[sirens] MAN: Music is an open letter to the world.

Music don't carry any color.

You hear it and you like it.

[rhythmic drumming] MAN: The seeds for, you know, what we take for granted, this multicultural society that we live in now, they were really formed on the dance floor back in the day in the late '60s, early '70s.

WOMAN: This was something which just came from left field.

We knew about Soul.

We knew about Tamla Motown.

But this one just sort of slipped in, like a Trojan horse.

[rhythmic drumming] MAN: Trojan have a massive collection of Jamaican gold.

I call these records gold.

[rhythmic drumming] [rhythmic drumming] [typewriter keys clicking] [record scratching] [MUSIC - SHIRLEY & LEE, "LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL"] LEONARD LEE: (SINGING) Come on, baby.

Let the good times roll.

Come on, baby.

Let me thrill your soul.

Come on, baby.

Let the good times roll.

Roll all night long.

Come on, baby.

Yes, this is it.

This is something I just can't miss.

Come on, baby.

Let the good times roll.

Roll all night long.

SHIRLEY GOODMAN: (SINGING) Come on, baby, while the thrill is on.

Come on, baby, let's have some fun.

Come on, baby.

Let the good times roll.

Roll all night long.

[gunshot] [clicking] NARRATOR: This is the Caribbean.

It's full of islands.

Thousands of them.

Let's go to Jamaica, one of the bigger islands.

BUNNY LEE: Duke Reid, the Trojan, he started up as a policeman and retired from the force and started a liquor store business.

Duke could leave his business place open and nobody don't go in there and take out nothing.

He was a no-nonsense man.

But Duke Reid, he had one of the best and heaviest sounds in Jamaica.

[MUSIC - ROSCO GORDON, "NO MORE DOGGIN"] ROSCO GORDON: (SINGING) No more doggin', foolin' round with you.

BUNNY LEE: Duke Reid's sound was Duke Reid, The Trojan, probably after the Trojan Horse.

ROSCO GORDON: (SINGING) No more doggin', foolin' around with you.

BUNNY LEE: The sound system would bring everybody together, dancing and celebration.

It become a way of life.

Duke start me into business and give me free studio time.

Most of these pioneers gone, from sound system days.

Only a few of us live.

Here come the Trojan!

[MUSIC- LOUIS JORDAN, "CALDONIA"] Here come the Trojan!

Here come the Trojan!

Here come the Trojan!

BUNNY LEE: Tonight, tonight at Foresters, all you'd be dancing to His Mightiness Duke Reid the Trojan and all that.

Those guys could run Jamaica, you know.

All of these sound come up, and everybody start being in competition with one another.

LOUIS JORDAN: (SINGING) Walking with my baby she got red big feet.

BUNNY LEE: You have Sir Coxone's downbeat.

LOUIS JORDAN: (SINGING) But she's my baby, and I love her just the same.

BUNNY LEE: You have King Edwards the Giant.

That was another sound.

He's still alive.

LOUIS JORDAN: (SINGING) Caldonia!

Caldonia!

KING EDWARDS: The sound system actually changed the whole concept of entertainment from live band to music by record.

LOUIS JORDAN: (SINGING) Mama didn't know what Caldonia was putting down.

So I'm going down to Caldonia's-- KING EDWARDS: Nobody seems to realize that the base of reggae came from Reid having this sound system.

But the tunes that we used to play in Jamaica in the '50s were American record.

When the rhythm and blues dried up now, they start making their own records to play on the sound system.

It became an industry now.

DERRICK MORGAN: They use call me Little Richard because me would imitate Little Richard.

They say, Richards.

you heard Duke Reid doing some audition to recording?

And I say, yes, where's Duke Reid at?

On Band Street and Charles Street.

I said OK.

I don't even have a song ready.

So when I went there, I saw this man and said, Mr Reid, I heard that you're doing audition for artists, so.

He said, can you sing?

I say, yeah.

He said, well sing.

I said, OK then.

(SINGING) I want a girl to dance with me.

I want a girl to romance me.

I want a girl to care for me.

Oh, my darling, won't let me be?

Oh, oh, pretty baby, will you dance with me?

And they recorded it the Thursday.

[MUSIC - DERRICK MORGAN, "LOVER BOY"] (SINGING) I want a girl to dance with me.

I want a girl to romance me-- The Saturday I hear my song for the very first time on the radio.

(SINGING)--to care for me.

I start running around the place.

I'm calling everybody.

Listen this.

This is me, Derrick.

Me a sing!

Oh god, I think I was in heaven.

Look, I said, if this is heaven, lord, let me die here.

They used to call me the hit maker and the hit breaker because all of my songs become number one songs.

BUNNY LEE: Duke Reid knew what he wanted.

Duke make some of the biggest hits in Jamaica.

Derrick Morgan start-- start up.

We call him the King of Ska.

The name Ska was a guy named Clue J.

He had this band.

He was trying to explain to his musician, make the guitar go, ska, ska.

A man say, well so we'll play ska now, the name is Ska.

[MUSIC - JUSTIN HINDS, "CARRY GO BRING HOME"] FREDDIE NOTES: Ska music is an uptempo music because we need something to bounce.

We use the guitar to give it that shape.

But the solidity behind that is the bass man with that pattern.

DERRICK MORGAN: When it hits you, you got to move.

The rhythm of that music, it just keep you moving.

BUNNY LEE: Ska is a lively music.

When a man plays ska, you hear a chinging, chinging, ska, ska, ska.

The ska is the backbone.

Ska-- if ska not in it, it's not Jamaica music at all.

JUSTIN HINDS: (SINGING) It needs no light to see you're making disturbances.

REPORTER: There is an air of expectancy as the moment approaches for the arrival of Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret at the ceremonies which will mark Jamaica's attainment of independence.

DERRICK MORGAN: When Jamaica get independence in 1962, everyone was there.

And they danced that night, everybody rubbing up on one another, and, you know, it was a very great night.

BUNNY LEE: Kingston was fun, you know?

Much loving in Jamaica.

Plenty of them start migrating to England here.

You'd go to a lot of send-off parties when I was growing up and things like that.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: It is the first time that people knew that they could just pay a passage and go to England.

REPORTER: --for here sees the arrival of more than 400 happy Jamaicans.

They've come to seek work in Britain, and are ready and willing to do any kind of job that will help the motherland along the road to prosperity.

