What is Dub?

January 21, 2012 1:33 PM

Speaking of Dub (the real kind), just over one year ago the music world lost one of its pioneers in the realm of dub and roots. Vivian "Yabby You" Jackson produced some of the most hard driving reggae ever released. RIP.

Yabby You, who earned his nickname from his famous Conquering Lion single (see link above), worked with some of the true legends of early reggae including "Horsemouth" Wallace (the second rasta, dancing outside the booth), Sly & Robbie, and Tommy McCook. And of course there was King Tubby, who with Lee Scratch was one of the originators of Dub music in the early 70s. The well goes deep.

posted by Jibuzaemon (9 comments total)

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I only came to Yabby You's music over the last couple of years. But once I found it, I was disappointed that I didn't know about him much earlier. I'll be spinning his records tonight.
posted by .kobayashi. at 2:58 PM on January 21

And my reading comprehension is clearly not top-notch tonight. I thought this was an obit post, but had a nagging feeling that he'd died some time ago. Had I slowed down a bit, I'd have figured it out.
posted by .kobayashi. at 3:02 PM on January 21

Rockers, the movie in the "wallace" clip, is a fun, low-budget trip to 1970s Jamaica. It's available on Netflix instant-view, too, for maximum instant gratification.
posted by Forktine at 3:05 PM on January 21

Where's the drop?
posted by anarch at 5:21 PM on January 21 [2 favorites]

I love Yabby You, one of my favourite artists in any genre. I remember being a curious fourteen-year-old signing out the brilliant compilation Jesus Dread (Jackson was a Christian, unlike many of his Rasta contemporaries) on a whim from the Calgary Public Library, and obsessively renewing when I found none of the retailers in town carried it. Up to that point all the reggae I'd been exposed to in the prairie had been that Bob Marley "Legend" comp, and for lack of any other referents Jesus Dread took on the role of its dark, damp, subterranean shadow-twin, lyrics cryptic and apocalyptic and production sounding like the water drip from a stalactite echoing through a cave. The parameters of the form were blown wide open and I've been listening ever since. RIP.
posted by metaman livingblog at 5:30 PM on January 21 [3 favorites]

I didn’t know he died. Much like Mr. Livingblog, Yabby You was some of the first Dub I heard, and some of the first Reggae I heard outside of "Legend". I can’t for the life of me remember the first album I heard, but it must have been Beware because it came out on ROIR, and the ROIR cassettes were my introduction to the genre. ROIR made me a lifelong fan and changed my musical taste.
posted by bongo_x at 9:26 PM on January 21

It's funny that both of you mention Yabby You's lasting impact on your musical tastes. He changed mine as well. My friend had kept trying to get me into roots, but I wasn't buying it. Then one day I smoked a spliff and dug a big trench for my parents in the backyard, with the su blazing down on me and Yabby You playing on the stereo, blasting out of the window. I've never been the same...
posted by Jibuzaemon at 8:53 AM on January 22

Erm... I beg to differ!
posted by Dub at 9:31 AM on January 22

-Jibuzaemon-

I thought it was just me who had the climate specific reaction to music. Driving around sweating my ass off in LA (I’m pretty anti-AC) is how it clicked for me, and is still what I want to hear when it’s really hot. Dub and Reggae in general work great in ATL summers. It’s not a "summer=party" thing, it’s "Damn it’s hot, slow it down". Sort of like Country Blues. I can’t explain it, but it makes sense to me.
posted by bongo_x at 3:46 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]