The enigmatic producer and singer Keith Hudson first made an impression on the Jamaican music scene in the late 60’s with successful vocal sides by Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson and John Holt. These early hits were enhanced by ground breaking early DJ sides by the likes of Dennis Alcapone and U Roy.
By the early 1970’s the music was flowing thick and fast on his Inbidimts Now Sounds, Imbidimts, Rebind and Mafia labels. Whilst much of his 70’s work was on cutting edge Reggae rhythms a handful of tunes harked back to an earlier era by utilising older rocksteady backing tracks the same rhythms were also used by Hudson’s associate Derrick Kenyute “Stamma” Hobson who released tunes on the Stamma, Big Style and Atom labels.
Shake It Up rhythm
Previously believed to be by the Versatiles or the Sensations, Pressure Sounds credited this to the Termites on their reissue.
Keith Hudson recorded himself on this rhythm and voiced the DJ Phillip Samuel on it.
How Keith Hudson came by these rhythms isn’t exactly clear. They all seem to have come from a producer with the initials CB (as indicated on the matrix) and were released as blanks, or on the Olympic label, between 1967 and 1969. The producer was believed to have been Carl Bryan but apparently he has said it wasn’t him, other possibles are Clifton Baugh or C.Bradford. The UK releases on Pama only serve to confuse matters concerning the true identity of the producer. Show Me The Way/What Can I Do by The Termites credits R.Bennett and Push It Up by The Termites credits H.Robinson as producer and Clancy Eccles as composer!
Show Me The Way rhythm
Show Me The Way by The Termites is the only one of the “CB” rhythms used by Keith Hudson to get a UK release, on the Pama imprint. Hudson must have liked this rhythm as he voiced two songs on it himself, note the different mix on the second cut.
One of these rhythm tracks, Go And Cry, was also used by Derrick Kenyute “Stamma” Hobson who had a working relationship with Keith Hudson. Hobson cut Golden Snake by Johnny Clarke and a number of other tunes on this rhythm it was also used by Hudson on his vocal; Smoke Without Fire.
Go And Cry AKA Golden Snake rhythm
The artist credit on the original rocksteady cut Go And Cry is also unconfirmed. The later use of the rhythm is a lot clearer; Keith Hudson voiced it himself and Keith Hobson recorded Johnny Clarke, the Heptones and deejay Little Clive (Clive Chin) on it
Many of the Keith Hudson and Keith Stamma Hobson sides mentioned are available on the excellent but now deleted Trojan Records double CD compilation – The Hudson Affair, this gives a great overview of Hudson’s work from the late 60’s onwards and is well worth tracking down.
Night Curfew rhythm
Night Curfew was apparently only issued on a blank with a hand written credit for Karl Bryan. This fueled speculation that the “CB” matrix refers to Carl/Karl Bryan though this has apparently been discounted.
The following are not featured on The Hudson Affair; Erotic Touch Of Hot Skin – Dennis Alcapone, Always – Al Brown, Old Fire Stick – Keith Hudson, Girl You Wrong – Heptones (all of which are currently unavailable) and Hot Stick Version – Phillip Samuel which was available on the now deleted Trojan CD Studio Kinda Cloudy.
Dance With Me rhythm
The original version of this rhythm was the last to be identified, Dance With Me was on the flip side Shake It Up (see above). Keith Hudson used it twice, for Al Brown and Dennis Alcapone.
The final track (below) is another Olympic production, initially it was thought this might be related to Always/Erotic Touch… whilst this isn’t the case I’ve kept the sound sample up as it sounds like it may well have come from the same session and it would be a shame to lose it!
The “CB” rocksteady sides were all reissued (with the exception of Soul Message) on a box set of 7″ singles in 2018 titled Searching So Long Olympic Singles 1967 – 1969 . The majority of the singles from the box were also distributed separately.
My Baby Is Gone rhythm
My Baby is Gone was voiced twice by Keith Hudson.
