Rootsman wrote:Lee Perry & Bob Marley both left him because of the person he was and so did almost every other artist that recorded for him at one time or another left because he DID NOT play fair. Surely this fact alone bears testiment to that.
Both The Upsetter & The Wailers left him to do what he had done - set up there own labels.
The Wailers even returned to Coxsone's studio to record some music that they put out on their own label.
Years later Coxsone helped Lee Perry set about repressing/reissuing several in demand 7" & the odd LP.
Never mention Prince Buster's good nature to the British Taxman. He has (allegedly) owed them money from way back in the 60's!
Its nice to hear of these things, if I am wrong about the man then of course I want to be informed.
You can only go by what you hear or read and their are always two sides to every story.
Over the years Lee Perry never had many great thinks to say about the man and i`m sure he re-iterates the fact in "People Funny Boy"
Many of the artists back then set up their own record labels because they found it was the only way they could have any hope of getting any real financial reward for their output.
Most artists went into the studio and recorded songs for a one of payment which was usually not much. That was it, all the money made from the song after that went to the producers.
The artists accepted this as part and parcel of the music business environment, it was a simple case of needs nercessitate and we need money to survive.
Their was no percentage deals unless you were one of the few arists who were able to negotiate their own pay structure.
Certain producers paid better than others but many openly exploited the youths who went into the recording studio. From what I have read Coxsone Dodd was one of the worst for this and in some cases never paid at all.
In respect of Prince Buster, good luck to him, better to go to the poor than the taxman. We in England are ripped off big time by the government under the guise of the taxman. We get totally fleeced from all directions and the sad fact is its all totally legal.
absolutely, a disgrace. businesswise. full stop. not in the sense how he built his stack of money, he got his records out there. but the way how he did it - not compensating the artists for their work, that's a disgrace and almost overshadow his contributions as far as providing an outlet for the artists. there's a lot of artists who has spoken about coxson's shady business practices, joe higgs, leroy sibbles, bob andy, and many more. could it be that the buyers weren't aware of how mr dodd treated his artists at the time?
Prince Buster isn't the only label owner owning back tax to the IRS. The owner of Burning Sounds label allegedly fled London because of tax 'issues' according to an interview I once read with Linval Thompson.
I agree with Rootsman though. The Government here is not very good at spending the tax revenue wisely so I'm not about to cry any tears of sympathy for them if a few reggae labels run away without paying tax. Perhaps if you want to run a reggae label in the UK you need to do it under the tax umbrella of a 'private equity' company or make sure you use the overseas resident loophole (get residency in Monte Carlo or Caymen Isles or whatever). I heard recently that once individual living in London paid TWELVE MILLION POUNDS for a swimsuit and yet doesn't have to pay tax due to his overseas tax haven resident status.
I've only just discovered this thread having been busy elsewhere for a while. The original question is I believe about whether Coxsone was good for Reggae music. Surely, the answer to that has to be yes. He discovered most of the biggest names we know today and (with the names he gathered around him) shaped the sound of Reggae. Countless classic tunes started life at Studio One and, While Coxsone might not be directly responsible for them, you cannot discount the role of the person who oversees and manages everything. This would be like expecting a bunch of talented footballers to win titles consistently without a good coach/manager.
It is also usually necessary to be a hardened as a businessman in order to survive (one of the reasons I am not a businessman) - so would Coxsone have lasted as long if he had been more benevolent.
Don't get me wrong, I don't enjoy reading these stories about Coxsone mistreating artists. 'People Funny Boy' is widely accepted as being about Coxsone, and for me the producer in 'The Harder they Come' has always symbolised Coxsone. I do wonder how much money Coxsone actually made - I'm sure there are many people in the music business (especially in the US and UK) who have made far more money and behaved in an even worse way than him!
Sad though, as Coxsone was on the one hand a supposedly spiritual man - releasing gospel tunes on a special gospel label in the early days and later visiting Warrika Hill and embracing Rastafarianism. He is also said to have acted like a father to Bob Marley in the early days, allowing him to live at the studio when he had nowhere to go.
As a great lover of Studio One sounds, I would like to be able to think of Coxsone as a great person. However, there are too many negative stories for me to do that. To be fair to the man though, I am only going on the stories of others. I also feel that the tough and violent environment that Coxsone lived in would harden anyone - but I wouldn't like to use that excuse violence towards those asking for their due payments.
Never mind what did or didn't go down with artists, lovers of Coxsone's music have tolerated some of the worst sub standard pressings ever, yet continued buying Coxsone music. That is the only business angle I can think of that had a direct effect on buyers, but it never really deterred anyone from feeding their addiction to the Coxsone sound either.
One thought struck me earlier. It's ironic that Dodd started his career with imported R&B records from the USA. Many of them from studios where the self same system of offering artists paltry one off payments with no hope of future royalties was also rife.
So perhaps it wasn't just the music he took his inspiration from.
Thanks, MightyZ, for the very well reasoned and intelligent reply.
I think Dodd was very good for the reggae sound.He created a reggae university,where everyone passed through at one time or another,and became who they are famous for today.I do believe Sylvain Morris had an extremely important part of the foundation most crucial studio one rythms sounds.Coxsone however was the mastermind of setting up the studio,labels getting the players and singers to come in.Think of what reggae would be without the Skatalites,or the Wailers or Delroy Wilson or Ken Booth.
As far as money goes,some artists where unhappy with what they think was owed and im sure they were underpayed.Alot of them are only happy to say Coxs gave me my chance and i took it.
a good starting point would be to compare him with other producers or studio owners like chris blackwell or lee perry by example. then it would be difficult to criticize him or talk about robbing and ripping...
everytime someone makes a song using studio one riddims do you think coxsone gets money for that? did coxsone complained about that or ran to the court to get money?
if coxsone were an exploitative businessman (like someone said before), he would have an army of lawyers to track everyone who stole his riddims... channel one, bullwackies and even lee perry weren't that fair to him. but he let them do it and prefered to focus on his own material. this attitude deserves respect.
coxsone has been INTO music from the very beginning much more than into business. jamaican society during the 60's and the 70's was very violent and everyone had to struggle to make his own way. so did coxsone.
the point is that when blackwell put some much money in jamaican music, musicians and singers pretended to get the same amount of money from producers even if these producers were selling only in jamaica and/or got only a small part of what was sold outisde of jamaica. at that point, jamaican music became a rat race for money... but english and american rats were much more smarter to find a way out. a few artists became rich, most of them weren't richer than before but it was very frustrating for them to see this iniquity. was it really jamaican producers fault? or maybe it's non jamaican musical industry's fault?
from my point of view it is stupid to ask if coxsone was good for reggae music cos this man literally created and evolved jamaican musical styles. the ones that started after him just brought technical evolutions (flying cymbal, digital, etc) on what has been created and developed at studio one and a couple of others studios.