They're all full of hope for the future, so let's make them very welcome as they begin their new life over here.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: And most of the record that we made, the local music by Jamaican people, then the world culture of the sound system migrates to England.

They now start what we started.

My mum-- it was a broken marriage, eh?

So she got fed up and went to London.

And I joined her about two years after.

Bits of it was a bit rough.

Weather-- it was mainly the weather.

You don't forget those things, do you.

I remember arriving-- I think it was Victoria Station or something like that.

And my mum wasn't there.

I said, what's going on here?

I hailed a taxi and went to Forest Gate.

[music playing] REPORTER: London as a city of change and contrast.

The River Thames reflects the brooding centuries of history and the bright swirl of today, of life.

Said Dr Johnson, when a man is tired of London, he's tired of life.

LLOYD COXONE: I heard that England had lot of money and a lot of facility, that was paved with gold.

My parents decided to bring me to England.

I didn't want to come.

When I come here, I gave a lot of trouble to go back to Jamaica, you know, because I didn't like it.

When I was in Jamaica growing up, I had like a fruit tree that could climb.

The sea, I could go and swim in and go to the river and play cricket with my friends.

That was a mental strain to miss all of those younger days in Jamaica.

ROY ELLIS: I was a Rude Boy, but I was very ambitious.

I'm in a scene, I could get myself killed, or end up in prison.

So they took me out and, you know, come to England.

I thought I'm going to have a better life at that time, and it was worse.

[struggling] The young white kids, they don't know.

They're not used to black people.

Golliwog, they used to call me, and brush head.

When you come into school, things on the bench, like peanuts and bananas-- this is the thing kids they used to do.

You know kids are crazy, you know?

It was a very, very bad experience, but it's made me tough.

Because of this, I end up doing boxing.

COACH: (VOICEOVER) Straight out.

All right.

Let me see you try it now.

Straight-- ROY ELLIS: The other guys was boxing for sport, but I was boxing for revenge.

Like an animal, you beat a dog every day, he going to bite you one day, you know?

MAN: They're a nuisance when you've got to walk past them in the streets, they won't move.

REPORTER: So you wouldn't be too happy if one moved in next door to you?

I shouldn't be happy at all.

MAN: I would deport them.

They're nothing but a scourge on the good land.

ROY ELLIS: When I come to be the school champion, that's all gone.

They never called me out a name.

They say, "The Champ."

So I got to fight with my fists to get some kind of respect, and it turns out OK, you know?

I'm still living, and some of my friends are dead.

Them Teddy Boys kill a lot of them in those days, you know?

LLOYD COXONE: When I come here, I signed on at the youth exchange in Balham.

I wanted was to go back to Jamaica so much.

I have to go and get myself a job.

So one day, pulled a card out and the card said, NCP-- No Colored People.

All of those card.

They couldn't send me, as a Jamaican, to those job.

The Jamaica music was what keep us going.

If we want to know what music make in Jamaica, we have to go to the sound system.

And at the same time, the sound system is holding up our culture.

We end up in basements.

That's where we're coming from.

In the-- any little dump, anywhere we clean that out, you know, and put some boxes.

Some people clear out their house.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: Every two weeks or so, you would have a dance, right?

And they would clear the furnitures out.

And big boxes coming in and, boom, yeah, session.

[MUSIC - DERRICK MORGAN, "BLAZING FIRE"] (SINGING) You said that you walk a blazing fire.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: You couldn't go to the white clubs, you know?

Simple, you know?

So it's a natural thing.

You make your own fun.

(SINGING) They were all sung by you.

And now we act, but you, you said that-- DANDY LIVINGSTONE: I remember neighbors would call the police.

They're playing this jungle music.

Yeah, seriously, yeah.

(SINGING) --But when I were with you-- DANDY LIVINGSTONE: Music was the thing that gives you a lift each day.

(SINGING) Live and let other live-- DANDY LIVINGSTONE: As a young Jamaican in Britain, you know, or wherever you came from as a black person, right, it was all music.

Yeah.

(SINGING) --walk a blazing fire.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: Yeah, music was the only life that we had, where we could go and enjoy ourselves.

And that's how the records start to get big, start to get known.

The sound systems start to play.

People start to love it, you know what I mean?

(SINGING) Stick and stone can't break my bone even sitting on a throne.

But words from your mouth can bore me in two.

What are you going to do?

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: I met Lee Gopthal first in 1963.

I just left school, and you know?

You know, we became, in a sense, friends.

And he had this mail order thing going where he was selling a lot of West Indian records.

Owen Gray, Jackie Edwards, Prince Buster, Derrick Morgan-- all those big guns.

Lee gave me a box of records.

The weekend, I sold them off.

So I remember calling up Lee on the Tuesday, said, Lee, record's finished.

He said, what?

He said, you've got to come down weekend.

Come in the weekend for more.

All right?

So I went, sold them off again the following weekend.

Jamaican music, yeah, it was a piece of home, wasn't it?

DAVID BETTERIDGE: I met Chris Blackwell, who wanted to start Island Records.

And part of my job was as a specialist buyer and seller of West Indian records.

Lee had this building, 108 Cambridge Road.

And when we moved in there, Island Records, in the very early days, he saw an opportunity because we were a Jamaican music company.

[MUSIC - MILLIE SMALL, "MY BOY LOLLIPOP"] (SINGING) My boy lollipop, you make my heart go giddy-up.

You are as sweet as candy.

You're my sugar dandy.

Whoa, oh-- DAVID BETTERIDGE: "My Boy Lollipop" by Millie Small sold 4 million worldwide.

It even sold in places like Ecuador.

Lee was an Asian-Jamaican, but he was a businessman, but in some ways, obviously did attract Lee's attention to the West Indian market, because Lee thought, well, maybe this is an opportunity to get into the business.

So that's how it really sort of happened.

(SINGING) --let you go.

My boy lollipop.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: Millie Small's record, "My Boy Lollipop," it's a cover version.

(SINGING) You set the world on fire.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: But it did well, you know?

To see one our Jamaican lady from Clarendon in the charts.

(SINGING) Love you, I love you, I love you so-- DANDY LIVINGSTONE: The mail order business expanded so much that he started a record shop in Willesden Lane.

I think it was called Musicland, and it was about six shops.

It was a comfort zone for, you know, West Indian in England, you know?

