Danny Red was a mystery to me. The only UK based Roots artist to record for a major label, his early nineties output included the soundsystem anthem 'Be Grateful'. He then disappeared for a whole decade, only to re-emerge in 2005 with little fanfare or explanation.

My search for answers took me up a traffic clogged Tottenham High Road at the fag-end of a sweltering Saturday afternoon in May. When I eventually arrived at Danny's place, near Bruce Castle Park, I was extremely glad I'd made the effort.

Danny spent his youth near Mountain View in Kingston, Jamaica and has never adapted to the amount of time we spend cooped up inside because of the British climate. He likes to pass time in a comfortable little summerhouse which looks onto his well tended back garden. Sharing that haven with him for a while, sipping a chilled water and listening to his vivid, lyrical story was a most agreeable way to spend an hour or two.

 

The Roots & Culture crowd are known for their loyalty and ten years away didn't mean that Danny Red was forgotten. His gradual re-emergence has been greeted with a warm welcome. I asked him how he felt about being regarded so highly.

"When someone says "wow that's my artist! Welcome back!" That's an honour that they're bestowing on me. That's fantastic. At the end of the day, nobody got to pay me no mind. I live right here in my little corner, going about my everyday duties like everybody else. You don't have to pay me no mind cause I can't help you, I can't pay your mortgage for you, I can't buy you dinner. But if my music said something and it meant something to you; it makes me feel that I got some worth in life, y'know."

There's no question that Danny Red's songs talk loud and say something. He's one of our most accomplished lyricists and attributes this to the different types of music he listened to as a child.

"In my younger youth in Jamaica one of my cousins, Dennis, had the original Black Scorpio sound in Eastern Kingston. That was in our yard. That sound never really got big or anything but the vibration was there. I grew up with Reggae music, it was all around, so I didn't pay it no mind. I took my own little musical path influenced by the kind of music that was played on a Sunday. On a Friday Dennis and his brother Tony would play a lot of new music. On Saturdays they used to play Studio One, Treasure Isle and even go back to Ska and all that stuff. On Sunday you'd get a lot of Country & Western, like Marty Robbins and Jim Reeves. We also knew all about the Motown side of music and as a small kid I was an Elvis Presley fan. But my particular favourites that I was exposed to, although I wouldn't say they were major popular music across the island, were people like Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel. Lyrically they were like gods to me. Cat Stevens was another one. They made me reflect. I used to listen to their lyrics and wonder how they could write words that way. Wow, amazing, how can they write that and make it so good?"

Danny's recent release, 'Something's Wrong' on Cousins records, confirms his ability to produce lyrics that evoke a truly dread atmosphere without resorting to the repetition or cliché that crops up in so much modern Reggae.

He's a versatile vocalist as well. He came to England at the age of thirteen and soon became a regular fixture on the mike with Jah Marcus Soundsystem, alongside Lloyd Brown and Richie Davis. Initially he was a DJ, heavily influenced by Josie Wales, Brigadier Jerry and Charlie Chaplin, and went by the name Danny Dread. He even returned to Jamaica to record with Paul Blake & The Bloodfire Posse. It wasn't until 1987 that he tried singing on record and at the same time took the name Danny Red. I wondered how someone so steeped in Dancehall and Rub-a-dub sounds came to be associated with the emerging 'UK Dub' scene.

"1989 going into the early nineties, I found more success on the heavier sounds. They were picking up what I was trying to do more. So I got involved with that through the Dub Club; Nicky and Culture Promotions. Me, Lidj Xylon and Ishu were like regular features at the Dub Club. It lead to other things and that was how we established our contacts with people. I was approached from here and there to record stuff. It built from there by exposing myself to the Dub Club culture even though my thing was really the Rub-a-dub culture, y'know."

 

The UK Dub scene was booming in the early nineties, with never to be repeated record sales and media coverage. Danny Red became the most high profile of all the artists associated with the scene. I asked how he came to get the mighty financial and promotional power of Columbia Records behind him.

