By Stephen Cooper

King of Ska Derrick Morgan, a still-touring music legend who helped launch the career of (King of Reggae) Bob Marley and the careers of many other Jamaican artists, too, is a treasure. Over six decades Morgan has amassed a rich discography as impressive as any iconic international performer – replete with hit songs – songs that’ll forever mean so much to so many. As arguably no living soul knows more or has contributed more to Jamaican music in the world today, it’s an understatement that I was humbled to interview Mr. Morgan on April 10 – in his hotel room – before he delivered an unforgettably wicked performance at Los Angeles’s Dub Club.
We spoke about his memories of Bob Marley, the backstory behind the massive ska tunes “Humpty Dumpty” and “The Great Musical Battle,” the range of emotions ska music is capable of expressing, the Jamaican government’s failure to properly promote and invest in reggae music, his friendship with former Jamaican prime minister Edward Seaga, the possibility of a future collaboration with Buju Banton, and more. What follows is a transcript of the interview, modified only slightly for clarity and space considerations.

Q: Greetings, Mr. Morgan. It’s a great honor to interview you before you deliver what I know is going to be a wicked show tonight at the Dub Club. Now Mr. Morgan I want to start off by asking you [about] a book called “Bass Culture” by Lloyd Bradley, published in 2000. [In it Bradley] quotes an interview he did with Jimmy Cliff to make the assertion, “Jimmy Cliff can lay claim to being the man who discovered Bob Marley, as it was he working for Leslie Kong, who got the sixteen-year-old [Bob] his first recording session.” In the interview of Jimmy Cliff [that] Bradley quotes, Jimmy Cliff says when Bob first came to Beverley’s [record shop] “Derrick wasn’t there, just me sitting down and playing the piano.” Cliff tells Bradley that Bob told him he had some songs and that it was he, Jimmy Cliff, who selected “Judge Not” and “One Cup of Coffee,” by convincing Leslie Kong to take Bob to record the tracks (a week or so after that day Bob first walked into Beverley’s) at Federal Recording Studios. To complicate matters further, [reggae historian] Roger Steffens quotes Bunny Wailer in his 2017 book about Bob Marley for the assertion that it was [prominent rocksteady singer] Desmond Dekker who first encouraged Bob to go into the studio, and that it was Dekker who introduced Bob to Leslie Kong. Now I know you discussed these events as recently as November 2018 with Reggaeville.com’s Angus Taylor, but since this is critical reggae history – how Bob Marley was first discovered and [how he] recorded his first [two] songs “Judge Not” and “One Cup of Coffee” – could you please tell this story again in as much detail and with as much specificity as you can remember?
Derrick Morgan: Well I met Bob on Charles Street and Spanish Town Road at a bar [where] I was drinking. The girl that owned the bar, Patricia Stewart, introduced Bob to me. At that time, [Bob was a] young likkle boy. Him come to me and say: “[I] would love to do some music.” I said the only thing I can do for you [is] you have to meet me at Leslie Kong’s “Beverley’s” record shop. Because I was the man who did all the auditions for Beverley’s. I didn’t see [Bob Marley] again until about six months after when I was about to leave to England. This is in 1963. He and Jimmy came up there [to Beverley’s]. Jimmy brought him up by Leslie’s. And we sat there around the piano. And we sat down there and said to [Bob] sing this song “One Cup of Coffee.” And then him sing “Judge Not” before you judge yourself. Leslie say, “Well then, these tunes sound good. Let’s go and record it.” They do the recording at Federal Records. After we record Bob, I was to migrate to England at the same time with Prince Buster. And that was in the same [year], 1963. And after the recording with Bob, mi have three state shows. One in [the] Palace Theatre [in Kingston], one in May Pen, and one in Montego Bay. And Bob got the chance to be on two of the shows. Leslie say “we’ll put him on two of those shows.” Alright. [And] this is how I get finished up with Bob: him come to May Pen, he tried to sing the song[s]. When him started out, him dance more than how he sing on stage. So him was tired when him finished singing, right? I took him to the backstage and said, “That’s not the way you do it you know, Bob. What you must do is sing your verse first. And then after [your] solo, you start dancing in the solo, then you come back to your song.”
Q: Do you think that’s why [Bob Marley] went on to work with [Clement] Coxsone [Dodd]. [Because] he was unhappy working [for] Leslie [Kong] and with you guys?
Derrick Morgan: I don’t know if he was unhappy working with Leslie. Because Leslie was the first man for him. But the thing is, after [Bob Marley] went to Montego Bay and [sang], he followed my advice by singing and then danc[ing] [later] in the solo. And the people start boo him at the first show. And he come back with “Judge Not” before you judge yourself. And the people dem start to give him a good applause. Dem think that he just write that song after the people dem boo him. (Laughing)
Q: Now the same gentleman Roger Steffens, who wrote this book about Bob Marley, [wrote] that “Judge Not” and “One Cup of Coffee” both “failed to capture the public’s attention” and that the songs were “failures.”
Derrick Morgan: They were. I agree with that. Because they didn’t become hit songs. I leave to England in 1963 now with Prince Buster and that’s when Bob leave Leslie’s and went by Coxsone’s. So I didn’t know nothing about Bob [after that].
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