Contents - Beth Lesser

team, the main attraction of the sound. Both men could be either topical or
raunchy. Ringo was a careful lyrics writer who could always be found with
his notebook and pen, carefully working out a song the way a singer might.
Everyone who knew him in the business at the time commented that he was
‘the most intelligent deejay’ in terms of writing well thought out lyrics. Ringo
set the standard, at least until deejays like Early B and Peter Metro (and Lt.
Stitchie) came along.
Ringo started out in music selling records in Randy’s Record shop on
North Parade. Then, one night, he went to a dance and heard Welton. From
that time on, Ringo would follow Welton, learning his slack lyrics and coming
up with his own styles.
“I heard Ranking Trevor and became a deejay,” Welton Irie remembers.
“Ringo heard me and became a deejay. When he started, exactly like me he
was sounding. He even tell me he used to come a dance and write up my lyrics
I was doing. Jot it down. He tell me so himself. So, me and him start to spar
together, cause I never have a problem with that.”
Ringo remembered being impressed by the more established deejays, Welton
Irie and Lone Ranger. He said at the time, “I started off playing sounds,
cause that’s what I really love, playing sound system. Welton and Lone Ranger
used to come along and [Welton] used to influence me. When he was carrying
a swing, he was really ‘carrying a swing’ * , and that inspired my style. And I
sort of create, lyrics for my own self. Now, he knows my style and I know his
style so we get along better than any other deejay.”
Like Welton, Ringo spent some time as a freelance selector working with
Chester Symoie and Tony Walcott. He was selecting a small sound in the
east, between Rollington Town and Franklin Town, named Ripatone, when
the opportunity arose to work at Gemini. Welton left an opening there when
he went to work for Virgo temporarily. Since Ringo sounded like Welton and
knew all his lyrics, Papa Gemini offered him the spot.
Welton came back to the set soon after and Gemini was a slackness freefor-all.
Ringo proved more than capable of carrying on, and even furthering,
the slackness tradition. Welton recalls, “Ringo had it down to a ‘T’. Ringo
wrote some of the toughest slack lyrics, like ‘Dry Head Hadassah’ and all
those. Story telling. And they’re funny. People would die of laughter, man.” It
had to be funny. Ringo commented at the time, “When you make it too serious
or too real, it sound vulgar. You have to make it a spicy and nice.”
Typically, the dance would begin on neutral territory with cultural and
reality lyrics. Welton Irie, explains, “We started the dance with culture, always,
and riding the rhythm, you know - sometimes a little freestyle. Cause
you want to hold back on the tough lyrics, especially when you got a new
song. In the early part of the dance, all the new stuff was being played. Usually,
the newest songs, the songs that just got released, was played early as an
* Meaning he was the most popular
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