WHAT’S THE STORY?
KNOWN as the King of Ska, Prince Buster has died at the age of 78, leaving a musical legacy that still reverberates today.
The first Jamaican to have a hit single in the UK, he pioneered the sound of ska, evolved reggae into dub and rocksteady and inspired the
2 Tone movement which spawned hit bands such as Madness, The Specials and The Selecter. His influence can still be seen in Scotland’s thriving ska scene with bands The Amphetameanies and Esperanza – who were playing in the Clutha when the helicopter crashed into the Glasgow pub in 2013.
Today’s ska bands can thank Prince Buster’s decision to introduce a syncopated beat on tracks such as Thirty Pieces Of Silver, Little Honey, They Got To Go and Humpty Dumpty. This emphasis on the afterbeat rather than the downbeat was a bold move and propelled him to the forefront of the nascent Jamaican music scene.
“The term legend can truly be applied to the name Prince Buster,” said reggae and dancehall DJ David Rodigan. “Prince Buster was at the vanguard of the new young ska sound of Jamaica in the early 1960s. The sound was so energised and the beat so infectious that as young teenagers we were immediately hooked on Prince Buster’s music.”
HOW DID IT BEGIN?
THE son of a railway worker, Cecil Bustamente Campbell was named after Alexander Bustamante, Jamaica’s first post-independence prime minister. Two of his recordings went on to celebrate independence – the aptly named Independence Song and its B-side August 1962.
It was his prowess as a boxer as much as a musician which propelled him to prominence. Like many other Jamaican youths. he was caught up in the gang scene where he was nicknamed Buster and earned a reputation as a skilled street-fighting boxer. This drew the attention of Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, an influential record producer.
Coxsone employed Buster as a personal assistant and security guard, giving him the chance to absorb all the tricks of the music trade. Buster went on to launch his own record store and a sound system called the Voice of the People, both of which were successful in shifting dominance of the music scene from US acts to local artists.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
BUSTER’S production of Oh Carolina by the Folkes Brothers became an instant hit on the island with its syncopated beat and the use of Rastafarian percussionist Count Ossie.
Over the next eight years, Buster produced hundreds of songs and toured the UK to sell-out crowds after reaching the top 20 with the single
Al Capone. He then met boxer Muhammad Ali and converted to Islam, becoming Mohammad Yusef Ali.
His involvement with music continued and he nurtured the transition of ska into the slower rocksteady and then reggae. His mythical character of Judge Dread, a strict magistrate who cracked down on gun happy “rude boys” also set the island alight.
He also remained on the cutting edge of reggae as it evolved, with Bob Marley at its forefront.
AND THEN?
IN the early 1970s he moved to Miami to set up a jukebox company, but towards the end of that decade his influence again became apparent in the UK’s ska revival. A London band called Morris and the Minors changed their name to Madness after Buster’s classic Madness Is Gladness and their first single was called The Prince in tribute to Buster.
Their recording of his single One Step Beyond reached the top 10.
The Specials covered Buster’s Too Hot and Enjoy Yourself and borrowed heavily from him in their songs Stupid Marriage and Gangsters. The Beat covered Rough Rider and Whine and Grine on their album I Just Can’t Stop It. Buster’s song Hard Man Fe Dead was covered by the American band the Toasters on their 1996 album 2 Tone Army.
Buster re-entered the UK charts for the first time in
31 years in 1998 with an updated version of Whine and Grine. He was awarded the Order of Distinction in Jamaica in 2001 for his contribution to the development of the island’s music industry.
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