Vintage Reggae Group The Pioneers To Kick Off Forthcoming Beatles Covers Album ‘Rub-A-Dub Soul’

Iconic music producer, multi-instrumentalist, and former Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldier Clive Hunt has collaborated with vintage Reggae group The Pioneers for a new project, a cover of British pop band The Beatles’ You Won’t See Me.

The track, written by Paul McCartney, was reportedly about his tumultuous five-year relationship with actress Jane Asher one night after she walked out.

It is scheduled to be released on Wednesday (September 27).

According to a release from VP Records, the new version of You Won’t See Me is the first single from the upcoming Rub-A-Dub Soul album, which features several foundation artists, among them Barry Biggs, The Tamlins and Little Roy, as well as contemporary singers Tarrus Riley and German Reggae singer Gentleman, among others.  

Rub-A-Dub Soul is due for release on October 20 via VP.

“You Won’t See Me first appeared on the 1965 album Rubber Soul, a hugely underrated album track written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and produced by George Martin. The track went on to become quite the Soundsystem hit in Jamaica when The Clarendonians covered the song for Coxson Dodd at Studio One in 1966. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Jamaica’s relationship with The Beatles,” the release added.

Considered one of the most successful vocal groups in the history of Jamaican music, The Pioneers, which is made up of Sydney Crooks, George Agard and Jackie Robinson was formed in the mid-1960’s and was one of the first groups to have international hits in Reggae, the genre which followed Ska and Rock Steady.

“They were able to penetrate the European market with one of their many renderings of racehorse songs called Long Shot Kick de Bucket, to which they followed up with a Jimmy Cliff-penned song called Let Your Yeah Be Yeah, which was a smash hit in Europe and Give and Take also by Jimmy Cliff,” their biography on the group’s website reads.

“This stalwart reggae group has had many successful tours around the world including Europe, Asia, North and South America and the Caribbean. Their works were covered by other international acts such as the Specials (Long Shot), Madness (Starvation), the Selector (Time Hard), the Beat (Jackpot), and UB 40 (Starvation). Recently (Summer 2005), the Pioneers performed at the Maranhao Roots Reggae Festival in San Luis, Brazil before 15,000 fans along with Tribe de Jah,” it adds.

As for Hunt, he was recruited by the JDF at age 17.  Military officials, he said in a 2017 interview, wanted to have him set a record as “the youngest bandmaster in the British Empire ever”.

The JDF sent him to the Royal Military School of Music in England for training, where he excelled as the top overseas student and ended up in the top two scholars overall. However, Hunt later walked out of the JDF not long after, claiming, among other things, that he was a “Rastaman pickney and I couldn’t work with the system”.

He was subsequently recruited by Byron Lee for his Dragonaires band, and became a much sought-after musician as he was skilled in playing the trumpet, bass guitar, flute, horn, keyboards and the saxophone.

Over the decades, Hunt has worked on albums for Peter Tosh, The Abyssinians, Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus, Toots and The Maytals, as well as Grace Jones.

He has also produced, arranged and composed hits for Marcia Griffiths, Burning Spear, Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Sister Carol, Dean Frazer, Gregory Isaacs, Leroy Smart, Chronixx, Etana and Nadine Sutherland.  In Dancehall, he has worked with Sizzla Kalonji, Cutty Ranks, Vybz Kartel, Kiprich, Macka Diamond and Aidonia.