In the fall of ’73.
Yes, Phil Pratt. He was a good man. Phil Pratt was a very… that’s how I met this guy Al Campbell, Al Campbell was with Phil Pratt too. Yes, Phil Pratt was a very good man, honest man. He was not a rich producer, but he was honest. Whatever he’s got, he shares it with the singers, he makes sure things are taken care of. Phil Pratt was a very good man. Hey, I almost forget certain things and you can point them to me now and I could… Phil Pratt was on… what street-name was it again…? Prince Street or whatever street, I forget what street he was on. But then he had a little shop down by the bus terminal, I forget where that was again too. He was a real good man.

You did ‘Diana’ and ‘Sweet Wanton’ for him.
Yes! Oh, my God! ‘Sweet Wanton’…

And ‘Where Must I Go’, almost forgot. These are the ones for Pratt.
Yes (sings): ‘Where must I go, if there’s no place I’d know…’. Bwoy, I don’t got that song, I forget the song. And ‘Sweet Wanton’ was a point I read in a book, oh gosh… Yes, quote those songs for me, they come back to me so long ago.

Only heard ‘Wanton’.
Yeah, ‘Sweet Wanton’. What’s the name of the other two?

‘Diana’ and ‘Where Must I Go’.
Oh, ‘Diana’ was a Paul Anka. Well, yes.

But Phil Pratt was just a pass-through, you didn’t stay long?
Not stay too long with Phil Pratt, I move on to… As a matter of fact, before Coxson I was at King Edwards, he was a sound system man. They’re all sound man, yunno. King Edwards – it was the King, the Duke and the Sir. It was a King, a Duke and a Sir back in the sixties. But I didn’t do no record for the King, I was just around the sound, goes with the sound and, y’know, hang with the sound system. OK, so after Phil Pratt now comes Bunny Lee, get involved there.

You did ‘Dear Dawn’ for Bunny.
‘Dear Dawn’, yeah. (Sings) ‘Dawn, Dawn is your name…’. Oh boy.

And also ‘Don’t Cry’.
Eh? ‘Don’t Cry’, yeah that’s just a edition of Ken Boothe. ‘Don’t Cry’, yeah. But ‘Dawn’, the song ‘Dawn’ was a beautiful song too. It was a teenage girlfriend I made the song of, ‘Dawn, you’re my morning, you’re like a brand new day, open up your window and let the sunshine in today…’ – beautiful love song. I’m gonna write one about my present wife too, it’s gonna call ‘Gale’ (chuckles). Anyway, then comes Prince Tony, Slipe Road.

This was November ’73 to be more specific.
Yes sir, exactly! You’ve got everything… you’re a policeman, you’ve got everything registered (laughs)!

(Laughs) No, you told Carl Gayle back in the day.
Oh, God! OK, Prince Tony, he reads off like this now: I was at home one day, right, and I was living at Waltham Park Road, 32 ½ Bowens Road off Waltham Park Road. And so I was going for a walk, so I went to Cross Roads passing back where his shop was, and someone told me that’s Prince Tony, a big producer, and so forth and so fast, go by there and get myself acquainted. I stop and tell him who I am and what I’ve done before and all that, and he say well, “Yeah man, keep in touch”, y’know.

He was just up and coming at that time with Winston Scotland and Keith Poppin and I believe the Chosen Few.
Yes, perfect!

‘Buttercup’ was for example a big early hit for Prince Tony.
Yeah man (laughs)! ‘Buttercup’ deh (laughs)! Oh gosh, right time exactly, exactly the right time. Beca’ I did my first tune for him in 1974, you gotta have… Oh Peter, you’re good, because you have perfect timing, man.

(Laughs) Well, I have a singles discography to thank for certain data, Roots Knotty Roots, that helps. So it’s hardly me.
(Laughs) Anyway, so after I get acquainted with him and going on, one day I was down at my house and I got a phonecall, I answered and he said to me: “Hey man, I want yu come version a song for me”. The song was called ‘Curly Locks’ that Junior Byles did.

A Lee Perry classic.
My version was ‘Let Locks Grow’, but the original version was ‘Curly Locks’ by Junior Byles (sings the chorus). Now I say: ‘Now you learned what curly locks is, what can you do more than love it, appreciate it…’, right.

