Philip Fraser "Just a Dream" (1986)

‪@LeoOReggio‬
Phillip Fraser was a mainstay of the roots reggae scene that centred around the Greenwich Town area of Kingston in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He played a central role in the development of Bertram Brown's Freedom Sounds and Errol Don Mais' Roots Tradition labels, singing classic cultural and love-themed singles including You're No Good, Come Ethiopians, and Mr Wicked Man. Yet where some of the Greenwich Town singers like Rod Taylor and Earl Zero left Jamaica and have been fairly prolific abroad, the distinctive voiced Rastaman has preferred to stay in Kingston and record for his own Razor Sound label. Angus Taylor spoke to this crucial veteran about his long and distinguished career in music and the neighbourhood that he helped bring to fame...
Who influenced you to embrace Rastafari?
Well, to be honest listening to the music when we were small like Bob Marley and Burning Spear, talking about Africa and things like that. Then we grew up in an environment where it was pure Rasta that surrounded we as little youths, smoking pipes, cooking Ital food, and we would sit down and read our bibles every day - it was how inspiration came. We came to realize about His Imperial Majesty, how Africa was for all of us and these things. So you understand it was an in-born thing but we were around people that made it come out more. We were around elders like a brethren named I-Eye whose son used to cook his food on a stove with kinds of fruits which he used to put on top of his bamboo house. His son used to cook his food with enough pepper and herbs when you used to eat that food I'm telling you! He was one of the influences, seeing his life, seeing Rastafari, and seeing him as a dreadlocks so when we read the bible and saw certain things our little circle just grew up saying, "Yes Rasta!" because it was the right living. So in the music, we started singing certain tunes from the bible and it went from there...
You were born in Whitfield Town but you are associated with Greenwich Town/Farm area.
I was born in Whitfield Town but in Greenwich Farm, I grew. I was just born in Whitfield Town and never even stayed there. I spent my whole life in Greenwich Farm so really I was born there but officially I was born in Whitfield Town. I was just a child so I never really understood why we moved but in those times my family never really owned a place so they had to move up and down.
What were the first experiences that got you into music?
It was something I was born with when I check it. You see my father was one of Jamaica's number one dancers. His name was Sparky and he used to dance with another man as Sparky & Pluggy. Then in Greenwich Town when I was young I used to take some matchboxes and try to build a turntable. I'd a get a bottle stopper, which was round like a record, and dig out the inside and I just put the round part on a match stick, bore it and put it on the matchbox like a turntable. I remember doing these things as a little boy.
That was because you were influenced by the sound system?
Yes, that was my little idea for my own sound system! And then, living in Greenwich Town I used to hang out with Slim Smith. But before Slim Smith even, I used to be at a place called Club Bohemia doing a little talent show business - me, Johnny Clarke and Mighty Diamonds. So I used to go on a lot of talent shows singing foreign songs like Wild Flower, Help Me Make It Through The Night and those tunes and ended up winning a couple of these talent things. That was because I could manage those types of tunes well because I was a real listener of a lot of foreign songs.
Who was your favourite foreign singer or song?
My favourite singers were Sam Cooke as number one artist for me (just as Slim Smith is my number one local artist) then Jerry Butler, Curtis Mayfield. And it goes on like that because I always tried to listen to the top ones all the while so I know where I stand. Because I never went to music school - it was born into me. So for my training and things like that, I had to listen to people that are singing real and if you can sing these people's songs you know what you're doing.
What was your favourite sound system?
My favourite sound system was one from Greenwich Town named Echo Vibrations because that was the sound where we all started. Peter Ranking, General Lucky, Phillip Fraser, Michigan and Smiley; that was our sound before we launched out and started singing for any other. Echo Vibration used to play in Greenwich Town every Wednesday and that was the first sound I ever saw that used to play in the day. Pure night sounds used to play and it was the first sound that had day sessions.