Coxsone Dodd - Was he good or bad for reggae music?

[Rob Strictly-Rockers]

Here's an extract from a Chris May interview with Lee Perry which was published in the mid 70s in Black Echoes.

"Downbeat a rip me true, and if every-
day you beat a donkey one day it will surely kick you. But most of them will rip you. So me no really want to press pon that, that play no part in me now. But maybe if he treated me a way (generously) I'd still be working with him - Delroy sing a song early day which him never understand, 'cos him sing ' A King On A Empty Throne'. Dig it? You see wha happen? Downbeat though might have fault businesswise but for personal deals him a nice man. And you gotta pay to learn right? Studio One for me was like going to college, an apprenticeship. You born with talent, you have it, but the actual thing no meat pon it yet! Is stages of life - you go through this one to know it and leave it and you go through all a them fe pick up knowledge on the way. Nothing in you one time, you have to pick up pick up, Then come up and put it together so the puzzle fit - just like when Jesus reach stage things start to happen."

Regards

Rob

[Roddy]

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.

.

I've tried to explain this in my first post point and u could have said it any better. If he was so big on publishing, he could have sued alot of artist & Producers for copyright infringement

Bless

[MightyZ]

Here's an extract from a Chris May interview with Lee Perry

Trust The Upsetter to explain it so clearly - there is wisdom in his crazy world indeed!

MightyZ

[leggo rocker]

Rob Strictly-Rockers wrote :Here's an extract from a Chris May interview with Lee Perry

Trust The Upsetter to explain it so clearly - there is wisdom in his crazy world indeed!

MightyZ

Or was. I wonder if you'd get such lucidity out of him nowadays.

Please remember, my initial question was totally hypothetical, of course Dodd was a pillar of reggae music, if not the foundation stone itself. But I wanted to air this topic and get some facts, anecdotes and sensible discussion. It's working and many of us who know little about this history are getting a great lesson here. Thanks all.

[daCENSOREDone]

Rob Strictly-Rockers wrote :Here's an extract from a Chris May interview with Lee Perry

Trust The Upsetter to explain it so clearly - there is wisdom in his crazy world indeed!

MightyZ

yep perry complains about money and coxsone not being generous. but coxsone was the only one to give him job and money when he arrived in kingston. perry wanted more... and he got more going his own way.
I'm still waiting for an interview where coxsone complains about money...
coming from perry, complaining about being ripped off is really funny. didn't he sell the wailers work without their permission? bunny wailer told they wanted to kill him. didn't he used studio one riddims to cut new songs?
I really like perry but he's the real "funny bway".

I'm still waiting an interview where sir coxsone dodd complains about the poor money he got from trojan, heartbeat or souljazz... or the taxes he had to pay (see perry's taxman). for that too respect to sir coxone dodd.

[leggo rocker]

Don't wait for the Interview daCENSOREDone, tell us about it. That's the point of this thread. If you know the other side of this story, please bring it to the discussion.

As for him not using lawyers to go chase this and that transgression of his perceived intellectual rights: Is it possible he didn't because he feared it would open up too many counter claims? Or perhaps he just didn't want to spend that kind of money (they don't come cheap) chasing guys who were probably hard to find, or broke. I don't know, just a suggestion.

Anyone ever personally meet the guy? I'd be interested to hear what he was like as a PERSON from someone who knew him properly.

[daCENSOREDone]

I'm not aware of an interview of this kind. I wanted to insist on the fact that coxsone mainly focused on music instead of complaining about money or being ripped off by others.
about the lawyer bit, I just think it was to soon for the young independent jamaica to care about artistical property. I would also be surprised if some jamaican court had ever judged someone for robbing artistical property during this period. I know about "shaft" but it all came from the usa.
the first rule for the producers was "there's no rule". people were auditioning everywhere (going from a producer to an other)so ideas, melodies and lyrics were in the air... the producer had just to put it on a record before his rivals did it. and so was the competition between producers.
sometimes someone got punched for stealing a song and that was the way they defended the artistical property.

[melonhead]

For someone who claims not to have an opinion yet, your post reads like you are answering your own questions there.

yeah,seriously...

[Ites]

Jackie P wrote :For someone who claims not to have an opinion yet, your post reads like you are answering your own questions there.

yeah,seriously...

que ??

[leggo rocker]

I had an opinion on this when the thread started. Or a formulation of one. But I wasn't sure my stance was based on fact and sound reason so I started this thread to help my, and others, understanding of this area of reggae history.

Things revealed in this thread have helped me to gain a clearer understanding of this issue and perhaps to take a different viewpoint now.

To sumarise, this is what I feel now:

Dodd was essential to reggae music. His practices weren't always above board. But they were 'normal' for the time and place. Not right, but just following the way things were usually done.

Lots of artists felt aggrieved by this. But at least some of them had enough enterprise to go to another producer (where life was possibly not much different) or go their own way and self-produce work. Some of these artists then went on to do very well for themselves.

Obviously Dodd was into music. But equally obviously he was a very very good business man and made a great deal of success - and money - for himself at a time when life was very very hard for many people in his area.

Would reggae even exist without him? That's hard to say because sometimes what one person did may have been done by another if that one hadn't got there first. Who knows. It's a question we'd only ever be able to speculate on.