by Tero Kaski
courtesy of
COOL RUNNINGS
Finland
"A lie... it a lie"
was all Bar-rington Levy could say, when Reggae George had answered "yes"
to his question if King Cry Cry really had died. "But why..."
was his next question, the same question everybody had been asking since
the sad news of the murder of Prince Far I at his home had arrived. Nobody
knew the answer. "A man can have things going without his wife even
knowing it .. .", Reg-gae George was pondering the matter trying
to find some rea-son behind the seemingly mo-tiveless incident. Everybody
loved Prince Far I because of his gentle and outspoken manner. He was
a man of peace and love if there ever was one. And Reg-gae George would
know, if there had been anything going, because of the close ties they
had, working together so long. But nobody knew. "Who's going to finish
the albums Prince Far I was doing?". Reg-gae George said that he
must do it himself, he must take care of the work Prince Far I had left.
And now he must hurry to Chancery Lane where he would meet the widow of
Prince Far I who had just arrived from the hospital where she had been
treated. She surely needed con-solation and encouragement.
We had met Prince Far I just a couple of days earlier
at Harry J's yard where he was voicing the new album Roy Cousins was producing.
And the man had been in fine form. He lis-tened to the rhythm once, con-centrated
a few minutes on the lyrics, dj once on rhythm to test his ideas, and
was ready for taking it in. And immaculate toast it was - laser beams
and all ... And so to the next toast. Roy told us that Prince Far I had
six tunes ready with him. It could make a showcase album...
This is what Prince Far I had to say: I've been in the business from around 1962, like playing sound system, system call 'Sir Mike The Musical Dragon'. Then leave and start playing another sound call 'El Toro'. Well, gradually, gradually grow up till I start recording. My first record was called 'The Great Buga Wuga' for Bunny Lee
Prince Far-I:
The
Final
Encounter
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| around 1968. Well, I do a next recording for Sir Coxsone's 'Downbeat' - 'I Had A Talk' on |
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The Banana label was a A-side of a Burning Spear tune, put out in London, you know. For Cox- |
sone I also did a tune call 'Natty Farmyard' which
was a big sel-ling song. It was around three songs I do for him, one song
he never put out, I don't know what the position really. For Enos Mcleod
I did a song call 'Let Jah Arise And His Enemies Be Scattered'. A song
for myself call 'Zion Call', the first one I produce really, and now I
have twenty-old albums, really.
My first album was an album call 'Psalms For I'. I did
it for Lloydie Slim from Micron label, you know. Then I do the next album
call 'Under Heavy Man-ners', Joe Gibbs, which is a very big selling album.
From that album come out it never really stop sell, talking about hundred
thousand. Biggest selling album, people say it classic album, you know.
I did albums like 'Message From The King' and 'Long Life' for Virgin re-cords.
I do an album for them call 'Wisdom' with some tracks with Gregory Isaacs
singing, really, 'Uncle Joe' and ting. I did a discomix with Gregory call
'Uncle Joe', the biggest selling disco in England. It was limited amount
by Virgin record com-pany. I did albums like 'Free From Sin', 'Jamaican
Heroes', 'Showcase In A Suitcase', 'Liv-ity', 'Cry tuff Dub Encounter
Chapters 1 to 5', 'Voice Of Thunder' and a new album re-lease them call
'Musical His-tory'. It a brand new album with new tunes. I produce an
album with Reggae George, 'Mix Up'. The first album I really produce was
Ashanti Roy, Congo Ashanti Roy, album named 'Sign Of The Star' on Charisma
label. It have tunes call '83 Struggler', discomix 'Weeping And Wailing',
it was a good sel-ling discomix, really.
To the back, I was the first sufferer producer. I produced
most singers in Jamaica as a suf-ferer. I usually release six, seven tunes
one time with all different kind a singers. I used to pro-duce Jah Thomas,
Big Joe, even Gregory Isaacs sing song for me. A tune call 'Something
Nice' was the first record I ever come pan as a producer. Errol Holt,
who is a bassman Flabba Holt, is a man who used to sing song for me, and
play bass. Each and every song that I made was Flabba Holt, The Radics,
the main act. First time I travelling it was me and the Rad-ics same way.
It's Flabba Holt with such and such a man and