Fire Coal Version\u00a0\u2013 The Classics A.K.A Wailing Souls<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/scan597.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Sugar Minott slogging it out with the finest Studio One rhythms in 1979 just before the streets exploded in violence\u00a0with a loss of over\u00a0nine\u00a0hundred\u00a0lives\u00a0and many\u00a0many more\u00a0casualties\u00a0in the months leading up to that October 1980 election.<\/p>\n
These are my absolute favourite Sugar Minott tracks uploaded tonight on this Uptempo 10\u2033 vinyl showcase, and with the amount of great material that was released featuring Sugar Minott, that is some statement from myself!<\/p>\n
These tracks are\u00a0uploaded sadly a couple of days\u00a0after Sugar Minott\u2019s passing on from this world. He died in Jamaica on 10th July\u00a0after feeling \u2018slightly ill\u2019 at the age of 54. Heart problems supposedly. A great shame and a great loss.<\/p>\n
\u2018All Kind Of People\u2019 and the dub version may be a familiar rhythm to those old punkers out there. If you do not recognise this old Studio One rhythm straight away, then check out the older version \u2018Mr Fire Coal Man\u2019 by The Classics from 1971, a vocal duo that went on to form Wailing Souls a couple of years later. Hopefully you will then realise that\u00a0there is\u00a0a well known cover version by Stiff Little Fingers recorded in 1980 as the B side to \u2018Back To Front\u2019. The Stiff Little Fingers version was the first version I ever heard, so thanks to them!<\/p>\n
The text below is written by Small Axe contributer Ray Harford several years ago.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/KYPP990.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Sugar who? That could have been a typical response from reggae fans around the beginning of 1978. Reggae music\u2019s like that. You can be enjoying the current sounds or waiting for something due, and out of nowhere \u2013 an artist will just come along and change everything. Sugar didn\u2019t do that. That honour went to Barrington Levy. And the reason for that is simple. The timing of Sugar\u2019s debut album on Studio One \u2014 \u2018Live Loving\u2019, released in the UK by Peckings, was out by about a year. It wasn\u2019t until the end of 1979 that people were into re-cutting old rhythms with new songs, or in the case of \u2018Live Loving\u2019 re-voicing original rhythm tracks.<\/p>\n
Now, with hindsight, you can say this was Coxsone at his best. Then it just sounded a bit strange. Studio One did not have the same fascination then as it does now for certain people. Yet apart from this, it is still a very good album. Old rhythms and melodies are taken by him and redefined. Sugar\u2019s voice just seems to float in and out of these rhythms with such ease, that you start to wonder how hard it is to sing over such rhythms. Although really and truly when you come across this effect in any art form, you know you are experiencing something special. If someone knows what they\u2019re doing, it should seem easy.<\/p>\n
Sadly, the \u2018Live Loving\u2019 album didn\u2019t do a lot for Sugar. This is another common experience of Studio One artists. More often than not they have to have a hit with another producer, before they get a hit with Coxsone. The best explanation for this would be that Studio One with it\u2019s highly defined style does not always fit in with current trends.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/KYPP987.gif\")
<\/p>\n
Lincoln Barrington Minott emerged towards the end of 1978, as one of Ja\u2019s gifted. His years at Studio One, with whom he made many tunes including \u2018This Old Man\u2019 \u2018Vanity\u2019 \u2018Peace Treaty Style\u2019, and the \u2018Live Loving\u2019 album, provided him with the ability to make outstanding records like \u2018Man Hungry\u2019 (Black Roots) one of his first tunes on Black Roots.<\/p>\n
The same theme was pursued in a belated Studio One release, \u2018Oh Mr D. C.\u2019, which told a vivid story of a typical encounter between the Police (District Constable) and a small grower up from the country to sell his herb. \u2018Hard Time Pressure\u2019 (Sufferers Heights) seems to put the whole situation in perspective with it\u2019s unforgettable line, \u201cBabylon ah put on the pressure, Hard Time Pressure.\u201d Cultural awareness also figures in Sugar\u2019s lyrics, and a better example couldn\u2019t be found then \u2018River Jordan\u2019 (Black Roots) although \u2018Rome\u2019 (Black Roots) comes close. \u2018Every Little Thing\u2019 (Mandingo) returned his thoughts to oppression, which continued on to \u2018World Of Sorrow'(Lightning). Studio One then issued \u2018Love And Understanding\u2019 featuring a new Studio One rhythm, which must rate as one of Sugar\u2019s best.<\/p>\n
