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INTERVIEW DUCKIE SIMPSON - BLACK UHURU
So you started to work with Sly and Robbie and recorded the Showcase album. I would trod with Michael to Channel One a lot. We would see Sly and we would hang out. Ernest at Channel One would not record us because he didn’t like our sound. And some of those fly-by-night producers I was not really into. So that’s why you wouldn’t hear me singing with John, Tom, Dick and Harry. I just waited on Sly. So when there was some time available we did that album and they were all number ones.
know I was the backbone. It’s not because you’re the lead singer or upfront that you’re the leader. Michael was the upfront singer but apart from that he was nothing. That was one of our destructions. We went to Chris. I was warned by a couple of artists “Do not sign with Chris” but Michael wanted to sign so I followed suit. Because I didn’t know how great I was. If I had known how great I was I would’ve told all those little cub scouts to take a walk. So I signed with Chris Blackwell and I signed my destruction.
Who wrote the songs on your Jammys album and the four albums with Sly and Robbie? The first album we did with King Jammys I wrote like six songs. Michael wrote Love Crisis and me and Michael wrote I Love King Selassie. African Love was a cover, Natural Mystic was a cover and the rest of the songs were written by I. There are only three songs in the history of Black Uhuru that have been written by me and Michael. It is I Love King Selassie, Plastic Smile, and General Penitentiary.
Do you think there was any benefit in terms of exposure? I got some exposure but I didn’t get any financial from Chris. I’ve never seen a statement in my life when I was working with Chris. I don’t know how many albums were sold. Everything black-and-white was hidden from us. My album Red sold 18 million copies and I didn’t get a cold beer.
Any other song you see with me and Michael‘s name on it - I shared the publishing with him. Shine Eye Girl and all those songs I shared the publishing with him. Because I shared the first album with him and when we did Sinsemilla and if you notice, he wrote all the songs on Sinsemilla because I wrote the majority of the songs on Black Sounds Of Freedom. And when he was supposed to share the publishing with me he shared it with Sly & Robbie. So that was the first time the red flag went up. So how did Chris Blackwell and Island records get involved? Oh. You’re talking about the vampire. Barnabas Collins. Okay those guys Chris Blackwell and all of them they did the same thing to us that they did to Bob. They fucked up the group man. You see I was always getting a fight. After the group manifested everyone was like “Michael, you need to go on your own - you don’t need Duckie”. But they didn’t
What about from your touring - did you get anything from that? In those days, no. It was like nickels and dimes. You’d get a weekly salary - it was very small. And you’d get a monthly salary and it was very small like $1,000 a month. And for touring like $1,000 a week or something like that. Tell me about your interactions with musicians outside of Jamaica, like the Rolling Stones for example. Yeah, we did a couple of hook ups because we were with Island. We toured with The Police, we did a show in Wembley with the Rolling Stones. After that first contract was up and Chris was ready to sign us for the next contract and for us to make some money - Michael stepped. He thought he had the whole world in his hands. So he stepped and that was also his destruction. Up to this day he has not recovered. If you notice he is touring as Black Uhuru. After leaving the group for 34 years now he is working under the name. Those guys are opportunists. He’s working as Michael Rose and he is working as Black
