Lovers Rock

General Intro: (1 min) Before we begin, owing to this year’s EMP theme “Dance Music Sex Romance,” I have an admission: Lovers Rock music never got me laid. However, hearing Jamaican pin-up model turned crooner J.C. Lodge’s album Revealed in 1985, followed by x-amount of British lover rock music by Sandra Cross, Kofi, Winston Reedy and others was more than enough to inspire impure thoughts and a lifelong love affair with romantic reggae. The title of our presentation is Lovers Rock: Class and Romance Inna Di Dance. And if you love your reggae music, you know there’s nothing better than a good sound clash, and that’s what Ron and I will get into today – extricating the difference between Jamaican Romantic Reggae and British Lovers Rock. First, Ron will speak on the Jamaican incarnation of lovers music. [Ron’s Presentation] 10 min. LOVERS ROCK: THE BRITISH CONTEXT PREAMBLE [PP Slide] Although Jamaican romantic reggae pre-dated British lovers rock music by a decade, by the mid-1970s UK artists quickly established a distinct homegrown sound and cottage industry that included labels like Dennis Harris’ genre-naming Lovers Rock imprint, “blues dance” house parties and pirate radio stations. UK lovers rock was sonically and rhetorically distinct. Stylistically it was lighter and more emotional than the course and carnally concerned Jamaican romantic reggae. British lovers rock reflected the upwardly mobile aspirations of assimilating second and third generation urban Afro-Caribbean immigrants. Lovers rock was the music of the sons and daughters of the 1950s Windrush Generation – the first batch of emigrated British Commonwealth Caribbean citizens. These youth aspired to dress smartly, rise in the labor ranks and establish their own unique blend of British and Caribbean music. Early on, UK lovers rock was dominated by female singers, offering a unique counterpoint to Jamaica’s male dominated reggae industry. Perhaps due in part to the feminine influence, the three major themes that emerged within British lovers rock were: Emotional Vulnerability, The Glory of Romantic Love and Black British Pride. British lovers rock was influenced foremost by 1960s and 70s American soul, as well as Jamaican reggae and the UK’s own glam pop and string-laden balladeers. While mainstream pop influences waned in Jamaica during the militant roots period of the 1970s and 80s, British lovers rock continued to incorporate the pop aesthetic, reflecting its adherent’s quest toward mainstream assimilation. Lovers rock peaked in 1988 with the crossover success of former Saxon Sound System singer Maxi Priest and then promptly went into decline. Hence, lovers rock is a genre that’s been both honored and ignored in the UK and elsewhere. It received virtually no airplay on UK stations, including black specialty radio stations such as BBC 1Xtra. However, white British pop artists from the 1980s to the present have borrowed liberally from the lovers rock palette without properly giving the music’s originators their due. Unfortunately, like the many aching love songs that define its cannon, the British lovers rock story ends in tragedy with several of its great stars and record labels dead or defunct. But, as long as young lovers yearn to dance close to a sweet reggae beat, lovers rock will live on. [PP Slide] Basic Facts: A distinct British Afro-Caribbean music style. The term Lovers Rock was coined by Dennis Harris and Dennis Bovell. Created primarily by second and third generation British Afro-Caribbean youth. History of female participation and successful female artists. Arose contrary to aggressive and revolutionary ‘70s-80s reggae and punk. Originators had hits but remained marginalized from mainstream British music. White British pop artists have more success with the style today. HISTORY Like Jamaican romantic reggae, British lovers rock can be loosely broken up into three eras, each with its significant singers and labels. First, British lovers rock had an Early Development epoch in the 1970s when both the female gender participation element and emotive rhetoric of the music was established. Singers like Louisa Marks, Janet Kay, Caroll Thompson, many of whom were teens when they started as evident by their wistful girlish voices, were prominent in this period as was Dennis Harris’ Lovers Rock label. According to Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton in The Rough Guide To Reggae (Rough Guides), “The early years of 'lovers rock' have two main resonances: London blues parties and discs by girl singers. The record that kick-started the phenomenon was the 14-year-old Louisa Marks hit, "Caught You In A Lie". With [the band] Matumbi as backing group and production by sound-system man Lloyd Coxsone, [the track] appeared on Coxsone's Safari imprint in 1975. Louisa Marks's hit was followed by Ginger Williams "Tenderness" (Third World), and a genre was born -- essentially Philly/Chicago soul ballads played over fat reggae basslines. The style was consolidated by the husband and wife team of Dennis and Yvonne Harris who produced a big hit with the white singer T.T. Ross's "Last Date" (Lucky), and set up a new imprint, Lover's Rock, Giving the genre its name.” Lets listen to Louisa Marks “Caught You In A Lie” so you can get a sense of the strong influences that American soul singers like Minnie Ripperton and Denise Williams had on a generation of British female artists. Since the music was largely not played on UK national radio stations, Blues