Reggae Classic Revisited: Barrington Levy's ‘Shaolin Temple’
Your pretty looks is deceiving, girl.
Reggae records from the 1970s show how the kung-fu flicks of that era had made as big an impression on brothers and sisters in the slums of Jamaica as they had on their counterparts in the ghettos of America.
Songs like “Iron Fist” by The Upsetters, “Hap ki do” by Augustus Pablo, “Natty Kung Fu” by Dillinger, and “Fist of Fury” by Prince Jammy are but a few shining examples of the martial arts movie-inspired music of the islands.
But maybe the best of all the kung-fu-inspired jams is “Shaolin Temple,” a brooding early dancehall riddem by producer Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes and singer Barrington Levy.
The pulsating drum and bass arrangement by Junjo was “as hard as they come,” but Levy’s razor-sharp warbling cuts through the sonic barrage like flying daggers through a rice paper window.
The high tenor-voiced Levy was only 16-years old when “Shaolin Temple” was recorded in 1979, but his vigorously crooned vocals on this proto-dancehall riddem show the maturity and discipline of a white-bearded master.