So in those days, records sold like-- like I said, hot cakes.

Lee Gopthal was instrumental in getting me started in my music career.

[MUSIC - JUSTIN HINDS & THE DOMINOES, "NO GOOD RUDIE"] (SINGING) I want to know what this gallery means.

I want to know what this gallery means.

It seems to me like some conference going on.

BUNNY LEE: I know a lot about Rude Boys, you know?

I grew up in that era.

The Rude Boy does a lot of things.

Most of those old time Rude Boys, they were followers of Duke Reid and Coxsone Sound and King Edwards.

Some of them is thieves, some of them is old prisoners.

Some of them are reformed.

There was like gods and kings in them days.

(SINGING) Glad to know the right from wrong.

Wise are the certain-- MARCIA GRIFFITHS: Rude Boy then was classified as one of these rough guys-- cap pulled down on face that you cannot-- can't hardly recognize them.

And he just do what he feels when he wants to.

DERRICK MORGAN: Like, I know of one.

His name was Buzzbee.

He's a Rude Boy.

He come to me, and him said, look, everybody has sing about Rude Boy.

I don't hear you sing about a Rude Boy yet.

I want you to sing a Rude Boy song of me.

And I want it this weekend.

Because him having a dance, and him want that song to play.

And that was when I made "Rudies Don't Fear."

[MUSIC - DERRICK MORGAN, "TOUGHER THAN TOUGH"] And the night of the dance, he give it to the DJ guy.

(SINGING) Rudies in court now boys.

Rudies in court.

Rudies in court-- DERRICK MORGAN: 12 o'clock, midnight, the guy put on the song and said, give me a box of beer.

(SINGING) Now this court is in session.

And I order all you Rude Boys to stand.

And when it reach "Tougher than tough, strong like lion," he just took up a beer and crushed against the wall and say, "Iron!"

(SINGING) Rougher than rough.

Tougher than tough.

Strong like lion.

We are iron.

Rudies don't fear no boys.

Rudies don't fear.

DERRICK MORGAN: Three girls were standing on the stairs and so I'm just go upstairs and start wetting them up with a beer.

I saw a little boy come in front of him with a gun.

"You named Buzzbee?"

And he look and see the little guy with a gun.

The guy hand shaking and hard.

But meanwhile get a gun shot from another side, right into him head and kill him.

(SINGING) Rudies don't fear no boys.

Rudies don't fear.

Rudies don't fear no boys.

Rudies don't fear.

Rougher than rough.

Tougher than tough.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: In England, we be started hearing about these Rude Boys.

It became a thing that everybody wanted to do a Rude Boy song.

So it came to me one day, why not me?

(SINGING) Stop your running about.

It's time you straighten right out.

(SINGING) Ba ba da ba da da.

Da da da da da da.

Stop your running around.

Time you straighten right out.

Stop your running around, making trouble in the town.

Oh.

Rudie.

Yeah.

A message to you, Rudie.

A message to you-- My song wasn't bigging up, as we say, the Rude Boy.

I was talking to them and say, hey, cool it, you know?

Think of your future and things like that.

(SINGING) A message to you, Rudie.

A message to you-- (SPEAKING) Ah, something like that.

I remember I got a phone call from Lee Gopthal.

And he said, come and see me.

I'm starting up something.

I want you to be part of it.

I said, yeah, great.

[MUSIC - DANDY LIVINGSTONE, "RUDY, A MESSAGE TO YOU"] [MUSIC - DANDY LIVINGSTONE, "RUDY, A MESSAGE TO YOU"] BUNNY LEE: Island and Lee Gopthal, the two guys, them get together.

Lee Gopthal was a gentleman.

And I knew his grandfather from Jamaica.

I know him through the-- in the record business and as a gentleman that helped us out a lot, him and Dave Betteridge.

When I come to England, plenty of my friends come over that I grow up with.

So this was an opportunity to come and see.

(SINGING) Stop your running around making trouble in the town.

I came here February 1968.

It was strange because, you know, I'm cold.

When a man laugh, you see like him smoking a cigarette, most of time was so cold.

The great Dave Betteridge, that I'll tell you, he came and picked me up in a little car named MG. We go to Cambridge Road.

DAVID BETTERIDGE: The 1960s were recovering.

It was the first time when people had a bit of money in their pocket, everything was, you know, up for sale, basically.

We decided to merge whatever talents we had as music people, and it was a convenience for all of us.

And so it was a coming together, really, of all those things.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: I ran into Bunny Lee for the first time.

And we got on good, and Lee was juggling with names to name the company.

BUNNY LEE: When they was wondering what to call the new company now.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: And Bunny looked at me, and I looked at Bunny, and somehow he said, what about Trojan Records?

I said, yeah, great.

And that was it.

Bang.

BUNNY LEE: Trojan was the most appropriate thing, because Duke Reid the Trojan.

Duke Reid make good records, you know?

So when Trojan label formed up here, it was a plus.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: Having a label in England, it should be great.

I did my first session about two months after that, for Lee Gopthal.

And I think my-- I think an item of mine was the first item that came out on Trojan, if my memory serves me right.

BUNNY LEE: After that, I went back to Jamaica now, and I start making a lot of songs.

LLOYD COXONE: Well, it was good when Trojan set up.

Because we could say, yeah, reggae has got a home.

We want.

Enoch Powell We want Enoch Powell.

We want Enoch Powell.

We want Enoch Powell.

We want Enoch Powell.

We want Enoch Powell.

We want Enoch Powell.

We want Enoch Powell.

We want Enoch Powell.

We want Enoch Powell-- ENOCH POWELL (ON TV): In this country, in 15 or 20 years' time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.

Well, I can already hear the chorus of execration.

How dare I say such a horrible thing?

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: Yeah, I came across prejudice, of course, you know?

There are too many of you people here, yeah?

That was a shock.

LLOYD COXONE: Why Enoch Powell make a speech like that?

We still see some of it, what he was saying in the street of England.

And in fact, we never liked him after that.

[MUSIC - THE MAYTALS, "54 46 WAS MY NUMBER"] (SINGING) Stick it up, mister.

Hear what I said, sir.

TOOTS HIBBERT: With Rocksteady, it was a slower rhythm.

(SINGING) get your hands in the air, sir.

TOOTS HIBBERT: Reggae come to take over.

