Back in October, at the insistence of the manager of one of my favourite record stores, I checked out a Soul Jazz reissue of some classic Studio One tracks. Nothing was really hitting home until I put on side 4, and was hit by the intro. to Prince Jazzbo's “Crabwalking” where he chants, in patois inflected english:

“Calling all dancers, let's put on our dancing shoe and boogaloo and de ba'beque, real churus, good for you!”  [listen to a snippet]

Well, this was exciting!! It is one of my favourite intros, one that I'd dissected from a collection of mp3s/accappellas, a while back, for use in future sets. However, the dissection was so out of context to finally find the “original” was thrilling!!

Needless to say this 2001 reissue is solid. It is a 2 record set, with photos of the boys, and a very long interview with Clement Dodd, the founder of Studio One. It is so long that it spans the four sides of both discs' inner sleeves, in fine print. And it is quite the history lesson. At one point the interviewer asks Dodd if Don Drummond was a rastafarian, I burst out laughing because if you've ever seen pictures of Don Drummond (founder of the Skatalites) or know anything about him, you can't get much further from a rasta than that.

I found the interview so intriguing that I searched online for transcriptions of it to post, but alas found nothing. So I buckled down and transcribed it myself. So with no futher ado: An interview with Clement Dodd from Studio One Rockers!