Contents - Beth Lesser

were struggling to make ends meet.
Ghetto dwellers adopted the label and wore it with pride. Junior Delgado
followed up with the accurately titled song, Ragamuffin Year. Junior defined
‘ragamuffin’ as “the poorer class of people”, the oppressed, and his song had a
subversive edge that the Half Pint didn’t. People were immediately identifying
with the term and it came to represent the dancehall life and the musical style
that supported it.
One of the keys to the popularity of Phang’s work was that all his music
was beyond reproach lyrically. Not one of his productions ever advocated violence
or denigrated women. His music either provided a positive message (like
‘Greetings’, or Barrington’s ‘Praise His Name’), supplied a little comic relief
(like Chaplin’s Dance in the ‘Atlantic Ocean’) or celebrate the dance (like
Frankie Paul’s ‘String up a Sound’). George intended it this way, deliberately
producing music that the whole family could enjoy.
By this time, Phang had a nice house, in a quiet neighborhood with green
lawns and well kept bungalows. He lived there with his wife, Elaine, and a
pack of kids who would all come parading home each afternoon in their crisp
school uniforms, making George very proud.
But despite his success, Phang eventually left the music business for his
second love, sports, and set out to rescue the Arnett Gardens Football team
which had been going downhill. But the music he created was never forgotten.
VP records released the definitive George Phang collection in 2008,
George Phang: Power House Selector’s Choice Vol.1-4, with each CD featuring
20 of his top productions, demonstrating the wide range his work, songs that
continue to influence the dancehall.
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