Winston and Rupert - Come by Here

Topic: Dance Music- Reggae
To many Americans, Jamaican music history went through two periods: the calypso of Harry Belafonte [1] and the reggae of Bob Marley. It doesn’t matter that calypso was the music of Trinidad and mento the music of Jamaica. They had similar texts and served similar social functions, but, according to Roy Black, had different rhythms. [2] To people who only knew the waltz and the march, anything different sounded the same.

Lord Fly, the first mento artist to record in New York, suggested Jamaican musicians had no interest in disabusing Americans of their views so long as they paid the bills. In 1957, he told an interviewer:

"In Jamaica, we call our music ‘mento’ until very recently. Today, calypso is beginning to be used for all kinds of West Indian music. This is because its become so commercialized there. Some people like to think of West Indians as carefree natives who work and sing and play and laugh their lives away. But this isn’t so. Most of the people there are hard working folks, and many of them are smart business men. If the tourists want ‘calypso’, that’s what we sell them." [3]

Mento and calypso originally contained social commentary by griots. [4] After the popularity of Belafonte’s "Banana Boat Song" in 1956, urban musicians played more "carefree" songs. One singer from the 1950s remembered, "people would dance and prance, and be in very high spirits during mento performances". [5] This was the form tourists heard. [6]

Ska originated with rural mento musicians who were exposed to American rhythm and blues. [7] Ben E. King often visited the island, [8] and in 1964 recorded "Jamaica." [9] More important was his 1959 recording of "There Goes My Baby" [10]. Bruno Blum claimed it was the first to "overlay Latin percussion and violins on a rhythm and blues recording." [11]

While Marley was emphasizing the social context of popular music for Jamaican audiences on records made for Coxsone Dodd, [12] Pama records was locating Reggae performers to serve the English market. [13] Johnny Spencer remembered, "from the late 1960s until about c1972" Skinheads "identified with its content and form and adopted it with pride." [14]

Winston and Rupert’s 1970 recording of "Come by Here" for Pama fell into the tradition of Fly’s "carefree" dance music. Its verses consisted of opening couplets telling a woman she was loved, followed by repetitions of "Come on, come and stand by me." The key phrase was taken from the 1961 King recording of "Stand by Me." [15]

The music was a mix of the traditional and popular. Two hand drums alternated between low and high notes, with the higher drum sometimes playing additional beats. The introduction and first verse began with a short drum roll.

The verses were sung by two men using the close harmony one associated with the Everly Brothers. During the instrumental interlude, a trumpet took over the melodic line, possibly with a trombone or other lower-pitched brass. The brass began adding accents at the ends of lines of the second verse, and more elaborate turns in the third, before taking over to conclude the recording.

The first verse began "come by here and stand by me." This wasn’t a chance use of a common expression. The melody for this phrase was the 1-5 popularized by the Hightowers. [16]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: two men
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: trumpet
Rhythm Accompaniment: hand drums, drum set

Credits
Label reproduced on YouTube was not readable

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Verses: own

Vocabulary
Pronoun: me
Term for Deity: none
Special Terms: stand by me

Basic Form: verse-chorus
Verse Repetition Pattern: ABB
Ending: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-5
Tempo: upbeat

Basic Structure: alternated instrumental and vocal sections; the vocal parts were essentially strophic while the instrumental ones were varied.

Singing Style: two-part close harmony

Instrumental Style: the interlude sounded like an early New Orleans jazz band, while the trumpeter used jazzier phrasing in the ending.

Vocal-Instrumental Dynamics: only drums accompanied the singing

Audience Perceptions
It clearly was recorded for the English market because it was not sung in the local patois. When Boss Reggae uploaded a version of "Come by Here" to YouTube, he wrote "pre and quite rare skinhead reggae vocal boss." [17]

Notes on Performers
I found nothing about Winston and Rupert on the internet. Discogs listed two 45’s that had the same themes and vocal style, but the 1971 record added a guitar.

1970 "Come by Here" and "Somebody"

1971 "Musically Beat" and "Let Me Tell You Girl." Moodisc Records [18]

A few years before they were active, Winston Rodney and Rupert Willington began working for Dodd in 1969 as Burning Spear. [19] Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton described their first record, "Door Peep," as "a reflective chant delivered in a way that was frighteningly serious." [20]

While they were working for Dodd, Discogs indicated the company released two songs in 1970, and one in 1971 with the titles "Free," "Wala Wala" and "Zion Higher." Rodney didn’t turn to more political material until 1972, when he recorded "Joe Frazier." [21] In 1974, he and his trio changed labels, and in 1977 he became a soloist with a band. [22] Willington returned to internet limbo.

