Contents - Beth Lesser

in the dance, the record would go to press or the song erased so the tape could
be reused.
“Mr. Dodd have some sound man that him really like and him just give
them dubplate – like it being a test recording,” Singer Johnny Osbourne observed
* . “He’s testing it to see how the people react to it before he puts it
out.” Like Killerwhip, Jah Love was one of the fortunate sounds. “When [Mr
Dodd] have some new tune whe’ no release yet, him come give Jah Love,”
recalls Brigadier Jerry. “So Jah Love make the people know about it before it
come out. He would make all like 25 dub and he just bring it come give Jah
Love – no money, [just] the promotion fe him music. He would just bring a
box of dubplates and come give Belcher [owner of Jah Love] and say, ‘Some
rahtid tune, me a tell you, man’, and I would sit down pon them from eight
o’clock until all eight o’clock the next morning. Stand up there and deejay
right back.”
Singer Johnny Clarke, who was recording with Bunny Lee in the ‘70s,
recalls. “In those days, radio song was different from dancehall song. Certain
song you wan’ hear, you just have to go to the dance. So, those songs would be
played, like, months before it released. When it’s released now, a lot of people
would grab onto it because they would be waiting to get it personally – cause
the dubplate is just for the sound. After Tubbys play it for a period of time,
and we think the time is right, we just release it now, and it take off – because
people is aware of it and its not strange to them anymore. That’s a part of the
promotion.”
The sound system and the studio had always functioned in a symbiotic
relationship in reggae. Not every studio had a dub cutting space, but many
did, including Treasure Isle, Studio One, Channel One, Randy’s, Tubby’s,
Jammy’s and Gussie Clarks Music Works. Producer Gussie Clarke started off
with his own little sound system and then acquired a dub cutting machine
second hand from the Treasure Isle studio. “We were doing so well after we
got the dub machine. Producers used to come to us, give us a two track stereo
mix of the tape of songs that are going to come out. Everybody was coming
to me to cut dubs – producers like Channel One [before they built their own
space] and a couple of the independent producers gave me their tapes. I could
sell as much dub as I want, because it would [make the record] popular and,
ultimately, it’s gonna make money. They gave me the tapes to cut on dub and
they would say, ‘do whatever you want’, meaning cut as much dub as you
want, sell them to anybody who has a sound system. So, [the song is] gonna
get popular. By the time it gets popular underground, in the dance, when
the record is ready to be released, people will buy it. So it was a win-win for
* Many of the artists and musicians Mr. Dodd worked with belonged to the 12 Tribes of Israel such
as Pavlov Black, Freddie McGregor, Dennis Brown and Judy Mowatt.
204 | RUB A DUB STYLE – The Roots of Modern Dancehall