Contents - Beth Lesser

ight now’.” *
Freddy was a lot like Sugar, a rootsman with a ballad style who could sing
cultural material convincingly handle the love songs as well. His follow up
was another song on timeless Coxsone rhythm, ‘Bobbly Bobylon’, sung over
Coxsone’s ‘Hi Fashion Dub’ ** , which became the title track of his well known
LP.
Freddy McGregor had recently become a Rastafarian and joined the twelve
Tribes of Israel. The 1979 album contained, like Sugar’s recordings, mainly
roots lyrics sung effortlessly over Studio One’s rock steady standards. It was
a good example of Coxsone willingness to experiment with more ‘cultural’
material. The Freddy McGregor album featured strong, though understated,
roots ballads like ‘Bandulo’, ‘We Need More Love (In the Ghetto)’, ‘Bobby
Bobylon’, ‘Wine of Violence’, ‘Rastaman Camp’, and ‘I Am a Revolutionist’.
Freddy, like Sugar, had a way of singing about the painful truths of ghetto
life in a soothing, open, melodic style that flowed along with the Studio One
Rock Steady backing tracks. The formula not only saved all kinds of money in
studio expenses by eliminating the need for a band to play on every song, but
it was wildly popular with record buyers and sound system operators. These
releases were, again, that tantalizing mix of something old and something
new.
johnny oSBourne
Johnny Osbourne was also a good fit for the format. His come-back LP in
1979, Truths and Rights, mixed rock steady rhythms with social commentary
in songs like ‘Truth and Rights’, ‘The Children are Crying’, ‘Jah Promise’,
‘We Need Love’ and ‘Love Jah So’. The new activity over the old rhythms was
creating a stir. “When I start singing pon them rhythm there, everybody who
start hearing them tune pon them rhythm ya, want fe sing pon them rhythm,”
Johnny recalls. “It’s like it was a revival period fe them rhythm there.”
In the ‘60s, Johnny had been singing with a group called The Wildcats
and afterwards, with a band he created from among his friends, called The
Diamonds. His parents still opposed his career in music and kept encouraging
him to practice a trade. “I study book keeping and accounts. And I learn
welding and all that. After a time, I realize that them things there is not me.
So, me just ha’ fe get them out of my mind and just go ina the music.”
To keep him off the streets and out of trouble, Johnny’s parents decided to
send him to the Alpha Boy’s School, but this only encouraged his interest in
music. Aside from his academic work, he helped out as an office boy and studied
the trumpet under teachers Lenny Hibbert, David Madden and Nathan
and Arnold Brackenridge. But, instead of sticking with the trumpet, Johnny
* The original of the rhythm was The Heptones’ In the Groove
**.The original rhythm was a Jackie Mittoo organ instrumental, ‘One Step Beyond’. even though the
riddim is commonly called “Hi Fahion” because of the fact it appears on the dub LP of the same name
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