Barrington Levy
The Original Mellow Canary

 

Interview by Lesli Singer
Photograph by
Originally published: Autumn 1992

When I was small I never really have a lot of friends. I wasn't a play, play, play kid," says Barrington Levy with a distinctly Jamaican ring in his voice. "It's more like think. I hang out with big people more than my age group. I get a lot of teaching from the bigger heads."

Sitting with Barrington while he relaxes in his Houston hotel room, I find it difficult to picture this effervescent young man as an introvert. I've been cheerfully squeezed into his schedule between a manicure and his Sunsplash USA performance this evening. He's turned the volume on the television off. Too Experienced plays softly in the background as Barrington begins to reminisce about his youth.

"I was born in Kingston 11, the concrete jungle," Barrington recalls. "I attended school there, not all of my schooling, but some of it. My family still lives in Jamaica, but they live in the country now. They say the Kingston area is too hot. The violence, you know."

The ghetto is a mean place and most people never break the cycle of poverty. In Jamaica, a lucky few have found musical talent to be their way out. But it wasn't poverty that motivated Barrington's musical career.

"When I started out, I never come in the business to get rich," says Barrington. "It wasn’t all about that for me. When I start in the business, I just wanna hear my record on the radio. 'Cause I never know that there was money involved, and I get carried down a lot because I wasn't responsible. I didn't have no youth and thing like that. I hear my music on the radio and my belly was full. That was enough. Trust me."

Barrington learned about the business of music as he went along. He recalls paying his dues: "When I was in Jamaica, I was there and there and there. Nothin' was goin’ for me. Like, I'd be swingin' my right leg and producers fly out with it and go and they make money and come back. And they told me you have to wait on your royalties. From I make the record, I have to wait like three or six months before I get some money. And then I decide I wanna go to England and try something."

Barrington had a long, hard education in the Jamaican music business. He recorded his first record at the age of sixteen. "Me and my cousin, we have a little group called The Mighty Multitude and we do two songs together and then the group broke up. The first song we did, it never got released in Jamaica - My Black Girl. I did it for Dobby Dobson and it got released in America. But if I play that song now, no one would believe it's me because it only a likkle beanie voice," he recalls.

With practice and lots of listening to Dennis Brown, his one and only musical influence, Barrington's voice developed naturally into his mellow canary sound. The mellow canary moniker evolved early in his career. Barrington explains, "Well, after I make this tour with the group, we split up and I start singin' on sounds systems tryin' to make my name as a solo artist. I used to sing in the dance and right when I sing Shine Eye Girl and them kinda song, the deejay used to say "Come down Barrington Levy, the original mellow canary," so it's really the deejay. The deejay them, brand that name on me, you know?"

Barrington was still only sixteen at the time of his early sound system experience. He recalls, "There was a sound called Burning Spear, there was Racing Dolly, there was Seragraph. Those are some of the sounds. Then I start to go wherever the dance man ask me and they put my name upon the poster. So really, as a solo artist, I make my name on cassette until I met this producer name Junjo Laws. Then we make the first record. The second single, Collie Weed, started the ball to roll. From there, I made my first album, BOUNTY HUNTER."

His first bonafide hit, Collie Weed, was recorded in 1979. A string of hits followed, including Shine Eye Girl, My Woman, Bounty Hunter, and Prison Oval Rock, to name a few. Barrington remembers, "Prison Oval Rock wasn’t really a record. It was a clash between Volcano and the next sound and we sing it as a special. But due to popular demand it turn out to be a record.

Around the time that Barrington started having hits, he became a father as well. Laughing, Barrington relates, "Me and this girl make love once, and she went away and I don't see her again. And three months later she come with a big belly. She's three months pregnant for me. And I said, "Jesus Christ." Everything start to go through my head. When I get my first kid, then the baby mother start to get on my case. She come for the money and she was the miserable type, you know. Money or else! And that's when I started to feel responsibility and decided that, well, I have to get paid now. I get carried around a lot by my first producer, Junjo Laws. So that's when I started to say well, shit. I go to my producer and say I need my royalties."

As often happens with young love, the relationship didn't work out. Says Barrington with a big laugh, "We end up splittin' up. She take away my stuff when I went away!"

Barrington now has three children, all boys. The oldest is ten. When I comment that Barrington looks too young to have a ten-year-old, he replies, "I am. You’re right. (Laughing) I have them when I was quite young. The thing is, I think it was a mistake, too."

Shortly after the beginning of his Jamaican dancehall success, Barrington felt the need to move on. At seventeen he embarked on a plane for England, where he spent the next ten years. Success came quickly for him there in the form of two mega hits, Under Mi Sensi and Shine Eye Girl, and in 1983 he met his producer, Paul Love (Jah Screw). Love remains a member of Barrington's team, having produced most of his hits since 1984.

