‘Tribal War’, a Little Roy original

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 said “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 said 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.

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.