Chart entered : 26 August 1972
Chart peak : 11
Number of hits : 11
Anyone who used to listen to Tom Browne's Top 20 countdown on Sunday nights in the seventies ( and I did religiously, the rest of the day being a write-off of church, unvarying roast dinner and crap old films on the TV ) will remember there was often a gap where this guy had a record which was just mentioned and then Tom moved swiftly on to the next. It was actually a boon to Tom and the producers as squeezing 20 records into a one hour show was always a tall order and having one less to play made things a lot easier. I'd be interested to know who was actually buying these singles that they couldn't hear; no one I spoke to at school had much of a clue what the story was beyond a vague idea that they were "rude".
Alexander Hughes , the original "wigga" , was born in Kent a week before the end of World War Two. In his teens he lodged with a West Indian family and became immersed in their culture. A rather large guy he got work as a bouncer in the sixties and met ska musicians such as Prince Buster in the clubs he served. For a time he wrestled professionally as "The Masked Executioner" then got a job as a debt collector with Trojan Records.
In the meantime the skinhead movement had revived Prince Buster's career and he had an underground hit with the very rude ( and weed - referencing ) "Big Five" at the turn of the decade. Through his work at the label Alex got the opportunity to record this tribute / follow-up which was a real sleeper hit spending over six months in the chart. His stage name referenced another Prince Buster song.
Anyone familiar with Eminem or the like will find the Max Miller smut and a reference to Ganja in "Big Six" very tame by comparison and smile at a time when this could be thought of as potentially corrupting to the nation's youth. And actually there's not much of it, three little nursery rhyme verses and a lot of "Uh Huh's and "Ai-ya's" over a pleasantly chugging bluebeat backing ( someone from The Specials was listening ) to fill the three minutes up. I suspect it was made as a joke and that Alex was as surprised as anyone that it led to a decent ( in one sense of the word ) recording career.
I've always much preferred ska over reggae (more upbeat, less of the Jah stuff), so it's nice to see the genre make it's appearance. Lyrics are a bit schoolboy (I would no doubt have laughed my socks off if I'd heard this at the age of 10, without understanding the ganja stuff) but it's well played.
ReplyDeleteI became good friends with a Brummie skinhead (in the original, non-NF sense) at uni who had one of the Judges' later albums which was pretty much unadulterated filth. As students, we obviously played it frequently after a few jars and skanked around the room. Happy days!