‘Bangarang’ in the origin of reggae debate
Published:Sunday | July 7, 2024 | 12:06 AMYasmine Peru - Sunday Gleaner Writer
On International Reggae Day last Monday, guests who were invited to the soft opening of the Bunny Lee Museum viewed a video in which Lee states that the first reggae song was Muma Don’t Want Bangarang.
Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee goes deeper into the origins of reggae on a video which 17 North Parade uploaded to its Instagram page on June 24. The video was reposted by the Bunny Lee Museum.
“There is debate now about who started reggae and if you were to visit the Bunny Lee Museum Instagram page, that one video has gone viral on account of Bunny Lee saying the first reggae track to be produced ever in the history of Jamaica is Muma Don’t Want Bangarang,” Tiffany Thomas, curator of the Bunny Lee Museum, told The Sunday Gleaner.
In the video, Lee states that the first reggae tune was produced by him in 1968 at Duke Reid’s Studio with singers Lester Sterling, Lloyd Charmers, and Stranger Cole.
“Reggae coming from the name ‘streggae’. ‘Streggae’ we used to call the girls dem and the radio station didn’t like it. We used to call the riddim streggae before reggae. So, it’s really the emphasis on the organ ... mek the organ go ‘reggae, reggae, reggae’... and everybody liked the name ... and it become international. And a lot of people saying it’s them,” Lee shared.
Among the “people saying it’s them” is the late Toots Hibbert, who has a song titled Do the Reggay. In a 2016 interview with The Gleaner, Hibbert said, “I am the inventor of the word ‘reggay’”.
“Me and [fellow Maytals] Jerry and Rolly, sitting down one Sunday morning or Tuesday morning in Trench Town. I have my four-string guitar. In Jamaica, we use the word ‘streggay’ for the girl who don’t dress so good. People that don’t dress good we call ‘streggay’, the guy too. I think that word come from that vibe, which I did not think of it, it just come. I was just playing around - the word comes up. A girl come around, beautiful looking but don’t dress properly, and that word [‘streggay’] come up. It was not a plan thing. Is the Almighty say open your mouth and I will fill it with words. I am proud I am the only one who came up with this word ‘reggay’,” Hibbert told The Gleaner.
However, veteran producer Winston ‘Niney the Observer’ Holness says both Lee’s and Toots’ accounts are inaccurate.
“The first reggae songs are Say What You’re Saying by Eric Monty Morris, produced by Clancy Eccles in 1968; and People Funny Boy by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and the Upsetters also in 1968,” Niney told THE WEEKEND STAR.
Combination singer Keeling Beckford agreed, adding that Bunny Lee’s song “was made before reggae come about”.
According to Niney, “Those days I was working with Scratch and Clancy. Coxsone did a kill dem with tune and so dem want to change the beat pon him. It work for a while but then it go right back down to rocksteady. And me bring it back up with two Dennis Brown songs ... Ride on Cassandra and Westbound Train. Bunny Lee had a beat that he was boosting called ‘John Crow Skanking’. “
Beckford and Niney agreed that the first people to use the name ‘reggae’ was Reggie Lewis and Glen Adams of the singing group The Reggae Boys.
“But dem guh England with Scratch and when dem come back dem change dem name to the Hippie Boys and sing the song Mama Look Look Deh. Toots seh a him mek the name reggae but that’s not true. Toots come out of prison and hear reggae a play, and the name was already out there,” Niney added.