"Israelites" by Desmond Dekkar

Desmond Dekkar introduced Reggae to the world with "Israelites," and he introduced the song's producer to another singer he knew from his old job as a welder, Bob Marley. 
You can hear "Israelites" and more songs by Desmond Dekkar, plus other songs relevant to this episode here:  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/36uetjsU7rhqh7UfbgcPbM?si=a376e1a6756b4771See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
The Shark Deck. Hello and welcometo the best song ever this week,
A short deep dive into a songand what makes it special. The best
song ever this week this week isIsraelites by Desmond Decker. I'm Scott Frampton,

(00:32):
would that I could play the songhere. The best we can offer
is a link to a playlist inthe show notes, a mix of songs
meant to add context to the podcast, but when we mainly hope you just
listen to and enjoy. So let'sget to it, shall we. Desmond
Decker's glistening high tenor calls out theopening line over the single strike of a
guitar chord. Wake up every morningslaving for bread, Sir. A second

(00:57):
swave across the strings is met withthat every mouth can be fed. Israelites
was one of the first international reggaehits. It's doubtful that nineteen sixty nine
audiences who pushed the song to thetop of the charts in the UK,
Germany, in the Netherlands or inthe US, where it peaked at number
nine. We're able to Paris enoughof Decker's patois to follow the lyrics that

(01:19):
Jamaican accent, though along with thethen new reggae sound that's literally offbeat accounted
for its toe tapping exoticism. Fairenough, the measure of a pop song
is that it can be captivating,no matter what in it you hear.
Slaving for bread, however, ishard to miss, especially appended with sir.
No matter how pretty the voice orbouncy the rhythm, its opening line

(01:42):
casts the song in desperation. Thiswas the nineteen sixties, when social struggle
was as viable theme as heartbreak.It's compelling still, even after Bob Marley's
megastartem made reggae Jamaica's biggest export sinceBananas in box site with the four brother
harmony by Decker's backing vocal group theAces welling up under the intoning of Israelites

(02:06):
at the end of the verse.This struggle could be from contemporary Kingston or
the Old Testament. Jamaica had onlybeen free from the British monarchy for a
year when former welder Desmond Dacris renamedhimself Desmond Decker and crowned himself the King
of Ska. The single called Kingof Ska was his fourth for producer Leslie

(02:28):
Kong, and it made Decker astar on the island. He also hipped
Kong to another welder who sang onthe job one Bob Marley. Decker's evolution
from the king of Ska to thefirst international reggae star produced an interstitial hit
in nineteen sixty seven with a rocksteady track double O seven Shantytown. It

(02:49):
was one of a spade of rudeboy songs like Marley's Simmer Down, and
while its tone is mainly cautionary,it gained him fans among Kingston's high style
ghetto tufts who felt lie ized bylyrics like rude Boy Cannot Fail. It
went to number one in Jamaica.It also made him the first Jamaican artist
to crack the UK Top fifteen whenit became a dance hit among the moths,

(03:13):
who, like the original rude Boys, were all dressed up with no
place to go. Decker recorded morerude boy songs like Rudy's Got Soul and
played the full houses in London.Decker released the single called Poor Me Israelites
in Jamaica the next year. Bynineteen sixty nine, it's title shortened,

(03:34):
the song had gone to number onein the UK and sold a million copies.
Worldwide. In the US, itshared the Billboard Top ten with Bad
Moon, Rising and Get Back andElvis Presley's own Mac Davis pent try at
socioeconomic storytelling in the ghetto. Thesound was new then and seems fresh now,

(03:54):
coming from some liminal space between whatwe've since absorbed of reggae and sky.
Decker's voice trills like birdsong over theace's bedrock harmony. The jaunty rhythm
is carried along by a bassline thatthumps like the rumba box thumb pianos of
mento, another Jamaican music style inreggae's genetic material. Kong's spare production keeps

(04:18):
everything in its place, and supportof the syncopated vocal melody clicking percussion keeps
time. The guitar hook is simplyten stair step notes. You can dance
to it without breaking a sweat.The song's pleasures are immediate, as is
the uneasy feeling tugging against the upbeatrhythm. Music can make us feel something,

(04:42):
or escape what we already feel.It's why we listen. What this
song draws us into isn't a rollickingparty scene or a romantic idol. It's
hunger. Work without end in fearof the state. The trick of the
brain is that it fills in whatit doesn't know with what it does with
our imagination, embellishing what Decker's patoisleaves opaque, Prompted by the opening line,

(05:04):
we skipped to what we may knowor understand of struggle. It could
be Joseph Campbell's hero's journey. Itcould be of Scotfridge Gerald's line nothing any
good isn't hard. It could beslogging through the uncertainty and isolation of a
pandemic. Pop music history has studdedwith songs about the poor and working class
heroes. Sixteen Tons sold twenty millioncopies in the US alone, twelve percent

(05:30):
of the population in nineteen fifty five. In that song, Tennessee, Ernie
Ford's baritone echoes as if from acoal mine, to a finger snap rhythm
and a clarinet tuning out its roleas a Greek chorus, for it spins
a folk tale of a powerful manas baneful if you see me coming better
step aside, lottoman didn't, anda Lottoman died as he has resigned to

(05:51):
his working man's fate. Decker's story, however, is of a man hungry
and dressed in rags. His wifeleaves with the heartbreaking line darling, I
was yours to be seen. Likewith Double O seven Shantytown, Decker borrows
from the movies for a line thateven international audiences would understand, I don't

(06:12):
want to end up like Bonnie andClyde. Decker later explained that on a
walk through a park he saw acouple arguing about money. By the time
he was home, Israelites was written, while Decker never said. The title
is assumed to be a reference toRastafari's belief that its people are the reincarnation
of ancient Israel exiled by whites toJamaica. The song's images the man in

(06:39):
a torn shirt and what the lyricsdescribe as trousers is gone fit how the
Jamaican majority saw Rastafarians as a cultishgroup, dressed in rags and adhering to
ancient strictures. The title isn't thestory, though. To make this a
song about Rastafari allows us to assignthe man's plight to its religion and his

(07:00):
choices. The performance says otherwise.Desmond Decker lets out a melliflous sigh at
the end of the first stanza,after the aces and the guitar notes fade,
and before the rhythm section kicks injust three staccato breadths acapella, the
simplest of human expressions is given asolo. This is how the song begins,

(07:24):
and it makes clear that what followsis not about one them or another.
In a song beautifully sung, wehear why we sing within its desperation
and struggle, we feel our capacityfor joy. Thanks for listening. We'll
have a bit more after the break. Israelites was the inspiration for the Best

(07:48):
Song Ever this week, and thefirst song I wrote about for the POD's
companion substock Email. It's just beena song that's stuck with me for a
very long time. I still rememberwhere I was the first time I heard
it alone in my parents' living room. Over the end credits of the film
drug Store Cowboy, which I watchedto see WILLIAMS. Burrows, I mentioned

(08:09):
that because there's no right or wrongway to discover or fall in love with
a song, I have been extraordinarilyfortunate in my life to be exposed to
a lot of music. Sometimes it'sseeing Pearl Jam Play CBGBs not long after
they changed their name from Mukie Blaylock. But more often it was just being
open to really listening to a songand more random circumstances and then following wherever

(08:33):
it's path led. Thanks for joiningme on that path once in a while.
Speaking of following, please do followus wherever it is you listen to
podcasts. It's a big help tous. I mean very much appreciate being
welcomed into your que Thanks again,See you next week. Once in the

(09:11):
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