'Princess Black' not only for black women...

Mel Cooke, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Edi Fitzroy's Princess Black has long earned near hallowed status for Black women, but he is quick to point out that the 1984 song from his second album Coming Up Strong is highly appreciated by women of other races as well. It also goes for different shades of black women, as Fitzroy said women tell him "I am brown, I am black".

And he emphasises that "it is not about skin tone. It is about women at large".

And, despite the title, it was not written only for black women. "It is like universal, for women at large all over the world," Fitzroy said.

Princess Black's longevity has come as a surprise, as Fitzroy said "I never knew that song would be one to inspire until today in the world. There are a lot of people who see me in the street and they say, if it is one song that is going to take me home it's that song".

Fitzroy was at work at the then Jamaica Broadcasting Commission (JBC) when he wrote the lyrics:

She's a precious precious precious woman

Princess Black

She always always always say

She tougher than a rock

She don't like to stay at home

Living on dependency

She say she have to struggle away

Just like a man you see

Anything that is progressive

She always inna that

She works from eight to five

To keep her youths them alive.

"I was reflecting on my life as a youth in the ghetto - Regent Street, Oxford Street. Freddie Thorpe always said to me, write a song about women. I said I was going to do it. That day I was at JBC and it hit me like a bomb. I had to do a song not only for my mom but women at large," he said.

The song came very quickly. "I don't know if is my mom put it in my brain, but it took me five to 10 minutes," Fitzroy said.

A quick call to his producer, Trevor Elliott the Musical Ambassador confirmed the quality of the song and a session was arranged at Channel One on Maxfield Avenue, St Andrew, with Sly and Robbie about two weeks after. Fitzroy said also present at the mid-afternoon session were musicians Bongo Herman, Dwight Pinkney and the late Wycliffe 'Steelie' Johnson. Even when he was singing it outside the studio for them, Fitzroy said, "they say is a hit song this". However, he said, "I just did it for my mom and women at large. But in the back of my mind I thought that something would come out of this".

Was not first choice

Ironically, Princess Black was not the first choice for single release from the Coming Up Strong album. "We were going to put out Jah Sun," Fitrzroy said.

He got a standing ovation for Princess Black when he sang it for Winnie Mandela when she and Nelson Mandela visited Jamaica in 1991. Before that, though, in 1988 he went to Zimbabwe with Gregory Isaacs in 1988. "When I went onstage I was just singing, singing, singing songs. I was going about an hour," Fitzroy said. He came off the stage, but some men told him "you can't come off, brother. You must sing Princess Black and First Class Citizen".

He went back onstage and did Princess Black for about 20 minutes.

"Princess Black lives forever," Edi Fitzroy said.