STORY OF THE SONG - 'Jamaican Woman' a hilarious tribute
Published: Sunday | August 2, 2009
File
Fab Five's 'Jamaican Woman' complimented all types of women without offending any.
Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer
Whether walking runways all over the world, holding attention with form and figure, or urging the pilot on (in none too gentle terms) as the plane sits tantalisingly close to the runway (and their goods sit in the cargo bay), Jamaican women have made their mark on the world.
And, in travelling all over Jamaica playing music, the Fabulous Five Incorporated Band's singing drummer Asley 'Grub' Cooper, noted some striking characteristics of the women they encountered and modified a mento song from his childhood to make the enduring hit, Jamaican Woman.
The soca song, recorded in 1987, is a lyrical parish by parish tour of Jamaica and its women, starting with St Andrew, going east to St Thomas and continuing counter-clockwise until it ends up where it started.
And regardless of the travels, the song returns to:
"Jamaican woman a sugar and salt
Some a dem a ginnal an' will make you bawl"
"It was a mento song, Jamaican woman a sugar and salt. He (the mento lyricist) had his own take on what the ladies in each parish represented," Cooper said.
In 1987, two to three years after Fab Five started recording soca, Cooper "figured it was a good song to recut. But I put in my own findings, being all over the island over the years and coming into contact with the ladies". He also adjusted the melody. It was a good decision, Jamaican Woman making quick work of hitting the top spot on the charts.
Cooper says he felt that it was a hit when it was recorded, just as how he got the 'hit feeling' with One Draw, done by Rita Marley.
He makes it clear that Jamaican Woman is all in good fun, saying "it is a structure like the horoscope. It will always catch someone in the net".
And especially when Fab Five performs in other Caribbean islands, people are curious about the characteristics the song speaks about. In general "the reaction is excellent. Once people like a song, they like it all the time".
So, starting out, "St Andrew nuh make them fun/leave them man alone or them will make you run", then "St Thomas woman is very kind/but as you wink you eye, them bruck a line" and "the Portland woman can sport fi true/but treat them good an' them will die for you".
For some reason, though, Cooper says "when you reach St Elizabeth there is always a reaction that you have to stop the song". The lines about the women from the parish known as the 'bread basket of Jamaica' are:
"St Elizabeth woman pretty fi true
But as you talk to them them waan married to you"
In addition, Cooper says, people also really like what is said about Kingston women:
"Kingston woman love everything. Them love excitement and love to swing"
At the end of the round-the-island journey, in summing up the Jamaican woman, Cooper says, "the nice thing when we come to the last part is that 'Jamaican woman is number one". There can be no preference in the party when Cooper sings:
"But we nuh care what nobody say, Jamaican woman a lead the way. Them always stan' out in any crowd
An' anywhere them go them is very proud
Them understan' them Jamaican man
An' mos' of all them have ambition
So tell it to the 'Merican an' Englishman
Jamaican woman is number one
Tell it in the east an' inna Japan
Jamaican woman is number one"
"They love that. You're not saying anything derogatory, you're bigging them up in the end. They like that," Cooper said.
Jamaican Woman was recorded at Aquarius (now Stage) in Half-Way Tree, with Fab Five's members doing the music. The accompanying video was a literal tour of Jamaica, Fab Five piling into a red VW bus and landmarks like the Paul Bogle statue in Morant Bay, St Thomas, and Holland Bamboo in St Elizabeth featured in the singing tour, with Glen Campbell playing a police officer.
And there are a whole lot of women, naturally.
Grub Cooper went back to his childhood for a mento song to make a hit with Jamaican Woman and tells The Sunday Gleaner that there "is no such thing" as 'young people music'.
"It depends on who sings it," he said, pointing out that if Romain Virgo sings It Tears Me Up (which Percy Sledge hit with in 1966) "people go crazy. If I sing it, it would not have the same effect". Cooper also referred to some persons thinking at one point that Noddy Virtue was the original singer of Rebel in Me, not Jimmy Cliff.
"Even Rising Stars, most times they stay away from dancehall," Cooper said. "They stick to the standard songs and they do oldies."
Emphasising that "a song is a song", Cooper said "if a young person comes out and records a nice ballad, it tears up the place".
Going back to the song that sowed the seeds of Jamaican Woman in his childhood, Cooper said, "I grew up with it in the earlier stages of my life, when mento was happening". Among the songs that had an impact were Healing in the Balmyard.
"You got those records easily. This was before Jamaican music came into its own. Other than that, you had to listen to American music," he added.
Pop music invasion
Cooper points out that there was also the British pop music invasion of the United States, with performers like Dusty Springfield and The Beatles making their mark on the other side of the pond.
Another Fab Five hit, Christmas in the Sun, took a while to get popular, which was understandable as it is a seasonal song.
"You try to make the whole package as commercial as you can," Cooper said about making pop records, adding that a good melody and music and catchy lyrics are essential. "The rest is left to chance. We don't manufacture hits," Cooper said, dismissing any use of a corrupt system.
"That's why our songs last and songs from the '60s. They were genuine hits, not forced on the people," Cooper said.
- Mel Cooke
