April Fool Dancehall song
From the Kingston
Times-Tribune:
"Not since "Sleng teng"
has there been a record to rock the airways and dancehalls like Mega Buju's "Gal
(You Look Good Y'Know", which heads into its record fourth month atop the
Jamaican charts. The story behind the record has already become legend. As Mega
Buju explains:" I'd come in from country to get a little inspiration, me and
Barry (producer Barrington Lindo) were trying to make a new sound and not
gettin' too much of success. So we come into Kingston to work and I was staying
at the Pegasus and early one morning I wake up ca' dem was doing construction
work next door. Me hear the jackhammer and all dem kind of ting and me jump up
ca' this was the idea we was seeking". Armed with a little cassette recorder
(and still in his night shirt) Mega went out on the construction site, turned on
the recorder, "and that was it y'know, whole thing was there", even the
now-famous vocal sample which Barry laughingly explains as "the electrician was
vexed at some other guy who covered up his outlets!" By nine that morning Mega
and Barry were in Clarence "Chubby" Brown's studio, looping the tape. Laying the
vocal track was no problem either: "When you look pon it all deejays den try fi
say the same thing but in different ways, so my idea is just to say the same
thing!"
Thus the lyrics were trimmed down
to the famous phrase "Gal you look good y'know" repeated every fourth bar. At
first the record was lost among the flood of new releases but then Mega says: "I
was at this club and some tourist guy was complaining that all the songs sounded
the same way, so I get another idea". Back again at Chubby's, Barry and Mega put
their song on a special five hour looping tape. "The next night we took it down
to the club and play it, pure "Gal" tune the whole night. After a while the
people start to really love it, and when it finish noone want to go home". Thus
the first "all-inclusive" record was born, and based on huge club popularity,
"Gal" zoomed to the top of the charts. It's literally the only song you can hear
in a Jamaican club these days "it's a good tune, why would you want to hear
something different?" But that wasnÃt the end of Mega's innovations. "Me
personally have gotten tired of all these selectors and their "wheel and pull
up" business." Thus at a big clash at Buffalo Bay Mega's selector Linford not
only lifted the arm off the dub plate, he picked up the entire turntable and
threw it out onto the dancefloor. The result: pure pandemonium. "Everybody love
that. Next day the whole town talk about how Linford dash wey all the
competition" Thus the "Mega Pull Up" has become a feature of every stage
appearance, progressing to the point where selector and crew fling tutntables,
mixers, and amplifiers into the crowd. "I like to create that excitement, it's
funny cause the crowd never minds waiting while the equipment get
fix!"
Although he's now a household name
in Jamaica, Mega has no plans to rest on his laurels "We have Gal Version 2
ready fi release". And after that? "Gal 3, 4, 5, 6" Mega laughs, counting on his
fingers:"We record a whole hour on that construction site!"
Posted: Fri - December
12, 2003 at 01:20 PM