DanceCrasher

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		-

, Melodies Of War
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.