Flick Wilson – Keep The Troubles Down from the Ultra Records 45

I am into Reggae. Now when I say Reggae, I’m not referring to what the kids would refer to as Reggaeton, which they confuse with good music. I’m referring to the real shit, the Roots, Dub, Dancehall and Rock Steady that today’s imitators try to copy. I have a lot of it, and I really should showcase it more. I’ve got a grip of Jamaican 45s, plus some great Dancehall stuff from the 80’s and 90’s that I can never turn down, and crates of quality JA stuff I really have to share. I have been lining a lot of it up for another Special Request podcast, so keep your ears open for that in the near future. I was surprised (maybe not so much) to see an original Coxsone Records Bob Marley 45 got for well over $2500 this week on E Bay, but also pretty surprised that a side like this next record would turn up at the Spot. Reggae comes and goes, but honestly, good Reggae is usually gone, or worse yet never makes it there. I’m glad this one did. The side I’m talking about is “Keep The Troubles Down” by Flick Wilson.

Rudolph Charles Thomas, Flick Wilson, or Ruddy Thomas (he went by them all), was the son of preacher and evangelical mother, born in 1951. He grew up singing in church. Like so many of the young Jamaicans of his time, as he got older, he joined a vocal group, who sang their own versions of American Soul songs. His early singing would pair him up with Beres Hammond and Cynthia Schloss. Wilson would eventually go solo and release a record for Coxsone Dodd on Studio One called “Parents Fault, and for Duke Reid on Duchess entitled “Lick and Run”. He’d be associated with producers such as Joe Gibbs, Stage Zukie, and Gussie Clark. He was a talented cat, not only playing percussion, but singing back up for lots of Jamaican heavyweights. The list reads like a who’s who of Reggae music: Sly & Robbie, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Rita Marley, Ken Boothe, Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown, Jacob Miller, Boris Gardiner, Third World, Judy Mowatt, The Heptones, and the list goes on. He’s been a sometime producer (Peter Tosh’s No Nuclear War), and rumor has it he discovered the artist Yellowman. Throughout the years he’d crafted himself into a talented engineer and producer as well as a performer. It would be performing where her would die. He passed away on stage in 2006 while taking place in a talent contest. As if this guy really needed to win something else, with the resume he had already amassed.

“Keep The Troubles Down” is a Roots side that is equally as good while burning one down as it is just relaxing after a long day. The horns actually sound to me like a slow version of the Gilligan’s Island theme. Sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of looting and robbing. It’s most definitely a cry to the people in his neighborhood to not torch the place, and the “dreadful sight of his sisters crying and brothers dying” were enough to make him make that plea in a song. He died fairly young (at 49), and one can just imagine what went on in the place where he grew up. Jamaica is known for it’s turmoil and violence throughout it’s history, so I can definitely believe this is a first hand account. That sounded a bit down, didn’t it? The storyline may be a downer, but the song itself is a nice little piece of Roots goodness. Enjoy, and I’ll see you soon. Keep Diggin’!