When I was a child, Dekker was frequently in the local papers in articles for which the tone was always “Rock legend Desmond Dekker lives in *Lewisham*!”

Nothing, truly nothing ever heard on US pop music radio sounded like this before. The timbre of Dekker’s voice, the oddly tuned (and played) guitar, the strange harmonies of the backing vocals, and the “ticky” beat sounded dissonant as a whole to those unused to such things, but it was undeniably compelling, at least to those who didn’t find it unendingly irritating. But then there are those who find anything different irritating, and I suppose this first reggae hit in the US set off some sort of “Fear of a Black Planet” in those susceptible to such fears. (I recall that the radio DJs kept calling the group “English” rather than Jamaican.)

But I had just completed high school and, because my family actually was poor by American standards, I had to go to work. (It would be many years before Doctor Mod became a doctor.) Even if I didn’t truly understand what this song was about, I surely could relate to its first line. It wasn’t what I’d planned on doing–but, no, I didn’t want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde. I’d seen that movie too.

Stand fast, Tom–it’s a genuine 10.

The other memory I have connected to this song is that my parents went to a big university reunion where Desmond performed and said he was excellent. He seemed to see the funny side of all the “baked beans for breakfast” gags too.

I don’t have the sort of personal love for this song that would make me give it a 10 – but I can’t argue against it.

Rastafarians believe that the black races are the true Children of Israel, or Israelites, as they like to call themselves. Using the Bible they also conclude that Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is the returned messiah who will lead the world’s peoples of African descent into a promised land of full emancipation and divine justice.

One Rasta sect, called the Twelve Tribes of Israel, imposes a metaphysical system whereby Aries is Reuben, Aquarius is Joseph, etc. With his famous early reggae song The Israelites Desmond Dekker immortalised the Rastafarian concept of themselves as the Children of Israel.

And yet – is there something more timely to “Israelites”? Tom and others are talking about racial tensions in Britain at the time – but what about that country over in the Middle East, the one named Israel? Certainly in the headlines in this time period. Obviously Dekker is drawing on a gospel/Biblical/spiritual tradition; his character is comparing his sufferings to those of the ancient Israelites. But did he also strike some more contemporary nerve?

Mark’s on the money in regard to the “churchiness,” though I’d add that – for me, anyway – it’s not “churchiness,” as you’d get (or I’d get) through church or through what’s generally thought of as “gospel,” whose secularized spawn was all over the radio either in the form of the vocal harmony soul groups or the call-and-response shouters. Rather it’s the sound of “spirituals” you’d find on “folk” anthologies. So the sound of the “Israelites,” when I heard it – managed to miss its run on the Top 40, so didn’t run across the record until late ’70s – did feel familiar to me, as I’d been a folk fan as a wee ‘un. I think of “Motherless Child” and “Wayfarin’ Stranger” as prototypes for me of the “spiritual” sound, though come to think of it neither is all that spiritual. I’d known “Wayfarin’ Stranger” from an old Burl Ives 78 owned by my parents.

I think there is a tendency in Jamaica’s sound and particularly Bob Marley’s towards melodies that resemble “spirituals,” which may be why reggae in general and Marley in particular did better among North Americans than did other Caribbean musics. Reggae took a while to score in the United States, however. As far as I know, “Israelites” was one of only two Jamaican songs to hit in the U.S. in the ’60s, the other being “My Boy Lollipop.”

Wolfe : if you want some roots shanty-town reggae, the soundtrack to The Harder They Come ” is a great sampler …..with many of the songs now listed as classics

When Dekker died recently, the obits were the first time I became aware that he’d had a long and important career before and after this song. (In America, he was a one-hit wonder.) Does anyone have any suggestions for a CD collection that would be a good starting point to learning about the rest iof his music?

I think they’d given up by 1969 though, hadn’t they?

*and Kenny Everett, though I don’t recall him being big on reggae*

But now my own thoughts about that time are crystallising a little. This – when I was 14 going on 15 – was the time when I found myself for the first time getting embroiled in popular tribal culture. And my culture was the one that hung about the record department and listened to the Velvets, Leonard Cohen, the Incredible String Band and other exotica. The other side was the skinheads, and ironically it was they (and not young black kids, not in suburban Hertfordshire anyway) who had those as their anthems – so we didn’t touch them!

All the same, Israelites stood out as something fresh and different and crossed over tribal alliances, no doubt this was why it was such a big hit. I really don’t think a sense of racial tension had much to do with it; it was simply a good song that stood out. The lyric really did have a reputation for incomprehensibility and you are almost certainly right, Tom, when you point out that we weren’t used to hearing Jamaican patois in those days.

A 10 is fair enough, although I’m a tad miffed that this should get one rather than Grapevine!

so age 15-19 i went on an insane crash-course of catching up — including polling all my chums LJ-style about “what should mark s listen to in rock”!! — but during most of this time, a lot of very popular pop and rock was still quite exotic to me

“israelites” when i encountered it (i would think 77 or 78) really was an unusual case of “hey i know what’s going on here!” words-wise