourth
And Derrick Harriot, he came fifth
So I came second....mmmmm mmm mmm...
in the competition
Reggae legend Dekker dies
By Jim Welte
May 25, 2006 at 01:01:00 PM
Reggae icon Desmond Dekker, singer of the first Jamaican song to
become an international hit with 1968's "The Israelites, " has died in
London. He was 64.
Montreal dub producer Moss Raxlen, who has been working with longtime
Dekker guitarist Lynn Tait, said Dekker likely succumbed to a heart
attack but the exact cause was not known.
Born Desmond Dacres in Kingston, Jamaica, Dekker first auditioned for
Studio One founder Coxsone Dodd in 1961, but didn't record his first
song, "Honour Your Father and Mother" until 1963. Several local hits
followed, and Dekker eventually found his own ska backing group, the
Aces, a quartet of singing siblings, and churned out a string of ska
hits, including the bouncy love letter "This Woman" and "Mount Zion."
In 1967, he recorded the hit "Tougher Than Tough" with Derrick
Morgan, and his own rocksteady number, "007 (Shanty Town), " vaulted
to the top of the Jamaican charts.
But it wasn't until 1968 that Dekker became an international
star. "The Israelites" introduced reggae to a worldwide audience,
topping the UK charts and reaching the top 10 in the US.
Although he never had another hit as big as "The Israelites, " Dekker
continued to churn out singles and albums at a prolific pace in the
1970s and 1980s, mostly on the renowned Trojan label.
Thank you, Desmond.
I first heard "The Israelites" at South Padre on the beach, the
summer after my mom had died. I was a withdrawn, introspective, almost
irretrievably damaged child that summer, and the radio was my best
friend. I had no idea what it was, this weird music, but I thought
that it was really cool, and I listened to it on my little radio that
boasted of having "9 Transistors", sitting and watching the waves at
2:00 in the morning by myself. The style of the music spoke to me of
other worlds and other possibilities; that song spoke to me of
struggle and redemption; I couldn't even understand all of the lyrics,
but at the end he sang "After a storm there must be a calm", and it
comforted me.
And then I got The White Album for Christmas in '68, and heard "Ob
La De, Ob La Da" and recognized the beat again, even if
Anglicized. And then Johnny Nash came along with "I Can See Clearly",
and then Paul Simon with "Mother And Child Reunion." And one day in
'74 or so, my worldly outlaw friend Terry put on "Positive Vibration"
and I understood.
But, as Toots said, Desmond Dekker Came First.
Godspeed to you Desmond. You touched the heart of a very lost and
alone little boy in a faraway corner that summer, and helped him to
see a larger world. That little boy still lives, even though he
couldn't imagine at the time that it was possible, and he did okay. He
has had the pleasure of meeting, even sharing the stage with many of
your childhood friends. And he truly wishes that he'd had the chance
to shake your hand, and to thank you, and to tell you.
Posted at 12:19 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
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