READING - A Ruffer Version Sleeve Notes

JOHNNY CLARKE - A Ruffer Version
Sleeve notes \ biog. for A Ruffer Version Cd. (Sanctuary / Trojan)
Written by Dave Hendley
Reproduced by permission of the Author.

Johnny Clarke was born in Kingston in January 1955 and he grew up in the district between Waltham Park Road and Maxfield Avenue known as Whitfield Town. As a boy he regularly attended church with his mother and it was here as an enthusiastic member of the Sunday school choir that his love for singing first became aroused.

Johnny's passion was further fuelled by his brother - drummer/vocalist Eric Fish Clarke - " As a youth I respect my older brother which is the drummer Fish Clarke, and my next brother there (Johnny had one other elder brother). So I grew up with the vibes of music all around me. He (Eric) was at the Alpha School Boys School were you have Don Drummond. Horsemouth, Dirty Harry and the whole of them...he was one of them guys. Well he came home to live at my mum¹s house cos when you get bigger you have to leave the school to make way for some younger kids. He was just all about the music vibes and I see im keep going out to the studio and always coming in an talking about the studio and things.

But as a little youth going to school I don't get the fullness of the music thing yet - but at the same time I realise I really could sing due to me going to church."

Respecting the wishes of his parents Johnny put aside any ideas of a career in music until he finished his secondary schooling at Kingston College. Only achieving two of the five grades necessary for further education he left school at 16 and found a clerical job at a downtown food processing company. But by now his heart was well and truly set on following in his brother Eric's footsteps. "After school I decide that I knew my aim, cos' of what I saw my brother was involved with, and I feel like I should be part of that too."

Johnny initially recieved help from a promoter named Tony Mack. With Mack's encouragement he started taking part in local talent competitions before progressing to singing in clubs and bars like The Memory Lane and The Pink Lady.

"After the club moves and the charity shows I decide that, bwoy I need to do some recording, but at the amateur shows you don't see no real producers and I decide that bwoy, I have to get myself lingering with the real people. So I find myself down in the heart of the city by Chancery Lane, the place they call Idler's Rest' going from producer to producer - but in them days through the competition was strong and the entertainers very professional you as a new artist have to be very good to impress a producer. It's worse if it's a producer who have a lot of big name artists around im - you as a little youth better make sure you can impress im and even if you impress he's still going to believe more in his name artists."

Eventually the young singer's persistence persuaded seasoned producer Clancy Eccles to take him into the studio for the first time. The result was God Made The Sea And The Sun' - recorded at Harry J. and released on a blank label in 1972. Although the record was a commendable debut it didn't sell particularly well and Eccles' decided against any further pressings on a proper imprint.

Undaunted Clarke went in search of another producer. In late '72 he was selected by Rupie Edwards at one of the producers regular Sunday auditions at Half Way Tree. His recordings for Rupie early in the new year gave him his first taste of success and he scored a significant dancehall hit in Jamaica with 'Everyday Wondering' - a tune that is probably far better known for it's rhythm which the producer was later to use as the foundation for his UK No.1 pop chart hit 'Ire Feelings'.

"That was my first experience of recording at King Tubby's. Rupie took me round by Tubby's, I was always hearing about 'im but I never know 'im. When we did 'Wondering' we make the rhythm down at Channel One Studio then at night we went round by Tubby's to put on the voice - so that's why Tubby's (Hi-Fi) was playing that song in the dance, it was King Tubby's make that song a dancehall hit."

'Everyday Wondering' was also a big sound system favourite in the UK. Bunny 'Striker' Lee, one of reggae's top hit-makers was on a trip to London when he heard the record playing in a dance. Suitably impressed he decided to check out Johnny Clarke as soon as he returned to Jamaica. Striker was already familiar with the aspiring young singer and had often let him sit in on his sessions.

"He (Bunny Lee) know me and know I could sing but through 'im have so many artists round 'im he wasn't ready for me yet. But I used to have the privilege to go in the studio and I have the privilege to stay around. Sometimes I bleach 'til the next morning - sunlight come and I don't get to do a song."

Once back in Kingston Lee wasted no time in cutting Johnny on a version of 'My Desire' although for the time being it remained unreleased. Around this same time Bunny Lee was living in Greenwich Farm where he also ran a small bar by his house on East Avenue. Located between Spanish Town Road and Kingston Harbour the area was a hotbed of musical activity and players and singers would often hang out in the yard behind Striker's bar. It was here that the producer heard a local Rasta youth named Earl Johnson rehearsing one of his song's, 'None Shall Escape The Judgement', with Soul Syndicate guitarist Earl 'Chinna' Smith.

