Desmond Dekker Passes Away
May 26th 2006 09:07
Yesterday I said I was going to write about each of the artists playing the gig on June 10th in LA, USA. Something came up that I couldn’t overlook, so I will move on to them next week.
It is with great disappointment to hear that Desmond Dekker has passed away. Dekker was born Desmond Adolphus Dacres on July 16, 1941 and died Thursday morning at 4 am May 25th in London of a heart attack. He was 64.
Dekker made an impact on the Jamaican music scene with his song Honour Your Mother and Father for Leslie Kong on the excellent Beverley’s label. It was a cracking upbeat ska number that set his path as a Jamaican musical icon. This was 1963, right in the thick of Jamaica’s indigenous music beginnings. He followed this song up with a number of others including the well known King of Ska (backed by The Cherry Pies) and Get Up Edina (backed by The Four Aces). The Aces would be his vocal group for his next stint of recordings, made up of Wilson James and brothers Clive, Carl, Barry and Patrick Howard (not necessarily all at the same time). In 1967 they recorded the rocksteady number 007, which went to #14 on the UK charts. This was followed by winning the 1968 Jamaican Festival Song Competition with the song Music Like Dirt, better known as Intensified. The year after in 1969, on the back of the UK skinheads’ love of reggae music and Dekker’s touring in the UK, their song Israelites went to #1 on the UK charts. It was also Dekker’s only US charting song, reaching the top ten.
Dekker was spending a lot of time touring the UK and by the time he recorded the Jimmy Cliff penned You Can Get It If You Really Want in 1970, he had relocated there. Leslie Kong’s death in 1971 was said to be a big set back for Dekker. He had had 20 number one hits in Jamaica by this time, but his career started to slide. A re-release of Israelites made the UK charts in 1975, but the mid to late seventies saw Dekker struggle. With the prominence of the 2-tone movement in the UK in the late seventies to early eighties, Dekker capitalised with albums Black and Dekker and Compass point on the Stiff label, which also released the likes of Madness and Ian Dury. Like 2-tone, it was short lived and Dekker had to file for bankruptcy in 1984. He was down but not out though. In 1993 he recorded an album with some former members of The Specials titled King of Kings. From that point on he performed consistently throughout the USA, UK and Europe right up until his recent death.
From what I have been told Dekker was very much a showman, with a unique sense of dress (like many Jamaicans) and a string of hits that would impress any audience. Personally, he was very much my gateway into Jamaican music. I would credit him with being the artist that made me look to the sixties for ska and reggae. Israelites, Intensified, 007 and Unity were and continue to be songs that can send shivers down my spine. He had a belting voice that was as high as anyone’s. I can’t remember the specific song, but I remember someone once commenting they thought a woman was singing.
It is a sad passing and made sadder still by the fact it is not an uncommon occurrence amongst Jamaican music royalty. The founders of ska are at an age where death is a definite reality and Dekker’s death comes shortly after Laurel Aitken’s, Phyllis Dillon, Coxsone Dodd and C Clancy Eccles to name just a few.
References
Desmond Dekker Official Site
Jamaica Observer
Jamaica Gleaner News
Grover Records
Radio Jamaica
Dekker made an impact on the Jamaican music scene with his song Honour Your Mother and Father for Leslie Kong on the excellent Beverley’s label. It was a cracking upbeat ska number that set his path as a Jamaican musical icon. This was 1963, right in the thick of Jamaica’s indigenous music beginnings. He followed this song up with a number of others including the well known King of Ska (backed by The Cherry Pies) and Get Up Edina (backed by The Four Aces). The Aces would be his vocal group for his next stint of recordings, made up of Wilson James and brothers Clive, Carl, Barry and Patrick Howard (not necessarily all at the same time). In 1967 they recorded the rocksteady number 007, which went to #14 on the UK charts. This was followed by winning the 1968 Jamaican Festival Song Competition with the song Music Like Dirt, better known as Intensified. The year after in 1969, on the back of the UK skinheads’ love of reggae music and Dekker’s touring in the UK, their song Israelites went to #1 on the UK charts. It was also Dekker’s only US charting song, reaching the top ten.
Dekker was spending a lot of time touring the UK and by the time he recorded the Jimmy Cliff penned You Can Get It If You Really Want in 1970, he had relocated there. Leslie Kong’s death in 1971 was said to be a big set back for Dekker. He had had 20 number one hits in Jamaica by this time, but his career started to slide. A re-release of Israelites made the UK charts in 1975, but the mid to late seventies saw Dekker struggle. With the prominence of the 2-tone movement in the UK in the late seventies to early eighties, Dekker capitalised with albums Black and Dekker and Compass point on the Stiff label, which also released the likes of Madness and Ian Dury. Like 2-tone, it was short lived and Dekker had to file for bankruptcy in 1984. He was down but not out though. In 1993 he recorded an album with some former members of The Specials titled King of Kings. From that point on he performed consistently throughout the USA, UK and Europe right up until his recent death.
From what I have been told Dekker was very much a showman, with a unique sense of dress (like many Jamaicans) and a string of hits that would impress any audience. Personally, he was very much my gateway into Jamaican music. I would credit him with being the artist that made me look to the sixties for ska and reggae. Israelites, Intensified, 007 and Unity were and continue to be songs that can send shivers down my spine. He had a belting voice that was as high as anyone’s. I can’t remember the specific song, but I remember someone once commenting they thought a woman was singing.
It is a sad passing and made sadder still by the fact it is not an uncommon occurrence amongst Jamaican music royalty. The founders of ska are at an age where death is a definite reality and Dekker’s death comes shortly after Laurel Aitken’s, Phyllis Dillon, Coxsone Dodd and C Clancy Eccles to name just a few.
References
Desmond Dekker Official Site
Jamaica Observer
Jamaica Gleaner News
Grover Records
Radio Jamaica
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