I'll take you there vs. Liquidator FIGHT!

[johnnyreggae]

TJACD080 liners by Stephen Nye, © 2003


Way back in 1969, supporters of the Chelsea football team revered players such as Bonetti, Osgood, and Hollins. The boys performed under the watchful eye of Dave Sexton to the tune of Harry J & the All Stars' chartbuster, “The Liquidator”. Whether the tune helped the squad in their successful 1970 FA Cup campaign and subsequent Cup Winners Cup victory we shall never know. One thing is for certain the theme to those victories was undoubtedly ‘The Liquidator’, with its Hammond organ crescendos that let to that chant ‘CHEL-SEA!”

The tune’s creator, Harold Johnson, was born in Jamaica. He began his musical career while still at school playing bass in a little known band called the Virtues. The group recorded a handful of tunes, including a version of the Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions favourite “Amen”. After a while Harry undertook the role of the band’s manager and signed a deal for new instruments. When the Virtues failed to breakthrough into the big time they disbanded, Harry was left with the instruments and arrears, but this experience resulted in his business acumen proving legendary in the Jamaican music industry. Following the group’s demise, Harry pursued a career in insurance but it was not too long before the music bug bit him. In 1968 his career began in earnest.

As a result of an introduction through Keble Drummond of the Cables, Harry’s initial success was with performers from Bop and the Beltones. The group had recorded a few Studio One hits notably, “Smile Like An Angel”, “Dancing Time” and “Not For A Moment”, although Bop departed thereafter, and the group re-emerged as The Beltones. With Harry, the remainder of the group recorded “No More Heartaches”, which was subsequently embellished with the producer’s trademark Hammond organ. The song featured lead vocals of Trevor Shield who remained with Harry for a series of classic cuts such as “Please” and the magnificent “The Moon is Playing Tricks on Me”, The latter can be found on the people's favourite, “Trojan Revive Box Set” (TJET0029).

Many commentators on the development of Jamaican music cite “No More Heartaches” as the first record to feature the new reggae beat, although some would dispute this. The popularity of the song led Trojan to release a various artists album of the same name (TTL 14) and, among the tracks included on the set, was the splendid “Soul Special” by Karl ‘King Cannon’ Bryan with the All Stars, which pleasingly features on this compilation. Through his growing reputation and parleys with Clement ‘Coxone’ Dodd, Harry negotiated the use of Studio One’s recording facilities. At the Brentford Road site he additionally recorded Lloyd Robinson who performed the legendary “Cuss Cuss”, a song that has since proved to be one of the most versioned hits in Jamaica second only to the “Sleng Teng” rhythm.

By this time, Harry had recruited the cream of the island’s musicians including Lynford ‘Hux’ Brown, Ranny ‘Bop’ Williams, Reggie ‘Alva’ Lewis and Glen Adams, who performed as the nucleus of the Harry J All Stars. The All Stars’ drum and bass was provided by Carlton and Aston ‘Familyman’ Barrett, who like their contemporaries, performed in the Upsetters and the Hippy Boys before they joined The Wailers.

With his session men providing tight rhythms, Harry released Tony Scott’s “What Am I To Do”, a song clearly influenced by the Alton Ellis and the Flames 1966 Treasure Isle classic “Girl I’ve Got A Date”. “What Am I To Do” provided the title track of a long since deleted compilation named after the hit (TTL 34), which showcased a number of Harry J classics with further tracks from the dexterous Karl ‘King Cannon’ Bryan such as “Wha-Pen”, featuring Lord Comic, can be found on the immensely popular 'Trojan Skinhead Reggae Box Set' (TJETD 003), while the original vocal version of “Shining” is the risqué “Hold The Pussy” by Kid Gungo, which can be found on another recent compilation, the acclaimed 'X-Rated Box Set' (TJETD 048).

In the late sixties organ led instrumentals were all the rage and with Winston Wright on keyboards, “What Am I To Do” was revisited as “The Liquidator”. Thjis version needs no introduction, having peaked at number nine on the UK pop chart in October 1969. The popularity of the tune led to a saxophone take, “Tons of Gold” aka “The Return of the Liquidator” by Val Bennett that also features on this release.

Harry’s success with Trojan resulted in his productions appearing on a UK version of the Harry J label with its own ‘HJ’ prefix. The first release “The Big Three” c/w a reissue of “Liquidator” was followed by fifty singles that culminated with Zap Pow’s “Lottery Spin”. Trojan persevered with the label although the remaining releases had little or no input from Harry himself.

Among the Harry J productions included “Jay Moon Walk”, which had previously been utilized by the Jamaicans for the sound you gotta feel, “Festive Spirit” and an instrumental version of the Serge Gainsbourg hit “Je T’aime (Moi Non Plus)”. Many of the tracks were compiled on The All Stars debut album, “The Liquidator” (TBL104), a collection that featured twelve inimitable organ led tunes such as the group’s smaller hit “Jack The Ripper” alongside “The Big Three” and “Don’t Let Me Down” (aka “Operamatic”). The latter tunes had been recorded by Marcia Griffiths as “Put a little Love in your Heart” and “Don’t Let Me Down”, respectively. Other alternate takes include “Reach For The Sky” and “El Cong” that were originally hits for Bob Andy, namely, “Peace of Mind” and the mournful “Weep”. Our final look at the album includes the haunting keyboards of “Spyrone” and “The Dog”, the latter of which, probably inspired the riff in “Bobby Babylon”. Although all of the abovementioned tracks feature on this compilation, it should be noted that “The Dog” differs from the album version as it it taken from the master tape of the single release.