(SINGING) And you with get no hurt, mister.

No, no, no.

I'm a different kind of rude boy.

A musical Rude Boy.

And I'm the inventor for the word "reggae."

(SINGING) I said, yeah.

What I say.

Don't you hear?

I said, yeah.

Listen what I say.

Do you believe I would take something with me and give it to the police man?

I wouldn't do that.

And if I do that, I would say, sir-- on TOOTS HIBBERT: Reggae was there playing all the time for a good while without anyone know that it's reggae, you know?

(SINGING) I'm not a fool to hurt myself-- TOOTS HIBBERT: We used to have a slang in Jamaica called "streggae."

The going out looking good, well call us streggae.

So maybe I take it from that word, from streggae to reggae.

(SINGING) Oh, yeah!

Give it to me one time.

Uh!

DERRICK MORGAN: Well, I heard a lot of people talk about reggae track.

Bunny Lee say he first.

Toots says him first.

Everybody said him first.

They even brand me as the first reggae.

Like, I heard that first reggae track was in "Seven Letters."

I don't know how true that was, because really I don't study those things.

I just sing to a rhythm.

[MUSIC - DERRICK MORGAN, "SEVEN LETTERS"] (SINGING) This is my last letter, babe.

I just can't write you anymore.

My poor little finger's sore.

BUNNY LEE: This is one of the early reggae tune.

(SINGING) I'm tired of pacing the floor.

BUNNY LEE: I remember I put this song on-- this was an early label with Trojan.

I can never leave the music.

The ska and the bass and drum is the foundation.

It's the organ shuffle.

That is what we call reggae reggae, in the organ.

That was the new thing, the new sound.

That was the-- that's reggae sound, the organ shuffle.

Don't make no woo sound, nobody tell you.

If that shuffle not in the music, it's not reggae.

(SINGING) I was all alone and blue.

Tuesday I wrote again, babe.

I said, I love you one more-- DANDY LIVINGSTONE: The word reggae started to be used a lot.

Reggae, reggae, reggae.

The Jamaican stuff came up, but there was this thing of wanting to create a British sound out of the Jamaican stuff, you know, which we did.

[MUSIC - DANDY LIVINGSTONE, "REGGAE IN YOUR JEGGAE"] (SINGING) Reggae, reggae, reggae, reggae, reggae, reggae, reggae.

Lady, come make the auction begin.

Oh, oh.

Lady, come make the auction begin, oh, oh.

Come make the reggae, reggae in your jeggae.

Come make the reggae, reggae, in your jeggae.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: We were building, you know, our own brand of reggae, which the English kids loved.

Things like "Red, Red Wine," "Reggae in your Jeggae."

(SINGING) Lady, me no want no bangarang.

Lady, me no want no contention.

ROB BELL: Well, I didn't work for Trojan until 1968 or '69, I should think.

My first job at Trojan was as a production manager.

And I was dealing with the factory and ordering the records and the labels and record covers and stuff like that.

The pirate stations would play records pretty consistently if they were popular in the clubs.

DJ (ON RADIO): There's wonderful Radio 1 on 247 meters.

ROB BELL: But BBC playing the records was quite problematic to begin with.

The music was really looked down upon by the-- sort of the music establishment.

LLOYD COXONE: Reggae go through a lot of victimization in the beginning, you know.

None of the major radio station, '70s coming down, would not touch reggae.

I hear even Tony Blackburn, he said that reggae was rubbish.

We, the sound system in England, we persevere with this music, because we love it.

REPORTER: Do you think this is a great handicap to the music, the way that it seems to be fashionable at the moment for disc jockeys to knock it?

I think some of the papers were trying to knock it as classifying it for the-- the BBC or, you know.

They classify reggae, but I don't think the public classify it that much.

They just buy if they like.

LLOYD COXONE: Any tune that Trojan released, I would get it.

As long as I go over there to the Trojan office, they gave it to me.

I didn't have to pay for it.

[music - john holt, "ali baba"] ROB BELL: One of the rather wonderful things about Jamaican-- the Jamaican music business is the pre-release.

They just do a limited pressing with just a white label, a blank label.

Goes back to the sound systems in the '50s in Jamaica.

And they would go out to the sound systems, and it was test marketing.

(SINGING) --blind mice was there with me to tell the Teddy Bear the tale.

The Teddy Bear came smiling there with a big smile.

Certainly by the late '60s, we put out certain things on pre-release just to see if the sound systems would play it, if the clubs liked it.

Lee was a businessman first and foremost, but I think he had a pretty good ear for a commercial record, for a good tune.

(SINGING) --was there with me.

I rode through the valley with a princess by my side.

The duke and the dutchess did the reggae, reggae, reggae last night.

NOEL HAWKS: Pirate radio, when it first started, it's like someone to turn the light on.

I'll never forget we're sitting out the back one summer, drying ground come-- whatever playground at the back of the flats, and listening to the radio, and hearing "007," Desmond Dekker.

[MUSIC - DESMOND DEKKER, "SHANTY TOWN (007)"] (SINGING) 007, 007, at Ocean 11.

It was like a message from another planet.

Just listen to this, this is just great.

You know, and that kind of differentness, that's what really got us going.

(SINGING) Rude boys cannot fail.

'Cause them must bet bail.

It was a very, very marked audience who want-- you know, black people, obviously, and working class white kids as well.

It was ours.

(SINGING) Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail.

A shanty town.

Dem Rude Boys get on probation.

NOEL HAWKS: I got my hair cut really short summer of '68, like everyone did.

Tom the barber on Maple Road used to specialize in the haircut.

[MUSIC - HARRY J ALL STARS, "LIQUIDATOR"] [MUSIC - HARRY J ALL STARS, "LIQUIDATOR"] BUNNY LEE: Now the skinheads were some young guys wearing braces and some big boots.

And they were the Rude Boys in England.

They can identify with it.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: 80-odd percent of the Western Indians were working class.

And the Skinheads, they were working class kids.

ROYSTON EDWARDS: It was that sort of time where it was just crying out for something new.

And really, it was a rebellion against the long hair and the horrible flower power music, you know?

Why do you think the greasers are so different to you?

Because they're dirty and stinky and they got long hair.

ROYSTON EDWARDS: But here was a sense of belonging.

You belong to that sort of skinhead group, and you followed it all the way through.

You don't deviate.

