Story of the song - 'Tribal War' shaped from newspaper article

Mel Cooke, Sunday Gleaner Writer

"Tribal war/

We no want no more a that/

Tribal war/

A no that we a defen'/

I will give Jah praises in the morning/

When I hear the people say/

They now see themselves in unity/

Celebrating with better sensie/

Now that the war is over/

Over"

Earl 'Little Roy' Lowe had the start of Tribal War, the enduring reggae song celebrating peace between battling factions, in his head for about a year before a newspaper article sparked the lines which he used to complete it.

"I wrote the lyrics and the melody. A lot of people come and sing it over and some of them try to act as if it is theirs," Little Roy, who now lives in England, said.

"That is a song I recorded for my Tafari label in 1973, and I think it was released in 1974. I used to walk and sell it myself. It sold many thousands."

He said Tribal War was written "because of the war that was going on. There was a war that was going on universally, even in Jamaica with the politics".

At the time, he had the opening line - Tribal war, we no want no more a that - in his head, Little Roy would have been experiencing the 1972 general election which brought the Michael Manley-led People's National Party to power on a democratic socialism platform.

"That was written a year or more before the other part of the song came to me. Is like I could not complete the song," Little Roy said. Then he read a newspaper story about gangs in eastern Kingston coming to a peace agreement after fighting each other for years.

"That was written in the paper, The Gleaner or THE STAR. These gangs came together and signed a peace treaty," Little Roy said.

At the signing there was also the puffing of the peace pipe, Jamaican style, the newspaper reporting that the gangsters came together and smoked herb. Little Roy says "I turn it into gangsters "seated up and licking cup/one by one they take a suck/saying that the war is over".

With the lyrics and melody completed, Little Roy went to Lee 'Scratch' Perry's Black Ark Studio, where he says standout singer Dennis Brown played bass guitar, Leroy 'Horsemouth' Wallace was on drums, Pablo Black played keyboards and Roy Hamilton guitar. The music was laid first, then what should have been a rough vocal, Little Roy saying that most of the song was done in a single recording take.

However, "when we go home and listen it, people said the voice did not need to go over. So we just mix it and press it," he said.

Tribal war gets fight

Giving an indication of the sales, Little Roy said Randy's (at North Parade, which eventually morphed into VP Records) would take 2,000 copies on a Monday and, by the end of the week, would order 2,000 more. Airplay was restricted, though, Little Roy says. "The payola system been going on for a long time. They would tell the people playing their music not to play Tribal War," he said.

"They kept it out of the charts. It was one of the biggest selling songs of the time. It and Curly Locks."

The original Tribal War is appreciably slower than the versions done by John Holt and George Nooks and Little Roy says "I used to sing slow reggae music. Most of my songs were called slow. It was some deep, roots reggae. It was not commercial, it was natural," he said.

He first performed Tribal War at the Queens Theatre in west Kingston, where Little Roy says he did about three songs with a group of musicians who put on a concert. He also had Tribal War in a three-song set he did, without music, at the wake for Gregory Isaacs at Kings' Cross in England.

Isaacs had a role in Little Roy's settling in England, where he has lived since 1992.

Little Roy had had popular songs before Tribal War, the 1969 Bongo Niah which he did while still a student at St Andrew Technical High School, and Prophecy, later done over by Freddie McGregor. However, he migrated to the United States in 1981 because of what he says was the "fight" he was facing in Jamaica over his music.

"That's why me leave Jamaica. The way them a take my thing is like them would kill me for it," he said.

He did a European tour with Isaacs in 1992, including shows in London and Birmingham, and settled in England, which he had been visiting since 1979.

And Little Roy says when he did Tribal War, Prophecy and Without My Love at the 'Cool Ruler's' wake, "the place went mad".

• Little Roy pays tribute to Nirvana

Little Roy, like many singers and deejays who have chosen to live outside Jamaica, continues to record and perform. He is currently involved in three projects, one of which is an entire tribute album to the group Nirvana.

"I am doing 11 of their songs. I already voiced nine of them," Little Roy said. "It seems like it is going to break on the hip-hop side of it."

The album is being done with producer Prince Fatty, and should be out by next summer.

That would make two albums in less the six months, as Little Roy says he also has a new album, Heat, which should be released by next March.

"We have the manufacturers two months ago and is like they were holding on to it, so we just received it last week," Little Roy said. "The cover is looking good, the songs are great."

While he does not have a tour lined up, Little Roy said he will be doing a lot of promotion on Heat in the run-up to its release.

In addition, he also has four songs on a compilation album which he says "is getting play, not on the pirate station, but BBC. I did a live show on air at BBC".

Included in that quartet of songs is Christopher Columbus, Need It and Still Loving You, the last, Little Roy said, featured in the movie Why Did I Get Married?.

-MC