'I Pray Thee' goes from Bible to streets to studio

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

'I pray thee

Why do the heather rage and the people imagine of such vain things?...

The Lord God Jah Rastafari shall have them in his region

But then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex with them and his soul displeasure

For yet have I set I kings upon the holy mountains of Zion

I will now declare the creed...

Jah shall break them with the rod of iron!

Jah shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel I would say'

Big Youth's I Pray Thee, on the horns-rich rhythm to The Abyssinians Satta Massagana (recorded in 1969, included on their debut album in 1976 and covered notably by Third World on their self-named full-length debut, also in 1976), is an extended chant from the songbook of David, beginning with Psalms 2. It also includes the Amharic Satta Massagana, making for an integration of texts and beliefs.

Big Youth's vocal inflections, including a striking "Jah!", make the chant especially striking in what has evolved into his traditional performance opening song. However, long before Big Youth recorded I Pray Thee in a Friday afternoon session at Studio 17, North Parade, Kingston, in 1973, the prayer had been part of his life and many others of like mind as they avoided the long arm of the law.

"If we in the area licking chalice and the time so dread, that is the prayer that we use keep away the beast so we can hide in yard and lick we chalice," Big Youth said.

He first put it to music at a dance put on by Errol Shorter in Tavern, Papine, deejaying on the sound system I-Roy The President. At another dance shortly before, Big Youth said, "Somebody stole the stock of dubs from I-Roy The President." So he had to deejay and hold the audience all night, the content of I Pray Thee among his lyrics.

He had many songs to do by then, as Big Youth had S 90 Skank in a string of hits that set his dancehall foundation, which was firm four decades later.

"By 1973, I got so popular that I felt I had to do I Pray Thee," Big Youth said.

So he headed into the studio with an original cut of the Satta. "I pay to do the recording," Big Youth said.

"It was one cut. It was no problem. It was God himself who was talking."

I Pray Thee became a hit the sound system route, as at the time, it did not enjoy radio airplay.

"I don't think radio ever want to play that song in those days," Big Youth said.

"There was a lot of controversy, just like how they fight dancehall today." And on the sound systems, he said, there was other opposition as well. "One time, anytime I Pray Thee play in a dance, it done. Joe Williams (former police commissioner) come from nowhere and it mash up," Big Youth said.

But that could not stop the song from being sold, although there was more than one distribution channel. Joe Gibbs was distributing, Big Youth said, but so was he through KGs in Cross Roads.

"Me know me sell over 100,000 of that song," Big Youth said - and that is apart from what the other distributors sold.

He remembers performing I Pray Thee at Madison Square Gardens, clutching a rod in one hand.

A Jamaican called Bringle, who had migrated to the United States, was on the stage and a security guard was coming to remove him when Big Youth hit the "Jah"! "The man stood still and take off his hat on the stage," Big Youth said.

I Pray Thee has become his opening song as "I think I always have to pray with the people, so I do that first. It is a spirit that I have to bless the people with".