Prince Buster - Six Reasons Why He Was Great

1) Buster brought mento's social commentary into ska. For example, compare 'Industrial Fair' by Alerth Bedasse & Chin's Calypso Sextet here with Buster's 'Independence Song' here and 'Hard Man Fi Dead' here.

2) As Andrew Hickey notes here, Buster was promoting Black nationalism and Rastafarian culture by 1960, at a time when Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid had no interest in it and when Rastafarianism was stigmatized in the mainstream culture. This ties in with Buster's love of Jamaican folk traditions, such as mento, as noted above.

3) Buster was an ambassador for Jamaican music in the UK and US. He was named in the Daily Herald on 22.2.64 and in the Evening Standard (by Maureen Cleave) on 7.3.64. The Blue Beat label, a subsidiary of Melodisc, advertised several of his productions, including 'Madness' and 'Carolina' (the 1960 recording with Rastafarian musicians, voiced by the Folke Brothers) in the Kensington and Chelsea News on 28.2.64, as shown here. In 1967, 'Ten Commandments', a 1963 recording reissued on Philips, reached the Cashbox chart, and 1965's 'Al Capone' reached No. 1 on the Record Mirror R&B singles chart (see here) and 18 on the Record Retailer national chart (see here).

4) Buster brought out terrific performances in acts he produced. For example, he collaborated with The Maytals on the sensational 'Dog War' (1964, see here).

5) Buster had a remarkable ear and great taste. In a radio interview with David Rodigan (see here), he picked out 'Mardi Gras in New Orleans' as his favourite Fats Domino track, which makes sense given that it was a Professor Longhair gem. This ear made him an ideal informant for Coxsone when he needed to identify tracks that Duke Reid was playing.

6) He was perhaps the greatest Jamaican performer of the ska period, purely on levels of energy and boldness, and was willing to transgress boundaries, verbally attacking his rivals. This had a negative and, sadly, racist side, and Buster's masculinity would have to be defined as toxic by any reasonable standard, though not untypical of a decade that produced Wilson Pickett and The Rolling Stones. Ultimately, however, it made him an ideal marketing force for the music, and paved the way for less toxic maleness to succeed him (Jimmy Cliff's imperial phase, Desmond Dekker, Bob Marley). In some ways, the misogynistic forms of dance hall that came along after Marley's death were a throwback to Buster's style, although Buster had more wit and more reverence for the folk origins of his art.