The following interview with Junior Delgado, conducted by the Ranking Miss P, was broadcast on GLR 94.9FM on Sunday 6th June 1999.

(intro music: Love Is A Pleasure)

Miss P: Now Junior, yours is one of the most incredible, incredible being an operative word there, incredible stories in the reggae business, because you started out as a youngster way back in the '70's, and you were actually into Jazz singing!

Junior: Yeah, yeah. I can sing, like, R&B, jazz or anyone of them music, y'know. The only one I really never practice is Calypso, y'know. Calypso is alright y'know, but, calypso is a real kind of feeling, a rude music y'know! I try to stick to, like, the educational side y'know.

Miss P: Now speaking of music and types of music, and approaches to music, the track I played Love Is A Pleasure, was actually one of my favourite tracks from way back when called Love Tickles Like Magic.

Junior: Yes, that's when, Wailers , it was Wailers who backed it...

Miss P: The original...

Junior: Yeah in 1973/74 we did it, that's when I was a teenager, around 16. It was Familyman, and Carlton Barrett, and Wia Lindo and Tyrone Downey backed that song, the original. And V2 (Junior's current label) wanted me to do it again, and so I done it over.

Miss P: OK, now I tried to find the original, but that's so buried in my collection, that I had no chance. But I remember it vividly, and what I remember about it, it was a completely different arrangement. Hard driving, dancehall type of riddim.

Junior: Yeah, Familyman bassline are always terrible, y'know!

Miss P: What do you feel about the music now, and the sounds you're hearing now, from the youngsters?

Junior: Well, the youngsters is making good music, y'know, I must say that. Honestly have to say that, because I've been listening. The youngsters are making good music, it's just that, they need to move it up a notch y'know. Maybe, because, I'm a big man now, I would say I wouldn't make certain music they make. But they are kids, so...there's no dispute.

Miss P: OK. You just wish perhaps, the level of...

Junior: Yeah, like lyrical and, rhythm y'know. And, like, if they would take up more instrument and sheet music, y'know.

Miss P: Wouldn't that give rise to criticism, the way you have been criticised for instance, for the way you have treated tracks that, I personally love. I mean I think it's a step in the right direction. I love hearing different sounds and different types of arrangements. Because it's reggae, it doesn't have to be rigid, but you have been citicised by people saying, it's a bit soft and what's happening to Junior ? How do you counteract those types of criticism?

Junior: No, it's just a different type of sound, really and, you can can please some people sometime, but you can't please all the people all the time. That's the way I have to put it, and I know it's a masterpiece. But I have original hard, tough song that I can give them all the time.

Miss P: Junior, I know, I mean I couldn't even begin to try bringing all your stuff in the studio today, but we're talking about tough, tough songs like Fort Augustus, and rhythms of that ilk, where you were driving the rhythm I'm sure. Is there that still left in Junior Delgado?

Junior: Rougher than that still left in Junior! Is me have to be, like, easing up right now, because, if I come too rough, they gonna be like...it's too rough, and he's too harsh and...

Miss P: There is room for that kind of in your face reality, the same way as Sizzla, I reckon don't you think?

Junior: Well, if you check the LP it's all there. In your face reality, King Shall Come, Prophecy, y'know, Hanging Tree. You name it, it's there.

Miss P: Now let's talk a little bit about your beginnings in music, and where you're actually coming from.

Junior: Well, musically, it's in the church, I never know I was gonna be a singer, y'know. And I never know when you go to sing, you collect all the money, and those t'ing. I, I,...rehearsal, and school concert, and winning prize. Someone take me to Upsetter Lee Perry, and the very first time he heard me rehearse, he says "well, I have to record you today". You know I didn't tell him to do that, it's when I sing. People, like Augustus Pablo, those people know the business. Whenever someone open their mouth, those people know, instant. Coxsone, Joe Gibbs, Jammy's and Tubby's, those people.

Miss P: You've recorded with all these people as producers, in the heyday of reggae, when new forms of reggae were still being formulated, roots was happening, we'd just come out of rocksteady and so on. And it was very vibrant, very exciting and very alive. How did you feel at that time, being a youngster amonst all these great people, who even at that time were real giants...

Junior: Well, I feel honoured to be playing with them , but you never take it for a big thing. But, you never take it for a big thing, y'know, you overlook it. You want to get it right, because, you have to be rehearsed, and your song have to be proper because when you go in front of all these big producers, if your syllables is not right, and certain t'ing, they gonna tell you, you have to go and come back. I'ts a tough game, them time, y'know. It's not easy, you have to can dress, you have to have good dress code, you have to be like an artist. You can't be like, some guy that is trying a t'ing, and who can't put anyt'ing on a record.