While organ-led instrumentals were the latest thing, Spaghetti Westerns were equally popular at the time. Harry was inspired by the phenomenon to recruit Richard Ace, who performed a cover of Booker T & The MGs “Hang ‘Em High”, alongside the All Stars that features on this compilation. Meanwhile, in the USA, the Mississippi born gospel group the Staple Singers had joined the Stax label. The signing signaled the start of their most prolific run of hits. In 1970 Bobby Bloom released a tribute to “Montego Bay”, a song that may have inspired the Staples to record Bloom’s composition “Heavy Makes You Happy”, which subsequently gave the group their first R&B hit. In 1972, further evidence of a Jamaican influence on the band occurred when they found themselves at the top of the US pop and R&B charts with “I’ll Take You There”, a recording which utilized the rhythm of “The Liquidator”.

In the meantime, Harry’s instrumental cuts proved particularly popular, although he continued to produce equally popular vocal hits. In 1970, his production of Bob Andy and Marcia Griffiths version of “Young Gifted and Black” reached number five in the UK pop chart. On this compilation, Harry’s sessionists, under the guise of the Jay Boys perform the instrumental version, as well as the sublime “Del Gado”. Bob & Marcia’s success led to Harry’s production of the album 'Young Gifted and Black' (TBL 122), which was followed by a various artists compilation, 'Reggae Movement' (TBL 144), the latter revealing a rare shot of Harry with his winning team on the cover. Two notable tracks on the showcase featured the All Stars single “The Arcade”, as well as the aforementioned ‘Tuns [sic] Of Gold’. The other singles featured here that were originally released in 1970 include “All Day” and “Tilly” (an instrumental version of Bob Andy’s “You Don’t Know”), as well as “More Heartaches” aka “Musical Weather”, which appeared on the flip-side of Lizzy’s DJ version of the Beltone’s hit.

In 1972, Harry opened his own recording studio in Roosevelt Avenue, close to the National Stadium. He continued producing hits, such as a version of Jeanette Washington’s “Breakfast in Bed” by Lorna Bennett, which was also revisited by the All Stars alongside Bongo Herman for the classic “African Breakfast”. Also at the new studio the group recorded “Down Side Up Version” that was originally inspired by Joe Higgs’ “The World is Upside Down”. Having established his new facilities, Harry replaced his studio engineer (when Sid Bucknor emigrated to the UK) with Sylvan Morris who had previously worked at Studio One. By this time dub was emerging and one of Harry’s last instrumentals, another version of “Breakfast In Bed” was recorded with the late Geoffrey Chung who joined the All Stars to perform “UFO”.

In the mid seventies, Harry concentrated on recording vocalists. His first notable success was with the Heptones, whose “Book Of Rules” almost crossed over into the UK pop charts. His accomplishments led to their albums 'Night Food' and 'Cool Rasta' (TJACD013), the latter of which is still available and features “Book Of Rules” on the CD version.

When Harry’s studio was selected by The Wailers to record the ground breaking 'Catch A Fire', followed by 'Burning', 'Natty Dread' and 'Rastaman Vibration', the producer spent less time in the studio. His reputation in the recording industry flourished and he provided Burning Spear, Augustus Pablo and Johnny Nash with a solid foundation to tape their albums. In the latter half of the seventies, Harry returned to produce a series of DJ records for the local sound system market. He also licensed songs from other producers and released the notable compilation 'Reggae Giant', which featured one of Harry’s protégés Glen Brown demonstrating his production skills as well as I Roy’s awesome “Hotter Yatta”. It was around this time that Harry had established his label in the USA with an office conveniently based in Miami.

In 1979, Harry returned to the mixing desk where he was inspired to roduce and promote the musical career of Shelia Hylton who had worked as an airhostess for Air Jamaica. With Harry, she recorded “Don’t Ask My Neighbour”, followed by another version of “Breakfast In Bed”, which crossed over into the UK pop chart. In the early eighties, Harry recruited Sly and Robbie to provide drum and bass for her follow-up, a version of the Police hit, “The Bed’s Too Big Without You”, which proved to be her second hit on the UK pop chart. Harry also returned to the chart, when inspired by the 2 Tone craze, “The Liquidator” was re-released. It was around this time when he appeared on the Channel Four programme, Deep Roots Music, where his protégé Shelia Hylton performed in the studio under Harry’s watchful eye.

By the mid-eighties, Harry had set up his own distribution network in Jamaica with a number of labels including ‘Sunset’, ’10 Roosevelt Avenue’. ‘Junjo’ and of course, the ‘Harry J’ imprint. Into the nineties, and in 1991 Trojan compiled “The Return of The Liquidator” (TRLD 412), which featured the pick of Harry’s work with The All Stars, as well as vocal tracks from Dave barker, Glen Adams, Trevor Shield, Tony Scott, and the Cables. In 1996 the “Cuss Cuss” rhythm resurfaced providing hits for a number of DJs where a loop of the original recording was clearly audible.

Following his periodic comebacks, Harry maintained a low profile until 2002 when his studio was reopened through the efforts of Steven Stewart who had been an apprentice to Sylvan Morris in the studio’s heyday. So while Roosevelt Avenue is rocking to the new sounds of Harry J’s studios, we at Trojan Sanctuary felt it timely to celebrate the occasion with the rocking foundations to the studio's enduring success.

All together now, “_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- HAR-RY”.

Stephen Nye
Disc compiled by Laurence Cane-Honeysett