The Blues Busters: Soul, Ska and Rock Steady (In That Order)

Even before the independence of Jamaica, the unique musical proclivities of the island enclave got set to tape. With Byron Lee and his Dragonaires, Prince Buster and the Blues Busters afforded the opportunity to get into a studio, prefigure ska and rock steady while still incorporating enough US based soul and RnB to remain tangentially tied to its antecedents, the resulting sides had the potentiality to affect the world’s musical culture. While out of that aforementioned triumvirate of groups, the Blues Busters might now be the least known, at the time of the duo’s - Lloyd Campbell and Phillip James – recordings, the two singer’s output reached the furthest and deepest into the States.

Owing more to Motown than a Stax aesthetic, the Blues Busters, after recording in JA and gaining an early notoriety unknown to other acts, the duo saw fit to make a stab at the US charts. Recording in the US wasn’t the most ostentatious thing that a JA musician ever did, but the spate of covers (Curtis Mayfield, Sam Cooke and the Impressions amongst others) that the duo set down was a pointed and calculated move to infiltrate a larger market. The success that the group sought wasn’t ever granted, but releasing singles in the US and in the UK on the Blue Beat imprint helped cement a limited, yet devoted international following for the group.

Collected on the 2005 Trojan released Behold! (The Anthology) is the lion’s share of early works recorded by the Blues Busters. The overt soul influence is inescapable. But on each track that ska beat makes some head way, even if it’s not the most apparent base for every offering. “I Won’t Go,” a group original, begins with that fast ska beat, but the harmonies that make up the choruses are clearly cribbed from other sources. It’s an early benchmark from which the subsequent group of ska acts needed to consider before working out their own arrangements.

Being one of the earliest JA groups to record “Wings of a Dove,” the Blues Busters’ version has, for me at least, defined an era of ska. But for whatever reason, subsequent albums didn’t grant the duo too much notice even in their own country. And while the group should be considered early progenitors of rock steady, that placard is usually reserved for other singers. Moving forward the Blues Busters even recorded some tracks that almost got into reggae territory – the 1971 offering “Each One Teach One,” included here, is ample proof of Campbell and James’ talents.

Unfortunately, the Blues Busters didn’t ever become enormous stars – but they could have. And with the word ‘ska’ ranking up there with molester in the world’s current vocabulary, the duo is most likely going to have to languish in some collector’s hell, only being appreciated by the initiated. Much in the same way that early Ethiopians tracks could work for all audiences, the Blues Busters are pleasing in the same manner – that unfortunately won’t spread their acclaim. But it should.