Are you into Reggae? I’m going to rock you steady with a Jamaican classic from 1968!
Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Action and Intensified” (1968)
Over the last week, myself and the rest of the commitee of my student radio station have been importing loads of reggae tracks into our music playout system as a way of freshening up the diversity on the station and filling a void of world-based music to experiment with our timely curated playlist. It comes courtesy of the music scheduling head, who bought around 3 different compilation box-sets the other day. Bless him! I proceeded to call most of them “fuddy-duddy” (old-fashioned and a bit pompeous) as a typical 21 year old male naturally would. However, there is one track which really stood out among the pack for me, which is a 1968 rocksteady banger called “Fu Man Chu” by Desmond Dekker & The Aces, Dekker being one of the first Jamaican exports to gain a decent amount of attention outside of the Kingston scene.
Even after 51 years, the track teaches a timeless lesson on true happiness stemming from being kind to others and being grateful for what you have, which is communicated through Desmond’s soft and delicate vocals: “It make no sense, at all, to say where we used to work” and “It makes no sense, at all, to say how much you used to earn”, with the former line coming across like a subtle reference to slavery or racism in Jamaica a very short time before the track would have been recorded, as it’s way before my time, but it’s still a decipherable message that’s relevant today. It has a very slow and steady rhythm, with an almost entirely acoustic style of instrumentation and a simple kick drum melody, but the real stand-out is the gentle humming midways through the song, which gives the track a very uplifting tone which keeps the vocals from feeling preachy. It’s simply a nice message, with references to “Fu Man Chu”, a fictional heroic character from China, who sported the trademark long and thin moustache that is still seen prominently within Asian media and African culture to this day. This is a warm ray of sunshine and the perfect tune to liven up the particularly rainy October that we’re currently experiencing in the UK. It may be “fuddy duddy”, but it feels so in a way which is infectiously groovy and catchy!
Pictured: Desmond Dekker on-stage for a live performance (unknown location and time)
Thank you for reading this post! Of course, it’s Sunday tomorrow, so I’m going to be re-evaluating a punk classic from the 00’s that I remember from seeing on Scuzz TV, a now-closed music video TV channel, for my weekly themed series of Scuzz Sundays posts! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/
One Track At A Time 