Copeland Forbes Says Reggae Music Needs “More Good And Great Songs” Like The “Influential 1970s”

Artist manager and music historian Copeland Forbes says Jamaican Reggae is in need of “good and great” songs like those produced in Reggae’s Golden Era of the 1970s, which attracted the attention of some of the greatest superstars from other genres.

The Reggae My Life Is author, who is a former manager of Peter Tosh, recently shared a video of American singer Cher on “The Cher Show” on April 13, 1975, belting out renditions of several Reggae songs, including Bob Marley’s Stir It Up, and paying homage to the genre and Jamaica in a Reggae Medley. 

In the intro, Cher states: “A few years ago, a musical sound came out of a small island in the Caribbean called Jamaica, and it spread all over the world.  The sound is called Reggae and if this doesn’t get you moving, nothing will”.

Forbes, in response to the video which was shared on Cher’s official YouTube channel a year ago, noted: “Omg FB fans.  That’s why I always speak about the 70’s in Reggae music which I think was the most influential and educational period in the journey of Reggae music.    Check out Cher from the famous Sonny & Cher duo.  During her solo career she chose to do a medley of some of the great Reggae music of that era on her TV show presentation”.

“First song is This is Reggae Music done by the Zappow band with the great Beres Hammond on lead vocals back then.  Then she segued into Stevie Wonder’s Boogie On Reggae Woman, then into Johhny Nash’s version of the Bob Marley penned song Stir it Up.   So this to show that we presently need more good and great songs like these to attract more great international artists like Cher and others,” he added.

The 1970s has been dubbed by Reggae afficionados as the genre’s “golden era”.  During that era, Reggae legend Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and a slew of other Jamaicans reigned, elevating the genre onto the global stage with their spiritual and socially conscious lyrics.

Reggae’s rise, according to historians, began in the early 1970s after Chris Blackwell’s Island Films released The Harder They Come film in 1973, which coincided with Island Records’ global distribution of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ inaugural major label album, Catch A Fire in April that year.   

These simultaneous releases it is argued, marked a fundamental moment in propelling reggae music to international recognition, as prior to the unveiling of The Harder They Come and Catch A Fire, many people beyond the shores of Jamaica were unfamiliar with the genre.

One pundit on musicbanter.com, noted in January 2014 that Reggae music had received “even wider international attention when Eric Clapton recorded a version of Marley’s song I Shot the Sheriff on his 461 Ocean Blvd. album a year later in 1974. Clapton was still the most influential rock guitarist of that era and he served as a gateway to introduce the music of Bob Marley to millions of rock music fans all over the world”.

“Roots reggae music was at it’s peak between 1977 and 1982 when Bob Marley and the Wailers, Burning Spear and Peter Tosh were doing extensive American and European tours and the newly arrived punk music scene began to incorporate the one-drop and dub effects of the reggae idiom into their highly stylized rock music. The Clash produced the Black Market Clash extended play single with dub oriented producer Mikey Dread at the controls, Public Image experimented with dub on their Metal Box album and the Specials founded 2-Tone Records and began recording like-minded ska and reggae oriented groups like the English Beat, Madness and the Selector,” the author had noted. 

Scholar Jereme Kroubo Dagnini, of the University of the French West Indies and French Guiana, in a 2011 paper published in the Open Edition Journal titled The Importance of Reggae Music in the Worldwide Cultural Universe also noted that when Reggae emerged in the late 1960s, it came as a cultural bombshell not only to Jamaica but the whole world and went on to influence societies globally, contributing to the development of new counterculture movements, particularly in Europe, in the USA and Africa.

“Indeed, by the end of the 1960s, it participated in the birth of the skinhead movement in the UK. In the 1970s, it impacted on Western punk rock/ pop cultures and inspired the first rappers in the USA. Finally, since the late 1970s onwards, it has also influenced singers originating from Africa, Alpha Blondy, Tiken Jah Fakoly and Lucky Dube being perfect examples,” he noted.

Where Copeland Forbes’s expertise in Reggae is concerned, his ascension came after he was hired as road manager for The Wailers back in 1972.

Three years later, in 1975, he managed The Mighty Diamonds and later became personal assistant, then road manager, tour manager, and eventually manager of Reggae icon Peter Tosh, which he described as one of his greatest experiences.

Forbes also managed Jimmy Cliff, Dennis Brown, Black Uhuru, Sly and Robbie, Third World, U-Roy, Marcia Griffiths, Frankie Paul, Morgan Heritage, I-Three and Luciano.

He was also the tour manager for many other reggae artists, including Sizzla Kalonji, Ziggy Marley, Andrew Tosh, Freddie McGregor, Beres Hammond, Chaka Demus and Pliers, Junior Reid, Sugar Minott, Mutabaruka, Half Pint, and Maxi Priest.