It was like joining the army really, in a way.

I suppose you had an instant group of friends.

And if you went to another town or another place, and there was another group, you instantly got on, you know.

It wasn't cheap.

Even a Ben Sherman was three guineas.

Getting a pair of shoes from The Squire Shop, 8 guineas.

That's over two weeks' wages if you were just working.

Or even you had a proper job, that's half your wages.

DAVID BETTERIDGE: The Skinheads kicked it off out of the Jamaican market.

It was quite small in the beginning, and it was also, like a lot of specialist sounds, not really considered outside of the halls.

LLOYD COXONE: Reggae music really makes sense because, look, Skinhead come and endorse it, and like it, you know?

We are trying to play it for the people to love it.

And then the Skinhead come, yeah, I did like the Skinhead, you know What I mean Skinhead did come and love up the reggae.

[MUSIC - DERRICK MORGAN, "MOON HOP"] (SINGING) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

ROY ELLIS: The music was always there from a little boy, even when I was a little Rude Boy in Jamaica, is always to do with music.

One of our greatest ambition to sign with Trojan, because all of the most of the greatest Jamaican artists was on Trojan Records.

(SINGING) Do the moon hop.

Do the moon hop.

Mix it with the kangaroo jump.

Mix it with the kangaroo jump.

ROY ELLIS: Derrick Morgan came up with a song called "Moon Hop" at the same time that a man just supposed to be landing-- just land on the moon.

And then Graeme Goodall say to us all, you guys have so many Skinhead fans, why don't you write something about the Skinheads?

I swear on my life right now, drop dead right now, we didn't write one lyrics, I just went in the box and started talk.

I want all you Skinheads to get up up on your feet.

Put your braces together and your boots and your feet and give me some of at old moon stompin'.

And the same week, they release it.

It just take off.

[MUSIC - SYMARIP, "SKINHEAD MOONSTOMP"] (SINGING) Get ready.

We got 3 million miles to reach on the moon.

So let's start getting happy now.

Ready?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

ROYSTON EDWARDS: "Skinhead Moonstomp" was an anthem the Trojan had produced.

It had Skinheads on the front of the album, so people bought it, but it was the track.

(SINGING) All right, now, before we reach the moon, fellas, we gotta make sure that everything is spic and span, all right?

ROY ELLIS: The good side of Skinheads, they didn't beat up Black people.

Skinheads said the Black people like us because they-- because the haircut what they have, we brought it from Jamaica.

We used to call it "skiffle."

(SINGING) Brush your teeth, because the man on the moon looking different from man on the earth.

ROY ELLIS: Without the British Skinheads-- because of them that reggae music is still going on to this day.

(SINGING) My name is Caleb.

Right.

And remember, I'm the boss.

You can see.

Look on my feet or my feet, whatever you want to call it because I've got the biggest boots.

That's right.

Now.

NOEL HAWKS: I brought a few records along today.

I'll spin a couple of them for you.

This is "Tighten Up" by The Untouchables.

It's an early Lee Perry record.

[MUSIC - THE UNTOUCHABLES, "TIGHTEN UP"] LEE PERRY: Island Records could not hold me down.

Trojan Records lift me up and me re-crowned.

(SINGING) I want to tighten up, tighten up, baby.

LEE PERRY: Get up, wake up, and shake.

Well, I'm Lee "Scratch" Perry, the Upsetting Upsetter.

Look at my rings.

And I'm the star of the Trojan horse.

My songs go to people of London like that.

(SINGING) Baby, brighten up, lady-- ROB BELL: In '69, we started the "Tighten Up" series of LPs.

They were sort of collections of the last few months' best selling reggae 45s.

DAVID BETTERIDGE: "Tighten Up" was money.

It was a money maker.

We put a compilation together, and it proved very successful.

ROYSTON EDWARDS: Well, it was the tracks that was on there.

The "Tighten Up" albums were all good, every one of them was good.

It was probably the best group of albums, I think, that they did, you know?

[MUSIC - THE UPSETTERS, "RETURN OF DJANGO"] LEE PERRY: "Return of Django," like, you know, it was a hit.

DAVE BARKER: Scratch was a genius.

He knew exactly what he wants.

Even though he could not play any instrument, he could tell you and describe to you what he wanted.

LEE PERRY: It's a dream.

Can make music, magic music.

NOEL HAWKS: Everyone had to have "Tighten Up," 1 and 2.

We had every popular hit-- "Return of Django," "Long Shot (Kick the Bucket)," and everyone carried it under your arm.

That was a real-- that was, more so than the singles on the charts, that was the thing that really popularized the music because everyone, every house went into you had-- there was a copy of "Tighten Up, Volume 2."

GEORGE DEKKER: All of a sudden, this new format called reggae comes about, and we were at the right place at the right time to capitalize on it.

When we recorded " Long Shot (Kick the Bucket)," one take-- one take.

Yeah, and to me.

"Long Shot (Kick the Bucket)" is a household name in London and across the universe.

It's big.

[MUSIC - THE PIONEERS, "LONG SHOT (KICK THE BUCKET)"] Massive, massive, massive, massive.

And it's still selling.

I'd never ever heard ska music before, and I didn't grow up in an environment because I'd had older parents, and my parents were white because I'd been adopted.

(SINGING) What a weeping and a wailing, down at Caymanas Park.

Long shot, him kick the bucket.

Long shot, kick the bucket.

PAULINE BLACK: My introduction to ska music, since I was the only Black kid in school, was via the Skinhead kids who came from Dagenham.

And when you got to the fifth or the sixth form, you had a room in there that you could go to.

There was an old red Dansette in there.

And they would bring records in, normally Trojan ones.

There seemed a rightness about it, because offbeat music just makes you want to dance.

It doesn't matter whether it's, kind of, Black people white people, Asian people, or whatever, and I think that that's what ska music, rocksteady music, reggae music, you call it what you will-- that's what was offered to this country-- this colorless, post-war, grey, fairly miserable, meat and potatoes country.

[MUSIC - DESMOND DEKKER & THE ACES, "ISRAELITES"] Well, I'm gonna tell you, get up in the morning slaving for bread, so that every mouth can be fed.

I mean, he was powerful.

DAVID BETTERIDGE: Desmond Dekker definitely brought the whole music persona to people's attention.

ROYSTON EDWARDS: It was just so exciting to see him on stage and to be in that venue.

