Reggae Artist Dave Barker’s 1971 Chart Topper ‘Double Barrell’ A Source Of Contention And Heartbreak
Trojan Records’ plan to stage several activities in the UK, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of the mega Reggae hit Double Barrell, has not gone down well with the song’s co-writer and co-performer Dave Barker, The Financial Times has revealed.
In an article published on Friday, the Financial Times said that the song, which was produced by Winston Riley and sung by Barker and Ansell Collins, and which topped the British national chart in 1971, was a subject of huge contention and heartbreak for Barker.
Barker is unhappy that he lost his stake in the song during its most valuable years when it topped the Jamaican and British charts. According to the Financial Times, the Jamaican has also missed out on licensing revenue, as Double Barrel has been sampled more than 100 times, including by megastars such as Prince and Kanye West.
In late January, Trojan Records, which distributed the song in the UK, told the Jamaica Observer that, among other things, Barker and Collins would be presented with the Number One Award from The Official UK Charts Company, an accolade which is presented to artists who top the British national chart, and there would be a video interview with Dave Barker and Ansell Collins to be shared on all social media platforms.
Double Barrel was the first number one song for Trojan Records, which was launched in London in 1968 by Jamaican Lee Gopthal and Chris Blackwell. Barker and Collins also had a follow-up hit in the UK with Monkey Spanner.
Trojan experienced financial difficulties in the late 1970s, changed owners several times, and is currently owned by BMG.
Barker, in the FT interview, which took place in northwest London, was unable to discuss the song’s 50th anniversary without a rising tone of anger, as for him, “Double Barrel has come to assume a bitter significance — a triumph whose rewards were snatched away from him in a song rights and royalties controversy that dogged reggae’s rise to international prominence and which is still being felt today”.
“I cannot celebrate this 50th anniversary because I’m not pleased. I am very unhappy. We have been treated very badly,” he told the reporter.
“What is owed to me, what I should have gotten, has been taken away from me… Which has caused a lot of hardship and suffering. Both me and my family, we have suffered. We have been through some rough times. And not only me. Right now, you have artists in Jamaica who have made wonderful music, which has been sold all over the globe, and they’re suffering,” he said.
“The thing I would love to see happen is for the people who are in the position to make things right to stand up, step forward and do what’s right… We are the people who created the music, so give us justice,” ” Barker added.
Now 72, Barker had recorded the song at age 22. According to The Financial Times, “as creator of the song’s vocal melody and lyrics, Barker ought to have received credits as a co-writer of the song. However, at the time the standard practice in Jamaica’s music industry was that music producers would to hire singers and musicians, and keep the song rights for themselves.
It said Barker also should have received a specified royalty rate from sales of the recording and publishing royalties as the song’s co-author, but for most of the song’s lifetime, he received neither.
Barker had explained that he was recruited by the song’s producer, Winston Riley and that the beat had already been recorded and arranged by Ansell Collins with Sly Dunbar on drums, and only needed vocals, for which he extemporized the opening line, and then the rest of the lyrics “which consist of James Brown-style barked utterances (“Work it on, baby”) and references to James Bond’s 007 code number”.
The article quoted Barker as saying he received about “30 to 40 Jamaican dollars” for Double Barrel which was a standard rate at the time, equivalent to £15 to £20 in 1970.
The Financial Times said Trojan, which had been established to cater to Caribbean nationals who migrated to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, had a habit of signing contracts with producers rather than artists, which replicated unfair practices that had been established in Jamaica.
“It was left up to the producers to decide whether to distribute royalties to singers and musicians. Barker’s dealings with Trojan were likewise informal; he was not offered a contract when the song was released in the UK in 1971,” The Financial times noted.
“While he was in the UK touring Double Barrel and Monkey Spanner, he remembers being called with Collins into Trojan’s office by the label’s founder, Lee Gopthal, who advised them to get a lawyer. “He also turned and said: ‘You guys never heard this from me. I’m just advising you to go and sort things out before it gets too late”, it noted.
However, this was not done, as the duo did not have the know-how, and after their UK tour, Barker remained in London, while Collins returned to Jamaica.
“Trojan did give Barker more money, a cheque for £1,000 — intended to offset his touring costs after he complained about only having one stage outfit. Given that “Double Barrel” charted across Europe and reached number 22 in the US, likely selling well over a million copies, it is a fraction of what Barker believes he was owed,” the article noted.
After Trojan Records went into liquidation in 1975, leaving royalties and debts unpaid, its song catalogue was transferred to a complex sequence of incorporations. Later that year, it re-emerged through Trojan Recordings, which was purchased 10 years later by a company run by accountant and businessman Colin Newman, the article said.
“The Trojan catalogue was sold in 2001 to the London label Sanctuary Records for £10.25m and six years later, Sanctuary itself was purchased by Universal Music Group, which in turn sold Sanctuary’s catalogue, including Trojan’s songs, to the Berlin-based record label BMG in 2013,” The Financial Times said.
The report said that Barker, however, signed a recording contract with Trojan Recordings in 1988, prior to its sale to Sanctuary, and finally obtained his writer’s credit in 2003 when Riley made an agreement to recognise him and Collins as co-writers of Double Barrel.
In 2016, Barker’s revenue from Double Barrel, was frozen by the royalty collection agency PRS for Music, due to another music publishing company putting forward a claim for a share of the rights. However, last December, the dispute was closed and Barker’s revenue was finally restored.