The Lone Ranger [ Working hard to bring back the golden years of rub-a-dub ]

The Lone Ranger - Rosemarie Meet D.J. Daddy
(CD) Techniques WR0042, 2005-10-18

Produced by Winston Riley
15 Tracks.
Tracks 01 to 05 & 16 to 20 are the complete "Rosemarie" album from 1981.
Tracks 06 to 15 are the complete "D.J. Daddy" album from 1984.

The Lone Ranger - Albums discography

1979 On The Other Side Of Dub
1980 Barnabas In Collins Wood
1980 M-16
1981 Rosemarie
1981 Hi-Yo Silver, Away!
1982 Badda Dan Dem
1984 D.J. Daddy
1985 Learn To Drive (compilation)
1994 Collections (compilation)
2002 Top Of The Class
2004 Dub Salvador Vol.1&2 (compilation, mixed)
2005 Kulchaklash w/Grant Phabao
2006 Dub Salvador - A Grant Phabao Mix (compilation, mixed)
2010 Sweet Talking w/Grant Phabao

01. Sweet Talking
This is Ranger doing some Sweet Talking for his daughter. Bouncy riddim.
02. Braeton Killings
This one has a more european crossover flavourish. Ray I is doing the original element.
03. Aya So We Deh
A chanting thing. An old Studio One roots tune I wanted to do for years. In this one we kinda have a singjay style...
04. High Grade
Wicked! Baad. A reasoning track. If you listen to it, smoke a spliff and go into meditation, you will go deep, very deep. It's a subliminal message for you to roll a big joint while listening to the album and relaxing. A goog meditation tune, this can soothe the mind.
05. Music Weh Dem Wan
Wicked. Wicked! Big tune! I'm trying to define a hip hop/reggae crossover there. Plenty style.
06. Rasta Roll Call
This one's alright. It has it's own flavour.
07. Fever
My favorite song on the whole album! For all these years I wanted to do "Fever" and I had to wait until I met Phabao and TIMEC to get it right. It's a combination style of Ranger, singer and deejay. Counteracting styles. Gliding in deejay style. Original 70 deejay style of Lone Ranger, you know.
08. Ethiopia
Chanting style. Inspiration style. Dedicated to my friends. With a wicked sax part. Late-ska/rocksteady flavour.
09. A Who
There's a lot of wool in a sheep's clothing. Rastaman, who are you?

It's a wicked album.
This a first one.
Many more coming, original Phabao style, but better!

[Kulchaklash track-by-track commentary by The Lone Ranger himself]

Tracklisting :
01. Intro : Toto - Dune Prologue vs Serge Gainsbourg - La Horse Bonus Beats [RCA/Universal]
02. Daft Punk - Robot Rock [EMI]
03. Serge Gainsbourg - La Horse [Universal]
04. Butch Cassidy Sound System - Butches Brew [Fenetik]
05. Belgradeyard Sound System - Munchies (I-Wolf remix feat. Dj Collage) [Cosmic Sounds]
06. Dubben - Funky Duck pt 1 [G.A.M.M.]
07. Grant Phabao feat. Lone Ranger - Fever [T.I.M.E.C.]
08. Breakestra - You Don't Need A Dance (funkstrumental) [Ubiquity]
09. Belgradeyard Sound System - Munchies (radio edit) [Cosmic Sounds]
10. Richard Dorfmeister & Madrid De Los Austrias - Valldemossa [Sunshine Enterprises]
11. The Chemical Brothers - Shake Break Bounce [EMI]
12. Daft Punk - Technologic [EMI]
13. Jackie Mittoo - Give Sound A Chance [Heartbeat]
14. Seven Dub feat. Lone Ranger - It Doesn't Matter (remix) [Rock It Tonight Productions]
15. Red Astaire - Rollin Stone [G.A.M.M.]
16. 7 Samurai - Bluesanova [G.A.M.M.]
17. Roots Manuva vs Serge Gainsbourg - Requiem For A Witness (ML Mix) [Universal/Big Dada]
18. Butch Cassidy Sound System - Hear What I Say [Fenetik]
Total time : 40 mn

Selected by Djouls - Mixed by Grant Phabao

Ragga 58 - Dec. 2004

THE LONE RANGER
Dancehall Legend
text & photos by David Commeillas

Soul Jazz Records are releasing this latest Studio One compilation which features non-step 100% stone-cold classic Studio One killers! Spanning 40 years of the legendary label, this album is a fitting tribute to Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd and is a who's who of Jamaican Reggae.

