Reggaeology Presents Gregory Isaacs
Considered the father of lovers’ rock, his quintessential image as the original rude lover boy made Gregory Isaacs into one of the most recognizable figures in Jamaican music history. Born July the 15th in 1951, Gregory grew up in the grottos of Fletchers Land, Kingston, with his younger brother Sylvester. However, his father’s migration to the U.S. would leave the two to a single mother with little support, and life became a little tougher for the preteens. Music was always a free creative outlet for Jamaica’s ghetto youth, and Gregory’s penchant for singing would prove its worth on Kingston’s Beat Street, where himself and Sylvester would hone their talent as a duo, picking up small change from appreciating bystanders. It was one of these bystanders that suggested the duo enter one of the many talent shows in the local space at the time, and that they did. The duo would make their first appearance at Majestic Cinema before making a second memorable appearance on Vere John’s Opportunity Knocks in 1964, but by 1966, Gregory Isaacs was a solo act with his brother Sylvester leaving to focus on his own pursuits as music provided sparse and sporadic rewards for the two.
Gregory would maintain his path in music, subsidizing its expenses by selling herbs for Bunny Wailer’s father, Toddy Livingston. Carving his way into the local music scene via talent shows, his fateful win at the Kingston’s Queen Theater in 1968 would open the gates to his illustrious career in music, but not before early shortcomings.
The effort to form the Concords with Buster Brown produced three hits for Rupee Edwards’ Success imprint, but faded quickly. He would join up with Uziah ‘Sticky’ Thompson to form Gregory and Sticky, which lasted for only one recording in 1969.
Despite consistent solo singles in these early days with Rupee Edwards and the Palmer Brothers, it was not until his 1971 release, “Lonely Man, for Trojan Records’ Big Shot imprint, that Gregory would find his footing in a very crowded space.
His next hit, “Look Before You Leap” would be stamped on his own African Museum imprint, a joint venture started with Errol Dunkley in 1971.
The two would release a fistful of hit singles before Errol parted ways to jump start his own Silver Ring label in 1973. For the cool ruler, the African Museum imprint became a vehicle for him to exploit his talent and safely freelance with other producers without creative compromise. His 1972 45-inch release, “My Only Lover”, with “Cool Rock” on the B-side, became an instant cult classic and is arguably one of the lovers’ rock genre’s most seminal singles.
With the new reggae soundscape on the rise at the dawn of the 70s, Rocksteady would downbeat its pace and its lyrical palette becoming more romantic, while its successor reggae would become the backdrop for more roots-driven, socially conscious releases. The duality of Gregory Isaac’s seeming-less fluidity between roots and romance created a madly loyal fan base at home and abroad, and by the mid-70s, Gregory was a bonafide local hit-making machine, churning out singles for a plethora of producers. With the bulk of that work finding its way to the UK via various Trojan Records sub labels and setting the standard for the burgeoning lovers’ rock ecosystem among the Jamaican diaspora in the UK at the time.
Clarendonian native Alvin Ranglin, more popularly known at the time as ‘GG’, was an industrious black entrepreneur with a background in electrical repair, and his various side hustles would become legitimate businesses, which included an appliance repair shop, jukebox rentals, the legendary GG sound system and, eventually, a studio armed with various record imprints. He was obviously a man with some foresight, and took the plunge to invest in Gregory’s first album ‘In Person’ in 1974.
Backed by the Soul Syndicate band and artwork by Errol Harvey, with Gregory in a ’72 red Ford Cortina, the album was an instant collectible in Jamaica and found even greater favor in the UK after an impressive distribution run stateside on Everett Martin’s Mart’s record label. 1974 would prove to be a fine year for the cool ruler as he continued his fevered recording pace, cutting tracks such as “I Need Your Love” for Harry J and “Love Light Burning” for his own African Museum music imprint
But unknown to many, Gregory had realized early in his career that his growing local popularity allowed some freedom of passage across the island, not given to many, and he used this to his advantage to transport contraband across the island. His silent partner in crime, Leroy ‘Duggo’ Dunkley, was an accountant at the time for a popular North Coast hotel and equally industrious, capitalizing on the hotel’s clientele to move copious amounts of weed and, by the mid-80s, cocaine. A hustle that would come back to haunt them both in the near future. His 1976 album ‘All I Have Is Love’ signaled a shift to the now trendy roots reggae soundscape and hinted to his Rastafarian inclinations with singles such as “Brand Poverty” and “Way of Life. Along the way, Gregory was silently amassing tracks for an album project that culminated after five years into the 1978 release ‘Extra Classic’.
Exactly as the name suggested, ‘Extra Classic’ was a treasure trove of works that helped iconify Gregory Isaacs in reggae history, with tracks such as “Mr. Cop”, “Rasta Business”, and “Dreadlocks’ Love Affair”, it also pointed to his new roots in Rastafarianism, further amplified by the Trojan-released dub album ‘Slum in Dub’, and his role in the 1978 cult classic film Rockers.