That was Prince Tony’s style, to ride on someone, the bandwagon thing, a practice that became pretty common around that time but he was one of the foremost ‘versionists’. How did you feel about that idea at the time?
Well, I’m not accustomed to that, but I needed to make some money at the time too, and I can write, I’m a good writer, bwoy I’m excellent writer. So with the tune now – ‘boom!’ I went to the shop immediately, you see he was playing the record over and over and over, then he said: “Listen, you know what, take a copy home”. I took a copy home, my mother just bought our first stereo, I can remember that, and I went home and I played the song about ten times, man. The melody was easy for me, ’cause I’ve got a quick ear, but the words – I turned every word into my lyric. And I called, me say: “I’m ready now”. “So you’re ready, come up this Saturday here”. I jump on the bus, ’cause at the time I was in Clarendon, no transportation, I jump on the bus, man. Went up there and I sing it to him, he say “Yeah, you’re ready”. Set up a time – ‘boom!’ Randy’s. So he call Sly and Robbie (more likely Lloyd Parks on bass, the Skin Flesh & Bones) and all them guys, get in the studio, lay the riddim track, jump in and voice it, then he release it four days later. When that release, it killed Junior Byles’ song! It jump up like a jet – ‘boom!’ The first time I’ve ever seen any of my songs sell so fast and it brought tears to my eyes, ’cause I’m very emotional. And I was in the shop one day, man, and a customer came in and say, “You got the ‘Curly Locks’ song?” And the lady say, “Yeah, we’ve got ‘Curly Locks’”, and she put a Junior Byles (sings): ‘Curly locks, now that I’m a dreadlocks…’. He said, “No, no, no! Not that one, the other one, the new one!” And she put on: ‘Now you’ve learned what curly locks is…’. He said, “That’s the one!” And that song sell, man. In my face, I’ve never seen any of my songs sold in my face like that, ’cause that shop become my main shop. Because I’ve got a hit song from the shop, and then he brought in Big Youth now, and Big Youth come and rap on the riddim and call it ‘House of Dreadlocks’. And that song BLOW up again! That’s how I went to London, to England, in ’74, with Big Youth and myself. We went to Germany a little bit, we spend in foreign travelling about a year, roughly. We spent most of our time in England, in a place called Westbury in Ladbroke Grove in London, England. And so that song blow up, blow up like a jet – ‘boom!’ Like a rocket, man. But when Big Youth did his version, when Big Youth come and rap on the song, I realised my money’s been cut. Big Youth are getting more of the money. Because I will be waiting there for my money, and Big Youth ride upon his bike with a badman, they called him Claudie Massop – you must’ve heard about the man, Claudie Massop?

Yes, a ghetto don, gunman. And now resting in the ground.
Yeah, big gunman, and a politician badman. When he drive up there ‘boom, boom, boom’, I will be there waiting for Tony, Tony is back to me – soon come, I could hear the sound of money counted (imitates rustling paper bills), Big Youth a pass me and say, “Wha’ appen singer?”, y’know, with his mouth full of pearls. I say, “Is Tony me a come get some money from, yunno”. Him say, “Bwoy! Cut me a lickle change, bwai”. Them start cuss Tony now, Tony a pea-claat, a pussy-claat, y’know wha’ I mean? And blah blah deh. When Tony a come out now, say “Bwoy, Barrington, Big Youth a come get all him money now”, and stretch him hand ‘uuuhhh’. Me say, “Tony, wha’ appen with yu, man? I’m here waiting an hour fe my money, man”. Is just when Big Youth come – ’cause he’s scared of them guys, man, he’s afraid of them kinda guys, them a badman, you understand me. But through me na fire no gun inna dem days deh, me is a humble lickle singer and me be nice, still rude but not as bad, y’know. Give me the respec’ I deserve. Man, I hang out with him still, I like it, I love him, yunno. He take care of me, but not the way I respect. But he take care of me, he take good care of me. He makes sure I’m paid, money in me pocket, y’know, ’cause I need to help my mother build a house in Montego Bay. I start making money for me, beca’ I did start version even Ernie Smith songs, he have me like a version artist, to version any song that I hear, or any song he hear. And he pay me for those songs, like Ernie Smith’s ‘Shaving Cream’, them songs (‘Bleaching Cream’ was Barrington’s ‘reply’ at the time). And then I do a lot of songs for him, and I got money from Tony. I am no (inaudible) in me. But in the first half, he squeezed it a little bit. But when me see that… as a matter of fact, he’s the one that make my name, expose my name – that’s internationally. Prince Tony, I give him that credit, y’know. He’s the one that make Barrington Spence be known all over Europe an’ t’ing, because the first album I did was released through him, via Trojan. I mean ‘Speak Softly’.



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