• Home
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Login
  • Register
Kwesi News
Advertisement
No Result
View All Result
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

No products in the cart.

  • Home
  • World
    • News
    • Business
    • Health
    • Sports
    • Travel
    • Entertainment
  • Kwesi Owusu – Notes From My Life Story
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Trends
    • Travel
  • Footprints
    • Books
    • Films
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Poetics
    • Extracts
    • Articles
  • Artworld
  • Magazine
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Videos
    • Music
      • Wulomei Returns
      • Best Of Wulomei
      • African Dawn
    • Cart
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • World
    • News
    • Business
    • Health
    • Sports
    • Travel
    • Entertainment
  • Kwesi Owusu – Notes From My Life Story
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Trends
    • Travel
  • Footprints
    • Books
    • Films
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Poetics
    • Extracts
    • Articles
  • Artworld
  • Magazine
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Videos
    • Music
      • Wulomei Returns
      • Best Of Wulomei
      • African Dawn
    • Cart
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Kwesi News
No Result
View All Result
Home Artworld

“You can hear ‘Scratch’ in every Reggae recording”

Lee Scratch Perry (1936 – 2021)

by Kwesi Owusu
September 2, 2021
in Artworld, Slide Stories
Reading Time: 3 mins read
2
138
VIEWS
Share on WhatsAppShare on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on TelegramlinkedInPinterest

Salute mad professor Upsetter, the original maverick genius of the dubplate, studio reverb and rewind. One of the earliest producers of the remix record, now music industry standard.

So wha?

I love what Scratch did with The Wailers, Mad Professor (Ariwa Records). I  like some of the tracks he produced for The Bestie Boys but nothing comes close to “Police and Thieves”

https://youtu.be/4dZky936vtU

It was a mad tune and I fell in love with it, instantly.  That was the late 1970s in, Kensal Rise, London. The selector played “Police and Thieves” around 4 am,  some say on behalf of the landlord with the hope that dem Rub A Dub lovers would’a jus cool off and not completely rip down his wallpaper.

A bubbly, track

You coulda skank to it, do Soul Train with the wah-wah guitars or vibe to it like a Soul rebel. Scratch mixed it clean like a radio version – no outer space dubs and definitely no Ganga smoke blown over it.  The icing on the cake was Junior Mervin   – Sexy Mervin delivered catchy lyrics like vintage Curtis Mayfield. Bad bad tune.

King Sounds, Jah Shaka and dem man dem dropped it, as the morning light came through the thick black curtains. You can be sure Babylon boys in smart blue cars would come knocking.

Here comes the stepper-murderer!

Scratch created the revolutionary studio sounds to evoke the mood on the streets – Deceptively so because it didn’t sound like this chirpy song was about violent urban warfare on the mean streets of Kingston Jamaica. Because of Scratch’s ingenuity in sound production, particularly how to mix the sound without raising eyebrows, the song went global.

Hugely popular

The unique thing about “Police and Thieves”  was that it appealed to a broad and varied range of listeners. It was popular at parties, christenings, drink-ups, Pubs and shabeen dancehall. Not all songs achieved that  – At some parties, people would be dancing to it completely oblivious to its true meaning. The youth in the dancehall was educated by the toasters – the guys who gave everybody the heads up by rapping over the records, Precursors to the American rappers, and originally, African griots.

Racism and Black militancy

The toaster would remind the youth about the stories their parents might have told them about  Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech or how Kelso Cochran was murdered by white racists in  1959. He lived down the road in Notting Hill Gate and was well known within Carnival circles. The late 1970s were the days of the notorious SUS laws when the Police could stop and search you “on suspicion of committing a crime – the prelude to the London riots of 1981

“Rewind Selector!”   

“Scratch pon dis ya tune der”, the toaster would say, his voice bubbling through thick dense smoke in the darkness. In response, the people would slap the walls like maniacs. To cool off things, the DJ lifts Melvin’s crispy voice;

Police and thieves in the streets (oh yeah)

Fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition

Police and thieves in the street (oh yeah)

Scaring the nation with their guns and ammunition

From genesis to revelation, yeah

The next generation will hear me

All the crimes committed day by day

No one try to stop it in any way

All the peacemakers turn war officers

Hear what I say, hey.

Every young rebel seemed to have a copy, including  Joe Strummer and his bandmates. It was of course the version by Clash on their debut album that turned the track into the predominantly white Punk anthem across the country.

You can feel Scratch in every Reggae recording.

Junior Melvin

Post Views: 26
Previous Post

Nicky Thomas – The World’s Most Emotional Singer?

Next Post

Drones

Please login to join discussion
Listen & Download African Dawn Remix Listen & Download African Dawn Remix Listen & Download African Dawn Remix
No Result
View All Result

Browse by Category

Most Popular

  • MISSING DJ ARAFAT

    1063 shares
    Share 425 Tweet 266
  • Protecting Ghana’s Maritime Environment. THE VIDEO THAT WENT VIRAL FOR THE RIGHT REASONS

    918 shares
    Share 367 Tweet 230
  • The Incredible Story of Doris Appiah – Danquah

    343 shares
    Share 137 Tweet 86
  • NANA TSIBOE : TRIBUTE TO A MASTER DRUMMER AND RELUCTANT GENIUS

    187 shares
    Share 75 Tweet 47
  • 10 TOP HIGHLIFE HITS

    124 shares
    Share 50 Tweet 31
  • Highlife is Ghana’s Musical Soul

    108 shares
    Share 43 Tweet 27
  • Kwesi Owusu – Notes From My Life Story

    86 shares
    Share 34 Tweet 22
  • Terry Bonchaka – The Tragic Death of a Star

    76 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • Every Ghanaian is Charlie Chaplin

    43 shares
    Share 17 Tweet 11
  • AMA – Director’s Cut Premieres in May 2023

    41 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10

Latest News

PROF OWUSU ON HIGHLIFE MUSIC, GHANA’S MUSICAL SOUL

November 12, 2022

LAUNCH Hey!!

September 28, 2022

THE AFRICAN DAWN PODCAST – VIDEO TRAILER

September 20, 2022

Kwesi Owusu on Queen Elizabeth’s reign and changing the African narrative

September 20, 2022

UNTOLD AFRICAN STORIES GET A NEW PODCAST !

July 22, 2022

RIP AB CRENTSIL. A GREAT GUY WITH A GREAT VOICE AND SONGS DRIVEN BY TONS OF HUMOUR

July 15, 2022

AN ASTONISHING HISTORY BOOK THAT READS LIKE THE BIBLE

July 6, 2022

THE AFRICAN DAWN RELEASE 8 GREAT TRACKS

July 2, 2022
Fela Kuti

80’s London. The African and Reggae music circuit was lit!

June 5, 2022

BOOKS AND ARTRAGE COVERS

June 5, 2022
My fascination with the creative imagination derives from its power to evoke truth and beauty in our tireless search for change

Quick Links

  • Home
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Artworld
  • Contact

Shop

  • Shop
  • African Dawn
  • Wulomei Returns
  • Best Of Wulomei
  • Cart

© 2021 kwesinews.com

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us

© 2021 kwesinews.com

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

error: Content is protected !!
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?