Coxsone Dodd Didn’t Pack Heat, But He Had “A Hell Of A Right Hand” — Says Producer Blackbeard
Following Morna Dodd’s objection to the portrayal of her father, Clement “Sir Coxsone” Dodd, in the film Bob Marley: One Love, Reggae producer and music insider Rodguel “Blackbeard” Sinclair suggests there may be confusion with another prominent producer.
Blackbeard believes the film may have conflated the Studio One producer with Arthur ‘Duke’ Reid, who was Dodd’s main rival at the time. Unlike the gun-wielding character depicted in the film, Blackbeard described Coxsone as “more like a father figure,” known for helping people in need.
“The gun thing anno him,” he told DancehallMag. “He was not that type of person. Coxsone is not a man who stands for foolishness, but he wasn’t into no-gun play; that was more Duke Reid.”
“Duke Reid was a former policeman, and he controlled a record store at the corner of Beeston and Charles Street. He would walk with a .38 and a shotgun over his shoulder and a gun in his socks. He lived in a bad area and he would leave his liquor outside on the corner and no one would dare touch it,” Blackbeard added.
Reid operated Reid’s Sound System, one of the most popular sound systems of the 1950s. Duke, who was nicknamed The Trojan, branched off into ska and rocksteady music production in the 1960s, founding the record label Treasure Isle, named after his liquor store. He was known to carry his pistols and rifle with him in the studio and would sometimes fire them to celebrate a successful audition.
Blackbeard shared a story where Reid confronted a disobedient musician with gunshots.
“One Sunday, Duke was at the studio and he was listening in on a session. There was a musician called Tin Leg who was playing the drums, and Duke come upstairs and said ‘no Tin Leg, I don’t want you to play the drums that way’ and told him how to do it and went downstairs,” Blackbeard related.
However, Tin Leg defied The Trojan’s orders and returned to his original style of playing, which soon earned the Trojan’s ire.
“Duke came back upstairs and take out his gun and fire two shot inna the board wall and say ‘is not so I want you to play’. Tin Leg jumped up and say ‘yes sir, mi sorry’. Then him ask ‘where is your toilet?’. All now, Duke no see him again, him never go back a Duke Reid studio again,” Blackbeard said, chuckling.
Coxsone’s Dangerous Right Hand
While not known to carry firearms, Blackbeard acknowledged that Coxsone commanded respect.
“Coxsone had a right hand de man,” Blackbeard told DancehallMag, before recounting a story about how he knocked out fellow producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry.
Perry and Coxsone were once close, with Coxsone even appointing Perry as his right-hand man early in his career. However, their relationship soured in 1966, with Perry feeling disrespected by Coxsone. Perry later expressed this discontent in the song The Upsetter , calling Coxsone “gravalicious” (a Jamaican term for greedy) and “red eye.”
Blackbeard said that their altercation had its genesis in an event at the VIP club (formerly the Glass Bucket), operated by Derrick Harriott, where Harriott’s Musical Chariot Disco often played between 1970 and 1974.
“One Easter Monday night, Coxsone and his sparry, Bim Bim, who people said was his bodyguard, were at the VIP Club when Clancy and Scratch come in and ah drink. Dem start run some careless joke and funny argument bout how dem see man pants inna Coxsone office and everybody hear dem a throw word but Coxsone never say nothing,” Blackbeard said.
Two days later, there was a chance encounter between Coxsone and Scratch at Ken Khouri’s Federal Records at Bell Road, the first recording studio in Jamaica, which was sold to Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong record label in 1981. The incident showcased Coxsone’s pugilistic skills as the encounter ended in fisticuffs.
“Scratch Perry asked a producer name Lloydie Printer (known for the song Slave Master) to bring him around to Federal Records, and when dem reach, dem buck up inna Coxsone ah come outta Federal. Coxsone walk past and him say ‘whappen Jackson?’. Then Coxsone tap Scratch on him shoulder and as him turn around, one straight right!” Blackbeard said.
“Ah Nuttall (hospital in Cross Roads), Scratch end up.”
Blackbeard said that the attack was so frightening and devastating that Lloydie Printer abandoned Scratch and ran away, leaving his car behind. “Lloydie run lef Coxsone, him run lef him car and him jump on a buss and go Orange Street. When we see him, we ask him where is his car? Him say him lef it at Federal,” Blackbeard said, laughing. “Coxsone had a hell of a right hand.”
Blackbeard is known for his work running the Hulk label and Mister Tipsy labels with his studio’s house band, The Ring Craft Posse.
He is also the older brother of David Sinclair a.k.a Tapper Zukie.