Tracklisting :
01. The Skatalites - El Pussy Ska
02. Carlton And The Shoes - Love Me Forever
03. Sound Dimension - Rockfort Rock
04. Johnny Osbourne - Sing Jah Stylee
05. The Heptones - Pretty Looks Isn't All
06. Slim Smith - Rougher Yet
07. Lone Ranger - Automatic
08. Horace Andy - Fever
09. Prince Jazzbo - School
10. The Wailers - Simmer Down
11. Burning Spear - Rocking Time
12. Alton Ellis - I'm Just A Guy
13. Sugar Minott - Oh Mr DC
14. Jennifer Lara - Consider Me
15. Don Drummond - Confucious
16. Michigan & Smiley - Rub A Dub Style
17. Sound Dimension - Full Up
18. Dennis Brown - No Man Is An Island

The Lone Ranger - Biography
From "Reggae - The Rough Guide - The Definitive Guide To Jamaican Music, From Ska Through Roots To Ragga" (Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton)

"Before Yellowman rose to dominate the early 1980s, the way was paved by the arguably more talented Lone Ranger (b. Anthony Waldron), who - along with Welton Irie, Ranking Joe, Nigger Kojak, Mikey Dread, Clint Eastwood and Ranking Toyan - negotiated the shift from the 'cultural' chants of the mid-1970s, as exemplified by Big Youth, to pure 1980s dancehall chat.

There were lines of continuity linking the new breed of deejays with the music's immediate past. Lone Ranger's first records, for instance, appeared on historically the most important of all jamaican labels, Studio One. His version of Slim Smith's rocksteady classic "Never Let Go" was "The Answer", which subsequently became the much-recorded rhythm's favoured title (as confirmed by a popular Channel One cut from U-Roy apostle, Ranking Trevor, called "Answer Me Question"). Other moderate successes came in the form of "Screw Gone A North Coast" (over Horace Andy's "Skylarking"), "Three Mile Skank" (the Sound Dimension's "Full Up") and, in the company of Welton Irie, "Chase Them Crazy" (Horace Andy's "Mr Bassie"). These Studio One 45s established him as a deejay of interest, but the real breaktrough came in 1980. Not only did Virgo Hi Fi, with which he was associated, win an award as the best sound system of the year in Jamaica, but he moved on to another producer, Alvin Ranglin, who gave the masked stranger his biggest hit to date, "Barnabas Collins" (GG). The lyrics were inspired by a vampire character from an american TV series called The Dark Shadows, but no character in the show ever had lines like:

Gal, out the candle, lock your door tight
Turn ya neck pon your right angle
Hedem the best in the business
Chew ya neck like a Wrigley's.

The disc reached #1 in both the Jamaican chart and the UK reggae one. This was soon followed by a return to Studio One, and hits which involved more humour, and were built around the various abstract "oinks", "bims" and "ribbits" that were to be associated with the men - and women - at the mike for the next couple of years.
The success of the new hits from Brentford Road - "Love Bump" (over Slim Smith's "Tougher Yet"), "Natty Chalwa" (the Gladiators' "Roots Natty Roots"), and "Tribute To Marley" (the Studio One cut of Derrick Harriott's "Solomon") - owed something to the new style of mixing that gave a brighter feel to the studio's seminal music, whether in the form of new 'versions' or re-releases of the originals that practically every other label was 'doing-over'. The Lone Ranger's other important hits included "Fort X" (also for Ranglin), with its approriate Western theme, and "Rose Marie" (for Winston Riley's Techniques label), "M16" and "Fist To Fist Days Done" (for Channel One), "Trod On" (for Ossie Thomas's Black Solidarity), and "Tribute To All Mothers" (for the US Absissa label, though over the Sly & Robbie rhythm used on Dennis Brown's "Hold On To What You've Got" hit). No performer was more responsible for ushering in the new era than the Lone Ranger, and his influence on a whole generation of deejays (particularly in the UK) was incalculable."

Lone Ranger would especially like to thanks the T.I.M.E.C. crew for their innovative work in spreading his music and tunes

One and a half years in the making! "Studio One Story" is a definitive guide to Jamaica's greatest ever record label and its founder Clement Dodd. The package includes 16 track CD or Double LP featuring Studio One's greatest releases. From Theo Beckford's groundbreaking "Easysnappin" to The Abyssinians "Declaration of Rights" this CD and limited edition double vinyl is back-to-back classics.

The DVD is a 3hr film that tells the full story of Studio One and Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd. Filmed in Kingston, the documentary has interviews with many of the artists who Studio One made famous: Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Sugar Minott, Dennis Alcapone, Lone Ranger, King Stitt and more.

Various - Studio One DJ's
(CD/2xLP) Soul Jazz Records SJR52, 2002-04-22

Tracklisting :
01. Count Machuki - More Scorcha
02. Prince Francis - Rock Fort Shock
03. Dennis Alcapone - Power Version
04. Dillinger - Natty Kung Fu
05. Jah Scotchie - Man Of Creation
06. Jim Brown - Seen Him
07. Jah Buzz - Love In The Arena
08. Prince Francis - Street Doctor
09. Lone Ranger - The Answer
10. Prince Jazzbo - Crime Don't Pay
11. Brigadier Jerry - Every Man A Me Brethren
12. Big Joe - Version Of Rights
13. Lone Ranger - The Big Match
14. Jah Jesco - Warning
15. Prince Far I - Natty Farmyard
16. Charlie Ace And The Scorcher - Father And Dreadlocks