parties -- gatherings in private houses, where one paid at the door -- were integral to the both the insular development of the music within the second and third generation Black British community and the intimacy that these settings evoked. The term “scrubbing the wallpaper,” referring to houses packed so tightly with slowly dancing patrons that bodies would scrape the wallpaper off, became an enduring metaphor for the passion that the British Afro-Caribbean community felt for lovers rock music. To give you an idea of the sounds that inspired such close-quarter dancing and eventually spawned an indigenous music scene, we’ll listen to Carroll Thompson’s “I'm So Sorry” (Santic), which has to been one of most sweetly delivered apologies ever recorded. Early lovers rock was dominated by women: Casandra, Donna Rhoden and Joy Mack – but the men in this era weren’t half bad either. Chief among them was singer Trevor Walters. His big hit “Love Me Tonight” exhibits the type of emotional vulnerability and emotive reach that’s typified lovers rock through the ages. Male singers would achieve more prominence in the 80s, including One Blood featuring Barry Boom, Instigators featuring producer/singers Mafia & Fluxy, peaking with Maxi Priest’s “Wild World” heights. In 1977 Brown Sugar emerged with their hit “In Love With A Dreadlock” on the Lovers Rock label featuring Caron Wheeler, who would famously join Soul II Soul, while fellow member Kofi went on to major success with Mad Professor’s Ariwa imprint. The 1979 release of Janet Kay’s Dennis Bovell-produced smash “Silly Games” was a massive hit that went to number 2 on the British National Charts, proving that lovers rock was already beginning to have an impact on the wider UK music scene and a growing legion of fans. AllMusic.com posits that lovers rock became quite popular among inner-city Britons looking for an alternative to political reggae. Recall that during this period, punks and skins were rioting in the streets of Britain while Jamaican gangs were cutting down their political rivals in the streets of Kingston.. Many second and third generation Afro-Caribbeans, however, were just trying to get their dance on, or as my fiend DJ Brixton Hitman put it, “trying to get close to a girl.” HISTORY PART II Next, in the historical development of British lovers rock were the fertile Boom Years, from the mid-1980s to the early 90s. The range of artists and labels was at it’s most diverse, with male and female stars scoring hits. You had singers like Barry Boom, Vivian Jones, Nerious Joseph, Winsome and Peter Spence and new labels like Fashion Records, UK Bubblers and distributor-slash-label Jet Star issuing records by the truckload. The song titles of this period revealed the genres entrenched romantic content: “You Are My Sugar,” “No One Night Stand,” “Try Love Again” and “”Lets Fall in Love.” Former Cimeron’s lead singer Winston Reedy’s summed up the vibes of the time with his 1983 smash “Dim The Lights”. A coy ode to break-up sex, Reedy cooed “You drive me out my mind/And you’re leaving me behind/ But before you walk through the door/There is something I’ve got to make sure of baby/ Dim the lights, turn the lights down low/Dim the lights/Let me thrill your soul.” Check the tune. Neil Fraser a.k.a. Mad Professor’s Ariwa imprint set the tone in the 80s with a slew of exquisitely produced music by Sandra Cross, John McLean, and Intense. With co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Black Steel, Ariwa issued some of the greatest lovers sides from 1983-1990. Mad Professor’s interest in technology, synths and mixing techniques added a new polish to the UK lovers sound, making his productions dreamy, sublime affairs where the romantic fantasy element of the lyrics was enhanced by equally sensual instrumentation. A perfect example is Kofi’s 1987 release “Looking Over Love” where she contemplates monogamy and enduring love – hear tune! A Mad Professor produced track that speaks to British lovers rock’s intense introspection and emotional vulnerability is John McLean’s immaculate “If I Gave My Heart To You.” Listen as he cautiously wonders if love is worth the risk. During the Boom Years British pop music embraced and incorporated the lovers rock’s sound and rhetoric. You heard it in the yearning lyrics and glossy New Romantic productions of ABC and Spandau Ballet as well as sweetly reggae-tinged ballads by the Police, Simply Red, Culture Club and Scritti Politti. According to many sources including the Wiki entry on British African-Caribbean development, British Barbadian Dennis Bovell – famous for his work with Brixton dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson -- became Britain's prominent reggae band leader and producer [in the 80s], introducing a reggae flavor to the British pop charts with non-reggae acts such as Dexy's Midnight Runners and Bananarama. [At the same time] Musical Youth, Aswad and Steel Pulse all had major commercial successes especially when dabbling in the lovers stylee, and UB40 enormous cover of “Red Red Wine” helped promote reggae to an international audience. Others who featured importantly in the ‘80s Boom Years included Deborah Glasgow, who passed away in 1994 after many career frustrations, and Maxi Priest, who, despite the blatant watering down of his sound in the late-80s and early 90s has an important reggae pedigree going back to his days as a carpenter building speaker cabinets for Saxon Sound System, to his work with Beres Hammond