The Melodians

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The song - Trio The Melodians was in the late 1960s and early 1970s became known Jamaican reggae band. Despite the relatively short period of successful, creative work, they are among the most important bands of the rock steady style and several of their singles are classics of Jamaican music. They had their greatest success with the song Rivers of Babylon they wrote .

Career

All three were still teenagers in 1963 when Tony Brevett , a brother of The Skatalites bassist Lloyd Brevett , founded The Melodians in Greenwich Town, Kingston , with Trevor McNaughton and Brent Dowe . Brevett and Dowe shared the lead vocals , McNaughton was the trio's harmony singer . Renford Cogle never sang with the trio, but later co-wrote many lyrics and helped arrange many pieces.

They initially performed successfully in talent competitions in the Kingston area, which eventually led to their first recording session in 1966, in Coxsone Dodd's famous Studio One , but they did not attract much attention with the recordings. They switched to producer Duke Reid and there came their first successes in 1967 and 1968 with singles like You Have Caught Me, Expo 67, I'll Get Along Without You, You Don't Need Me (together with U-Roy ), and Come On Little Girl . With this, the Melodians made a name for themselves in the rocksteady scene as a vocal ensemble. In 1968 they switched producers again, this time to Sonia Pottinger , and had two more hits in Jamaica with Little Nut Tree and Swing and Dine . This connection did not last long either and the following year they went to producer Leslie Kong .

With him, the most famous songs of the Melodians were created in 1969 and they made the breakthrough to a larger, now international audience. Sweet Sensation sold well, not only in Jamaica but also in the UK . But with their hit Rivers of Babylon that same year , The Melodians eclipsed everything before. The song also marks the beginning of the spiritual influence of the Rastafarian belief on the lyrics of the Melodians , who until then had mostly sung romantic love and party songs. One of the songs The Melodians occasionally dedicated to this new theme is Black Man Kingdom Come .

The band stayed with producer Leslie Kong, with whom they worked successfully until his death in 1971. This tragic event marked the end of the Melodians' heyday . They made a few recordings with other producers, like Lee Perry , and others, and again with previous producers Reid and Pottinger. But they were no longer able to build on the successes they had with Kong. 1973 Dowe left the band, shortly thereafter the band broke up. In 1976 they got back together and re-recorded many of their old songs before the project stalled with no real results. The trio came together again in the early 1980s and recorded the reunion album Irie Feeling with new material . The comeback attempt, however, had little success.

Fifty years after the band was founded, Trevor McNaughton and Tony Brevett again went on a US tour in 2013. Tony Brevett died of cancer on October 26, 2013 in Miami .

Rivers of Babylon

The Melodians had their greatest success with Rivers of Babylon , creating an anthem for the Rasta movement. Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton wrote the song based on the text of Biblical Psalm 137 . The song became part of the soundtrack for The Harder They Come movie . Rivers of Babylon was later interpreted countless times in cover versions by other musicians, the best known and most internationally successful in 1978 by Boney M.

Discography

  • Sweet Sensation (1969)
  • Irie Feelings (1983)
  • Premeditation (1986)
  • Swing And Dine (1992)
  • Rivers Of Babylon: The Best of the Melodians (1997)
  • Sweet Sensation: The Best of the Melodians (2003)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jamaican musician Tony Brevett dies from cancer , accessed October 28, 2013

Web links