Friday 8 March 2013

Native - Rockstone (Original Full Album) (1978)


A great album on showcase here today, originally recorded in late 1977 it wasn't released until 2007 when the wonderful Pressure Sounds label finally made it available. This edition features extra tracks that didn't make the official release.

Native (aka Wayne Jobson) was born in Jamaica in 1954, a man of European and Jamaican parentage, he grew up in the Saint Ann district, not far from future reggae legends Bob Marley and Winston Rodney. His cousin Dickie Jobson had started Island Records alongside Chris Blackwell and would later go on to manage The Wailers during their time with the label. Another cousin, Diane Jobson, would become Bob Marley's family attorney. With close ties to the Jamaican music industry it would only be a matter of time before Wayne himself would become involved.

After graduating high school in Jamaica, Wayne went on to study law at King's College in London, England. Returning to Jamaica in the 1970's he soon had aspirations to become a reggae artist, first starting the band Little Madness and later Native.

In August 1977 Boris Gardiner, the resident bass player at the Black Ark studio, took the young Wayne Jobson to meet producer Lee "Scratch" Perry at the studio, arriving as Perry was recording British rock singer Robert Palmer who was cutting tracks for his forthcoming album for Island records.

After watching with amazement the workings of the studio and the manic producer (Jobson later referred to the studio as a medieval space station) Jobson plucked up the courage to ask Perry if he could record an album and after performing a short acoustic set Perry agreed, adding it was because Jobson was an "Arawak Indian" (the original inhabitants of Jamaica before colonisation) and Jobson should return in a few days.

Wayne Jobson returned with the nucleus of his band Native which consisted of Sydney Bennett on bass, keyboardist Peter Couch and drummer Ray Levy. Singer/Producer Joe Gibbs was also present at the session and provided percussion. The group recorded a handful of tracks, all original material, having that typical late Black Ark sound as Perry and his studio descended into chaos. It could be said that the album was produced by Pipecock Jackxon (Perry's alter-ego at this time) rather than by the Scratch of old.

Jobson was due to leave for England the following day to spend a year completing his law degree and so Perry worked through the night, mixing the session, so that Jobson could take the material with him as a demo for record labels.


The demo did indeed do the job, after playing the material to Vivian Goldman, writer for Sounds magazine, he was tipped as the 'next big thing' in Reggae and, after being spotted by the legendary Clive Davis in late 1978, Jobson became the first Reggae artist signed by Arista records.

Returning to Jamaica in early 1979 with intentions to record his major label debut, Jobson gathered his band Native and after a few months rehearsals in Ocho Rios they headed back to Lee Perry at the Black Ark but they found the place (and the man) had changed drastically.

The studio was a mess and most of the equipment had become damaged, tape reels were lying around unprotected on the floor and Perry was rambling like a madman possessed. All the musicians, singers and dreadlocked Rastamen that had been frequent, everyday, visitors since the very early 1970's had long vacated the premises.


Lee Perry once again agreed to work with Native and told Jobson that he was currently doing business with some people from Holland who were coming to refurbish the studio and that the group should come back when the work was complete. Jobson would return to the studio every couple of weeks to check on the progress but found the studio and Perry's situation only getting worse each time and eventually decided to record the new material at other studio's including Dynamics, Randy's and Channel One, working with producers Jack Ruby, Errol T and the Hookim brothers.

Wayne Jobson would later go on to release albums for major labels including RCA, A&M, and MCA. He opened concerts for Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. In fact he wrote and produced the Peter Tosh documentary "Stepping Razor - Red X". He became a very popular radio DJ and in the early 1990's he had a hand in the music score for Disney's hit movie "Cool Runnings". He was also involved in country music star Willie Nelson's reggae album "Countryman".

The album "Rockstone - Adventures with Lee Perry at the Black Ark" was released on the Pressure Sounds label in 2007. Although it is essentially the demo recordings for which Native secured their record deal, it is a very interesting piece that showcases not only Wayne Jobson's song-writing ability and haunting vocals, but also gives us a peek into the dark latter days of the Black Ark studio.

This edition of the album rounds up a couple of missing cuts including the song "Mother Country" recorded as Little Madness and a few dub mixes produced by Lee Perry.

Enjoy!  : )

Native - Rockstone (Original Full Album) 1978

1) Rockstone
2) Rockstone (Version)
3) Black Tracks
4) Black Tracks (Version)
5) Great God Over Zion (With Boston Jack)
6) In A Strange Land
7) In A Strange Land (Version)
8) Late September In May
9) Late September In May (Version)
10) King Solomon's Mines
11) In The Land Of Make Believe
12) In The Land Of Make Believe (Version)
13) Mother Country (With Little Madness)
14) Mother Country (Version)
15) Meet Mr. Nobody
16) Meet Mr. Nobody (Version)

Please be aware that all download links are currently unavailable as of January 2023

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