Joe Higgs
Stepping Forward in the 80's

 

Interview by Kathy Todd
Photograph by
Originally published: August/September 1986

On July 2nd, the evening that Joe Higgs performed in Houston, and then on the following evenings in San Antonio and Austin, the audiences were witness to a bit of Jamaican musical history. Even though Mr. Higgs presented almost all new material from his widely acclaimed album, TRIUMPH, the vibe was that of classic professionalism.

Yard Band International started the music flowing this evening with their usual hard-hitting dance set and then went on to provide the musical backing for Joe Higgs's performance. Eight lively compositions ensued despite the lack of enthusiasm from the Houston crowd a people. The reception in Austin was reported to have carried a lot more energy, but then those people always get behind the sound which generates more fulfilling vibes.

From start to finish Joe Higgs cuts quite a lively figure on stage. Fancy foot moves, impassioned singing and no-nonsense lyrical content are but a few of the traits this man reveals to his audience. From his opening number, "Hurt My Soul" on to "So It Go" (this author's personal favorite), "Come A Little Closer" and "Creation" right on through to the encore presentation of "It's Goodbye," Joe Higgs's music was destined for the dance floor and yet more than worthy of a careful listening. As Joe put it to the Caribana that night, "Listen to the message, don't just take it for a dance."

On the morning following the show in Houston, I had the pleasure of meeting Joe for breakfast and some informal talk before the entourage headed to San Antonio. But before we set out to find the closest 24-hour breakfast emporium, the following took place.

Your name is very well known in reggae music but you started long before reggae. How was it that you first got involved with music?

I first became conscious of sound awareness and voice consciousness by virtue of my mother. My mother was very good, a great revival singer. So I picked up sense of sound, which is some consciousness, from my mother. That is just about the beginning. Then I picked up other culture in my environment, like associating with calypso people, kumina, mento, nyabinghi - we were exposed to all kinds of music.

As far as the business aspect, actual singing or recording, when did that begin?

Singing or recording?

Yeah, they don't generally come at the same time.

No, well, I been singing on stage - I started on amateur contests in the mid-fifties on "Opportunity Hour," the little amateur contests that we have in Jamaica. The most outstanding person to most of us at that time was Bear Johns. He used to put on a lot of "Opportunity Knocks" or "Opportunity Hour." Well, "Opportunity Knocks" was primarily for the radio and "Opportunity Hour" were contests he would keep at different stages in Jamaica. So we were amateurs and whenever you would win two finals you can't be an amateur anymore so you become a professional.

That was before reggae.

Definitely, long before.

Ska or . . .

Long before any recording stage, any state of recording were in existence. That was when it start musically.

So you've seen the whole industry grow from the very start.

Yes, I think so, I think so. I'm ver pleased to be able to cope with the present, the present situation.

The way reggae has grown there are a number of problems facing the music. Do you have any suggestions, for although the music is growing, it needs something.

It needs a lot! It needs respectability, it needs protection of the artist, a lot of things that have been shortcoming in terms of . . . for example, in order for me to make this work (his current tour), it cost me over $1500 out of my pocket, my pocket. Nobody is going to pay $1500 to fly you here, fly you there, put you here, put you there. Most reggae producers or promoters want a ready-made act. Most of them are not picking up the expenses and they don't want to pay more than X amount. And so I'm really here because I wanted to be here. I haven't been here for a long time. I came through as Jimmy Cliff's band leader a couple of years ago and it took us through Austin, Houston, Amarillo and some other places in Texas. But the album, TRIUMPH, is doing very well as a result of that we're filling demands.

It is a very good album. I really enjoy it.

It's the first one you have?

Yes, the others are very difficult to come by. This is your third album, right?

Yeah.

You've been in the business so long. How come you haven't recorded more?

Well, I don't like exploitation. I like to give people like a test ride, maybe once, that's it. Let's say back in Jamaica I was totally banned, socially, from the business because I was the first writer and singer in Jamaica to start singing about social awareness, problems, situations that I have been experiencing and my immediate surroundings. I could not sing about imagination or fantasy. I was to the point and that wasn't really accepted by the upper class or middle class or whatever. So that was a problem in itself. Then as we go along we find that because I'm in the ghetto and with all this ability, kids come around. I decided to teach kids to do as I can, do even if they can't do it as much as I can. But I feel like if I'm dying tomorrow you can say, "Well, he taught Charlie, he taught Mary, he taught Jane" and so and so. You know I still have a lot to leave, I mean musically; I'm not boasting but I'm much better than most of these superstars that you've been seeing over the years.

You are very talented both vocally and your presentation on stage.

Thank you.

You've taught so many people, of course the Wailers being the best known. Who have been some of your other students?

Yeah, well I taught the Wailers and I taught the Wailing Souls. I used to give these little lessons, quite a few more singers. I Jah Man, I used to give him some insight before he went off to England for a long time. Far more but maybe they're not as famous.

Being a teacher, is that something you just did for the youth in your area?

Yeah, non-profit, no money. I just did it because I had this feeling, it's pent-up inside of me. If I can't get it out personally, somebody gonna get it out.

With your songwriting, how do you come by or approach the lyrics?

Well, I really as far as I can see, I'm a gifted writer and I use my syllables, my measurement, my beat and I mention my subject. I try to write to the sense of what I'm dealing with, whatever's the subject - that's what I'm going to stay with. I stick to it, I introduce the concept, I elaborate and I have a conclusion and that is how I write my songs. That is a complete composition.

Where do you see your music progressing in the next couple of years?

My idea about myself is to do what I'm doing because I love what I'm doing. I used to be very difficult musically in terms of getting things done with musicians. In the sense that they wold be doing the harder things, for example to back Joe Higgs, when they could do five of this man, twelve of that man. I'm not knocking these people, what I'm saying is they're typically two-chord, structured songs. Musicians could do much more work, get much more money by doing that instead of backing an intricate song which is more into weaving and bating and that stuff. So that was a problem but over the years it has proven that it is a monotony. Most of the artists are not able to put the music in perspective, to get away from the monotony as previously mentioned. So, realizing that people want to hear something good, and that's proven because my record as been selling very, very well up to now. And it's still on the top three since December. I think that gives me satisfaction in that I should stick to what I'm doing.

What do you think about this new phase of dancehall music that seems to be taking over - the sleng tengs and "Boops" type of repetition?

Yeah, well, I would like some comical strip sometime but I wouldn't make it a comic strip. Most Jamaicans like comic stuff and every now and again something catches on, it becomes the fad of the day and then it creates a monotony. A lot of people are going to make versions of this stuff and it's gonna be going on and on. Now that is not, to me, progress. If that's what you are asking me about music, then that is not progressive because this dancehall thing encourages 65 different versions of the same thing. It doesn't make any sense to me. It's not benefiting the people morally.

Ten years from now people aren't going to remember specifics on this one or that one.

There is another thing to take into consideration. No dancehall song has sold a hundred thousand copies. So the singers are still very safe as far as reggae is concerned. I mean you can say what you want to say, but tell me which one sold a hundred thousand copies? So you know, to me it's not really doing the music much good.

What artists do you listen to nowadays, reggae or other musical styles?

Well, I don't have to listen to reggae now because reggae is a part of this whole thing. What I'm saying is I love all kinds of music from jazz come right back to classical.

Are you still teaching?

No, I have time for me now, me. I've given a lot of me for nothing and in order to make something I have to remember me. I'm as good as now. It means that if I'm not good, there's nothing. I have to establish my own reliance or whatever. No one has done anything for me. I'm not crying out but I have to establish and create my own everything. So I'm tough now, I'm very tough, I'm very, very, tough. I'm bad.