“Java” to “Africa”

Songs & tracks

Every song the chapter names, in the order the text names them, each with the sentence that introduces it, set as printed.

• 001

  Wet Dream

  Max Romeo

  His first engineering job was at Studio One where he worked as an apprentice alongside Sylvan Morris, and his first formal session was a voicing session for singer Max Romeo’s controversial slackness song “Wet Dream.” On this occasion, Bunny Lee had rented the studio as an independent producer:

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 002

  Vibrate On

  Lee “Scratch” Perry

  In fact, his most enduring work was created in collaboration with Lee Perry (various songs from Perry’s Black Ark period such as “Vibrate On”), Sylvan Morris (East of the River Nile), and King Tubby (King Tubbys Meets the Rockers Uptown).

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 003

  Java

  Augustus Pablo

  But the recording that initially brought him to public attention was the 1971 instrumental “Java,” produced by Clive Chin and engineered by Thompson at Randy’s. Chin fondly remembers the track as “the most creative rhythm that I ever really produce.”

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 004

  It’s Too Late

  Alton Ellis (Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose cover)

  This simple strategy was particularly effective, as it manipulated the rhythmic tension being generated by the funky, tightly syncopated patterns of Pablo’s rhythm tracks such as the one used for Alton Ellis’s cover of Cornelius Brother and Sister Rose’s 1971 soul hit “It’s Too Late” (Pablo’s instrumental version appears on his own album as “Too Late”).

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 005

  Too Late

  Augustus Pablo

  This simple strategy was particularly effective, as it manipulated the rhythmic tension being generated by the funky, tightly syncopated patterns of Pablo’s rhythm tracks such as the one used for Alton Ellis’s cover of Cornelius Brother and Sister Rose’s 1971 soul hit “It’s Too Late” (Pablo’s instrumental version appears on his own album as “Too Late”). Thompson chose to texture his mixes roughly, particularly in exploiting the scratchy sonority of the rhythm guitar as it blended with the metallic percussion, snare drum rims (in roots reggae drumming, the metal rim is played much more frequently than the open snare), cowbells, and hi-hat cymbals.

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 006

  Ordinary Man

  Lloyd Parks

  Lloyd Parks: “Ordinary Man” > Augustus Pablo: “Assignment #1” > Errol Thompson, Bingy Bunny & General Echo: “Extraordinary Dub” > Errol Thompson: “Extraordinary Version”

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 007

  Assignment #1

  Augustus Pablo

  Lloyd Parks: “Ordinary Man” > Augustus Pablo: “Assignment #1” > Errol Thompson, Bingy Bunny & General Echo: “Extraordinary Dub” > Errol Thompson: “Extraordinary Version”

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 008

  Extraordinary Version

  Errol Thompson

  Lloyd Parks: “Ordinary Man” > Augustus Pablo: “Assignment #1” > Errol Thompson, Bingy Bunny & General Echo: “Extraordinary Dub” > Errol Thompson: “Extraordinary Version” Lloyd Parks croons a lament of the daily struggle for survival on “Ordinary Man” (1972), built from a midtempo vamp in C minor moving between the F minor and C minor chords, with the guitar and bass playing a unison rhythm pattern.

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 009

  Extra-Ordinary Dub

  Errol Thompson, Bingy Bunny & General Echo

  “Extra-Ordinary Dub” dramatizes the newfound creative capabilities of the mixing console in the form of a mock conversation between an engineer (voiced by Thompson) and an aspiring engineer (voiced by guitarist Eric “Bingy Bunny” Lamont).

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 010

  Love of the Common People

  Nicky Thomas

  All them Nicky Thomas tune like “Love of the Common People” and “Have A Little Faith” that go in the British chart, they were made down at that studio at Duhaney Park.”

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 011

  Have A Little Faith

  Nicky Thomas

  All them Nicky Thomas tune like “Love of the Common People” and “Have A Little Faith” that go in the British chart, they were made down at that studio at Duhaney Park.”

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 012

  Fight I Down

  Clive “Lizard” Hunt

  Clive “Lizard” Hunt: “Fight I Down” > Mighty Two: “Earthquake”

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 013

  Earthquake

  The Mighty Two

  Clive “Lizard” Hunt: “Fight I Down” > Mighty Two: “Earthquake” As noted by Lloyd Bradley, one major advantage Gibbs had over his competitors such as Bunny Lee was his own studio.