Bunny loved the song and Chinna's catchy arrangement. He recorded the first version of 'None Shall Escape The Judgment' on a conventional (non-flyers) rhythm at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle with Earl (who he'd by now dubbed Earl Zero) on lead vocals augmented by harmonies from Johnny Clarke and another singer whose name is now long forgotten. It is a matter of speculation as to whether or not this version ever made it onto vinyl (I've searched for a copy of Earl Zero¹s version for over 25 years, but like the Holy Grail there is no certainty that it even exists). Striker thought Earl Zero's version was too raw and realised that Clarke, a far more melodic singer, would have a much better chance of making the song a hit. Another session at Treasure Isle was soon arranged.

On the day of the session Johnny, as eager as ever, turned up early outside The Duke's Studio on Bond Street. "He (Duke Reid) always use to walk up and down in the daytime like a soldier with his big gun over his shoulder ca' 'im 'ave liquor store y'know - so 'im always guard it - up and down like a soldier. Well I get there in the morning y'know, I was first there 'an I was sitting on the step, 'cos the studio don't open yet, 'an there was some pigeons beside me. So he came up to open the studio door and he said "Bwoy?" an' I said "Sir, I'm one of the singers come fe the session". He said "bwoy! - I hope you're not trying to eat one of me pigeons! y'know!"

Bunny had chosen to rebuild the rhythm from scratch and 'None Shall Escape's' revolutionary flying cymbals sound came about almost purely by accident. The Soul Syndicate band were messing around, jamming in the studio prior to the start of the session when the drummer, Carlton 'Santa' Davis suddenly switched from his snare and began to play the beat off of his cymbals. When time the time came to lay the rhythm Santa started by drumming in the conventional style. Bunny Lee stopped the session and asked the drummer to play the rhythm off the cymbals again like he had in the warm up. The producer knew that he had found the special hit making sound he was searching for. The young singer laid his guide vocal and it became immediately obvious that they had a huge hit on their hands. According to Johnny, Duke Reid came into the studio to check out Bunny¹s hot new sound and in his excitement fired a shot from his rifle into the wall.

As was the usual practice, they drove over to Waterhouse that night for Johnny to voice the song properly at Tubby's. 'None Shall Escape The Judgement' instantly became the top dub on Tubby¹s Hi-Fi - with the engineer doing a lucrative trade in acetate mixes for other soundmen in Jamaica and the UK. In fact business was so good that Tubby got vexed when Striker eventually decided to put in out on vinyl - for this reason the dub side of the released 45 was actually mixed by the studio apprentice Phillip Smart.

The record was released in the spring of 1974 and gave Johnny Clarke the kind of break he could only have dreamed about - it also provided Bunny Lee with one of the biggest hits of his long and distinguished career. Johnny recalls, " 'None Shall Escape' was a new sound 'plus it was a new artist, so right away the people welcome the new sound 'an the new artist -'an with have them for five years straight."

Although Earl Zero's name appears on the first Jamaican pressings of the record on Lee's Justice label the song was to become so closely associated with Clarke that people often think he wrote it. Although Earl was never to hit the big time he wrote in 'None Shall Escape The Judgement' a roots anthem every bit as eloquent as Burning Spear's 'Door Peeper' and The Abyssinians' 'Satta Massa Gana' and it is a tragedy for reggae fans that his original may have been lost forever.

Of course success of the song spawned many versions from the Lee stable, among them Cornell Campbell¹s topical 'Gun Court Law' and Dillinger and King Tubby¹s sensational 'Jah Jah Dub'. Clarke himself cut two further vocals on the rhythm. The self penned 'Joshua's Word' and 'Jah Jah Bless Joshua' showed him to be a gifted writer and both song's PNP inspired lyrics vividly capture the tense mood of the West Kingston ghetto in the mid-'70s.

For the rest of 1974 and much of the following year the dancehalls were dominated by Lee's flying cymbal rhythms. At times it seemed like the reggae charts consisted of nothing other than releases by Johnny Clarke, Cornell Campbell, Delroy Wilson, Owen Grey and Linval Thompson on the producer¹s Attack, Gorgon, Jackpot, Justice and Prophecy labels.

In the wake of 'None Shall Escape The Judgement' Striker, capitalising on the young singer's newfound popularity, issued an avalanche of Johnny Clarke recordings. Johnny was a remarkably versatile singer and his effortlessly smooth tenor was equally as at home on love songs as it was on the heavy roots material that first brought him to fame. For this reason the scope of his repertoire was truly staggering. Roots songs aside he was at his best on his noteworthy cover¹s of classics such as 'The Paragon's 'Left With A Broken Heart' and Delano Stewart's 'Rock With Me.'

