History Book: Max Romeo's Slack "Wet Dream"

While I'm not big on the over-the-top misogyny of the slack records that came out of the ska/rocksteady era (I rarely listen to Prince Buster's Big 5 or Wreck a Pum Pum, etc.), they have their place in the evolution of the music and I can deal with them on this level. Max Romeo's 1968 hit "Wet Dream" (which used the instrumental tracks to Derrick Morgan's "Hold You Jack") helped popularize "rude reggae" or slack records, which Romeo specialized in over the next few years (later giving improbable UK skinhead reggae superstar Judge Dread an amazing career).

By the early 70s, Romeo had mostly ditched the naughty ditties, as he had found religion and his political voice, which led to extraordinary collaborations with producers Clive Hunt, Geoffrey Chung, Phil Pratt, and others on Revelation Time (the Blood and Fire re-issue, titled Open the Iron Gate, is essential) and Lee Perry on War Ina Babylon.

All of this background info on Max Romeo leads to an interesting article on the making of "Wet Dream" from the Jamaica Gleaner that my Google Alerts uncovered recently:

STORY OF THE SONG; Max Romeo has Fertile 'Wet Dream'
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

In 1968, Max Romeo was bored. So he wrote Wet Dream and had a jolly fantasy ride to the top 10 of the British charts, meeting some skinhead 'mates' along the way.

"Obviously in the music business from time to time people try to find new ideas," Romeo told The Sunday Gleaner, describing the 1960s as "disciplined and righteous".

"As a youth in those days it can get boring. Is boredom spark that whole era."

That 'whole era' was the 'slack' songs that followed, as Wet Dream found fertile ground, Romeo naming Prince Buster among the performers who followed in the same trend. But Wet Dream almost did not get off the ground.

Romeo told The Sunday Gleaner that the rhythm the song was done on was originally done at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio for Derrick Morgan to sing Hol' The Jack Me Tie The Jinny. Among the musicians who played on the song were Gladstone Anderson (piano), Jackie Jackson (bass), Horsemouth Wallace (drums) and 'Dougie' on guitar.

"Fool Fool Artiste"

When producer Bunny Lee decided to record Romeo's Wet Dream, they went to Coxsone Dodd's Studio One on Brentford Road (now Studio One Boulevard). Dodd was around the mixing board and when Romeo started to sing he stopped the tape.

"Bunny Lee, where you get them fool fool artiste and fool fool lyrics?" Dodd demanded. "I not going to be a part of this!"

Lee was insistent, telling Dodd that he had paid for the studio time and no one could tell him what he was supposed to do. When Dodd abandoned the mixing board, Lee turned to then apprentice engineer Errol Thompson, who was in the studio, and demanded "Come een prento!"

And so Romeo sang:

"Every night me go to bed me have wet dream

Lie dung gal mek me push it up, push it up, lie dung.

"You in your small corner, I stand in mine

Throw all the punch you want to, I can take them all"

Banning Wet Dream from airplay in Jamaica was not an issue, as it was never released in the land of wood and water. It was released in England and after being played twice by the BBC it was promptly banned. However, in a mere two rotations, Romeo says, "It was established in the people's mind. It was the skinheads who love it."

It hit the British charts and stayed there for 26 weeks, moving from number 30 to the top spot and then back down the charts. When it got to number two and seemed poised to claim the top spot, The Beatles' Get Back debuted at number one.

And it was in England, at a school in Gilford, that Max Romeo first performed Wet Dream to an audience of "skinheads and white kids" who were all excited. On the streets in Gilford, while passing a pub, a white man said, "How are you doing, Mr Blacks?", to which Romeo replied, "Alright Mr Whites." The man spat on him and the skinheads Romeo was walking with beat him up.

When Romeo sang at the Royal Albert Hall in 1969 he was told not to do Wet Dream, as the royal family was there. But when he had finished his performance, there were calls from the royal box for Wet Dream. "So I had to perform it," Romeo said.

Not bad for a song that was almost not recorded.

I'm assuming that it was Prince Charles yelling for "Wet Dream," based on his tawdry phone conversations with Camilla Parker Bowles that found the light of day a few years ago (I'm not going to link to them as his sex fantasies are simultaneously pedestrian and revolting).

By the way, Bad Manners have a great version of "Wet Dream" on their underrated 1993 Fat Sound covers album...