Lopez Walker

Uncovering the mysterious reggae artist
by Eric Doumerc
(February 2007)

Lopez Walker is a reggae singer who recorded four tracks for the producer Roy Francis’ Phase One label in the late 1970s and then "vanished from the scene" (Barrow, liner notes). In an interview with journalist David Katz, Roy Francis explained the cicumstances in which some of these songs were recorded: "I was at Channel One doing sessions and saw [Walker] standing outside – he say he want to do something for me, start sing a song by the name of "Jah Jah New Garden." I take him right in the studio and recorded the rhythm, voice him a week after and put it out" (Katz, 258).

The tracks gathered by reggae archivist Steve Barrow in 1999 for Children of Jah, The Chantells and Friends 1977-79 (Blood and Fire, 1999) included works by harmony trio The Chantells - who had hits with "Waiting in the Park" and "Children of Jah," Errol Davis, the Terrors and Steve Boswell, but the collection’s star prizes were the four tracks by Lopez Walker - "Jah Jah New Garden," "Send Another Moses," "Trial Days" and "Fly Away."

Bearing the influence of Rastafarianism, which ruled the studios and dancehalls in the mid- to late-1970's, and which produced many great records by Burning Spear, Culture, the Gladiators and Israel Vibrations, Walker’s tracks were recorded at Channel One and Joe Gibbs studios with the cream of the era (Sly Dunbar on drums, Lloyd Parks on bass guitar, Bertram Mc Lean and Winston "Bo Pee" Bowen on guitar, Ansell Collins and Wisnton Wright on organ, etc).

With a line-up of this calibre, the sessions were guaranteed to sound good but, apart from the music, what makes these tracks truly memorable is the combination of Lopez Walker’s unique voice and his poetic lyrics. "Jah Jah New Garden" uses traditional biblical imagery (the Garden of Eden) and concepts to drive its point home.

"Jah gon’ to prepare a new garden
Jah gon’ to prepare a new garden
Jah gon’ to prepare a new garden
For his children, yeah"

As all oral literature or poetry, the song uses repetition with a variation:

"Only the meek and the humble shall
Enter
Only the meek and the humble shall
Conquer"

The use of the symbol of the garden makes this song reminiscent of Eddy Grandson’s "Jah Garden" recorded for producer Roy Sinclair in the 1970's ("I and I don’t want no heathen, into this beautiful garden. No heathen cannot enter this garden, for Jah lion will be the guard for this garden" (Rite Sound Reggae Story, Jah Live/SFPP, 1980).

"Send Another Moses," uses the same rhythm track as "Jah Jah New Garden," is more apocalyptic in tone and outlook as it warns us that "seventy two thousand heathens coming down to mash down this little town" and the singer asks Jah to send another Moses to help him "whip them with the rod of correction" and "throw them in a pit of destruction." The reference to the "seventy two thousand nations" and to the "pit of destruction" casts this tune in a biblical mould and suggests Yabby U as a source of inspiration. Indeed Vivian Jackson recorded many songs in that style in the mid-1970s ("Conquering Lion," with its hauting refrain "seventy- two different nations…"). The "rod of correction" recurs in many mid-1970's songs and may have been inspired by the Rod of Correction given by Haile Selassie himself to the Prime Minister Michael Manley when he had visited Selassie in Ethiopia. Manley later used to woo his working-class and Rastafarian voters in the run-up to the 1972 elections that saw the PNP victorious at the polls.

Lopez’s singing style can best be described as a "bleat" ("For his children, yeah," the yeah being extended into a bleating sound) – a style popular with heavy roots performers in the mid-1970s which was also used by Sylford Walker, and by Fred Locks for his "Black Star Liners" (released in 1975 as a single and in 1977 on the eponymous LP).

"Trial Days" tells the tale of a Rastaman thrown into jail although he had "troubled no wicked men." The person is "behind iron bars," but is comforted by the power of proverbs like "see and blind, hear and death" and "the horse gallops on the track, no hear what backer say." In fact, the rhythm track for this tune features a galloping beat that fits the lyrics perfectly.

The last track "Fly Away" is a song of exile using the bird to symbolise the Rastaman’s desire to go back home and:

"Mister pilot, mister pilot
can you take one more.
I’ve got to leave the ocean
I’ve got to leave the ocean."

The singer then goes on to say that he may not be as lucky as the biblical Jonah and may not be "spit out on the shore," but that he has got to try anyway.

Lopez pays tribute to Winston Gregory’s vocal style in "Fly Away." A moving song of Rastafarian exile it has antecedents in Junior Byles’ "Place called Africa," the Wailers’ "Rastaman Chant" ("When my work is over, I’ll fly away home") and Burning Spear’s "Children" (on Man in the Hills, Island Records, 1976) which contains the lines "leave the ocean and come."

The lyrics tell of Rastafarian exile but the song has a more universal application; the message that life’s journey is a hard one and even though we can never be certain we won’t be swallowed by the whale, we have to carry on and keep the faith.

The four songs recorded by Lopez Walker testify to the quality of the artistry achieved by Jamaican singers and musicians in the 1970's and retain their power to this day. We can only speculate on the heights Lopez Walker might have reached if he had continued to work as a recording artist or if luck had come his way.

References:

• Barrow, Steve. Liner notes to The Chantells and Friends – Children of Jah, 1977-79 (Blood and Fire, 1999).
  
• Katz, David. Solid Foundation – An Oral History of Reggae. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2003.