Deserving a mention is a one off record Johnny made for Keith Hudson's friend Derrick 'Stamma' Hobson. 'Golden Snake' was recorded on 1975 on one of the rock steady rhythms Hudson 'acquired' at the start of his career in the late '60s. Now probably Clarke's most scarce 45 it is highly coveted by the rock steady revival crowd despite having been made in the wrong decade. It also marks one of the few times the singer recorded for a producer other than Bunny Lee during what was the peak of his career.

For the five years following 'None Shall Escape' Bunny Lee more or less monopolised Tubby's studio. It was a common sight to see Striker and his entourage arrive early in the evening at Dromilly Avenue with suitcases full of tapes in readiness for an all night voicing and mixing session. In this relatively short period of time Johnny recorded more songs than most other major artists managed in their entire careers. No other singer had ever saturated the market in quite this way.

Although he has sometimes been criticised for making too many records his model was later echoed in the early '80s dance hall era by the almost equally prolific careers of Sugar Minott, Barrington Levy, Johnny Osbourne and Frankie Paul. And even today it is by no means uncommon for top contemporary Jamaican artists like Capleton, Sizzla and Luciano to issue two or three records in the same week.

Johnny Clarke was the original dancehall/youth singer and if he was guilty of anything it was simply that he just loved to be in Tubby's studio just a little too much. For many fans it is the many enduring roots songs that constitute the real substance of Johnny's career. He was always at his most convincing when dealing with more cultural themes and songs such as 'Enter Into His Gate's With Praise', 'Poor Marcus', 'Roots Natty Congo', 'Blood Dunza' and 'Play Fool Fe Get Wise' represent his considerable writing and vocal talents at their very best. After a quarter of a century and countless plays later these recordings still manage to capture the very essence of what is now regarded as the golden age of roots music.

This strictly roots and culture Johnny Clarke compilation attempts to capture some of the magic of this period by including some of the essential Tubby's mixes and alternate versions of the songs. Among the many vocal highlights are Clarke¹s prototype 'live mike' dancehall style rendition of 'Joshua's Words', his intense interpretation of 'Poor Marcus' and (aided and abetted by DJ Dillinger) his light-hearted lampooning of Jacob Miller on the intro to 'Don't Trouble Trouble' - "him face just a pillar...the bredda just some little imitation Rasta...y'know see it - im well soft!"

Dubwise this set features two of Tubby's defining mixes 'A Harder Version' on which he uses a crashing spring reverb to dramatic effect and the apocalyptic 'A Ruffer Version'. Complete with machine gun fire and wailing sirens this engineering masterpiece mirrors the turbulent times in which it was recorded. Mention must also be made of Tubby's long time friend Lloyd 'Prince Jammy' James. Jammys took over the running of the studio early in 1976 and his punchy engineering style was well suited to the rockers and steppers rhythms that followed the flying cymbals era. His stubborn mix on 'Channel One Is A Joker' and the impossibly heavy dub to 'Play Fool Fe Get Wise' represent Prince Jammy's absolute mastery of the Tubby's board in the late '70s.

These notes have been written within days of having witnessed Johnny perform a marathon hour and a half live show in London and it's a pleasure to report that his voice sounds stronger than ever. At 47 he is still a youth in comparison to other reggae veterans and it looks like he will be entertaining his audience for many more years to come.

Booklet notes and compilation: Dave Hendley
Sources: Interview with Johnny Clarke, London March 2002 - Dave Hendley & Laurence Cane-Honeysett Interview with Bunny Lee, London September 2000 - Paul Coote & Dave Hendley Interview with Earl Zero, Greenwich Farm, Kingston April 1977 - Dave Hendley Full Watts Magazine Vol.2 No.2 & Vol.2 No.3 1998

Special thanks to: Lol Bell-Brown, Laurence Cane-Honeysett, Johnny Clarke, Paul Coote, Ken 'Fatman' Gordon (on whose sound I first heard these tunes), Noel Hawks, Chris Lane & Bunny Lee.

Dedicated to Osbourne 'King Tubby' Ruddock
Essential further listening:
Dreader Dread - Johnny Clarke (Blood & Fire 1998)
Sings Roots & Culture - Johnny Clarke & Barry Brown (Fatman 1992)

Digital restoration - Jason James-Eyers @ Porky¹s Mastering London
Recorded at Channel One, Dynamics, Harry.J, Randy's & Treasure Isle Studios Kingston. Jamaica
Voiced & mixed at King Tubby¹s Studio
Engineers: Lloyd 'Prince Jammy¹ James, Pat Kelly. Osbourne 'King Tubby'
Ruddock and Phillip Smart.