Post by I on Feb 16, 2006 18:26:11 GMT
The dictionary definition of the word dub offers various meanings: give a nickname to; invest with a knighthood; provide with a soundtrack of a foreign language in films. In US street slang, the word dub is used as short for double, as an abbreviation for the letter W, as meaning the number 20, or a $20 bag of marijuana, or even a marijuana joint. In some parts of Ireland, people call a Dubliner a dub, and among car owners a Volkswagen, the VW, is also referred to as a dub or a vee dub. However, none of these definitions in any way fit the word dub as we apply it here. In reggae music, dub refers to experimentation with backing tracks to produce sound that when fed through the distorted amplification of a massive sound system speaker conceives an aural experience that has to be heard in this context to be properly appreciated.
Even before dub ever came into being and even before the word reggae was coined, the adaptable backing track already had its place in Jamaican music. Bunny Lee made use of the rhythm of Roy Shirley’s ‘Music Field’ from 1967 to cut a dozen variations using the same basic rhythm track, while a number of Slim Smith productions from 1967/68 for the same producer, including ‘Love And Devotion’, ‘My Conversation’. ‘Everybody Needs Love’ and ‘The Beatitude’, also saw service for many different producers over the years. In fact, ‘My Conversation’ was one of the top rhythms of the year 2000, 33 years after its original outing. Another even earlier version was Lee Perry’s ‘Rub And Squeeze’ in 1966 for Coxsone that used the same rhythm as The Wailers’ ‘Put It On’ from the same year. In the cash-strapped reggae world of the late 1960s, the recycling of a rhythm track for as many times as the public would buy it saved on costs and made good economic sense for the producer, and soon many records were appearing with an instrumental version on their B-sides.
When King Tubby conceived dub in 1969, he was employed by Duke Reid at Treasure Isle studio as the master cutter, cutting acetates. Born Osbourne Ruddock in Kingston on January 28, 1941, Tubby grew up on in Central Kingston, remaining there until he was 14 when he moved to Waterhouse. He worked as an electronics engineer repairing radios and televisions through the 1960s and by 1968 owned a sound system called Home Town Hi-Fi, using echo and reverb effects which set him aside from the competition. In 1972 Ruddock set up a tiny studio in Waterhouse and began associating closely with producers Lee Perry, Bunny Lee, Glen Brown, Winston Riley, Roy Cousins and Carlton Patterson. Lee linked him with Dynamic Studio, who sold Tubby their four-track mixing board. In lieu of his background in electronics, Tubby was able to build customised equipment. He even constructed his own echo delay unit by passing a loop of tape over the heads of an old two-track machine. Within a couple of years, Bunny Lee had become the studio’s foremost client and remained so throughout the 1970s.
Working with a whole stable of artists that included Johnny Clarke, Cornel Campbell, Delroy Wilson, Jackie Edwards, Owen Grey, as well as musicians like Tommy McCook, Bobby Ellis, Jackie Mittoo, Winston Wright, Earl “Chinna” Smith and virtually all the DJs of the time including U Roy, I Roy, Dennis Alcapone, Big Joe, Trinity, Dillinger, Tapper Zukie and Jah Stitch, Lee cut thousands of records during the 1970s, most of them subjected to a Tubby’s mix, and with some rhythms recycled over and over again. Among their earliest collaborations together were the albums ‘The Roots Of Dub’, followed by ‘Dub From The Roots’ a few months later. These were the only King Tubby albums that were actually conceived as albums and tracks from the pair take up the first CD here. ‘The Roots Of Dub’ recordings feature a stripped down form of dub at its most skeletal, while the ‘Dub From The Roots’ sessions make more use of horns and other instrumentation flying in and out of the mix. Most of the rhythms are familiar Bunny Lee fare, and are tracks he would use time and again with alternative vocal, DJ, instrumental and dub versions. There are the rhythms he used for Cornel Campbell’s reworking of Studio 1 lines on Alexander Henry’s ‘Please Be True’, Delroy Wilson’s ‘I Shall Not Remove’ and his own ‘Stars’, for Horace Andy’s ‘Love Of A Woman’ and ‘Something On My Mind’, Jackie Edwards’ ‘Ali Baba’ and Johnny Clarke’s take on the Abyssinians’ ‘Declaration Of Rights’ and John Holt’s Treasure Isle classic ‘Stealing’. The two albums are subtly mixed compared to later efforts and the sturdy rhythms add up to among the very best King Tubby’s albums of them all.