"Me and my friends, from Youth Sound record shop, we had a label called Dreadbeat. We put out a song called 'Riddimwize'. The original version went beyond the Roots sounds and it was doing the club circuit - doing damn good! I was in America where I had settled with my wife at the time. I'd forgotten about the track and left it behind. I was living my life. Pepé, who actually put out the song, called me and said "Danny you got to come back, this song is blowing up". Martin Poole who had a longtime association with Virgin and Trojan Records got involved. He had contacts with the majors and was also a good friend of ours. So I initially got a deal with BMG for publishing. We made our album 'Riddimwize' with £1000 budget, just to pay everybody who was involved; like Nick Manasseh and a few other guys. A thousand pounds split between these guys is not a lot of money! Polydor wanted the album, Island wanted it, Chrysalis wanted it and RCA wanted it. We took the advice of Martin Poole who was familiar with that kind of world and went with Columbia."

Danny's Jamaican accent has been mellowed by so many years spent in England and the US. His speech has the lack of hesitation and musicality of someone who's spent serious time holding a mike and he has the playful interest in any subject of someone who enjoys life. Talking outside in the sunshine with a gentle breeze and the occasional waft of herb smoke, I was aware that he will almost certainly be the last ever UK Roots artist to be signed by one of the seriously big record companies. I was keen to hear what it was like.

"Good and bad. I was going everywhere in Europe live with bands. Initially we had a band which we called the Riddimwize Band, which is people like Hughie Isachaar and Steven Wright; seasoned UK based musicians. I toured with them up and down England, Scotland and Ireland. Across Europe I toured with Lloyd Parks We The People Band alongside Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown and Freddie Mcgregor. Also I worked with the Sane Band in Jamaica and North America. Those were my strong touring years. That was the good part of it. Decent venues, decent crowds and being the opening act for Dennis Brown was an honour. We toured for something like four and a half months. I'm grateful for that I really am."

What Danny didn't appreciate so much was the confusing number of remixes that Columbia released.

"We had to do a remix of the song 'Riddimwize'. The mix they put out was good, but the original was the one that blew up. Then they gave it to people like DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill to remix. he was charging ten thousand US Dollars at that time. I still maintain that the original is better. I don't care if you're DJ Muggs, respect due to you my brother, but you ain't done the tune justice like we done in the first place."

It sure sounds like a massive waste of money and the number of remixes was baffling. I wondered if Columbia's resources were used to secure mainstream radio exposure for Danny.

"I got BBC radio play. I had to do 'live' shows with BBC radio. Up and down seaside resorts ... miming. I never mimed in my life. I felt like a idiot! Yeah I done loads of those. I was doing 'Riddimwize' or 'Rolling Stone' and at every one I had to mime. That was weird. How people do that regularly ... aaggh!"

 

The thought of Danny Red at the Radio One Roadshow had us both chuckling. It's particularly bizarre when you consider that the album he was promoting included the year to year Roots anthem 'Be Grateful'. It's a song that is without question one of the pinnacles of its genre. I wanted to hear all about it.

"I wrote 'Be Grateful' for one particular person. He was a Rasta. He had one black grandparent. Kinda the opposite of me as I got one white grandparent. I saw that this individual was frustrated. He felt that he was not quite accepted, he was always battling, he was angry and defensive. I got to understand that the concept of racism never really came about until Roman times. They forced their superior mindset upon people. We have the legacy of that today. It's a man-made thing. As far as I'm concerned there's no such thing as a white man or a black man. My radiator right here is white, but I never met a white man look like that. The colour coding is bullshit. Calm down, be still because, guess what? You gonna have haters anywhere you go. You can't stop haters, not right now anyway. So be grateful man, you're alive! You're an individual, you are you. You've got the gift of life; does it matter what package it comes in? That's 'Be Grateful', that's what it means. We recorded it at Manasseh's studio in Brixton. Pepé and Martin Madhatter played a kind of Jungle beat that they wanted to use for it. I said "what the hell is that man?" They looked a bit sulky and I told Manasseh I needed a one-drop. Me and Manasseh created that riddim on the spot. it was my reaction against what they tried to do to it. But when it was finished they came around. I re-released it last year. I only put out 1,500. The first 1000 went in two weeks. These days that's like a record breaker!"

