/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-JAMAICA: Producers Pay Tribute to Reggae Hit-Maker

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Howard Campbell

KINGSTON, Aug 14 2002 (IPS) - Few producers in the annals of reggae music can match Joe Gibbs’ record as a hit-maker. During the mid and late 1970s when Jamaican music was gathering momentum, Gibbs released hit songs aplenty but he was grounded in the early 1980s by a costly copyright battle.

Though Gibbs’ unfortunate fall documented the need for a proper copyright system in this country, his catalogue of hit songs is among the best reggae has to offer.

To commemorate it, New York City’s VP Records last month released ‘Old To the New: A Steely And Clevie Tribute to Joe Gibbs’, featuring two of contemporary reggae’s most successful producers paying homage to the legendary Gibbs sound.

Steely (keyboardist Wycliffe Johnson) and Clevie (drummer Cleveland Browne) were Jamaica’s leading producers during the 1990s, scoring big hits for Grammy-winning deejay Shabba Ranks and numerous other grassroots artists, as well as working with international acts like rhythm and blues star Billy Ocean.

Three years ago, they were approached by VP’s Murray Elias to undertake the Gibbs project but were unable to complete the 14-track set until early this year. On it, Steely and Clevie put fresh spins to songs like Dennis Brown’s ‘How Can I Leave’, Culture’s apocalyptic ‘Two Sevens Clash’ and J.C. Lodge’s cover of country singer Charlie Pride’s ‘Someone Loves You Honey’, the song that got Gibbs into hot water almost 20 years ago.

Elias, an American who has promoted reggae at several independent record companies, says the time was right for such a record.

“I thought Joe Gibbs is a bit under-rated in the history of reggae but more importantly, I thought the songs and production sound always made his catalogue more accessible to a mainstream audience,” said Elias.

The music industry veteran first discovered Gibbs’ music while he was a deejay in a New York City club in the late 1970s. His play list was built around new wave and disco with a dab of reggae thrown in, and much of his Jamaican input would be Joe Gibbs platters.

When the idea for a tribute set came up, he recalled that Steely and Clevie had done a similar compilation honouring pioneer reggae producer, Clement “Coxsone” Dodd. “That has always been one of my favourite albums and I thought this would be a logical follow-up,” said Elias.

Unlike the ‘Steely and Clevie Play Studio One Vintage’ album, Elias did not ask the original performers to update their songs but sought out younger acts to record duets that would make the album more appealing to a younger audience.

Culture is joined by D.J. Anthony B on ‘Two Sevens Clash’, while roots singer Luciano teams with the Mighty Diamonds on their hit, ‘Identity’. Lodge’s new version of ‘Someone Loves You Honey’ hears her singing with Junior Kelly.

Clevie says he and Steely were determined to capture the sound Gibbs made so popular over 20 years ago, so they recruited some of the members of the Gibbs house band, The Professionals, to work on ld To The New’.

“We tried to keep the sound of the era as much as possible but there is still the Steely and Clevie touch,” he explained.

Born Joel Gibson in Montego Bay in 1945, Gibbs entered the music scene in the late 1960s and was a protege to producer Lee “Scratch” Perry, who was making a name for himself with singer Junior Byles and a Rastafarian group named the Wailers.

It was not until the turbulent 1970s that his career started rolling with Brown, who emerged as a bona fide hit-machine under Gibbs’ stewardship. Brown became Gibbs’ biggest star with a series of ballads though some of the producer’s message songs earned notoriety.

On Jul. 7, 1977, Culture’s ‘Two Sevens Clash’ caused a national scare. The song cited an alleged prophecy by Pan-Africanist leader, Marcus Garvey, that there would be mayhem on the day the sevens clashed; as a result, many Jamaicans stayed at home, schools closed and storeowners shut their businesses.

Gibbs tasted overseas success that year with female deejay duo, Althea and Donna’s ‘Uptown Top Ranking’, which topped the British national charts. In the early 1980s, he and Brown signed a deal with the respected A&M Records that yielded two albums.

But the glory days came to end in 1983 when Gibbs was ordered to shell out unpaid royalties to Pride and the authors of ‘Someone Loves You Honey’, which Gibbs claimed he had written. The song was not a hit for Pride but Lodge’s version went gold in Europe, prompting Pride’s attorneys to sue Gibbs.

The ordeal reportedly left Gibbs bankrupt, and he exited Jamaica for Miami, Florida where he operates a company that distributes his vast catalogue.