Jamaican reggae artist Yabby You’s epic new three-disc box set opens with "Deliver Me From My Enemies", a song where his vocals ache with conviction as he interprets verses from the Book of Psalms. It’s the sound of an artist who had suffered and was suffering still, physically and economically, but not spiritually. This disposition endeared him to his ghetto peers even as he faced rejection from wider society. Though Sly & Robbie, the Clash and the Wailers bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett revered his music, Yabby You remained obscure to most reggae fans.
The searing work on Dread Prophecy: The Strange and Wonderful Story of Yabby You showcases an artist who deserves recognition on par with Bob Marley, Augustus Pablo or Burning Spear and hopefully elevates his legacy from its outsider status. Sadly, during his life, Yabby You (born Vivian Jackson) was doubly shunned: For being a dreadlocked youth who lived among Rastafarians at a time when they were despised by middle class Jamaicans, and also as an ardent Christian who rejected his Rasta brethren’s veneration of Haile Selassie as God.
-=-=-=-Jackson’s story is one of a poor and sickly man who recorded with legends like the Skatalites’ Tommy McCook and iconic dub engineer King Tubby. He also produced brilliant music by Big Youth, Wayne Wade and Michael Prophet, all while marginally employed and restricted to crutches from debilitating rheumatoid arthritis.
In a way, Jackson’s physical suffering echoed his music’s serious content. Songs like "Anti-Christ", "Warn the Nation" and "Jah Vengeance" are rife with apocalyptic references from the Book of Revelations and Jamaican proverbs, chastisements and moral teachings. Similarly, his vocal harmony group the Prophets embodied their name. They sermonized against lasciviousness ("Carnal Mind") and warned of the end days ("Babylon a Fall").
Music like this might have been unapproachable if it weren’t for the haunting and rich backing arrangements on Jackson’s productions. His song’s sad, mournful melodies are accented with soaring brass runs, shimmering organ phrases, airy flutes, click-clacking wood percussion and arrow-sharp guitar and piano stabs. These ample rhythms bolster the songs like a pyramid’s bricks rising skyward.
Yabby You is one of reggae’s great unheralded figures, a deeply spiritual man who rarely performed live and faced physical challenges but left a musical catalog so intriguing that five years after his death it’s still being absorbed.
Born on August 14, 1946, Jackson embraced his Christian upbringing and at age 12 set off on a journey across Jamaica for spiritual enrichment. He eventually settled with the Ites People Rastafarian sect that slept outdoors and practiced a restrictive diet, eating mostly root vegetables. Although he wore dreadlocks, Jackson did not embrace Haile Selassie as a deity; he remained steadfastly Christian and was thusly nicknamed the "Jesus Dread."
Earning a meager living forging cooking pots from melted scrap metal, he eventually saved enough money for his first recordings. 1972's "Conquering Lion" opens with the chanted verse, "Be you, yabby yabby you." Jackson told author David Katz that the verse was inspired by angelic voices he heard during a thunderstorm after having an argument with Rasta friends over his beliefs. It was as if the heavens were instructing the singer to trust his convictions, to simply be himself. Be you. Yabby You.
Jackson’s ensuing mid-'70s output saw singles and albums, including Conquering Lion, Deliver Me From My Enemies and Chant Down Babylon Kingdom, issued on his Prophet label. He produced LPs for roots reggae vocalists Wayne Wade, Tony Tuff and Michael Prophet and cut tracks with DJ toasters Trinity, Jah Stitch and Prince Pompidoo. His catalog also contains notable dub collaborations with the late King Tubby (Prophesy of Dub, Beware Dub) and his young protégé Scientist (Yabby U & Michael Prophet Meet Scientist at the Dub Station).
Selections from those albums are found on this new boxset, which is divided into Classics, the Many Moods of Yabby You (productions with other artists) and Rarities. The latter features a trove of unreleased material from tapes left with a Canadian collaborator, Alex Peacemaker, and DATs offered by Jackson’s widow Jean. Rarely heard selections like Patrick Andy’s somber "What a Sufferation" or U-Brown’s bubbly DJ vamp "Natty Roots Man" further reveal Jackson’s depth and dimensions.
Randall Grass, Shanachie Records general manager, was behind the collection’s extensive archiving and presentation; the label was the first to issue Yabby You recordings stateside. Grass told Midnight Raver blog in 2014, "Right before Yabby passed [in 2010] [UK record label] Blood and Fire went out of business and I knew that once again Yabby You’s music will be largely unavailable. I just think it would be a tragedy if his music went largely unheard…"
Jackson worked with Jamaica’s most notable musicians—organists Ansel Collins and Earl "Wire" Lindo, drummers Carlton "Santa" Davis and Rockers film star Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, guitarists Earl "Chinna" Smith and Ranchie McLean, and Gladiators vocalists Albert Griffiths and Clinton Fearon—to name a few. These artists weren’t merely filling session studio time but gave character to penetrating tunes like "Run Come Rally" and "Fire Fire", songs that brought forth Judgment Day warnings.
Jackson commented social conditions in his nation and the world, deriding post-Colonial economics on the jaunty "Pound Get a Blow", which equates the elimination of the British pound (the Jamaican dollar replaced it) with the end of Babylonian tyranny. His songs were compositionally and thematically dread–sincere, meditative and memorable. Numbers like "Free Africa" witness trumpeter Bobby Ellis and saxophonist Tommy McCook’s horns wailing like a mournful clarion as Jackson commands his people to "Stand up and fight for your rights black man, stand up and fight for Africa."
Jackson was clearly an individual who could convince top talent to record their best work. Michael Prophet, with whom Jackson produced four crucial albums, enthused to Katz in Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae, "Yabby You in a class by himself…[he’s] headstrong, rootically strong, biblically strong and physically strong." He must have been strong to record so much worthy music in a short period of time while running an independent business in an unstable business environment.
If Jackson were merely a producer and label man he may have still been considered a respected contributor to the Jamaican music canon. Yet his songwriting and vocal output–inspired chants like "Praise Jahoviah" or "Blessed Are the Poor"–should establish Yabby You as a cornerstone artist. The Jamaica Gleaner’s Howard Campbell noted that Jackson’s biggest fan base was in Europe and the United States and when he died from a stroke in January 2010, few of his countrymen were aware of his work. Sets like Dread Prophecy will reverse that discrepancy and amplify the truly laudable artistry that Jackson possessed. Yabby You shall be cast out no more.
