Just thought this could interest some people here : a text about the origins of dub posted by "A.S. Van Dorston" [EMAIL PROTECTED] on the The Wire mailing-list.
Gwendal "The roots of dub can be traced all the way back to the late forties, when sound systems first appeared in Jamaica. Young deejays would play r&b imports from the U.S. on a setup of an amplifier, massive homemade speakers and a turntable. Sound systems became more prominent when Jamaica was emancipated from Britain in 1962. The best sound systems had deejays who could introduce the songs and coax the dancers using the latest "jive." U. Roy became the biggest star, deejaying for Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd's Downbeat, and then King Tubby's Hometown Hi-Fi. As American r&b was replaced by rock & roll, deejays played more and more homegrown records. The two-track recordings reserved the B-side of the record to test sound levels. The instrumental B-side, or the "version," became popular with deejays like U. Roy who had the freedom to toast throughout the record without competing with recorded vocals. Duke Reid, a sound system "selector" who branched into recording at his Treasure Isle Studios, began making "specials" in 1969, using U.Roy's voice-overs. In experimenting with the versions and specials, Reid's studio engineer, King Tubby, began making versions of songs in which the vocals dropped in and out amongst a cacophony of echo, reverb and heavy, heavy bass. The first dubs were "You Don't Care" by the Techniques, and songs by the Melodians and Phyllis Dillon. While Lee "Scratch" Perry insists that he invented dub first, there is no recorded evidence to prove it. However, his dubs of Bob Marley & the Wailers from 1970 (Soul Revolution Vol. 1 & 2, Trojan) indicate that he developed the technique almost concurrently with King Tubby. Perry represented a more mystical aspect of dub. He produced a kaleidoscopic variety of eerie sound effects, explaning that they were "the ghosts in me coming out." Indeed, dub is rooted in the word "dup," which is Jamaican patois for "ghost." Perry suggests that dub is not only a doubling of sounds, but of one's soul from the spirit-world into the tehnological world. For more information, see Dick Hebdige, Cut 'n' Mix (1987) and S.H. Fernando Jr., The New Beats (1994)."
