Curlier (LSP RIP Part 3)
Junior Byles – Curly Locks (Best Of Junior Byles & The Upsetters 1970 - 1976)Heartbeat Records – CD HB208CD, Compilation, US, 1997
One of the most wonderful people on the planet sent me a note saying she had read my last post and was "quite partial to curly locks, you know." I know it's *possible* she was referring to her hair (or mine?), but I'm choosing to believe she was moved by that last scratched up record I had shared. So, instead of what I was planning and inspired by my aunt (as always!), the Lee Perry tribute continues with more Junior Byles... this time with good sound, like I promised.
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Curly Locks: Best of Junior Byles & the Upsetters 1970-1976 misses a few crucial cuts, but pretty much does what it says on the cover. This CD gives a real sense of the magic created during those years when Byles worked with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry. A revived Doctor Bird record label recently reissued a double CD of Byles' Beat Down Babylon album packed in something like 41 bonus tracks(!). That 2020 set is highly worth your money and covers much of the same ground as this 1997 disc. For years, this music was very hard to hunt down and this CD was a treasure, collecting some of Byles' greatest hits, many packaged with a "next cut" over the same tough Upsetters rhythm track, alongside some obscure songs and unreleased versions for the obsessives collectors (a few of which I don't think have been issued again since).
The compilation does a great job highlighting Byles' wide range of styles and songs, again showing him not just as a powerful singer but one of the strongest songwriters in his generation of reggae artists. It seems obvious he could have been his way to breaking internationally as well if he hadn't been put into a tailspin by mental health issues, personal losses and the challenges they brought.
The mood ranges from from catchy festival pop (Da Da, a hit recorded in 1972) to the serious A Place Called Africa (1971), where an excellent, melodica laced Upsetter rhythm is matched by Byles' beautiful vocal and lyric on repatriation and Black identity. Byles recorded as good a version of the Fever (yes, that "Fever") as you'll ever hear. It's paired here with an excellent DJ version called Lick The Pipe Peter where the obscure Jah T chants an tale of Peter, Paul and herbal activities over the strange rhythm, with melodica added once again by the great Augustus Pablo. And with the Versatiles, he has a great recording of Cutting Razor (best known for Peter Tosh's takes on the song)
When Will Better Come and Informer Man (Babylon Chapter 9), two tracks on the Beat Down Babylon rhythm (and continuing its theme), highlight the political end of Scratch and Byles time together. In the heated 1972 Jamaican election, a number of artists threw artistic support behind Michael Manley and the increasingly radicalized People's National Party (PNP). Songs like Beat Down Babylon by Byles, Max Romeo, Scratch, Clancy Eccles and others seemed to be rallying Rastafarian support for the socialist program of the winning PNP. Despite the numerous programs launched to tackle poverty, literacy and workers' rights under the Manley government, a year into the administration, frustrations from the many who saw little meaningful change could be felt. In reggae, a song is seemingly cut every evening about the headlines of the hour before so this disappointment began to show up on record. Delroy Wilson's classic Better Must Come had been a campaign slogan for the 1972 PNP campaign, so in 1973 Byles responded with When Will Better Come?
I really love Byles' ability to speak to concerns that are spiritual, social and serious without letting go of his lighter side. When he slips into a soul song, a cut or the dance or lyrics to his new love, it doesn't sound out of place. It's just another side of the same contradictory, all too real person. Part of the beauty of Curly Locks is the way the lyric is so serious and playful, funny and aggressive all at once. He calls his girlfriends father a "poacher" and "a walking dead" ...then thanks her for the letter that makes him feel better! It's my kind of mess, the nonsense contradictions that really do run through our heads.
My two hidden treasures on this disc:
Three takes of Curly Locks might seem excessive, but listen closely to version 2, an earlier rough take with no drums, and near the start and end of the song you can hear Byles impersonating the bass line they are working on. It's a joy to hear some of my favorite musicians working out their ideas on such a special song. And on the Lee Perry written Thanks We Get, Junior Byles gives the definitive version of the song, joined throughout by Perry's small children singing and chatting along. Recorded in the early days of the Black Ark, it starts as a serious lyric about the powerful taking for granted the contributions of those that serve but makes a turn toward something more surreal and even hilarious as a toddler Omar Perry takes a break from shouting "Da da, da da!" to join on lyrics like "the one who shit around no remember it / but the one who clean the shit must remember it."
Ok, enough talk- I hope you enjoy.
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