‘King Tubby Meets…’ - Augustus Pablo, 1975
The full title is ‘King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown’ (I think), and it’s probably the pinnacle of ‘dub’, which evolved out of reggae in the ’60’s and early ’70’s. Basically, dub messes about with the vocals of a song, sometimes leaving in just snatches of words, and pushes bass to the front. Often, sound effects are thrown into the mix.
There’s no better example of this than ‘King Tubby Meets…’. Taken from the album of the same name, this song helped to bring dub reggae to the mainstream. The last time I was in London, I visited Brixton, and heard this song played in the stalls on no less than three occasions.
The drums are scattery, as if they’re trying to settle into the song. The guitars clang on the off-beat, with heavy echo. Pablo’s use of the melodica (probably the first use of this obscure instrument in popular music) is phased in and out. It all combines to give a really smoky, improvised feeling to proceedings. The only words in the song are “Baby, I…”, “I love you so” and “and I…”. These half-phrases are scattered throughout the song, as if someone messed up the vocal tape.
This is the kind of song that could be on constant rotation in an Amsterdam (cough) cafe (/cough) and you’d get no complaints. But you definitely don’t need to consume any of Jamaica’s finest to appreciate the chilled-out vibe of this classic.
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