This week was marked by two happenings involving reggae. One was the news that Leonard "The Ethiopian" Dillon had passed away. Best known as the lead vocalist and founder of seminal roots group The Ethiopians, he had also had a significant solo career. Never one of the the biggest reggae artists and not well known outside of Jamaica and roots-reggae circles worldwide, Leonard's passing leaves a void in the Jamaican music firmament. His music was very much rooted in Jamaican traditional styles--mento and gospel music among others. His lyrics sprang from the the sayings of common people, folk wisdom, proverbs and the Bible. His career pre-dated reggae and his first recordings came in the ska era. Breaking through with "Last Train To Skaville" around 1967, The Ethiopians scored a number of hits in Jamaica into the reggae era, often with timely social commentary as on such songs as "Everything Crash." When his partner, Steven Taylor was killed in a car crash in 1975, Dillon carried on solo, recording a magnificent album entitled "Slave Call" under the name The Ethiopians in 1977 and recording thereafter as The Ethiopian. Aside from his seminal music, Dillon was a gentle, radiant spirit according to those who knew him.
The other happening in my life that involved reggae came about when I was listened to the local "urban" (read "hip-hop dominated) radio station, Power 99 in my car. Out of the blue they played a straight-up reggae tune that sounded stylistically as though it could be a Tenor Saw (popular reggae dancehall singer) song from the late Eighties. It is always a suprising and all-too-rare thrill to hear authentic on mainstream commercial radio in America. But I couldn't place the song. When I got home, I googled the hook lyrics of the song and found it was Rihanna's latest single "Man Down." Suddenly it was more understandable why Power 99 was playing it. If it had been a less well-known artist, particularly a Jamaican artist, chances are it wouldn't have been on the playlist. Rihanna comes by the reggae vibes honestly; she's from Barbados and her first single was the credible, if lightweight, dancehall reggae of "Pon De Replay."
What does Power 99 playing a reggae cut have to do with Leonard Dillon's passing? On the surface, very little. But there is a connection. I started listening to reggae in 1972 and, like so many others, was captivated by this completely unique, evocative, powerful music style which very frequently delivered social/poitical commentary and spiritual inspiration sorely lacking in much of popular music during the latter half of the Seventies and Eighties. I became a crusader for the music, proselytizing in various ways, writing about the music and eventually launching and hosting the Roots Rock Reggae radio show on WXPN-FM in Philadelphia for a number of years. At that time, aside from Album Oriented Rock (AOR) radio, most commercial radio stations shunned reggae. Even Bob Marley never had a true radio hit in America. Not a few programmers at stations playing R & B disparaged it as "jungle music." From time to time, though, something would break through, a reggae tune would be come a pop hit. Often it would be by a non-Jamaican artist, such as Eric Clapton's "I Shot The Sheriff" or Blondie's "The Tide Is High." This began to change somewhat in the late Eighties, thanks to an interchange between hip-hop and reggae. Some of the pioneering figures in hip-hop--Kool Herc for one--were Jamaican or Caribbean and it is clear that some key elements of hip-hop came from Jamaican music. There was also an increasing socio-cultural interchange between the ghettos of Jamaica and the ghettos of America. In any case, by the Nineties, it was becoming fairly common for Jamaican artists to have break-through hits on "urban" radio stations....songs such as Shabba Ranks' "Wicked In Bed", Super Cat's "Ghetto Red Hot", Dawn Penn's "No, No, No", Mega Banton with "Sound Boy Killing" and many others. As recently as a few years ago Damian Marley scored a huge hit with "Welcome To Jamrock", which had a classic rockers reggae rhythm and sampled Barrington Levy. In a strange way, this was a fulfillment of Bob Marley's dream, which he related to me during the one time I had extended face time with him; he always wanted reggae to be heard by the African-American community at large and to be played on Black radio; maybe he wouldn't have appreciated many of the particular recordings that achieved this but I think he would have been gratified on some level in any case. Nevertheless, for a variety of reasons, this trend dwindled until in recent years such crossover hits have become rare. And that's why I was so shocked and delighted to hear Rihanna's "Man Down." Of course, in my heart of hearts, I had wanted Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown, The Mighty Diamonds and other message/roots artist to get commercial radio play in the States. Why not The Ethiopians? Much of their music is catchy and universal. Hey, maybe some hip hop artist will sample The Ethiopians--if they haven't already! But I'm not holding my breath. Meanwhile, I'll take out my Ethiopians records and play them....and also enjoy Rihanna's latest "Man Down."
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