Jerry Baxter (of Well Pleased & Satisfied): No Longer In The Slum Part 2 (The Interview)
#Interview | Jerry Baxter (of Well Pleased & Satisfied): No Longer In The Slum Part 2 (The Interview). Read part 2 of the Peter I interview. #JerryBaxter #WellPleasedSatisfied #ReggaeHistory #PeterI #ReggaeInterview #ChannelOne #StudioOne Where: Unknown When: May 2004 Reporter: Peter I Photos: Courtesy of Jerry Baxter, and the respective record companies (labels/sleeves) Copyright: 2023 – Peter I In this second part Jerry Baxters talks about Total Sounds, various singles, forming his own labels and producing artists such as deejay Ken Quatty, his debut album, David Jahson, The Actions, and much more. Since you had a bunch of singles out on this imprint, was there any intention at the time to do an album for Total Sounds? No, Total Sounds wasn't really...I mean, you had 'Fight Against South Africa', 'Gates of Zion', 'Living In The Slum' and... Ah OK, hold on, hold on! Don't go no further. With 'Fight Against South Africa', the only person on the radio who played 'Fight Against South Africa', is the same ET. And I was the first man to sing an apartheid song. Long before Bob Marley, long before everybody, because I think so deep of the African history. And I always keep in touch, you understand, but I don't have no friends in Africa. The other day I met an African lady, and I said, "Lady, you are the first real black African woman I've ever met". She said, "Why you said that?" I said, "I see you are from Africa, straight, undiluted. I'm from Jamaica, I pass through the slave system and go there and come back to America. But you come straight from the Motherland, so I respect you. Can I do something for you?" And she gave me five dollars, and I said, "Why you doing this?" She said, "No, no. I see you thinkin' like an American". And she put the five dollars into her little bag and I got hurted. But I mean, I still forgive her. She was the first real African person I've ever met. I've met woman, but I've never really met an African woman. I still long to see her, but I don't know if she move away and I don't see her, so I don't know. She move away from the apartment complex. Anyway, 'Fight Against South Africa', man, that was the first apartheid song recorded in the history of Jamaican music, wow! And Mr Mac was the distributor for that song, that man is very strong, you understand. That man know a musician, that man is for music, y'know, that man is deep. But Errol Thompson was the only guy that played that song in Jamaica. It didn't sell a lot in Jamaica, it sell a few copies. Because the people in Jamaica didn't really care if the black people... they didn't know much about apartheid. So it's not that they don't care, but they don't know what to care for at that time for apartheid, or what we're talkin' about with apartheid. So when the song was playing, the beat was heavy, it was like the beat was coming out of a mountain, it was a very heavy standard beat, it was one of the heaviest songs I've ever recorded. But I mean - a strong riddim, the people did not fetch that song in the music, what it was askin', you know. But that was the song I feel that everybody could buy, but they just buy a few copies of that. I assume the massacre in Johannesburg in '76 partly inspired that song? Yeah, I watch it on tv. I watch all those things, and I read in the newspaper and watch how they were slaughtering, and I watch how the guy 'Vastor the Imposter Smith', you got Ian Smith that time. Rhodesia, yes. That's it. Smith say he ain't got no limit to shoot the black man dead, I say, Vastor the Imposter say he would be doing the very same. He called himself the partyhead, y'know, just to shoot the black man dead, but the whole world should fight against South Africa and the racial issues you see down there. And it was a very strong song, y'know. Man, you are deep, man. I never thought you would know everything about me (laughs)!It's listed somewhere, the singles directory. And the 'Gates of Zion'? 'The Gates of Zion' was when I was going to school, and that's my teacher down by Boys Town School, he always told me... always tell us about that, black history. And how they teach the black man that a fruit called breadfruit must boil in a big pot, cut it in two and give them, rub them in crocus bag - a bag whe you put like sugar and all those things in those bag, was a luggage bag whe they carry loads in those bag. And they would give to the black man to wear, and they would send their dog on them. They would cut the black woman belly, to know if the black pregnant woman was better. They would say, "I bet you don't tell which baby is inside this belly". One man would say a boy and the other would say a girl. But to know that, the woman is not gonna have baby at the same time, so therefore