When was desmond dekker born

The two had met years earlier, when both worked as welders in Kingston, and Dekker introduced Marley to the record label executives who shaped his own career.

By Dekker was living in England, but still worked steadily with Kong. The movie's hero, played by Jimmy Cliff, sang it this time, and the film introduced Jamaica's vibrant musical culture to the rest of the world. When Kong died in , Dekker's career faltered, and the hits stopped. Later that decade, however, there was a revival of interest in his music thanks to the resurgence of ska in England, and top-selling bands like Madness and the Specials considered him their musical hero.

With a younger generation of musicians and producers Dekker cut two more albums, Black and Dekker in , and Compass Point a year later. The comeback failed to save him from bankruptcy in , which Dekker admitted was the result of a swindle by his former manager.

Dekker still performed regularly, and gave what would be his final concert in Leeds just two weeks before his death. He suffered a heart attack and died on May 25, , in London, at the age of 63 or Survivors include an ex-wife and a son and daughter, but Dekker was mourned by several generations of fans.

The following year, Dekker released King of Ska , again featuring re-recordings of past glories. Two years later, he entered the studio with an equally revitalized Specials for the King of Kings album.

And although this set too featured old hits, this time around the vast majority weren't Dekker 's own, but his personal heroes, including, of course, Derrick Morgan , the man who had discovered him. In , Moving On appeared, not one of Dekker 's best. However, the Trojan label has continued to keep the singer's back catalog to the fore. Beginning back in , when they released the humorously titled Double Dekker , across Sweet 16 Hits , The Original Reggae Hitsound in , and 's Music Like Dirt , there's never been a dearth of excellent Dekker material for fans to revel in.

Other labels have jumped in on the action, and the shelves have quickly filled with compilations of the singer from varying stages of his career. Dekker 's vast catalog of music, songs that defined the ska, rocksteady, and reggae eras have provided the singer with a rich legacy that has rarely been equaled. On May 25, , Dekker passed away at age 64 in his London home.

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Articles Features Interviews Lists. Streams Videos All Posts. My Profile. Advanced Search. Kong died of a heart attack in August and Dekker's career lost momentum until the late Seventies, when the Specials, Madness, the Beat and the Selecter revived the ska and rock steady music of the previous decade. Dekker signed to Stiff Records and recorded the albums Black and Dekker and Compass Point which failed to capitalise on his reputation as the godfather of the ska revival.

Worse, in , Dekker, whose royalties and finances had been badly handled by various managers throughout his career, was declared bankrupt. He soldiered on with the help of his bass-playing manager Delroy Williams and took advantage of the ska-punk wave of the late Eighties and early Nineties.

In downtown Streatham where he lived, Dekker, the original "Rude Boy", always cut a dapper figure. He started the fashion for wearing trousers high up the leg in order to show off his fancy socks and also sported a black leather glove with rings on the fingers years before Alvin Stardust. Looking back on a career of more than 40 years, when the compilation You Can Get It If You Really Want was released in , Dekker said he was not surprised that reggae music had become such a global phenomenon.

All over the world, it opened the door for reggae music. At the time, I said reggae music would never die. People enjoyed the music so much that you knew it was going to last. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. After his mother took ill and died, his father moved him to St. Mary's, and then to St. Thomas, where he apprenticed as a tailor before returning to Kingston and taking a job as a welder, singing around his workplace while his co-workers encouraged him.

Neither were impressed by his talents, and the young man moved on to Leslie Kong's Beverley record label, where he auditioned before Derrick Morgan, then the label's biggest star. With Morgan's support, Dekker was signed but did not record until because Leslie Kong wanted to wait for the perfect song, which "Honour Your Father and Mother" was felt to be.

His fourth hit, however, made him into one of the island's biggest stars. The song remains well known among ska fans. The song established Dekker as a rude boy icon and also became an established hero in the United Kingdom's mod scene. Many of the hits from this era came from his debut album, Shanty Town. He was the first Jamaican performer to enter U.