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Mikey Dread ‎– African Anthem (The Mikey Dread Show Dubwise)


Ian_s

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"Oh my gosh, the music just turns me on"

 

Undercover Agent - Oh Gosh! (Splash Remix) - [Juice Records]

 

Mikey Dread explains it here:

 

"You landed your own show on JBC in 1976 - how did you get your foot in the door?

Mikey Dread: I had applied to RJR, which I still see as a Jamaican prejudice station, and because I had 8 O-Level subjects (a UK examination) and they only needed 2 or 3 they turned me down saying I was over qualified for the job of Technical operator. Now I look back I ask myself why they did not offer me something in which my qualification was best suited? You should call them and get an answer.

I tried Ossie Harvey at JBC and Rupert Linton and they were different keep telling me to come back. I was determined and kept going back just to say ‘hi’ then to come back. One day they offered me a job to start in 1976 as a trainee Transmitter Engineer but they gave me 6 months in Radio to study the signal flow. They forgot to call me up to go with the engineers to see the transmitters and such so I kept quiet and continued working the board as a Technical Operator.

Later I had a good grasp of the board and I asked Ossie and Mr Linton why the Radio signed off at midnight. They said nobody listened to the radio after midnight - but after some brief pleading on my part - they said ‘ye’. Now I only had one day off instead of 2. I had to guarantee them I would work Monday to Saturday and only have Sundays off. I was relieved and said yes. My original days off were Saturday and Sunday.

Later I started spending my days in the record library looking for music I knew but did not have. I found a lot of boxes of great tunes that were not catalogued. I knew then I had found a gold mine - and the librarians were too uptown to even know what they had!

I also listened to a lot of sci-fi sound effects LPs, comedy LPs and some comedic one-liners and decided that I would record some of them and play them on my show between songs and over dubs as in those days you would not hear dub on the radio. I asked them why they don’t play dubs and they told me that you can’t hear it on the radio as the frequency was too low - but I knew some brethren who had some big speakers connected to their tuner who could feel it.

Then I started playing dub and so dub came on the radio. I later wrote some of my own one-liners and got some kids in to record them:

“Mommy I don’t want to go to bed,

I want to listen to Mikey Dread instead”

And females too:

“Oh, my gosh, the music just turns me on”

Then other artists come into the studio and recorded others as well. Some artists made up their own lines, too."

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Probably sampled off this album:

 

http://www.discogs.com/Mikey-Dread-African-Anthem-The-Mikey-Dread-Show-Dubwise/master/154574

 

It includes lots of jingles from his radio show between the tracks, and has been sampled to buggery over the years...

 

"dread at the controls, international controller throughout the world, universal beat marshal we no partial we play dubwise selection without objection"

 

"oh my gosh, the music just turns me on"

 

"riddim a fulla culture yaaa"

 

"featuring strictly rockers..... rockers to rockers......."

 

"michael, you make me feel so good"

 

"don't steal, don't gamble"

 

"is that a turntable? well get on it, it's your turn"

 

"brand new, good for you"

 

"what? you're a disc jockey? whhahahahaaaha"

 

"strictly rockers ayaaaa"

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