to know that they gotta cut the belly with their sword, and let out that baby, from inside to outside. So that's how I come up with that song, 'The Gates of Zion'. It's the same song as 'Open The Gate Bobby Bowa'. But when I did 'Open The Gates Bobby Bowa' is that we did that disco 45 and give the solo song with a guy, my wife brother, he's called Joe Banner (aka Jah Banna). Now, he sounds like Big Youth, Manley Buchanan it is, and I take him to the studio and he do a deejay version for the disco 45. So when I finish sing, he started deejay for the remainder of the disco 45. So that's how we call that 'The Gates of Zion'. Then we put a gate, the both of us would open a gate, and there was like a lickle policeman - something like that, and we were going through the gate to Zion, y'know. It was distributed by Total Sounds, on their label. And there was 'Living In The Slum'. Well, 'Living In the Slum' was... oh, I was living in Majestic Garden, and I see how the system goes down there. 'Living in the slum, and your needs get numb, you try to sleep but yu mouth got to be dumb, so you face brutality and all kinda mentality, you get victimized from the society, you get brutalized by the people living around you. But still you got to have freedom - freedom, freedom, freedom. Free to walk the streets at nights and days, your kids go to school so nice and sweet, they come on back just the same, then we say we got freedom...' (sighs). There was 'Sweet Music' on Total Sounds as well. You recall that one? ... Yes (silence). You remember that tune? ... Yeah man. Yeah. (At this point Jerry vanishes from the phone. In the distant I can hear him sighing and sobbing, telling himself to calm down, "yeah, yeah" and "OK, OK" is whispered in the background. I'm asking if things got a bit too much for him at this moment, if we should stop). It's all coming back now, isn't it? (Long silence) Yes, it come back, man. No problem. Take it easy, it's a long time. It can be overwhelming at times, like now. Yeah (silence). Yeah. It's like that, man. It's like... Nuff work for pennies only, it hurts when you think back. Yeah. It's very hard, it's like... it a hard life (sobbing). Yeah, I come back to the real world, man. People got to understand (sipping a glass of water). A long time now, and 'wear and tear' as they say. Yes, very difficult times. Very difficult times to get by, and get back to the system deh ya. You feel ready? Yeah. You can go ahead now, I'm OK. That song was very touching, 'Living In The Slum'. 'Cause every day you face the slum, it's hard. Every day rough. Watch your back, like. Yeah, all kinds of people, y'know. Very difficult. And it still go the same, still go the same. It still go the same unless the people unite. What I'm trying to do, I wanna make an album called 'Living In The Slum', so it will have that track on it.What was behind the content of 'News Carrier'? Well, you're living in the slum, people they just have a style. On the sidewalk, they stand on the other side longing to see somebody fight someone to take a news to say this and to say that that they see somebody fight, and they don't realise that they're hurting their own self, the rest of the community. So it's like... you know? They will always be fighting each other, there's no unity. They always been carry news like the Gleaner, like a newspaper or a radio station, or something. That's how that song come about, I always think about people and how they live. I don't really write a song offa... if I see an individual person do something, I can write a song offa that, but I would turn it around. If I see someone do something bad, maybe I say OK, too bad, I'm gonna protest. But I mean, I don't write a song off an individual person. Yeah. I don't deal with it that way.I sort of like the marching riddim on that one, particularly the drumming stands out on 'News Carrier'. Yeah, it was Sly Dunbar in his early days, man. It's like he was the star. In his early days, it's like he was bursting out, he was just anxious to be what he is today. He was trying to make his stride, it was like Jackie and them riddims, write an artist's drums, man. Was very good. Even 'Black On Black', 'Open The Gate Bobby Bowa', he never play... He tells - everywhere I see Sly, he tell somebody about them songs, it's like he never play the song like that again. Never. All the songs that he done for me, those drum beats, it's like it's the best of Sly Dunbar. He can play drums, he is the best, one of the best drummers in Jamaica. I would say he's the best, because he made it in the drum business and the music. But the drums that Sly play for me, he never play for nobody. He played in a way that, y'know, it was different. You had another song for Total Sounds named 'Tenament Yard'. OK. Well, y'know it's like I look around in the system and see people sit down and how they watch what you buy, taking it to your house. And if you cook something in your pot, just because it's a tenament yard where everybody see everybody and know everybody, they will always watch what you cook, what you eat, it's like they are the CIA or the KGB, always snookin' around, snookin' around, lookin' around for some clues, the CIA do the same thing. That's what people do in a tenament yard where they watch everything, they're lookin' for clues, y'know, they're trying to get to you. So that's how 'Tenament Yard' come around. It was lookin' at the system surrounding a tenament yard. I don't like it. Then you put out 'Life' on the Exclusive label. What was it called? 