The Music Diaries | Noris Weir and The Jamaicans
Published:Friday | November 23, 2018 | 12:00 AMRoy Black
Noris Weir, lead vocalist of The Jamaicans - a popular rock steady vocal group of the 1960s - died at his home in Fort St Lucie, Florida, on Friday, November 16. He was 72 years old. Though the cause of death has not yet been confirmed, it is reported that it may have been a blood clot.
Apart from leaving an irreplaceable void in the music business, Weir's passing revives memories of the rock steady era. His immense talent as a singer and songwriter, helped to establish the rock steady beat as the foundation on which reggae was built, while pushing The Jamaicans to the forefront of singers who ruled that period.
He came to pubic attention in 1967 when he conceptualised an idea for a song titled Things You Say You Love, You're Gonna Lose and took it to his good friend and group member Tommy Cowan. The recording, sung by Weir (lead), Tommy Cowan, Martin Williams, and Flats Hylton, jumped to the top of the Jamaican charts that year, and as far as I can recall, it was on the lips of almost every music lover. In every nook and cranny, you could hear people singing the first stanza:
"Lose, you're gonna lose
Things you say you love you're gonna lose
Can't last too long the way you're shaping
Can't last too long the way you're vibrating".
Lost love
Fifty-plus years after, Weir revealed that the song was about a girl he was in love with, but she declared that it was Tommy whom she loved, hence the title of the song.
The year 1967 also saw the Jamaicans (featuring Weir performing the double role of bass singer and lead vocalist) winning the second Festival Song Competition with another rock steady cut - Ba Ba Boom. Again, the song ended up in the top-10 on the Jamaican charts.
The Jamaicans came together in 1964 as The Merricoles with members I Kong, Jerry Brown, Martin Williams, and past Kingston College choir members Flats Hylton and Noris Weir. It was right on the heels of Weir's graduation from KC. As a past member of a choir, naturally, he was well groomed in the art of singing and had acquired a fair knowledge of musical notes and musical instruments. Williams, however, was the only member who might have made a recording up to that time.
Tommy Cowan was drafted shortly after, and asked to be the leader. According to Cowan, who I spoke with last Wednesday, "Noris, above everybody else, always seemed to be more seated and more compatible to everything that was happening. You could see the longevity in him, always wanting to be in the group and to continue music".
In the beginning, the title 'Jamaicans' was thrust upon the group, almost by prophet intervention, when a Canadian shipping agent named Aston McKeachron, suggested the name-change. He predicted that one day Jamaican music would make an impact on the world, and the name 'Jamaicans' would give the group a first chance to identify themselves with that achievement.
Sometime in late 1967, Kong got a shipping job, and Brown left for personal reasons, leaving the remaining members (Hylton also left somewhere in the mix), to keep the name of the group alive. And that they did in no uncertain way. With Weir and Cowan doing most of the writing, and Weir as lead vocal, their chart-toppers continued after 1967 with Cool Night for the W.I.R.L., Take Warning, Are You Mine?, and I Believe In Music for Dynamic Sounds; Black Girl In The Ring, Love Uprising, Feel The Festival Spirit, Mr Lonely, and Dedicate my Song for the Harry J. label; and Woman Go Home and Peace and Love for the Treasure Isle label. In the last cut, they pleaded to world leaders for peace during the Vietnam War:
"The leaders of the world are studying war
But we want love, peace and love
The people of the world are looking for love
Don't want no war, oh no war".
A schoolmate of mine, Weir migrated to the United States of America shortly after the group disbanded, and at the time of his passing, HE was a travelling singing missionary evangelist, boasting the insignias of PhD, MA, and BA in theology. He had several successful gospel singles in the US and was the recipient of a number of outstanding international awards and was a gospel Hall of Fame inductee.