It is such adrenaline.

(SINGING) Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, so that every mouth can be fed.

Poor me Israelites.

ROYSTON EDWARDS: I knew that our music wasn't only entertaining.

(SINGING) See, I said, poor, poor, Israelites.

FREDDIE NOTES: Before the show started, we were all inside, and Desmond going to go on stage.

And he had this nice knitted tie.

I said, Desmond take off the tie.

"No, man, you have to go on stage presentable."

I say, yes, but right now, you're sweet.

And just as he hit the stage, a group of young kids, white kids, they mob the stage, and hang on on his tie.

Ahhh.

And I've never seen a black man turn red before.

(SINGING) Nurse.

Oh, nurse.

Oh, whoa, whoa.

--in the morning, slaving for bread, sir, so that every mouth can be fed.

Poor Israelites.

ROB BELL: It opened the floodgates really.

It was really the first really big reggae record.

(SINGING) -- to be seen.

Poor Israelites.

NEVILLE STAPLE: I was living in Rock Bay, and the TV was on, you know, with a little aerial.

That's when Desmond Dekker came on.

And as soon as I saw it, I goes, oh, there's a Black person on TV.

There wasn't no Black singers on TV then.

He had a presence on stage.

I guess he was a Rude Boy as well, but not the gangster Rude Boy.

He looked Rude and he dressed Rude.

He looked cool.

And I wanted to be like him.

(SINGING) Hee hee hee.

Poor Israelites.

NEVILLE STAPLE: I was a bit of a lad growing up.

Neville, rude boy, bad boy-- like my dad used to say, behave yourself, boy.

Rude boy-- why are you so rude?

Rougher than rough, tougher than tough.

Hey!

On my way to [inaudible] Yeah, I see "Monkey" by the Maytals.

[inaudible] [MUSIC - THE MAYTALS, "MONKEY MAN"] (SINGING) Aye, aye, aye.

Aye, aye, aye.

Tell you, baby.

You hugging up the big monkey man.

NEVILLE STAPLE: When I came here, I felt, like, there was a difference about Black British.

My dad used to talk about it.

You have to behave yourself.

It's not like being in Jamaica.

(SINGING) I only that you hugging up a big monkey man.

I see a sign of you-- NEVILLE STAPLE: A lot of the racism at the time, it's the white parents who used to say, stop hanging around with those black kids, right?

That's the only thing.

But the kids themselves, we used to get on great.

I took straight to them, they took straight to me.

I had that thing in me.

I just get on with anybody.

(SINGING) Now I understand.

You turning a monkey on me.

NEVILLE STAPLE: With Trojan and stuff, we used to play over here a lot.

The white kids used to get into it.

And they wanted to be part of it.

So that was great, because then we used to integrate with each other.

(SINGING) Is not lie.

Is not lie, them tell me.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: We didn't think it was going to be massive.

We just was doing it, because that's how we felt as young kids growing up.

(SINGING) Now I know that, now I understand, setting the monkey on me.

Now I know that, now I understand, you're turning the monkey on me.

Aye, aye, aye.

Aye, aye, aye.

See you, baby holding up the big monkey man.

DON LETTS: You know, I guess the early Jamaican music, for my parents, would have kind of reminded them of back home, a place they'd like to return to.

[MUSIC - JIMMY CLIFF, "WONDERFUL WORLD BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE"] The music that was evolving out of ska and rocksteady, that would eventually form a large part of the Trojan catalog was the soundtrack for my generation, and we weren't going anywhere.

(SINGING) Wonderful world, beautiful people.

You and your girl, dreams could be pretty.

But underneath it-- DON LETTS: I actually heard my first Trojan hits in my local youth club, in Stockwell.

You know, things like "Double Barrel," "Liquidator," "Long Shot (Kick the Bucket)"-- you know, would be in our Skinhead gig, because Skinhead was the lick back then.

And we're talking about the fashion version, not the fascist version that emerged later.

(SINGING) Take a look at the world and the state that it's in today.

DON LETTS: You know, Black and white kids were united through their love of music and style, and invariably a lot of that music was the Trojan stuff.

(SINGING) --a better way.

With our love put together-- DON LETTS: I'm what you call first generation British born Black.

We really didn't know where we fit in.

And then we looked to Jamaica, and we were of Jamaica, but we weren't quite Jamaican either.

So it took a long time for this Black and British to actually mean something.

(SINGING) --wonderful world, beautiful people.

You and your girl, things could be pretty.

But underneath it, there is a secret-- MARCIA GRIFFITHS: (SINGING) Young, gifted and Black.

Oh what a lovely, precious feeling.

To be young, gifted and Black, Open your heart to what I mean.

In the whole world, you know, there's a million boys and girls who are young, gifted and Black, and that's a fact.

--precious dream.

To be young, gifted and Black-- (SPEAKING) At the time in Jamaica, there was a consciousness-- you know, a Black power consciousness going around, and everybody was wearing Afro.

I think it was my idea to do a version of that song.

It just took off, and everyone loved it.

And even some of the musicians are saying, you know, I must listen to Marcia sometimes.

(SINGING) There's a world waiting for you.

This is a quest that's just begun.

When you're feeling real low, yeah, there's a great truth you should know.

PAULINA BLACK: Living in Romford was quite a strange place to live.

I used to call it the breeding ground of the National Front.

People I knew were no different from a lot of other white working class families in this country at the time.

All harbored racist attitudes.

DJ (ON RADIO): Time, weather, and-- [MUSIC - BOB & MARCIA, "TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED & BLACK"] PAULINA BLACK: "Young, Gifted and Black" gave a positive identity to so many young Black children in this country at that time.

That was the first time, really, that I felt there was a positivity about being Black.

It was just like a song.

There was just no arguing with it.

(SINGING) We must begin to tell our young.

There's a world waiting for you.

REPORTER: April 26, 1970.

Empire Pool, Wembley, London.

The event-- The Reggae Festival.

10,000 people came from all over the country.

10,000 young Black and white kids.

(SINGING) Oh, to be young, gifted and Black.

Oh, how I long to know the truth.

MARCIA GRIFFITHS: Performing in that song-- wow.

I felt as if I was in heaven.

Reggae music, I think, now, is an expression of your liberty, your lifestyle.

People sing about what they live.

And we are all one people at the end of the day.