in Jamaica. A gifted vocalist always one song away from a major comeback, Priest’s enduring contribution to lovers rock are his soaring, drawn-out notes, which succinctly emphasize his emotional songcraft. (Next part if time allows) HISTORY PART III Currently, we find ourselves in a period of Lovers Rock Recession, which developed in the mid-1990s to present times. Although fantastic (and increasingly male) singers abound keeping the British lovers rock blueprint intact, public disinterest and a collapse of the industry has meant that established artists face more hurdles to a successful career than ever. But to write lovers rock off as a 70s and 80s relic is to miss gloriously talented vocalists such as Bitty McLean, who’s had massive hits in American, European and even Jamaican reggae clubs and charts. McLean’s “The Real Thing” or “Walk Away From Love” put him in company with Winston Reedy or Maxi Priest for the next lovers rock crown. McClean shows his range here on “Walk Away,” soulfully taking his voice to the limit and back. Then there’s Lloyd Brown, a British vocalist who’s as likely to appear on a Jamaican 7” single as he is on a London label, and Roger Robin, another Saxon Sound veteran whose pristine voice is still in demand. The Rough Guide To Reggae’s Barrow and Dalton also rightly declare that in the 90s the exquisitely soulful Peter Hunnigale has been the most consistently popular of all lovers stars – and recognition in Jamaica as a part of a triumphant UK contingent at Reggae Sunsplash 1996. The man known to fans as “Honey Vibes” set a high standard for vocalists with his complex harmonies and rich melodic songwriting. Here is on “House of Love,” showcasing his refined tones. In the 90s to the present, women like Donna Marie, Janet Lee Davis, Silvia Tella and Paulette Tajah are equally making an impact, and new labels like Stingray, Charm and the rockstead revival imprint Peckings CONCLUSIONS The death of several promising stars including Deborah Glasgow and Jean Adebambo along with the dormancy or bankruptcy of essential labels contributed to the decline of lovers rock’s business structure and popularity. In recent years, white Brits have been more successful mining lovers rock’s legacy than it’s originators, many of whom still play to packed revival shows. Young white newcomers like Ava Leigh, Lily Allen (boring, right?) and, predictably, Amy Winehouse are currently having affairs with lovers reggae. Ironically, as reported in the Nation Master Encyclopedia, lovers rock pioneer Dennis Bovell, brought the sound back in 2007, co-writing and co-producing the majority of rising British reggae artist Bobby Kray’s debut album Tales From A Skinny White Boy. The album’s lead single is "Silly Games,” covered by Kray with backing vocals by – you guessed it -- Janet Kay. But British lovers rock reggae enabled significant cultural and socio-economic changes. Where Jamaican reggae and dancehall emphasize traditional Patriarchic social, political, religious or gender roles, British lovers rock explores a vulnerable personal sphere that allows a greater range of gender expression. Indeed, as we’ve heard, UK lovers rock and Jamaican romantic reggae have different functions in their given societies. In the British context, women were more empowered as artists and men were able to expression complex emotions. According to a BBC’s entry on lovers rock, in the 1970s in Britain’s young black communities, the women had a saying – Rastafar-I was Rasta For Him and not Rasta For Us. In other words there were large number of black kids in the UK who didn’t feel part of roots and culture. They were upwardly mobile, didn’t want to go back to Africa, listened to a lot of soul music, liked dressing up on a Saturday night, were open about being influenced by their environment, but were as proud to be black as any dreadlocked Rastaman. They were a generation that saw themselves as Black British, and they created lovers rock, the first indigenous black British pop style. Although the bassline always let you know it was reggae, its light, airy productions it acknowledged such influences as soul and pop music and its subject matter was almost exclusively devoted to matters of the heart Lovers rock became a distinctly British product -- a stand alone genre in UK, whereas in Jamaica romantic music has remained a reggae sub-genre. Over its 30-year span romantic reggae has remained part of Jamaica’s DNA, but it has more explicitly impacted UK music culture and delineated new modes of Afro-Caribbean social and artistic identity. Major British Lovers Rock Artists and Producers Louisa Marks Janet Kaye Caroll Thompson Carol Gonzalez Brown Sugar Casandra Janet Kay Trevor Walters Casandra The Investigators Sharron Forrester Heptics (Band) Trevor Hartley Black Stones Matumbi Donna Rhoden Winston Reedy Sandra Cross John McLean Kofi Maxi Priest Aswad Deborahe Glasgow Mike Anthony Michael Gordon Nerious Joseph Dee Sharp Barry Boom Instigators One Blood Leroy Mafia (Mafia & Fluxie) Peter Spence Philip Leo Don Campbell Barry Biggs Bitty Mclean Peter Hunnigale LLoyd Brown Paul Dawkins Neville Morrison Vivian Jones Anthony Q Richie Davis Producers & Labels 1970s Dennis “Lascelles” Harris and Yvonne “Eve” Harris Lovers Rock Records Dennis Bovell Leonard Chiin Santic Pama International 1980s Neil Fraser a.k.a. Mad Professor / Ariwa Records Fashion Greensleeves UK Bubblers 1990s Jet Star Stingray Charm Peckings Tony “Ruff Cut” Phillips / RuffCutt Records & Band