Miss P: You have to convince the people that you are the man...

Junior: Yeah. And anyt'ing cannot go on record, like anyt'ing on the street you may say. Your lyrics got to be proper, and it got to be like a song, like a story telling.

Miss P: Delgado! That's a very Spanish sounding name. Tell me where you got that name from.

Junior: Is my middle name, and is my mother who call me Delgado. When I was born I was very skinny, and when I was growing up I was very slim. My middle name was Delgado, and D.Brown was the one who make it stick, by calling me 'Gado, 'Gado, 'Gado! And then they say it should be Junior Delgado!

Miss P: Now those days. You actually recorded a track or two, 'Tition, I remember for Dennis Browns' DEB label. What happened to that partnership, 'cos we thought, wow! Things are gonna happen here. Junior Delgado, Dennis Brown together.

Junior: Yeah. That track was really me and Chinna Smith, who produced that track, 1972/73. And Chinna have it so long, that, I and Dennis was making up this album, Taste Of The Young Heart, so we went to Chinna and took the tape. Then Sufferer came to Jamaica, and cut a dub of it. Coxsone (UK sound) came to Jamaica and cut a dub of it, and it becomes a monster!

Miss P: So , in the early days, when you stopped singing as a solo singer, you joined a group.

Junior: Yeah, Joined a group called Time Unlimited. That's the group I went to scratch with. I was the lead singer and Glasford Manning was the lead singer. And then we record like an album, around 7 songs for Scratch, Boris Gardiner did wrote some songs that I sing also.We move on to Rupie Edwards.

Miss P: What happened to those tracks?

Junior: Well Scratch release Sons Of Slaves, Reaction, African Sound, 23rd Psalms. Y'know he release around 6 or 7 songs. He didn't release the album, but he's still got those tracks.

At that time you have Bob Marley, Peter Tosh...Bob Marley used to give me some good tips y'know. And Peter them, y'know. 'Cos them people was loving people who keep you on the right track. We have to give thanks for Bob Marley too, y'know, because is a forerunner, him did do some good teaching - which a lot of people don't know. Because me, and Sticko and Chicken was Bob Marley close, close bredren, y'know, as youth bredren, 'cos him was a man who love youth, y'know.

It was magical. 'Cos when we know say, we did have Bob Marley, it did feel joyful and powerful, believe me we used to look up to the Gong you know. Bob, and Peter, and Bunny too. Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, John Holt. Those were the older people for us, Slim Smith, all of those people.

(session track played: Who Am I)

Miss P: The type of thing you seem to be doing now is slowing us down, making us think, making us kind of calm down.

Junior: It's true, the boof boof everyday t'ing, and people can't get to listen. Who am I to judge whatever colour, class or creed. As you can listen what the song said, I grew up now and understand that, you mustn't have racial hatred, and them t'ings in your heart. And you must love white and black, blue and pink and everyone. Because we are all one people y'know.

Miss P: But surely that's the same ethic you've have carried throughout your career, because you started to embrace Rastafari from an early age . What interests me though is the arrangements... in this age of dancehall madness, and crazy synths, you've actually gone the other way. Slowed us down peeled back the music, deconstructed the reggae a bit and give yourself room to breathe.

Junior: I love to create, y'know, for people understand. And we have to make a clean music for the people, and the youths them today, to understand themself that, they musn't grow with this hate, for people and them brothers and sisters. So I'm trying to show them like, who am I to judge all these people, it's not right, you gonna be wrong. You cannot judge the white or the blackman, chineeman or no man. Y'know, I'm just the simple son of a slave, I don't want to judge anyone I have to live with what I see, and I have to love each and everyone.

Reggae music is out there. You have the good side of it and you have the bad side of it. You have people who can really work, talented people who play chords and read sheet music, who know what they're doing. These are the people that they put down y'know. They're working on the boof boof t'ing, y'know, and breed violence music. They have to put a cap on the violence music. As long as they don't put a cap on the violence music, it's gonna be violent, because people want to hear clean lyrics, clean that you can play it in your house for your kids. Y'know certain sounds you can't play it for your kids, 'cos it's breeding violence and it's telling you about the gun, and how big this guy gun is. How he can murder that guy, and murder this guy.

I don't want to call any names, but I've been listening. I even hear a music saying 'rape her with the flashlight'. I hear so much t'ings, 'cop killer' this and that, and no one is there to take no action. You shouldn't have a 18 or a 15 music, it should be free across the board like it used to be, when John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and Bob Marley, and all these guys was around setting this music. You have a lot of people who came and just messed it all up, and these guys leave a big legacy for us. John Lennon, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley. They leave good music for us, they wasn't preaching violence, they set standards also.

The full interview is available on my tape trade list.