LLOYD COXONE: Yeah, man.

Those time was brilliant.

Music was proper.

Artist was proper.

The respect, the discipline-- oh, it was so nice, you know?

And the crowd that was there-- oh, boy.

ROY ELLIS: Well, for me, that was the biggest crowd I've ever seen.

That place was full with Black and white.

White on the sides, Skinheads, Skinhead girls, and so on, and mods and all this other stuff.

On the other side, Black people.

But everybody was shouting at the same time.

So if you visualize, it was fantastic.

[MUSIC - THE PYRAMIDS AKA SYMARIP, "THE REVENGE OF CLINT"] ROY ELLIS: When I come out there, I come out as a Rude Boy as well, you know?

You know, with no shirt on, and braces and boots and flip flop.

I didn't sing.

I was doing instrumental and I was dancing and shouting like U-Roy.

[shouting] And you can see, the people really getting into it.

And the musician was also having fun as well.

You know, it was a-- you'd have to be there to see, there was a great, great feeling.

And from there on-- it makes me feel good.

At least that created something in my life, what takes on the whole world.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: It was dynamic.

All those people were having hits-- Yeah, boom time for reggae, those two years, '69, '70, '71.

Fantastic year for Trojan Records.

ROB BELL: It sort of indicated a cultural shift.

It crossed over from the immigrant populations to the population at large.

We were just so busy.

There was so much stuff being sold.

DAVID BETTERIDGE: We were astonished that it had gone into this, you know, huge success, because we'd started it almost out of a convenience.

And now we were actually a mainstream record company.

ROB BELL: Most of the time, these new releases wouldn't even get put away where they were supposed to go, because we knew they were going to go out again so quickly.

It was just endless amount of great records.

And it just seemed like it was unstoppable.

DAVID BETTERIDGE: We had the opportunity to start talking to the BBC, and saying, look, this is happening.

TV HOST: --six weeks running.

And it really is quite nice to have a brand new number one record, particularly when it's as good as this.

So here's Dave and Ansel Collins with their number one song, which is called "Double Barrel," isn't it?

You forgot, didn't you.

Here it is, right now.

DAVE BARKER: We went to Joe Gibbs' recording studio.

The track was played.

And I couldn't get the vibe on it.

I just couldn't.

I tried and I tried.

His brother said, Dave, just imagine that you were on the highest mountain in the world, and you feel gigantic.

When he said that, what came to me was, I am the magnificent, and I'm back from the shack of a sword boss, most turnin', stormin', sound of soul!

[MUSIC - DAVE & ANSEL COLLINS, "DOUBLE BARREL"] (SINGING) I am W-O-O-O.

And I'm still in the game.

Ow!

Hey.

Work, work, work, work, work-- DAVE BARKER: And I got my $20 and left the studio.

I never thought about it again.

Myself and The Sensations and Johnny Osbourne, we guys were singing outside on the street.

We got a phone call from Trojan.

I think it was Lee Gopthal.

When Winston finished talking on the phone, he came outside to us.

And he says, guys, that was a phone call from Trojan saying that it seems as if "Double Barrel" is going to hit the number one slot in the charts.

[MUSIC - DESMOND DEKKER, "YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT IT"] (SINGING) You can get if you really want.

You can get it if you really want.

You can get it if really want, but you must try, try-- BUNNY LEE: At the time, Trojan was the Motown of reggae music.

(SINGING) You'll succeed at last.

Mm-mm hm hm.

LEE PERRY: We did come to take over the whole world, wipe out Motown.

(SINGING) Win or lose, you've got to get your share.

ROB BELL: Reggae was really selling in phenomenal quantities.

It was relentless.

LLOYD COXONE: We have created a generation and lovers of reggae music.

Alton Ellis get on Trojan, John Holt, name it, Trojan have got all the artist.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: I can remember Trojan having five records in the top 40 at one stage, and that is something, isn't it?

(SINGING) --try.

You'll succeed at last.

BUNNY LEE: 24/7, I was being in the studio, because Trojan put it out, you understand?

(SINGING) Rome was not built in a day.

Opposition will come your way.

MARCIA GRIFFITHS: When everything was happening so fast, I never had time to even pinch myself and say, where did all this come from?

Because we were touring the entire England.

GEORGE DEKKER: We were up and down the country.

Can't remember some of the names.

And we went to, like, County Durham-- Birmingham, Leeds-- Land's End, Penzance-- --Manchester, Sheffield-- GEORGE DEKKER: I remember going to the Newquay.

I just remember just dipping my to in the water, and I said, eek, in the middle of summer.

We were just having a wonderful time.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: Trojan made money.

What happened to the money after a while?

Don't ask me.

I don't know.

DON LETTS: You know, I don't remember hearing reggae on the radio at all until the early '70s, when Trojan scored, like, back to back hits.

And they were clever, because what they did was they started to over dub original Jamaican tunes with strings.

They kind of sweeten the sound.

GEORGE DEKKER: Instead of making, like, you know, just the hits, making just raw reggae, they had strings, which give it that icing, like, on the cake and, you know, send it way off.

[MUSIC - THE PIONEERS, "LET YOUR YEAH BE YEAH"] (SINGING) You keep telling me yes.

But you don't mean it.

You keep telling me no.

And try to lean it.

GEORGE DEKKER: We're aiming at the commercial side of the music and the market.

That had everything commercial written all over it.

(SINGING) Let your yeah be yeah, and your no be no, now BUNNY LEE: When strings go on it, it sound near to pop.

And when a reggae tune have on strings, no, it identifies with the soul music.

ROB BELL: The string arrangements, they're ruining reggae.

"Young, Gifted and Black" was maybe the first record we put an arrangement on.

And we did it with a lot of Jimmy Cliff stuff too.

Certainly if you sweetened the record a little bit, there was a greater chance of getting it played.

I mean, it was just a commercial, obvious thing to do.

It was a bit like saying, I'd like to have a raise.

DAVID BETTERIDGE: The demand that had generated out of the '70, '71, 18 months excitement of the Skinheads and everything, everybody thought-- not all of us thought-- that now we should go, as it were, into the mainstream of music.

CHIPS RICHARDS: What happened is the young English people, kids, Skinheads, they love the hardcore reggae.

Radio station didn't.

Radio station associated it as being violent.