A production from Mikey Dread, \u2018Bright And Beautiful\u2019 also did well. If any doubt of Sugar\u2019s ability remained after such a steady stream of success, it must have been dispelled with \u2018Lovers Rock\u2019 (Black Roots) recorded here in the UK. Lyrically, the record was soaked in emotion. The rhythm though was something else. It proved that, with care, UK reggae musicians could play up to the standards of Ja musicians -something which certain UK players had always claimed, yet there was very little proof of it. All that was needed was care and attention to detail. And Sugar gave the record that.<\/p>\n
Which brings us to Prince Jammys, his kingdom still many tape reels away. Jammy then was just looking for a sound, or a style. At the time, no one producer had a grip on the market, so Jammy with his new-found link with the Ballistic\/Warrior label was very well placed to move into a good position.<\/p>\n
The sound he came up with for the \u2018Bitter Sweet\u2019 album was a very slow rockers sound supplied by Sly and Robbie, along with a lot of other talent, that had a production built around selected phasing. It was an Interesting sound, but Lee Perry\u2019s wilder use of the phaser had made it too familiar. You really do need a totally new sound to make major breakthroughs. Even so, it was a good sound that Jammy had produced. It had a style. On the singing\/song writing side, Sugar didn\u2019t let him down at all. Every song on the album is well up to standard. With the better tracks being \u2018 Never Too Young\u2019 and \u2018I\u2019m Not For Sale\u2019 and the stunning \u2018This World\u2019. Jammy and Sugar worked very well together on the album, and it was a shame that it took so long for them to do so again.<\/p>\n
Youth Promotion was the biggest step forward for artist control since Derrick Harriott decided to form his own record label back in the early sixties. Youth Promotion stood along with Freedom Sounds, and Tapper Zukie\u2019s Stars, set up as something that is positive in ending producer rip-off\u2019s. All of them have had a great deal of success. It shows it can be done, and in a society where opposition means open warfare, not just a word in the ear of a pressing plant manager.<\/p>\n
Then it was early days, but to become established doesn\u2019t mean you become better. Only Studio One has survived intact from the early days. Although Youth Promotion is not as active as it was and Freedom Sounds is gone, their achievement still remains. It is possible to set up a record Co-Op that can act for the good of the community. And that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about, isn\u2019t it, apart from making money. To have more control when the money is made, and to use it positively for the good.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started singing when I was about 12, in an amateur talent festival, near where I live, Maxfield Park, in Kingston. Reached the final with two others, but didn\u2019t win, it gave I some encouragement to go on really. Stayed home from school and ting, I was just following up this music thing all the way, cause from when I was young, I used to make up sound box and.. . I use to always talk about music and dream of doing it. Admired people like Ken Boothe, Dennis Brown, Delroy Wilson, to youth them was our idol.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I met this brother named Tony Tuff and Derrick Howard and we formed the African Brothers. That was in 1972, but it was a struggle. The funds that came in were really meagre, and they had to be split three ways and it was small already. That\u2019s why we decided to each try individually as solo artists.\u201d<\/p>\n
When did you make that decision? Well about 1974, we did a tune for Mr Dodd, and the group broke. And from then he (Coxsone) know me, and so he get new guys to sing over old rhythm track, I had this music \u2018Love Me Girl\u2019 by the Heptones and he like it, and gave it some more listen. I guess the main aim of Coxsone to have those rhythms, and feel that they was from the past, and it would be nice to provide them in a different form.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying the same thing. I have to write some different lyrics to the same melodies, the same rhythm. I signed a one year contract with him, and even after the one year contract, I was still trying to build a form of reputation, because through them time you see, if you do some tunes for everybody, nobody, will promote you, I decided to stop with Studio One and bear out all the rough going, but I then reached a stage that I couldn\u2019t see nothing coming out, I was getting famous, still financial wise\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided to get some musician friend, knew a long time, and pay them on trust, I didn\u2019t even have no money to pay them, that\u2019s the way I get to do this album \u2018Ghetto-olgy\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
