Freddie McGregor
Freddie McGregor has remained at the forefront of reggae music for five decades – a remarkable achievement given the music industry is a business noted for its fierce competitiveness. During that time he’s notched up hits singing ska, roots, lovers rock and dancehall; recorded more than his fair share of classic albums and even featured on the international charts from time to time.
Freddie attributes such longevity to his days at Studio One, where he began his recording career at the age of seven. Singer Ernest Wilson, a neighbour of Freddie’s back in Clarendon, had taken him there during the ska era, when the likes of Ken Boothe, Alton Ellis and Bob Marley were among the label’s biggest stars.
Whenever Ernest wasn’t singing with Peter Austin in the Clarendonians, he and Freddie would record as Fitzy & Freddie, voicing songs like ‘Do Good’, ‘Why Did You Do It’ and‘ Too Young To Love’. Freddie then returned home for a while before staying at Al Campbell‘s house in Kingston, where together they’d rehearse songs such as ‘Freedom, Justice & Equality’, ‘Deep Down In My Heart’ and ‘When The Grass Is Green’. Freddie later voiced some of them for Bunny Lee and Coxson Dodd.
This was in 1971, shortly before he became lead singer with the Generation Gap, who played a mix of soul, reggae and pop material. Two years later, Freddie joined the Soul Syndicate, led by guitarist Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, who would produce some of his most enduring roots tunes, including ‘Mark Of The Beast’ and ‘Leave Yah’. The decision to voice more conscious material had coincided with Freddie joining the Twelve Tribes Of Israel in 1975, whose members also included Bob Marley and Dennis Brown.
Roots classics like ‘Rastaman Camp’, ‘Africa Here I Come’ and ‘Wine Of Violence’ all date from this period and rasta songs would form an important part of his repertoire from thereon, even as he continued to voice soul and lovers rock material.
Like Dennis Brown and Horace Andy, he’d been encouraged to experiment with all different kind of songs at Studio One, as well as learn instruments, which resulted in him playing drums on a number of Studio One sides from the late seventies, when Johnny Osbourne, Sugar Minott and Jennifer Lara were also Brentford Road regulars.
In 1979, Niney the Observer released his debut album, ‘Mr. McGregor’, which included such classics as ‘Lover’s Rock’, ‘Chant Down Babylon Kingdom’, ‘Jah Can Count On I’ and ‘Rastaman Camp’ are taken.
That same year also saw the release of the popular ‘Natural Collie’, and ‘Jogging’, the latter cut while he was working on Judy Mowatt‘s acclaimed ‘Black Woman’ album at Tuff Gong studio on Hope Road. The success of this track ‘ inspired by early morning exercises on the beach at Bull Bay ‘ persuaded Coxson to release Freddie‘s ‘Bobby Babylon’ album, featuring tracks recorded years earlier.
Follow-up sets from Niney (‘Lovers Rock JA Style’)Linval Thompson (‘Big Ship’) and Joe Gibbs (‘Love At First Sight’). There followed a return to Studio One to update tracks for his second album for the label, ‘I Am Ready’. This run of releases confirmed his status as one of the most important artists to emerge from Jamaica during the early dancehall period, and together with Dennis Brown and Gregory Isaacs, he now stood head and shoulders above most other reggae singers of the eighties.
In 1983, he signed with Dr Dread’s RAS Records, for whom he cut the LP, ‘Come On Over’, which included such gems as ‘Reggae Feeling’, ‘Rhythm So Nice’, ‘Short Man’ and this impressive cover of Bob Marley‘s ‘Natty Dread’, which he adapted to suit his own story. (‘I take a walk over Channel One, and then I walk up to Gibbo’s studio”). The album took dancehall to new heights by virtue of its melodic arrangements and superior craftsmanship.
The following year, Freddie visited Ethiopia and also became the first reggae artist to perform on a Native American reservation. In addition, he announced the launch of his own Big Ship label, although this wouldn’t be officially inaugurated until after ‘Across The Border’ had cemented his relationship with RAS in outstanding fashion. The title track of the LP had been conceived during a previous US tour, while it was his growing popularity in South America (and especially Columbia) that had inspired him to record the Sandpipers’‘Guantanamera’ in Spanish, and which ensured him of a hero’s welcome on subsequent visits.
‘Love Will Solve The Problem’, ‘War Mongers’, ‘Out Of The Valley’ (which he’d written in Ethiopia) and remakes of two Studio One tracks, ‘Freddie’ and ‘Freedom, Justice & Equality’, were among the many other highlights found on this second RAS set, which many rate as Freddie‘s best-ever album.
The third of his RAS trilogy was the Grammy-nominated ‘All In The Same Boat’, which the Washington-based label released in 1986. The modern sound of the album led to accusations that his music had become more commercial, but Freddie always understood the importance of competing on the international market, and has broader musical sensibilities than most reggae singers in any case.
A year later and he signed to Polydor, who released his ‘Freddie McGregor’ album and then gifted him the two biggest crossover hits of his career. ‘Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely’ was a cover of a Main Ingredient hit, and a song he used to sing with the Generation Gap. It was produced by Donovan Germain of Penthouse, and reached No. 9 on the UK charts in June 1987, with ‘That Girl’ going Top 50 three months later.
Polydor also re-released ‘Guantanamera’ in 1989, although they parted company with their only reggae act soon afterwards. Freddie, who’d freelanced very little during his RAS deal, went back to taking care of his core market instead.
‘And So I Will Wait For You’, ‘Stop Loving You’ and ‘Prophesy’ (taken from the Steely & Clevie album, ‘Now’) were soon dominating reggae charts worldwide, even as Freddie embarked on a trio of ‘Jamaica Classics’ albums, featuring hits by artists like Alton Ellis, Dennis Brown and the Melodians, among others.
By 1992 he’d been voted Top Male Vocalist for three years running in Jamaica, and four times in total. Over the next five years he’d record six more albums ‘ three produced by Gussie Clarke, and others self-produced, with the most recent tracks being recorded at his own Big Ship studio in Kingston. Albums with Mikey Spice, Luciano and the Wailing Souls demonstrated how quality, not quantity, was still Freddie‘s guiding principle, as witnessed on own No. 1 hit, ‘I Feel Secure’, or tracks by his latest discovery, singer Paul ‘Lymie’ Murray.
Freddie’s most recent albums have featured a range of producers from Jamaica, America and England, where hits like ‘Give Jah The Glory’ and ‘Keys To The City’ were recorded. The results proved that he’s still on top of his game whether voicing tough roots and reality tracks, infectious rub-a-dub tunes or the kind of tender ballads that have long made him a favourite of the ladies.
In 2012, his album, ‘Di Captain’, featuring Etana and Gappy Ranks illustrated his talent remained undiminished with the passing of time, and the following year, the Institute of Caribbean Studies paid due respects to his achievements by bestowing upon him a Marcus Garvey Lifetime Achievement Award.
Today, though less active musically, he remains an exceptional singer/songwriter when the mood takes him. More than forty years after his breakthrough, his music continues to cross all boundaries and appeal to every sector of the reggae audience ‘ even when singing in front of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which he once did on shows shared with John Holt.
JOHN MASOURI