Desmond Dekker's 1967 rock steady classic - the ultimate rude boy song – in a video put together by Perry Henzell:
In the summer of 1967, Desmond Dekker & the Aces’ rude boy anthem, ‘007’ became one of the first Jamaican-produced recordings to breach the UK’s national Pop Singles charts; its unexpected international success prompting an urgent need for material to promote the 7” single.
Consequently, Graeme Goodall, MD of Doctor Bird Records, the company behind its British release, hastily secured the services of respected Jamaican director, Perry Henzell, who wasted little time in filming the group live on stage and in the streets of island’s capital before editing the resultant footage and rushing it to the UK, where on the evening on 3 August, it was aired it on the BBC’s hugely popular ‘Top Of The Pops’ TV show.
Notable for being one of the earliest promotional music films ever to be created in Jamaica specifically for a global audience, it now not only provides a truly fascinating glimpse of Desmond & the Aces in action, but also of Kingston street life back in the mid-Sixties.
Henzell went on to greater things with The Harder They Come – which has this song on the soundtrack:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpVxwWQjIy0&w=550&h=309]
Dekker moved to the UK, like many of that generation of Jamaican artists, and died here in 2006.
Previously, his biggest hit The Israelites.
Leave a Reply