How many tunes did you cut for Studio One? \u201cQuiet a few, enough for another album.\u201d Sugar continues. \u201cI get together with a bredda called James Brown and Keith Hartley an form a company called Black Roots Production and Youth Promotion.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/KYPP989.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Youth Promotion Organisation is really to help youth from going through the same struggle like me. You see, them is a whole heap of youth, like Captain Sinbad, Little John, Tony Tuff, Barry Brown, Rod Taylor, Michael Prophet, Ashantiwaugh, Freddie McGregor, Albert Malawi, Barnabus, Michael Ashley, Earl Walker, Sangie Davis, Tony Chin, Arnold Brackenridge, Roy Grant, Triston Palmer, Henry Frncis, Earl Sixteen, Madoo, Don Carlos, Lacksley Castell, and last but not least Trevor Hartley.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe team up right as an organisation, we get fund raising dance, and get help from sound like Stereograph U.Roy\u2019s sound, Socialist Roots \u2013 Trevor Ranking. We get funds you know, we can buy shoes and pants, for the people of the ghetto that can\u2019t afford it. The Youth Promotion them a band also, but really we don\u2019t have the instrument as such you know. We use studio instrument.<\/p>\n
Sugar doesn\u2019t mind being a spokesperson for Youth Promotion, but he will not accept any form of leadership. He is a part of Youth Promotion. All the time, he wants to remind me of the fact. So explanations of the wider role of Youth Promotion are personalised. He can\u2019t say what a wider role of Youth Promotion is, would, or could be, other than it promotes sports and art.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryman can\u2019t be a musician. If you study Reggae music, it\u2019s always crying out for something, or it can\u2019t stand something. It\u2019s just what the people feel, you see the atmosphere it so, that it\u2019s \u2018Feel Tough\u2019. Every time my inspiration come, it always something like that, you see. Always something cry out, man hungry, can\u2019t stand the pressure, directly what\u2019s happening. \u2018Rome\u2019 you know. You see a man deal with vibration and inspiration that go on most of the time. If you write a love tune, and you not in love, you\u2019re dealing with an imaginary thing, see, or, you imagine a next person situation, it just kinda hard sometime. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t expect a man too\u2026 do a tune like \u2018Man Hungry\u2019 , if him no hungry see, so him no hungry it don\u2019t appeal to him really, but if him check it again, him see brother and sister. . . No matter what colour, man is just man. When I talk about black people and dem a suffer, but I feel against this prejudice business, man is just man and God make everyman.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now we need a whole heap of help, no one to offer no help towards the youth. . .and boy I really feel for youth and youth, the inspiration I keep getting I can\u2019t reject them you see. Once a thing come into my mind. It\u2019s hard for me to push that aside, and say I won\u2019t sing like that, it will just keep coming back, all the while.<\/p>\n
As stated, Sugar couldn\u2019t define the wider role of Youth Promotion, but he had no hesitation in stating that \u2013<\/p>\n
\u201cI & I organisation is strictly non-political, even rasta religion, we naw try ram it down no one throat, if you want to accept, that\u2019s up to you, but if you try and and force it on people, it never get them. I and I are rasta, but not everyman can accept it as so, that\u2019s why you have so much blame on rasta now. Whole heap of man say him a rasta, just dread up you know, and they just go on and do all kind of wrongs. It just fall upon next man.<\/p>\n
He also sees Youth Promotion operating outside of Jamaica. His use of the Birmingham band Amhara was criticised by some, although Sugar maintains though that someone must give the youth a chance. \u201cOtherwise you just keep going over and over, someone must take that risk.\u201d The Amhara band played and recorded with Sugar Minnott on the \u2018Roots Lovers\u2019 album and band also supported Sugar in 1980 on the UK and European tours.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what the \u2018Ghetto-ology\u2019 album was about, promoting a whole new line up of talent, as well as Sugar of course. It was released on Trojan in 1979. How Trojan Records became involved in anything as forward as this had a lot to do with the people who were running it then. Those involved were Dave Hendley, Chris Lane and Clive Stanhope. With this album and other Youth Promotion produced albums, which include Tony Tuff and Barry Brown, they showed that the company could be a major force in the music again.<\/p>\n
More importantly, Youth Promotion \/ Black Roots were given a chance to get their music released outside of Jamaica. The \u2018Ghetto-ology\u2019 album was successful on every level. In terms of production, it showed that the talent YP \/ Black Roots could draw upon was as talented as anything that the major producers \/ labels could put together in Jamaica.<\/p>\n