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 014

  Chapter Three

  The Mighty Two (Joe Gibbs & Errol Thompson)

  The Mighty Two: “Chapter Three,” “Dub Three”

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 015

  Cassava Piece

  Augustus Pablo

  A reverberating tom-tom roll (similar in effect to what Lee Perry was crafting around Mikey Richards’s drumming at the Black Ark studio) commences Sly and Robbie’s recut of Augustus Pablo’s famous “Cassava Piece” (that is, “King Tubbys Meets the Rockers Uptown”) rhythm, stripped down to a drum & bass arrangement, with a driving eighth-note tambourine added for extra propulsion.

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 016

  King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown

  King Tubby / Augustus Pablo

  A reverberating tom-tom roll (similar in effect to what Lee Perry was crafting around Mikey Richards’s drumming at the Black Ark studio) commences Sly and Robbie’s recut of Augustus Pablo’s famous “Cassava Piece” (that is, “King Tubbys Meets the Rockers Uptown”) rhythm, stripped down to a drum & bass arrangement, with a driving eighth-note tambourine added for extra propulsion.

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 017

  Rockfort Rock

  Studio One riddim

  Volume 3 closes with “Dub Three” built from the old Studio One “Rockfort Rock” rhythm.

  song Open ↗ YouTube
• 018

  Pablo in Dub

  Augustus Pablo

  During his days at Randy’s, Thompson had applied reverb to Carlton Barrett’s bass drum on tracks like Augustus Pablo’s “Pablo in Dub” in such a way that the bass drum effectively orchestrated the atmospheric elements of the mix, with Barrett’s low-register syncopation creating a series of atmospheric disturbances that set Pablo’s melodica in stark relief.

  song Open ↗ YouTube

Albums, compilations & series

Albums, compilations and series, again in the order the chapter names them.

• 019

  Natty Dread

  Bob Marley and the Wailers

  That’s the only reason why you saw Natty Dread and Rastaman Vibration recorded there.

  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 020

  Rastaman Vibration

  Bob Marley and the Wailers

  That’s the only reason why you saw Natty Dread and Rastaman Vibration recorded there.

  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 021

  This Is Augustus Pablo

  Augustus Pablo

  One of the most significant of these is the eponymous This Is Augustus Pablo (1972), by a musician who would himself play a crucial role in the development of dub music.

  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 022

  East of the River Nile

  Augustus Pablo

  In fact, his most enduring work was created in collaboration with Lee Perry (various songs from Perry’s Black Ark period such as “Vibrate On”), Sylvan Morris (East of the River Nile), and King Tubby (King Tubbys Meets the Rockers Uptown).

  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 023

  King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown

  Augustus Pablo

  In fact, his most enduring work was created in collaboration with Lee Perry (various songs from Perry’s Black Ark period such as “Vibrate On”), Sylvan Morris (East of the River Nile), and King Tubby (King Tubbys Meets the Rockers Uptown). Pablo’s recorded legacy is particularly intertwined with King Tubby, thanks to the engineer’s popular mixing board treatments of his work.

  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 024

  Blackboard Jungle Dub

  The Upsetters / Lee Perry

  Thompson’s approach to the remix was somewhat similar to Lee Perry’s work on recordings such as Blackboard Jungle Dub in the sense that where the engineers at King Tubby’s studio generated effects organically by applying sound processing to the recorded tracks, Thompson tended to use these tracks as a “canvas” upon which to overdub extraneous sound effects such as car horns, sirens, animal sounds, and even flushing toilets.

  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 025

  Randy’s Dub

  Clive Chin / Impact All Stars

  He was at Randy’s long enough to mix portions of the Randy’s Dub collection with Chin, who remembered: “We mix some at different times, they weren’t all mix one time.

  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 026

  African Dub

  Joe Gibbs & The Professionals / The Mighty Two

  “That one deh a killer!” announces a voice at the beginning of the third volume in the African Dub series, initiating fifteen seconds of sonic mayhem unleashed by Thompson, who prefaces “Chapter Three” with a chaotic maelstrom of overdubbed earthquake and thunder sounds underpinned by Sly Dunbar’s pulsing four-to-the-floor “steppers” rhythm.

  album Open ↗ YouTube