In August of 1978, 10cc's new single "Dreadlock Holiday" began its climb up the U.K.charts to #1. The song was based on a true life experience Eric Stewart shared in Barbados with Justin Haywood of the Moody Blues, recounted in the book 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner abd Spencer Leigh:
"Justin and I were on a para-sailing raft in the middle of the ocean and I was strapped into this parachute gear. I was towed behind a speedboat at high speed. I took off and waved goodbye to Justin. He was then left on the raft with three black guys, one Jamaican and two from Barbados. The Jamaican guy said to Justin, 'I like your silver chain, man, I'll give you a dollar for it.' Justin replied, 'come on, it's worth a lot more than that and it's a present from my mother.' And this guy said, 'If this was Jamaica, I would cut your hand off for that.' I came back and asked Justin if he wanted to have a go. He said, 'No, let's get off this raft as quick as we can, I have had some problems.' When we got back to England, I relayed the story to Graham (Gouldman) and we wrote a song around it."
As you might imagine, Jamaica did not immediately make this a theme song for its tourism campaign. In fact, the lyrics, the faux Jamaican accent ( don't you queer me pitch?) , and the video now come across as more than a bit racist. Too bad, because 10cc were a favorite band of mine at the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment