Hebdige - Cut n mix culture, identity and Caribbean music

In his book There Aint No Black In The Union Jack (Hutchinson, forthcoming), Paul Gilroy has suggested that music functions within the culture of the black diaspora as an alternative public sphere. Sometimes a reggae toast or a soul rap might consist of little more than a list of names or titles. Naming can be in and of itself an act of invocation, conferring power and/or grace upon the namer: the names can carry power in themselves. The titles bestowed on Haile Selassie in a Rastafarian chant or a reggae toast or on James Brown or Aretha Franklin in a soul or MC rap testify to this power. More importantly in this context, the namer pays tribute in the name check to the community from which (s)he has sprung and without which (s)he would be unable to survive. The speaker or singers individual voice is drowned beneath the sea of names which it summons up around itself.

There are many people without whom this book could not have been written. I would like to thank Albert on the door, Bonk, Mikey, Steve Gibbons, Pete King, Martin and Simon Fuller, Norrie Davis, Paul, Vron and Marcus, Greg, Rosa and David, Sam Rosenberg, Iain Chambers, Roy Bailey, Geoff H, Su Fawcett, my mother and father, Charlie Luck, Griff, Ken Brown, Clinton, Alan Bayes, Larry Grossberg, Red Rum, Clare, Patrick and Edward, Van Cagle, Dave Darby, Polly M, Prudence, Vic Lockwood, Maggie and Trevor, Mo, Peta Legat, Serafina, Steve Bonnett, Richard Madgwick, Paul Swinson, Jessica Lucy Pickard, Jordi Rippoles, Winston at the Three Crowns, Kathy K, and the Golden Eagle (the one that flew away).

I would also like to thank all the singers, musicians, producers, engineers, djs and microphone artists who make the music this book is about. A special word of thanks to: The Skatalites, James Brown, Toots and the Maytals, Ranking Ann, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Big Youth, Jerry Dammers and the Specials with Rico, Don Drummond, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Peggy Lee, Sly and the Family Stone, Etta James, Miles Davis, Afrika Bambaata, the Soul Sonic Force and the Zulu Nation, Howling Wolf, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Shirley Brown, Gene Vincent, Gregory Isaacs, Dion, Exuma, John Coltrane, Dennis Brown and Aswad, Niney, Barbara Jones, I Roy, Elvis Presley, Lee Scratch Perry, Joe Gibbs, Esther Phillips, Mickey and Sylvia, Tina and Ike, The Angels, Gram Parsons, Shirley Ellis, Jimmy Hendrix, Sam Cooke, Eek a Mouse, Billie Holliday, Dinah Washington, Booker T and the MGs, Patsy Cline, Pharoah Saunders, Bo Diddley, Malcolm McLaren, John Lydon, Ben E King, The Fatback Band, The JBs, Fela Kuti, U Roy, Roland Kirk, The Yardbirds, Planxty, The Ohio Players, Linton Johnson, The Ronettes, Basil Gabbidon, UB40, Johann Sebastian Bach, Billy Fury, Otis Redding, Hank Williams, Executor, Mighty Sparrow, Black Stalin, Prince Buster, Count Ossie, Dennis Bovell and Steel Pulse.

I should like to thank all the writers, radio and music business personnel whose work I have used, quoted or otherwise borrowed from: Dotun Adebayo, Verena Reckford, Andrew Carr, J L Collier, Robert Elms, Carl Gayle, Sheryl Garratt, Paul Gilroy (again), Tony Harrison, Steven Hager, Steven Harvey, John Hind and Stephen Mosco, Simon Jones, Junior Lincoln, Amanda Lipman, Vic Lockwood, Jeremy Marre and Hannah Charlton, Colin McGlashan, Miss P, Mr Fresh and the Supreme Rockers, George Oban, Joe Owens, J Plummer, Penny Reel, Vivien Goldman, David Simmons and David Toop.

I should especially like to thank Albert Goldman for the Elvis extracts in the Pre-Mix, Alex Haley for the extract from Roots in , Stephen Davis and Chris May for all their work on music it is always well researched, well written and of a consistently high standardand Ive drawn a great deal on the articles Chris May wrote for Black Music on reggae in the 1970s and on Stephen Davis two books on reggae musicReggae Bloodlines and Reggae International. Thanks, too, to Ed Lee for doing a fine edit on the first version of the Original Cut. And thanks, finally, to Dave Morley of Comedia for his patience, tact and resourcefulness in dealing with a succession of impossible requests, for the imagination and hard work he has brought to bear on this project. And to Andy Dark for designing the visual mix.

A special word of thanks to Patrick Ward for the laughs and for the poetry; to Mike Stanhope for sounds and brotherhood; to Mike Horseman for being Major Spar, Vinyl King and The Music Man of the Midlands; and to Paul Gilroy for taking so much time and care to answer what must have seemed to him like elementary questions. Without these last four, I wouldnt have been able to undertake, let alone complete, this project. Finally thanks to Amstrad who have brought William Burroughs to the High Street by bringing cut n mix technology to bear upon the word.