So the producers begin to try to become commercialized by making it poppy with strings and arrangements.

Now and then, you get a very special record like "Everything I Own."

KEN BOOTHE: (SINGING) You sheltered me from storm, kept me warm, kept me warm.

You gave my life to me, set me free-- (SPEAKING) You have to be strong when you're in music.

You have to persevere.

(SINGING) The finest tears years I ever knew, good lord-- (SPEAKING) So you have to just do what you're doing, and love what you're doing.

[MUSIC - KEN BOOTHE, "EVERYTHING I OWN"] (SINGING) I would give anything I own.

Give up my life, my heart, my home.

(SPEAKING) Trojan released the song in England, and I got a telegram saying that "Everything I Own" is in the charts.

So I went home, and I did a "Top of the Pops."

Boom.

It went about 19.

Another "Top of the Pops," in the top 10-- another "Top of the Pops," in the five-- another "Top of the Pops," number one.

(SINGING) I would give anything I own.

Give up my life, my heart, my home.

And I would give anything I own, just to have you back again.

Just to-- The two proudest day of my life to that date was the day when Jamaica got independence and the first day Ken Boothe's song for "Top of the Pops."

It was one of the all-time big reggae hit.

DAVID BETTERIDGE: It was a gold rush of people producing records.

And the problem was that we didn't really know what was happening.

It was an 18 month period, and it just so happens it was a golden period in terms of what the Jamaican market was putting out musically.

You know, the guys were coming up with the right tracks and the right songs, and we were hitting the charts with it, but it-- they faded away unfortunately, DANDY LIVINGSTONE: Looking back, they were just excited, you know?

Put out this, put out that, because they used to put about six, seven records out every week.

And that was a lot of record for one company, one small, independent company.

And then maybe that is the reason for their downfall, you know?

ROB BELL: We put out a lot of records.

And some sold and some didn't.

Just the amount of product that Trojan was putting out, obviously some just felt sort of stillborn from the presses, and just stuck there on the shelves.

Shelf space is valuable.

So you can't have stock sitting around that's not selling.

We were liable for the tax of all the records.

We had to destroy them.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: Like in most business, you know, a group of guys, you are like a family, right?

Trojan records was like that at first, but money is a tricky thing.

The company had got to the size, it had to feed itself.

You couldn't go back to 1968.

Trojan was a mess.

I mean, I was to blame as much as anybody else, because we were not being disciplined.

We weren't saying, no, you can't do that.

I mean, you know, the success or failure was built by the success.

And nobody had the guts to say, stop, this can't happen.

Lee got himself-- you know, there was never a huge amount of money flooding around in that company.

It was, you know.

And of course, it went sideways, unfortunately.

DON LETTS: By 1975, Trojan kind of disappears from the map.

I think it was just the cultural climate.

People wanted something different.

And all of a sudden, the music in Jamaica got a lot harder, a lot more militant, a lot more politicized.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: After the strings, right, it died down, right?

There was this thing-- the roots music.

There were more roots music coming on the scene.

They weren't living up to what was happening-- the changes, right?

CHIPS RICHARDS: Lee Gopthal was a fine human being, a man of substance.

He is a magical man in my life.

They outplayed Lee.

They shaft him, what they'd done.

And it was just so sad to see his outcome and how he came to go down, because he had one financial controller for his group of companies.

They went to Soho Square to have a liquidator-- or well, a final meeting.

Everyone was invited to come, to see who is going to stay, who is going to bail, we didn't even know the company was going to be taken over yet.

Then they called Lee after that.

And said, Lee, I've got one question to ask you, are you an Indian?

He said, yes, I'm an Indian.

He just said, well, if you're an Indian, why are you trying to run an empire?

You should be running a green grocer's shop.

Tears just flowed down from Lee Gopthal's eyes, just stood up there, couldn't move.

DANDY LIVINGSTONE: I was driving one day, I remember on North Circular Road.

I stop and someone said, hey, Trojan gone bust.

I said, they what?

Yeah, liquidation.

I met Lee at Kingsbury around about-- there's a pub there, right?

Lee said, Danny, I'm sorry, but I don't know what happened, you know?

But we'll pick ourselves up.

Well of course, you know, there was no picking up.

It was a very sad moment, you know, for people.

The only Black record company in England.

LLOYD COXONE: Trojan as a name will ring, and will never stop ring in reggae music.

Because they was in there from the beginning.

ROB BELL: I thought it was really important culturally, artistically and I really-- I knew deep in my bones that people were going to be collecting these records for a long, long, long time.

DAVID BETTERIDGE: Trojan is part of a sort of social history of music in this country, no question about it.

It did bring people together.

NOEL HAWKS: Trojan's impact is indescribable.

They were the catalyst that introduced the majority of the English population to Jamaican music.

[MUSIC - THE MAYTALS, "PRESSURE DROP"] [MUSIC - THE MAYTALS, "PRESSURE DROP"] DON LETTS: Ever since Trojan became the soundtrack for what was the first multicultural movement in this country, the Skinheads, it's managed to kind of have a presence all the way through up to the turn of the millennium.

When the whole punk rock thing exploded in the late '70s, they were all well aware of the whole Trojan catalog.

PAULINE BLACK: I would cite The Clash were the forerunners of the idea that white people and Black people could make music together.

And Two Tone, I think, made that kind of flesh.

It was white people and Black people within the same band, on the same stage.

NEVILLE STAPLE: To see a Black and white band in those days, it looked kind of weird, but then, once they got popular, it just didn't matter.

DON LETTS: A lot of the sonic experiments that were created, are now part of the fabric of popular music.

You know, the emphasis of beats, the development of rap, and most importantly, bass.

(SINGING) And pressure drops-- oh, pressure, oh yeah, pressure got the drop on you.

TOOTS HIBBERT: This came from Jamaica, and it came from love.

Love is the key.

BUNNY LEE: The music is like water.

It don't have no color, right?

So anybody or everybody can like it.

DON LETTS: If nothing less, the impact of reggae speaks volumes about the possibilities of culture to kind of bring people together.

You know, church didn't do that, government didn't do that, politics didn't do that.

Music did that.

(SINGING) --pressure got the drop on you.

I say-- DANDY LIVINGSTONE: Trojan Records must have done something good, right?

[humming] [humming] I said the pressure drop, oh pressure, oh yeah.

Pressure got the drop on you.