Big Joe: From Mudie to Thompson

Writing on musicians, producers and their cohort offers up odd insights. Performers are more than capable of innovating, changing a genre and being lauded amongst its own in-group, but remain unknown at large. In musics that don’t approach the popularity of whatever’s on the radio nowadays – or back in the day – there’s still a pervasive bias exhibited. Why’s Lee Perry the only producer folks know of in JA music? There’s not a good reason for that. He was, obviously, instrumental in the propulsion of music on the island, but so was Joe Gibbs and Harry Mudie, but no one really seems to care too much about those folks.

That latter figure, Mudie, apart from rendering dub in unique terms, was also the first person to include string arrangements in his productions. Well, at least, that’s how the story goes. And since I wasn’t sitting around in that studio, all I can do is figure that that’s a fact (as a side, Tommy McCook included a pretty rad violin bit on Pleasure Dub). So, while Mudie won’t ever attain a huge following despite deserving it, the singers that recorded with him have been tossed aside as well.

Big Joe, who apparently moved from dancehall to rap stuffs in the new millennium, was one of the folks working in Mudie’s stable for a time. The pairing didn’t offer up too many recordings. But seeing as Big Joe’s career on the mic sits between the mid seventies and the eighties, that’s not too shocking. The three proper long players that resulted between 1976 and 1978, though, had nothing to do with Mundie.

After coming up with that producer, famous only to his peers, Big Joe worked mostly with Bunny Lee and Linval Thompson (again proving his skill behind the boards surpass those on the mic). And if there was to be an enduring disc that encapsulates not just Big Joe’s career, but the sound of reggae moving into a new period, it’d probably be At the Control.

Even as Big Joe allowed others to helm his albums, it was a necessity after all, he still maintained a distinct vision. The versions in his vision were all top fair and couldn’t leave fans wondering about his source material.

Opening At the Control with “You Must Be Mad” makes a great deal of sense. The hook from “Tribal War” – a track versioned by everyone from the aforementioned Gibbs to King Tubby and Keith Hudson – is immense and inviting to anyone with a semblance of singing ability. Big Joe goes in over one of the more sparse backings as the disc opens. And while there’d be a number of other readily recognizable borrows, this is the most immediate.

Lyrically, the disc doesn’t ever weigh down the light musical fair. It’s a nice departure from some of the other heavy handed roots offerings from the time. Of course, other toasters from the period were traversing the same territory – and most were more popular. But that all just points to success in the music industry is at least half chance.