The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2019 - Issue 26

bite music Another character that made me smile and laugh was Lord Creator who said, “I used to be a wild fella. The girls used to love me when I was younger. I was such a good singer and handsome if I say so myself. The women used to come around me in droves.” This wasn’t said in arrogance but by someone who enjoyed immense success in Jamaica and reminisced on those days in the ‘60s. Still a handsome man today, Lord Cre- ator appears to be someone you could have a cosy chat with about the Caribbean and music in his day. Wayne and Brian Jobson from the Jobson Brothers spoke about how they booked a recording session at Studio 17 but forgot to get a drummer. They managed to enlist the help of drummer Carlton Barrett from The Wailers who happened to be sitting outside in a place called Idler’s Rest where every as- piring musician and big star would hang out, hoping to catch sight of Clive as he left the studio. This area was also featured in the 1978 cult movie Rockers. The great thing about the documentary is that you get to find out how Clive Chin became a sound engineer at the studio. As well as being brought into the business by his father, Clive was also trained by Errol Thompson, a talented audio engineer from Studio One who moved over to Randy’s in 1970. Clive did his first recording at the age of 18 on a song called ‘Young Love’ by Ossie Herbert. He had a different sound and style to his dad with attention to detail in the production. Interestedly, as the optimism of Jamaican independence faded and the upbeat tempo of ska slowed down, the island was go- ing through a new transition. As Jimmy Cliff revealed, “Music was what we used to express what’s going on in society. When we saw that independence was not working for us, as African descendants, we started looking to Africa for our roots. That is when the music changed to reggae.” He explained that the Harder They Come movie gave people a real identity beyond independence. However, reggae started to become political with growing an- ger expressed in the music and the fantasy violence portrayed in the film became a reality a few years later when armed gangs supporting rival political parties clashed in fierce street battles. During this time it was reported that Bob Marley, his wife Rita, and the manager of The Wailers, Don Taylor received gunshot wounds during a shooting incident that took place at Marley’s home while they were rehearsing for the Smile Jamaica con- cert. The latter part of the documentary shows Clive taking the tapes to a specialist studio engineer to catalogue them and transfer them digitally. As they played the finished products, many of the tracks brought back happy memories of working with the greatest reggae artists. One experience was with Peter Tosh with whom he travelled to New York. At that time you could smoke on the plane but smoking weed was not permit- ted, but yet Peter pulled out his marijuana pipe and lit it up. Known to do this everywhere and anywhere, Peter and Clive were arrested at the airport and strip-searched. They were then put in a cell overnight and appeared before a judge the next morning. What amused me about this encounter was when Clive revealed that Peter told the judge that he planned to le- galise marijuana, he had a meeting with President Carter and he was going to be the Minister of Marijuana. Confused, the Lee 'Scratch' Perry Hollie Stephenson Maxi Priest Levi Roots 12th Jul ABK (Andrew Baker LBN)