Blast from the past

[vernon]

I'm listening to Radio Four and the poll results for Desert Island Disc.

One record made me sit up and pay attention as I had not heard it since 1965/66 and amazingly I could recall a lot of the lyrics. It used to be played loudly and incessantly by a houseful of Jamaican men several doors down from where I lived. They were post Windrush immigrants and worked on the railways and buses in Darlington.

The track triggered lots of memories - the smell of Jamaican food, the smells of hot tar - the record was played during a hot summer where the road tar melted almost on a daily basis. The patois spoken by the Jamaicans, I failed to identify with them even though my (absentee) father was Jamaican.

What is startling is how values have changed since the record was released.

Have a listen to the lyrics:

[media]

]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKk6mbaOocA[/media]

 

[PaulB]

Liked that. We used to love Judge Dredd when we were younger, especially his 'rude' ones. I mean literal rude, not rude bwoy-type stuff.

 

[Fnaar]

I've got that track on an album... I think it was meant to push the boundaries even then, rather than reflect reality... even though there is some spectacularly rude/mysoginistic Prince Buster stuff... eg you should have told me you were a virgin... now my sheet is all red up... my wife will soon be home... I don't wash the sheets myself etc.. that's on a single I have that also has words bleeped out... always hated the Judge Dread stuff myself.... a sweaty herbert with minimal talent if you ask me.

 

[vernon]

Cracking tune, Vernon. I couldn't have had a less West Indian childhood (there was only one black kid in my whole secondary school, but I loved Prince Buster and I went on to love rocksteady and roots reggae.

I was the only black kid in a secondary school. My upbringing was very white North Eastern lower working class in poor housing stock where council housing was seen as an unattainable luxury. Had a whale of a time.

 

[vernon]

I've got that track on an album... I think it was meant to push the boundaries even then, rather than reflect reality...

It didn't push the boundaries. It really did reflect reality or, rather reality was strongly influenced by the record - certainly amongst the West Indian adult males in Darlington in the sixties.

 

[vernon]

Liked that. We used to love Judge Dredd when we were younger, especially his 'rude' ones. I mean literal rude, not rude bwoy-type stuff.

Judge Dread was and is pure 5hite.

 

[Stephenite]

Good stuff.

Though I'm reminded of the time when I asked my sarcy brother "Which records would you take with you if you were going to be left on a desert island?"
"Eh?"
"What records would you have on a desert island?"
"The long distance swimming record for a start"