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STORY · REGGAE

Wake the Town: Duke Reid's rocksteady and the birth of the deejay record

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How a toast over a Treasure Isle rhythm helped invent the modern deejay.

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U-Roy talked over Duke Reid's rocksteady classics and turned the studio 'version' into a chart-topping form.

The cooler tempo

When the ska tempo slowed in 1966, Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio became the home of rocksteady's most polished rhythms. Alton Ellis's Girl I've Got a Date is often cited among the very first rocksteady records, a bass-forward groove whose feel would echo far beyond Jamaica.

A few years later, singer John Holt helped bring the deejay U-Roy to Reid. Over Treasure Isle's existing rhythms U-Roy delivered his talk-overs in single takes, and the results - Wake the Town and Wear You to the Ball - shot to the top of the Jamaican charts in 1970, reportedly holding multiple high positions at once.

The B-side 'version' walked to the front of the record and started to sing.

What U-Roy proved is the engine of everything that followed: the rhythm is a stage, and the deejay who commands it can be the star. The toasting record he pioneered on Reid's rocksteady rhythms is the direct ancestor of dancehall's deejay tradition, and of the version culture that lets one riddim hold many voices.

recording · recording · Well supported"Wear You to the Ball" - U-Roy

U-Roy's second 1970 Treasure Isle hit for Arthur "Duke" Reid, toasting over the Paragons' rocksteady rhythm; with "Wake the Town" it gave U-Roy multiple simultaneous chart entries and cemented the toasting record.

profile · person · Well supportedU-Roy

Toasting pioneer who brought the sound-system deejay's live-mic style onto record.

example · group · ProbableThe Paragons

The Paragons were a Jamaican rocksteady vocal trio, led by John Holt, best known for "The Tide Is High" (1967), produced by Duke Reid for his Treasure Isle label. The song became an international standard well beyond reggae after Blondie's 1980 cover topped both the US and UK charts, and it returned to UK number one again in 2002 in a version by Atomic Kitten.

recording · riddim · Well supportedGirl I've Got a Date riddim

Foundational rocksteady rhythm cut at Treasure Isle for producer Arthur "Duke" Reid, first heard under Alton Ellis's 1966 vocal (often cited among the earliest rocksteady sides) and later the backing track U-Roy toasted over for "Wake the Town" (1970), one of the records that launched deejay culture.

artist path · person · Well supportedJohn Holt

John Holt (John Kenneth Holt, 1947-2014) was a Jamaican singer who first found fame as lead vocalist of the rocksteady vocal group The Paragons, for whom he wrote "The Tide Is High" (later a hit for Blondie), recorded for Duke Reid's Treasure Isle label in the late 1960s. He launched a hugely successful solo career, cutting the album A Love I Can Feel for Studio One and later the popular 1000 Volts of Holt, and remained a fixture of Jamaican music until his death.

example · person · Well supportedAlton Ellis

Alton Ellis was a Jamaican singer closely associated with the birth of rocksteady - his own song "Rocksteady" (1966) is one source of the genre's name - recording for both Coxsone Dodd's Studio One and Duke Reid's Treasure Isle. His ballad "I'm Still in Love," released in 1967, became one of the most repeatedly re-voiced and sampled rhythms in Jamaican music, covered and versioned across reggae and dancehall for decades after.

place · studio · Well supportedTreasure Isle

Duke Reid's studio and label, pivotal to the rocksteady era.

recording · recording · Well supported"Wake the Town" - U-Roy

U-Roy's 1970 debut for Arthur "Duke" Reid on Treasure Isle, toasted in one take over the "Girl I've Got a Date" rhythm; a Jamaican number one that helped establish the deejay/toasting record and modern deejay culture.

profile · person · Well supportedArthur "Duke" Reid

Former policeman turned sound-system operator and producer behind Treasure Isle.

Story · ProbableRocksteady slows it down

When the tempo dropped, harmony and bass moved to the front.

Story · Well supportedThe producer owned the riddim

In Jamaica's foundation years the man who paid for the session owned the sound - and often the shop, the studio and the label too.

Story · ProbableThe Downbeat and the Trojan: How Two Kingston Rivals Built the Sound System

In 1950s Kingston, Coxsone Dodd's Downbeat and Duke Reid's Trojan turned rival dances into the foundation of an entire music industry.

Story · Well supportedOne riddim, many voices: how the version built Jamaican music

In Jamaica the rhythm track, not the finished song, is the durable unit of creativity.