Lee
Sadeke Brooks, Staff Reporter
Legendary record producer Edward O'Sullivan 'Bunny Striker' Lee has finally received the type of honour he was waiting for from his country.
At last Monday's National Honours and Awards Ceremony at King's House, 67-year-old Lee was given the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer for more than 40 years of dedicated service to the music industry.
Other awardees at the ceremony who have been involved in the music industry were Thomas 'Tommy' Cowan, Joel Augustus 'Joe Gibbs' Gibson (deceased) and Cedella Marley-Booker (deceased), the mother of Bob Marley.
Lee said he was grateful, because he had been waiting for an award of this nature from his country for years.
Apollo Award
"It's been a hard struggle, but they gave me an award the other day and I am pleased. I even got the Apollo Award and people always ask me how I don't get anything from my own country, but nothing ever happen before the time. This puts the icing on the cake," Lee told The Sunday Gleaner.
"When you get something from the Government ... It took me 40-odd years, but it finally came. I see people that we teach get recognition before us," Lee said.
Lee said he was happy to receive what had been due to him for years, but there are many other people who deserve awards but are sometimes forgotten.
"You still have Owen Grey, Lee Perry, Derrick Harriott and many others. They are people that did a lot of work for the music, 'cause they carried the music. It's not Bob Marley alone do it; it was teamwork," he said.
Lee is from a humble Kingston beginning. His father was a shoemaker and his mother was a housewife. Though the finances were limited, Lee said he was taught to work hard and be satisfied with the little he had.
With this drive, Lee began working at an early age. He worked at Uni-Motors, Kingston Industrial Garage, and even the Gleaner Company during his holidays, before moving on to the music industry.
In the early '60s Lee collected records from other producers like Duke Reid, Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd and Leslie Kong. He took these records to the Teenage Dance Party on JBC TV, on which he was a dancer, helping to promote many songs.
He also had his own 'Bunny Lee Show' on JBC TV and RJR, where he played music.
In 1968 Lee took his passion for music to England. However, the radio stations were not very receptive of this relatively new genre. There, Lee helped to start Palmer Brothers (Pama) and Trojan Records, with which he licensed his productions.
"When I bring reggae to BBC dem throw it in the rubbish bin. Is a station in England name Radio Caroline, which used to be out in the sea, that break the music. They used to come on in the evening and go right back into morning," he said.
After that he went on to promote Jamaican music in Canada and the United States.
He was one of the pioneers of reggae, ska, dub, dancehall (toasting) and even a relatively unknown version of the music called 'John Crow Skank', which is a slower version of rocksteady. "We is the trendsetter. We start dancehall," Lee said, while noting the work that others like 'Coxsone' Dodd and Lee 'Scratch' Perry have done for Jamaican music.
Lee said he has helped to make the music what it is today.
"From I come in the music it change 'cause I seh every spoil is a style. Anything a man do I seh mek it stay. Even if the engineer waan change it I seh, no, mek it stay," he told The Sunday Gleaner.
"Barbara Lyn's If You Should Lose Me mistake inna it, but it still go through and become a hit and a classic."
However, he did not only allow mistakes to slide for experimental purposes. Sometimes, Lee said, he could not afford to pay the musicians so he simply had to make minor adjustments to old rhythms and make them relatively new.
Lee has worked with some of Jamaica's greatest musicians and singers. He worked on Slim Smith's Everybody Needs Love (1969), Pat Kelly's How Long (1970), Delroy Wilson's Better Must Come (1971) - which became a hit for UB40, Eric Donaldson's Cherry Oh Baby (1971) and John Holt's Stick By Me.
He has also worked with Mighty Diamonds, Bob Marley, Gregory Issacs, Glen Adams, Roy Shirley, Dawn Penn, Derrick Morgan, The Uniques, Linval Thompson, Leroy Smart, Barry Brown, Joe Gibbs, Dennis Alcapone, U Roy, I-Roy, Prince Jazzbo, U Brown, Dr Alimantado, Jah Stitch, Trinity, Tappa Zukie and Beenie Man, when the dancehall 'doctor' was only 10 years old.
Lee has had a long life in the music and he wants to do a book about it all. In the meantime, a four-part CD series on his life, which was released by Jetstar Records, will have to suffice.