'Life'. OK, 'Life'. I don't even know how it go, beca' I voiced that song but I don't even remember how that song went, trust me. I don't even remember I did that song. I know the melody of the song (sings): 'Life oh life for a boy out a street deh...'. But it was dealing with the system alone, that song. You formed your own labels, such as King Town from early on for your own stuff, and also produced other artists, like 'Jah Lion' by Ken Quatty on the Dub Station label. You mentioned him before, tell me some more about this deejay Ken Quatty. Yeah well, Ken Quatty was a friend, just a friend. First I and him we start to sing along with a guy called Dion, we called him Lester. And we start together, the three of us. But every time I call Ken Quatty to really do like try sing the harmony for a song, he always says he's asleep - his older brother tell us that he's sleeping, so every time I go to his yard to pick him up to go to rehearsal, he's always sleeping. So I just say forget it, y'know. And then Dion now, he was a guy who is always trying but he can't sing. So it's like, I really bought a guitar together, and I just say "OK, if you wanna sell me the guitar, sell me your share of the guitar". And they say they don't wanna sing no more, but they can't sing anyway. I pay for the guitar and I now own the guitar, so that is how I reach over by Washington Gardens and start the group The Somarcands along with Nicky Thomas, the guy who did 'Love Of The Common People'. Because I was owner of a guitar, it's like you own a master instrument, you understand. And everybody looking at you walking with the guitar, you're a singer because of... you know? It was a lot of fun. Anyway now, Ken Quatty was out of the group, Dion was out of the group, right, and I and Hugh Lewis and Eggar Miller and this guy Nicky Thomas, we start the group called The Somarcands, that was how we formed the group. When I start producing back now, that's how I go for Ken Quatty back and I say "OK, you can't sing but you mus' fe talk, you mus' a fe talk a song". So I set up the melody for 'Jah Lion', yunno, I do the intro and he do the rest of 'Jah Lion'. He even do a song called 'Row Fisherman Row' and that song was very big in Holland, I got a lot of money for that song, got a big money for that song from the Khouris. But the Khouri people along with Total Sounds was the best people in the recording business. Still what I heard about Total Sounds according to Ras Karbi, this guy McDonald emptied the account and vanished from the island, just left his staff and company stranded right there. Yeah, yeah. OK, I don't know. Just disappeared, possibly left back for Australia again. But man, the man was a good man. I don't know, I don't know... it might be. But you own the rights to your Total Sounds output still? All of the rights, all of the songs I own the rights. I never give him no rights for nutten, he only own the distribution, distribute all over the world or whatever he want to distribute. Not all over the world, but if he can export, they export. But that's it, they never get the rights for it. Like, if someone call them from London and say they want a hundred copies, and they send out a shipment, they can sell on a export deal, because that's how they mostly sell from Jamaica, on export.Then you had the Top Of The Pop label around this time. Yeah, I got the Top Of The Pop label, you got it. A song called 'Dinner In Bed' and a few more songs. Plus one called 'Chase Them'. 'Chase Them', yeah. And when David Jahson hit with 'Natty Chase The Barber' on the 'Ali Baba' riddim, you did 'Barberman Bawling'. No, well, 'Barberman Bawling' was a... That 'Barberman' stuff was a popular theme in the music at this time, a spin-off from the Jahson tune I suppose? What happened with 'Barber Man Bawling': in those days all the young guys they wanna be Rasta, and then some guys say them a dread, some say they are Nyah, some say they are... but they're still Rasta. And there was a lot of locksing going on, and then the barbershop was empty, so I say man, it's time to sing a song like (chuckles): 'Barber man bawling, the youth them a starving...'