Lone Ranger and Carlton Livingston at Unit, July 1st 2018

“Visionary” is an adjective that comes to mind when thinking about reggae history. Not only were there individuals, such as King Tubby or Lee Scratch Perry, that contributed to the progress of the music idiom in general, there were also instances in which reggae envisioned how music will be experienced for generations to come.

Back in the forties in Jamaica, selectors came up with the idea of using turntables and speakers instead of musicians as a way of reproducing music in front of a large audience. By the late fifties the sound system was an established fixture of the Jamaican music industry and also its backbone. Clement “Coxsone” Dodd and Duke Reid, former selectors and owners of the most popular sound systems in the island, became record producers and built their own studios.

Mr. Dodd’s Studio One label recorded and released music from the likes of Burning Spear, Horace Andy, Ken Boothe, The Abyssinians, Marcia Griffiths, Jackie Mittoo, The Skatalites, Bob Marley and The Wailers, the list goes on and on. Another name belonging to this unbelievable list of talent is Lone Ranger, who along Carlton Livingston, performed a set at the Dub Store 25th Anniversary show in Tokyo.

The Dub Store is not only a record shop, it’s also a label that’s keeping the culture alive reissuing key and sometimes forgotten chapters of its history. Their catalogue is a treasure trove of goods. For their anniversary they put together a lineup of Japanese artists showcasing several different aspects of Jamaican music.

Before the headlining act went on stage a group of dancers performed a baffling routine that felt more hip hop ballroom than dancehall reggae. They were pretty good but I’m not sure if they matched with the whole vibe. Right before them Okawa & The Rulers played a set of ska/latin/dancehall/reggae that got the audience going. I counted at least 14 musicians on stage. They were a really tight band.

Afterwards the stage was set. In the middle a big table with all the necessary equipment for the backing selectors: Bim One Production. Next to it a smaller one with drinks for the performers and in front two microphones. The guys from Bim One started the show laying down some really tasty dub for the first ten minutes of the show. Then, following the sound system tradition, one of them introduced the toaster and the singer for the evening, as Lone Ranger and Carlton Livingston, walked on stage.

It was classic after classic after that, usually with Carlton Livingston performing the song followed by Lone Ranger toasting over the riddim, both of them displaying energy well beyond their years, stage presence and rapport with the audience. Along with the traditional rewind effect that bring tunes to a stop to take them back to the beginning, we heard classics like M16, Automatic, and Love Bump, early dancehall at its best. There were also songs like Tribute to Bob Marley that quotes one of my favorite lyrics of all time (“until the philosophy that hold one race…”) and A Message to You Rudy, that closed the evening reminding us about the social awareness of such an invigorating music style.

A moment that stood out for me was when Mr. Livingston performed his classic 100 Weight of Collie Weed and change the chorus lyrics from “100 weight of collie weed coming from St. Ives” to “coming to Japan”. In a country with some notoriously disproportionate rules against ganja consumption, it was refreshing to see this somewhat diverse Sunday night crowd chanting this lyrics in defiance. It was not a political rally, it was a music show in which everyone had a great time, but music, especially reggae music, is not exempt from social commentary. After all “police and thieves in the streets are scaring the nation with their…rules and regulations?”

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