Barrington recalls the reason he went to England, "I went to England because nothin' was going on for me in Jamaica. It was praise without raise because producers was carrying me down and things like that. Now I don't need to sing for no producer, I can do my things myself. Them times I couldn't, 'cause I wasn't making no money. They get my money and tell me I wasn't making no money and things like that. A lot of artists get robbed in the reggae industry. Trust me. I go to England and I learn about the business. It's a good thing I did it, too. 'Cause that's how I get my big break. I made the records that covered the world. Here I Come, Under Mi Sensi, them two records just go, go, go. Everywhere I go in this world, Here I Come plays, in the dance, on the radio."

Although he must have sung Here I Come thousands of times, Barrington claims he never gets tired of it. "It's fun to sing it 'cause people know that song words by words and the 'broad' bit, when you take it down, the people them a sing it. It sound nice."

Under Mi Sensi, the dreadlocks anthem, was inspired at a sound system dance. Barrington tells it like this, "I get that vibes around a sound system, Volcano. It's like the police raid the dance one night. I know the police always wanna pick on the dreads, right. So they trick the dread and say, 'Dread, where you come from?' Him take off him hat, he have his tam on, they make him take it off to see if he have any drugs underneath it. That's how I get the idea. And I get to go on the national charts. That was my big break."

Throughout his career, Barrington's songwriting has been inspired by the vibes around him. Here I Come is another example of Barrington's ability to take an everyday situation and turn it into a song both humorous and meaningful. Barrington explains, "Well, Here I Come was all about a girl in my area. She was the type of girl who was nice and everything, but who love her she don't know. She go for who she love, right? And she got pregnant for the guy and she can't go out because her mom would never babysit for her. And so the guy was my friend, so she keep on saying to him come and take the kid, come and take the kid because she wanna go out. He'd ignore her sometimes. He don't even look out for the kid, actually. And she said to him one day, you get me pregnant to tie me down and thing like that. She tell him she gonna take the kid and put it as his mom doorstep. But he never do nothin'. That kid grow up big now. He love that kid now. They never end up together but he still check for his kid. That’s where I get the idea from".

Having spent so much time in England, Barrington used his own group of studio musicians there, the Reggae Regulators. Barrington adamantly maintains his love for Jamaica, stating, "I couldn’t call England my home, I wasn't born there. Or people would brand me as a Englishman and I'm not no Englishman. He returned to Jamaica frequently over the years and satisfied both Jamaican and international audiences with his vibey Sunsplash performances, usually on dancehall night.

Barrington is currently touring with Sunsplash USA as a result of his 1991 monster hit, Too Experienced, included on his latest CD, TURNING POINT on Profile Records. The song was brought to his attention by his producer. According to Barrington, "Paul Love bring it to me and say, well, back down in him youth days, it used to kick it. I did the song and I never realized that the song would turn out to be such a biggie. It worked."

It worked to such an extent that Barrington won Best Male Vocalist at the first annual Caribbean Music Awards held last February at the Apollo Theater. He also won two additional awards for Singer of the Year and Record of the Year. His style satisfies the Jamaican dancehall crowd, the lovers rock aficionados and the international audience. Barrington describes his style as universal and hopes that TURNING POINT will have universal appeal, especially in the United States.

Of Profile, he says, "They're alright. They is not doin' 100% but, what they're doing, I appreciate. Because my record is reachin' parts of America that it's never been before. And I appreciate Profile but I think that they could do better".

On TURNING POINT, Levy is credited as both producer and executive producer along with Paul Love. Barrington explains, "Well, I help to program the songs and help the musicians, tell them what to play and things like that. And I spend as well. I spent my own money on the album. I feel good. It’s the best thing I ever did. I know where my product is when I want it, I know where to go. This is the tape with such-and-such a song."

Barrington does not claim a favorite song on TURNING POINT. Don’t Throw It All Away is the single and there is a video from the song as well. There are two deejay combination songs, Dancehall Rock featuring Cutty Ranks and Something in My Heart (Dancehall Music) with Reggie Stepper, also slated to be a single. Of the deejay combinations, Barrington says, "That's what's going on now. It's the latest trend so you have to keep up with it or else you drop out of the business. He plans to record a combination with Papa San when the Sunsplash tour returns to Jamaica."

One thing is certain about Barrington Levy: he has loads of ambition. His goal is for TURNING POINT to hit on the Billboard charts and splash across America. He has the talent, and if proper promotion is given, Levy's distinctive ooh-wee-ooh will ring out on radio stations around the world.

Two days after our interview, I saw Barrington in New Orleans prior to his performance there. He was relaxing in the trailer used as a shared dressing room with John Holt and Papa San. The atmosphere was festive, despite the rain that had turned the Reggae Riddums festival into a mudsplash. Barrington goofed around pretending to interview John Holt and Papa San with his micro recorder. Just a few minutes later, the fun turned serious as he and Holt hit upon a possible lyric. They took turns singing their improvised lyrics into the recorder as they waited for their curtain call. I asked Barrington what his favorite song was. He replied, "I haven't released my favorite yet. I love all of them."