Due to the large line up of musicians though, they didn\u2019 t have a sound, which is a plus and a minus. Nearly every track has its own sound, but most albums released by major producers have just one sound, due to the album being recorded with one set of musicians. Thankfully, with the music in a state of flux, due to the incoming \u2018Dance Hall Style\u2019, most people welcomed the wide variety that can be found on the album. And it is pretty varied. On how many albums can you find Freddy McGregor on drums for instance! Great contributions also come from Chinna who along with the Soul Syndicate band also made a contribution.<\/p>\n
Quickly following the \u2018Ghetto-ology\u2019 album was the \u2018Black Roots\u2019 album released by Mango Records in the U.S., also in 1979, This was really \u2018Ghetto-ology\u2019 2\u2032 in every respect, it had the same varied sound, and more or less the same incredible line up of talent.<\/p>\n
Youth Promotion at the time was made up of the following talent \u2013 Don Carlos, Lacksley Castell, Ashanti Waugh, Jah Lee. These are the artists named on the \u2018Black Roots\u2019 . You can also add Tony Tuff, Barry Brown, Captain Sinbad, Little John and many many more.<\/p>\n
That was why everyone was so excited by the release of Sugar\u2019s albums. The reasoning was that if Sugar could breakthrough, so could the others<\/p>\n
Included on \u2018Black Roots\u2019 were two of Sugar\u2019s biggest hits, \u2018Hard Time Pressure\u2019 which Sufferers Heights released in the UK on 12\u2033 and \u2018 River Jordan\u2019 a very big hit on 7\u2033 in Jamaica. The rest of the album was really built around these tunes, it was real roots music.<\/p>\n
With two YP \/ Black Roots productions now out, the next thing that needed to happen was for an album to actually come out on the label. And that finally happened in 1980 with the release of a showcase album (6 tracks) \u2018Roots Lovers\u2019.<\/p>\n
On \u2018Ghetto-ology\u2019 and \u2018Black Roots\u2019, Sugar really concentrated on message music. On this album, he displays once again his great talent for putting over love songs. The three love songs on the album truly are exceptional. \u2018Lovers Rock\u2019 is the huge UK hit, recorded in the UK, with overdubs at Wackies (possibly the first occasion he worked at the studio) . It took \u2018Lovers Rock\u2019 the style, up a step. \u201cMy Love Is True\u2019 comes from a Studio One session, and is a superb example of late seventies Studio One, \u2018My Devotion\u2019 was cut at Channel One with a mix of the YP and Studio One bands. Of the reality tunes, the most interesting must be the tune cut with Amara in Birmingham, England, \u2018Death Trap\u2019.<\/p>\n
Out of all the Youth Promotion \/ Black Roots albums released during this time 80\/81, \u2018African Girl\u2019 seems to be the only one that is lacking not only lyrically from Sugar, but in the production style that made the other albums special. The reason or reasons for this are hard to define \u2018African Girl\u2019 the title track is the only track with a edge to it, and was a hit in the UK on 12\u201d, and fully deserved to be. It being a phaser mixed cut of \u2018Shank I Sheck\u2019. The only other tune with the same kind of energy is \u2018Penny For My Song\u2019. Outside of that, only \u2018Ghetto Youths\u2019 is in the least bit memorable, mainly due to the chorus. Thankfully better music was to come.<\/p>\n
The next stage of Sugar\u2019s career was going to see him move into the more traditional role of the artist, rather than artist \/ producer. After four self produced albums for Youth Promotion \/ Black Roots, perhaps he felt he could help the organisation more by stepping aside, or going low profile.<\/p>\n
His first stop was the Channel One studios of the Hookim brothers. They were also on a very good run around the time (1983) Sugar recorded the \u2018With Lots Of Extra\u2019 album for them. Dan Carlos, Sammy Dread and Barry Brown all were working with the studio or already had music released by Channel One,<\/p>\n
With the Radics on the rhythms, Solgie and Scientist on the board, and Niney producing \u2013 who had only recently been installed as the producer for the studio, the album could only really be successful, and it was on every level. Sugar provided excellent songs including one of his most powerful reality songs \u2018No Vacancy\u2019, just one of nine superb tracks.<\/p>\n
Ray Harford<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All Kinda People \/ People Dub \/ You Are Always Around \/ Trying To Fool I Fight Against Dread \/ Dread Dub \/ The Love We Had \/ Love Dub Mr Fire Coal Man \u2013 The Classics A.K.A Wailing Souls Fire Coal Version\u00a0\u2013 The Classics A.K.A Wailing Souls Sugar Minott slogging it out with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-downloads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4423"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11853,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423\/revisions\/11853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/scan594.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/scan595.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/scan592.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/scan593.jpg\")
<\/p>\n