The second CD here opens with Tommy McCook’s stirring revival of ‘Riding West’, originally released on discomix by Third World in the late 1970s and the rest of the set continues in a similar vein. The next five tracks were originally issued on the 1977 UK based Justice label as the second side of a Tommy McCook album entitled simply ‘Instrumental’, while the last nine tracks come from the same artist’s ‘Cookin’’ LP from 1975. In between, most of the titles originated on the ‘Bobby Ellis And The Professionals Meet the Revolutionaries’ album released by Third World in 1977. Among the rhythms used are John Holt’s popular takes on soul tunes like ‘You’ll Never Find’, ‘I Forgot To Say I Love’ You’ and ‘In The Springtime’, Johnny Clarke’s ‘You Have Caught Me’ and his duet with Derrick Morgan on a thrashing version of the Blues Busters’ ‘Behold’, as well as cuts of Cornel Campbell’s ‘Duke Of Earl’ and ‘Talking Love’, Owen Grey’s ‘Bongo Natty’ and Delroy Wilson’s Striker Lee recut of his Studio One favourite ‘True Believer’. The whole CD is a saxophone and trumpet dominated mix featuring the whole spectrum of Agrovators styles from the early flying cymbals effect to the later jumpers and ticklers mixes.
A Jackie Mittoo album entitled ‘Showcase’ originally released towards the late 1970s constitutes the opening nine tracks of the third CD here and begins with the declamatory ‘Death In The Arena’ revisited as ‘Champion Of The Arena’, before revisiting updates of material first recorded by the keyboardist at Studio One a decade earlier on tracks like ‘Wicked Destroyer Dub’ based on ‘Darker Shade Of Black’/’Norwegian Wood’, ‘Hot Milk’ for ‘Hot Roots Dub’ or ‘The Magnificent Drum Song’, one of Mittoo’s most plagiarised rhythms. The following 15 dub tracks are originated from various sources, there’s Leroy Smart’s ‘Trying To Wreck Up My Life’ for the ‘Bionic Horn Dub’, Jah Stitch and Johnny Clarke’s take on Bob Marley’s ‘Crazy Baldhead’ on ‘Crazy Dub’, as well as dubs of two of the same singer’s biggest hits, ‘Move Out Of Babylon’ and ‘None Shall Escape The Judgement’ plus mixes of Cornel Campbell’s ‘Stalowatt’ and a thunderous version of Little Roy’s ‘Tribal War’ to bring the side to its close.
The last of the CDs constitutes a wide range of dubs, some of which like ‘Liquidation Dub’, a version of Dennis Alcapone’s ‘Shake It Up (Musical Liquidator’ and based of course on the famous Harry J instrumental, I can find no trace of ever being issued before now. I can help with the first track though. ‘Hands Of Times Dub’ is an instrumental featuring lead guitar from Earl “Chinna” Smith and was originally released on that artist’s sumptuous ‘Sticky Fingers’ album back in the 1970s. There’s a selection of Delroy Wilson dubs as well, of ‘Get Ready’, ‘You’ll Lose A Good Thing’, ‘You Must Believe Me’ and ‘Hey Girl Don’t Bother Me’. There’s Cornel Campbell’s ‘Wherever I Lay My Hat’, Derrick Morgan’s ‘Soldier Man’, Gregory Isaacs’ ‘Storm’, Johnny Clarke on Carlton And His Shoes’ ‘Love Me Forever’ and Bob Marley’s ‘Nice Time’ and ‘Hypocrites’.
In all there are 93 reasons here showing why King Tubby still wears that crown 15 years after his abrupt death. This is a journey into sound.
Penny Reel – July 2004