. And that song, I done a tone of voice, a sound close like a Ken Boothe, but I sing it... I know the melody in that song, like I changed it. The other day my friend who is my publisher, he heard that song and he said, "Hey, you tried to sing like Ken Boothe!" And I said, "No, the sound just come up and a just find the melody for it". It's just that, I just do it. But it sound like Ken Boothe, yeah. I even do a song called 'We Live Together' that was very big in England, Joy White and Jerry Baxter. Ahhh... 'Always Together', the Bob & Marcia song. The Bob Andy song, it was very big. It sell a lot in England. It sell and sell, y'know. That song was big. David Rodigan, man, Rodigan used to murder that song, man. Are you aware of the inclusion of this song on Lloyd Coxsone's '12 The Hard Way' anthology? It's out since the late eighties on the Tribesman label in the UK, the same 'Always Together'. I know nothing about that. Also, on that album there is the Well Pleased & Satisfied track 'Open The Gate Bobby Bowa', but with your name, as a solo cut. Yes? On that album? Yes, '12 The Hard Way'. That guy have to give me some money, man! It seems like we're in for a big thing, because you have the proof for the album. All you have to give me the proof, and I will get the lawyers to deal with it, he gotta pay me some money. OK. When you are in business, once you get the proof, you are in business, y'know. Beca' I don't give him my songs. I've got so much things on my mind, man. If you hadn't got the history of mine, I could never reach so far with those things. Thank you for what you've done, man. Cool. I tell you this, you understand, ca' you take me back so far and so deep. When I was doing the part with 'Living In The Slum', it breaks me down because I started crying. It's like I feel the things that happened in those days, and it made me weak. That's why Hank Holmes he said, man, I'm deep, y'know. There's no group in Jamaica weh sound like Well Pleased & Satisfied. I believe this album has the most readily available tracks by Well Pleased & Satisfied up to now, it has remained in print over the years. You have Delroy Wilson, Jimmy Lindsay, Faybiene Miranda, Ras Midas and Burning Spear on it, among others. I know nutten about that, man. Nothing, no statement. Nutten, man! See, I've been robbed ever since I came in the business that I'm so lucky in the business that... when I say lucky, I've had success. My kids always wanna dance offa my songs. Once I hear a sound, I never stop add to it. I remember King Jammys offered me a Jack Ruby riddim. Mrs Pottinger always wanted me to come and work. Lee Perry, when he heard my song 'Chat Chat', he said wow, ca' I made a song like Bob Marley, and he said he want me to come and do some recording for him. So I say yeah, although I don't reach his studio yet. It's like I'm nervous. I don't see how I'm gonna collect from none of these guys, y'know. These guys they make money, they don't pay money. But I'm trying to hold on to what I've got. How much of the original tapes has survived? I've got all of them, all of my original tapes, all of my original recordings. I even got all of my original recordings with me right now on CD, and also DAT cassette. So if I come London... if anyone is interested - I would want to have a company, or a company with me anywhere I go, who would have the contract I could sign with. But this album 'Reggae In The Bag', I would like a big company to have this album. I think it's gonna be big, this new album. It has recordings soundin' like Channel One, some of the recordings sound like Channel One. It got some R&B mixed with reggae, and it's a fusion of a lot of different music. But it's reggae, and it's just solid, like original music. Original instruments, everything sounds real, y'know. It's a good album, the best I've ever really done so far. Can you recall a tune named 'Warrior' on the Top Of The Pops label? 'Warrior', OK. 'Warrior', 'Warrior'... 'This warrior from Port Maria...'. OK, yeah. And 'Dinner In Bed'. I did a song called 'Wanna Be Loved'. And there's another song again, 'General'. It's speaking about royal people - it's based on people who come off a war, they would send the parents to war. You had to be a man of bold. They would either take your soul or you would go to war, and burn you cheap. You got to honor your respect, you couldn't sit on the throne and wait for someone else to go out there and defend your country for you and you stayed there and... you know? Sometime it worked, but most of the kings though had to go out there. So what the 'General' is saying is that the general is coming up to my father's funeral and gave his twenty-one gun salute and say he was a brave youth. 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