 

The re-release of 'Be Grateful', 'Give Jah Praise' for Gussie P and his own production 'Something's Wrong' were the first signs that Danny Red was back after a ten year sabbatical. Where did he go? Initially at least, the answer is America. As well as settling his family there, Danny had strong links with Papa Roots from San Diego and together they ran a soundsystem called Regal Tone.

"Even when I was with Columbia I wasn't really living here. I was living in America and coming here frequently to fulfill my works. When the Columbia thing came to an end I basically retreated back to San Diego. I stayed there for three years. Then my relationship with my first wife broke down and she remained in America with the children. I went back to Jamaica. I was in Jamaica for four years, just doing nothing - just living. I came back to London in November 1998, met my present wife by February of 1999 and I've been here ever since. I was quiet for a while, but I decided to come out of my shell. I knew Mafia & Fluxy and I knew Gussie P. I knew so many people, but I didn't remember how to contact them. I eventually got my links back with Mafia & Fluxy and from that link came alive again, I began to get in touch with everybody and the songs started coming out."

Coming soon will be a showcase album with Gussie P entitled 'Iteopian Rock'. Danny was alongside Gussie, Earl 16 and Matic Horns at the last UK Dub Conference in a blazing performance that's still being talked about. Danny gave a live preview of the title track on that memorable night.

"'Iteopian Rock' was actually written in 1992 with Lidj Xylon. He was a good friend of mine that I'd known for years who's passed away now. We go back years from Jamaica, to England, to everywhere. We was both in Ethiopia from June to August of '92. We was walking the streets of Addis Ababa just deejaying and singing as we do sometimes. Between the two of us we just came up with the hookline 'Iteopian Rock' and we was ad-libbing, almost like a Junior Reid style, you know that kind of Dancehall style. Everything we saw on the street we were interpreting into on the spot lyrics. I originally recorded it in the early 1990s when it floated around on dubplate. About three years ago I was working with Gussie P and he said "ain't you got no songs about Ethiopia?" So I said "yeah I've got this one" and that's how it came about all over again."

The album will follow hot on the heels of Gussie's Twinkle Brothers and Robbie Valentine showcases, and like them will feature four vocals and accompanying dubs. On one track Danny asks 'Do You Love Dubwise?'

"That is just traditional, go back in my days, dancehall feeling. We used to go to dances, we'd pack up speakers on the back of the van. We put our pile of speakers up, running wires and testing. Actually being proud at the time just to lift up a box. When I was a youth, that was a dread feeling, being associated with a soundsystem. Carrying our boxes and wires - that was brilliant. 'Do You Love Dubwise' is a homage to all of that. For most of us, especially as Caribbeans, our badge of honour was to belong to a sound. Different to these guys nowadays who belong to gangs. In my day we used our sound to kill people - metaphorically. That was the only warfare we knew."

Danny's entry in the 'Rough Guide To Reggae' describes him as the "most promising and individual" of the UK Roots singers, "an artist with great potential". Even after a decade in the wilderness this is still the case. Lyrically and musically he's committed to innovating. Recycling words or rhythms isn't what he's about and this is precisely the approach that UK Roots desperately needs right now. For example check what he had to say about the lyrics for 'Candlelight' from the new album.

"I don't know if everybody is going to understand what I'm saying about candlelight. I get in a mood sometimes where I like to sit in silence and just have a candle burning. I'm not doing it for no spiritual reasons or no higher forces or anything. It's just a good feeling yeah. There's something about that candle when its just burning still, ain't no breeze to make it flicker, it's a real intensive fire, it fascinates me, gives me a warm feeling, makes me feel calm. It gives me time to reflect and puts me in a mood. I'm not trying to tell anybody I'm a Zen Buddhist or anything. There's nothing complicated about it at all. I like that feeling of candlelight. Sometimes I need the candlelight to slow down and rewind, a mellow feeling. It might be an unusual subject in the tradition of Roots and Reggae music, but I'll sing about anything if it makes sense to me. Hopefully it'll make sense to somebody else."

The only thing that doesn't make sense is that a big company like Columbia couldn't make Danny Red a star. At last he's back on the scene. Be grateful.

 

June 2008

 

Danny Red Myspace: www.myspace.com/dannyredmuzek