I’m a little surprised more ink has not been expended on a snappy early reggae 45 from 1970 on the Doctor Bird label that can command up to £200 [i.e., $300ish] at auction:
“Rum Bum a Loo“
The Message (1970)
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“Rum Bum a Loo” was produced for the UK market by an entity named Philligree, which Discogs informs us, is the production team of Graeme Goodall and/or Phil Chen:. Meanwhile, the “reggae formation” known as The Message would release no fewer than four singles in 1970.
Desmond Dekker fans will recognize “Rum Bum a Loo” as a near-instrumental version of Dekker’s 1st place winner of the 1968 Jamaica Independence Festival Song Competition, “Music Like Dirt (Festival ‘68).” That same year the song would also be issued in the UK, though with the B-side (“Coconut Water“) imaginatively re-titled as “Coconut Woman“!
UK 45s Record Label Discography gives us the back story on Doctor Bird:
Initially a ska label, Doctor Bird was started in 1965 by Graeme Goodall; it issued its first single in 1966 and put out around two hundred more before expiring in 1969. It qualifies for a mention in this list because Trojan revived it briefly in the early 1970s, for a handful of reggae singles.
Postage stamp
Dave Katz includes this key historical bit in Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae:
By then, Ken Khouri had moved his base of operations to 220 Foreshore Road, an industrial area west of the wharf, to establish Federal, the first fully fledged recording studio and pressing facility on the island. It was officially in use from October 1957. For his resident sound engineer, Khouri chose Graeme Goodall, an Australian radio technician trained in London who initially came to Jamaica to set up RJR’s cable service.
Thanks to Tapir’s Reggae Discographies for its detailed listing of Doctor Bird releases from 1966-1970 that feature a Who’s Who of Jamaican production talent:
– Sonia Pottinger
– Clement “Coxsone“ Dodd
– Arthur “Duke” Reid
– Justin “Phillip” Yap
– Edward “Bunny” Lee
– Byron Lee
– Joe Gibbs
– Clancy Eccles
– Karl “Sir JJ” Johnson
– Lee “Scratch” Perry
– Garnet Hargreaves
– Albert Gene Murphy
– Lloyd Daley
– Leslie Kong
– Laurel Aitken