Artist | Title | Producer | Rhythm | Jamaican Label | UK label |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
? | Go And Cry | CB | Go And Cry/Golden Snake | Blank | - |
Termites | Shake It Up | CB | Shake It Up | Blank | - |
Termites | Dance With Me | CB | Dance With Me | Blank | - |
Al Brown | Allways | Keith Hudson | Dance With Me | Inbidimts Now Sounds | Supreme |
Dennis Alcapone | The Erotic Touch Of Hot Skin | Keith Hudson | Dance With Me | Inbidimts Now Sounds | - |
Dennis Alcapone | Shades Of Hudson | Keith Hudson | Night Curfew | Inbidimts | Big Shot |
Heptones | Girl You Wrong | Keith Hobson | Go And Cry/Golden Snake | Stamma | - |
Johnny Clarke | Golden Snake | Keith Hobson | Go And Cry/Golden Snake | Atom | - |
Karl Bryan | Night Curfew | CB | Night Curfew | Blank | - |
Keith Hudson | Old Fire Stick | Keith Hudson | Shake It Up | Rebind/Inbidimts | - |
Keith Hudson | Old Broom | Keith Hudson | My Baby Is Gone/Old Broom | Rebind | - |
Keith Hudson | Smoke Without Fire | Keith Hudson | Go And Cry/Golden Snake | Imbidimts/Rebind | Green Door |
Keith Hudson | Popular | Keith Hudson | Show Me The way | Imbidimts/Rebind | - |
Keith Hudson | Don't Start It Up | Keith Hudson | Show Me The Way | Imbidimts | Koo's Records |
Larry McDonald | Anode | Keith Hudson? | Go And Cry/Golden Snake | Blank | - |
Little Clive | African Bread | Keith Hobson | Go And Cry/Golden Snake | Stamma | - |
Phillip Samuel | Hot Stick Version | Keith Hudson | Shake It Up | Imbidimts/Rebind | Green Door |
Termites | Show Me The Way | CB | Show Me The Way | Blank? | Pama |
Keith Hudson | In Our Father's House | Keith Hudson | My Baby Is Gone/Old Broom | Rebind | - |
Termites | My Baby Is Gone | CB | My Baby Is Gone/Old Broom | - |
Special thanks to: Errol Hobson, Vince Ellis, Dave Home, Al Kaatz, Matt Dinsmore, Roots Knotty Roots, Dave Hendley, Tommy Rock-A-Shacka, Ekki, Chungdejah, Daniel Kania, Dave Russell, Bob Brooks, Lloyd Miller, Melodies Of War and the Blood And Fire and Pama Forum message boards.
Wanted:
Label scans of stamped pre’s of the CB productions mentioned.
Any information of clues about who the “CB” who produced these tracks actually was.
Scans of the 7″ labels of any of the tunes mentioned that we don’t illustrate.
If you can help with any of the above then please get in touch.
I really like the new layout Tim. I believe that Little Clive who toasted on ‘African Bread’ is Clive Chin but can’t confirm that 100%. Nice to hear ‘Stamma’ on the intro as well.
Just in case anyone is interested the inspiration for Dennis Alcapone’s fantastically titled ‘Erotic Touch of Hot Skin’ can be found here;
http://tinyurl.com/2le6db
..and there’s a review of it here;
http://tinyurl.com/2sb4tp
It sounds like a winner!
Hi Tim, I realized today that I have the original rock steady version of Always and The Erotic Touch Of Hot Skin. Its on Olympic pre. Artist: ED. Parkins – Soul Message
Regards
Daniel
Thanks Daniel this is very interesting. There’s an email coming your way…
Wow! I’d really like to hear ‘Soul Message’. I remember Tim saying that he felt ‘Always’ was a version to an earlier rhythm whereas I felt it was on an original rhythm. Looks like you were right Tim!
Soon come Dave 😉
Nice feature. I always imagined a Delroy original to ‘Smoke without fire’ before discovering this! Is there the same guitar bits on the original (Lynne Tait?)? Anywhere I can hear the whole original?
Keep up the good work.
Vinc
>>In our father’s house<>My baby is gone<>Old broom<<.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75913636@N00/5435584673/in/photostream/
The great Dennis Alcapone, next to legendary Ken Boothe and Mr Dave Barker at Reggae Brittania at Barbican. Documented by UK Pogus Caesar.! What a line up!
My name is Ras Charles Jones. I performed with Keith is 1980 in a band called Earthworm. We performed at My Fathers Place, Tramps, Tier 3, Eighties. I now do radio at Binghamton University-WHRW. I can re reached at 607 7295526 for further info on Keith. Ras Charles Jones
My name is Errol Hobson, Derrick K. Hobson (The ‘K’ means Kenyute and not Keith as was previously mentioned) is my late brother who died the summer of ’78. I know for a fact that he did a few recordings with artiste such as Johnny Clarke and Roman Stewart. The tunes that readily came to mind: “Ride On Young Girl” by Johnny Clarke, and Roman Stewart’s “Love Jah and Live”. “Ride On Young Girl” was remixed and release on a 12″ Disco Mix. This particular track was released on his own label [THE BETSY original Stamma].
Hi Tim
Isn’t ‘Dance With Me’ sung by Winston Samuels?
Cheers
Little Clive is indeed Clive Chin. I talked to him about the tune a couple of years ago. He wasn’t too pleased with the result as he doesn’t think of himself as a dj/toaster.