It’s possible Rodney and Willington recorded a few songs for a rival company in 1970 and 1971, when they weren’t making money from Dodd, but the themes of "Come by Here" with its reference to an American Protestant song seems unlikely for someone like Rodney who was a Rastafarian.

Winston wasn’t a particularly unusual name among the generation born during the period when Winston Churchill was in power in the British Commonwealth. Until someone finds evidence Rodney recorded for Pama, the similarity in names has to be left as a pregnant coincidence.

Availability
Single 45: Bullet 425. 1970.

YouTube: uploaded by Rudebhoy-48 on 24 November 2011, Boss Reggae on 28 March 2012, and Reggae Gospel Shared on 28 September 2016.

End Notes
1. Belafonte was born in the Harlem part of New York City. His parents were from Jamaica, and he spent his boyhood with a grandmother in Jamaica. (Wikipedia. "Harry Belafonte.")

2. broyal_2008 [Roy Black]. "Shaping Freedom, Finding Unity - the Power of Music Displayed in Early Mento." Jamaica Gleaner website. 11 August 2013.

3. Lord Fly [Norman Thomas]. Calypso Stars 1957. Quoted by Michael Garnice. "Lord Flea." Mento Music website. Last updated 3 November 2012. Requoted by others including Wikipedia. "Mento."

4. Wikipedia. "Calypso Music" and "Mento."

5. Alerth Bedasse. Quoted by broyal_2008. "Mento Purely Home-Grown." Jamaica Gleaner website. 6 July 2014. He was the lead vocalist with the Chins Calypso Sextet.

6. Bruno Blum. "Jamaica-Mento 1951-1958." Translated by Martin Davis. Frémeaux and Associés website.

7. Blum.

8. broyal_2008. "Talent Pool Makes Ska, Rocksteady Great." Jamaica Gleaner website. 11 September 2016. He mentioned in particular the week King performed with local artists from 10 September to 15 September in 1965.

9. Ben E. King. "Jamaica." Seven Letters ATCO Records SD 33-174. 1964. Written by King.

10. The Drifters. "There Goes My Baby." Recorded by Coastal Recording Company, New York City, 6 March 1959. Released by Atlantic as 45-2025. 24 Apr 1959. (Discogs website for record.) King was then a member of the Drifters.

11. Blum.

12. Kelefa Sannehmay. "Coxsone Dodd, 72, Pioneer of the Jamaican Pop Music Scene." The New York Times. 6 May 2004. Clement Dodd was a Jamaican who began exporting American rhythm and blues records to Jamaica from his Brooklyn, New York, record shop. He soon realized it was more profitable to record music on the island for local buyers. He released Marley’s first hit in 1963.

13. David Katz. Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae. London: Jawbone Press, 2012 edition. No page numbers in online version. The label was founded by the three Palmer brothers, Carl, Harry, and Jeff. They had migrated to London from Jamaica and opened a record store. After it burned in 1966, Harry returned to Jamaica to license songs by unknown artists. When no one would issue their material, they founded Pama in 1967.

14. Johnny Spencer. "Early Reggae / Skinhead." His website.

15. Ben E. King. "Stand By Me." ATCO Records 45-6194. 1961. (Discogs website for record.) "According to King, the title is derived from, and was inspired by, a spiritual written by Sam Cooke and J. W. Alexander called ‘Stand by Me Father,’ recorded by the Soul Stirrers with Johnnie Taylor singing lead." (Wikipedia. "Stand by Me (Ben E. King Song).")

16. For more on the Hightower Brothers’ version of "Come by Here," see the post for 1 September 2017.

17. Boss Reggae. YouTube notes.

18. "Winston & Rupert." Discogs website. "Somebody" was uploaded to YouTube by Sweet Caroline on 27 December 2011 and Boss Reggae on 28 March 2012.

"Musically Beat" was uploaded to YouTube by ivyleague68 on 22 May 2013 and Robin D.Rich on 25 February 2015.

"Let Me Tell You Girl" was uploaded to YouTube by pete tebbutt on 5 February 2011, ivyleague68 on 22 May 2013, and Robin D.Rich on 25 February 2015.

19. Don Snowden. "Burning Spear Aims to Stay True to Roots Reggae." Los Angeles Times. 11 September 1989.

20. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton. Reggae: The Rough Guide. London: The Rough Guides, 1997. 86. Quoted by Lauren Maccuaig. "Burning Spear: African Teacher." 9 April 1998. University of Vermont, Dread Library website.

21. "Burning Spear." Discogs website.
22. Snowden.