He would take the step in that same year to expand his distribution reach by establishing Cash & Carry Records at 118 Orange Street with Trevor ‘Leggo’ Douglas eventually cutting a deal with Trojan to give him a firm footing in the UK and Canada. Virgin Records’ front-line imprint soon came knocking, and the relationship spawned the 1978 iconic ‘Cool Ruler’ album, which failed to launch outside of Jamaica. The follow-up album ‘Soon Forward’ suffered the same fate, and by 1980, Virgin had dropped the artist. Despite his homegrown reputation as a bona fide hitmaker with major and minor hits in the UK and Canada, Gregory had failed to make his mark stateside. The pressure fueled his new habit for cocaine, and dubious association with the likes of Lester ‘Jim Brown’ Coke led to a six-month stint for a legal firearm possession in 1982, just mere months after dropping the magnum opus album ‘Night Nurse’ for Mango Records.
This new notoriety of the cool ruler would push the album sales across the transatlantic, and on his release from prison, the ‘Night Nurse’ album was a stateside hit, and the 1983 follow-up album, ‘Out Deh!’, co-produced with Flabba Holt, would only confirm the notion that Gregory was a hit-making machine globally a reputation that would remain as notorious as his coke habit until his death in 2010. But there is more to tell. Along the way, Gregory remained a staple commodity in the Jamaican music industry, performing throughout the transatlantic only sidelined from time to time by his addictions, rehab stints, and passion for intense women. In 1987, he would be arrested for cocaine possession with his longtime partner in crime Leroy ‘Duggo’ Dunkley taking the brunt of the stint and Gregory admitted to rehab at the Queen’s expense. By the mid-90s, his health had started to decline, but the cool ruler kept on recording. Between 1985 and 2010, he released two to three albums a year, like clockwork, amassing 126 albums in his lifetime. African Museum would remain a staple outlet for Gregory and also for a host of upcoming acts during the era, and along the way, his classic hits would be reissued and reprised by a host of non-local acts, with the most notable of the time being Simply Red’s 1997 cover of “Night Nurse” itself becoming a cult classic of the 90s.
That same year, he would earn his first Grammy nomination with the album ‘Mr. Cool‘ for the Canadian-based label Record Factory, led by Anthony Dehaney of EAD Records. As the new century rolled in, Gregory would cop his second Grammy nomination with 2001’s ‘Private and Confidential’, an album that would introduce his music to a new U.S. mainstream market and acquire fresh new fans along the way from a millennial crowd, his music would also be channeled to entirely new audiences with a slew of artist reprises, including Lady Saw, Sinead O’Connor, and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.
Yet even when his vocal silkiness was replaced by a raspy grovel, fans brushed the notion aside that the cool ruler had seen better days, with their admiration among all who loving him never changing, and he never disappointed his fans, never missing a beat in his recording pace. However, he developed a fickle reputation for live performances, which provided tense moments for promoters. As Gregory was known for simply returning his deposit with a messenger just moments before stage call, but for the shows that he did appear, including 2007’s ICC World Cup cricket inauguration show, his performance was always memorable. You see, Gregory was a very conflicting character. Yes, his coke habit was an open book, alongside his countless rehab stints and the legends of his 32 arrests at times inundating his illustrious career. But his passion for people was notably his most understated asset in life. You see, African Museum was just not a recording outfit, but by Gregory’s loving nature, evolved into a quiet philanthropic outreach center for a lot of families in Denham Town, Fletcher’s Land, and the Red Hills community, where the studio was located, at his funeral in 2010, moving testimonies were delivered from a few of the hundreds of families and thousands of children he provided for during his life’s journey, and they spoke volumes of the man beyond his musical legacy. Gregory would continue his pace, and the album ‘Brand New Me’ would be released in 2008, snatching his third Grammy nomination in 2010. A feat he would repeat after his death with 2011’s collaboration album ‘Isaacs meets Isaacs’ with Zimbabwe reggae icon King Isaacs.
The cool ruler’s musical legacy has also stood the test of time, with artists such as Alaine, Tarrus Riley, J. Boog, Romain Virgo, and Etana among a bevy of next-generation music creatives who have paid homage to the icon that laid the foundation for the soundscape that has made them famous in their own right, in a career that spanned 45 years, Gregory amassed what is undeniably the most prolific solo artist catalog in the history of Jamaican music, rivaled only distantly in recent times by Sizzla, with 126 albums, 781 singles, 1,448 featured appearances and collaborations, and 882 production credits. It is without a doubt that Gregory Isaacs has made his mark as a Jamaican music icon, and his musical legacy continues to inspire and enrich our musical heritage, timelessly stamping his name across generations as one of Jamaica’s legends of reggae.
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