Ahead of the release of the brand-new album, “Rub-A-Dub Soul” by the legendary producer Clive Hunt, we sat down with Clive and talked about his life in Reggae music and his love for The Beatles.
VP: Clive, for our readers who may be unaware of your work please introduce yourself and point out your more notable productions from your illustrious career?
CH: I’ve been a studio musician for a very long time; from when I was a young man. I was mentored by the great Geoffrey Chung as a studio musician and arranger – my first task was as a trumpet player / arranger then co-producer with Geoffrey and then as producer. My first production was ‘Milk & Honey.’ I started working on Satta Massa Gana for The Abyssinians for the company (Sound Tracs).
I became part of the Joe Gibbs & Errol T studio and production company. Many things came from that, Dennis Brown albums, Barrington Levy, JC Lodge, numerous artists for them. At the same time, I would be doing works at Federal with their group of artists, Ken Boothe, Ernie Smith, Pluto Shervington and whoever else.
I went to France, Paris, with a list of people I had worked with ’Clive Hunt: A Working Biography’ and I passed it to all the record companies. When I returned to Jamaica I got a call from Trish Farrell who was head of Island Records Jamaica asking me to co-produce a few songs for a French artist. They came over to Jamaica and it was going fine and at the same time I was producing a Jimmy Cliff album, the guy (Bernard Lavilliers) saw us working together and asked if Jimmy would like to do a collab. That song went on to have big success in France, it’s still being played today called ‘Melody Tempo Harmony’. From there I was asked to work with another French artist called Pierpoljak who went on to become big and then for me France became the main Reggae place for a while, I was a major part of making that happen.
I got a call from Jah Cure to work on two songs for him and he wanted me to come straight over. That was the beginning of ’That Girl’ and this started my present phase of production. It became a massive hit. I started working a lot with Chris at VP Records, a lot of productions. I did seven albums consecutively which went straight to number one on the Reggae Billboard chart. I’m seventy-one years old and I feel even more creative than I have ever felt and I have the opportunity to do the things I’ve always wanted to do.
VP: The Beatles have had a huge influence on popular culture for decades and their songs have been covered by many Jamaican artists also. Your most recent project ‘Rub-A-Dub Soul’ features all brand new covers of classic songs by ’The Fab Four’ – can you share your vision for the album and how it came about?
CH: I’ve always wanted to do a Beatles album so I spoke to Chris Chin about it and a few people. I actually started it and was told that there might be some difficulties. That was maybe seven to ten years before I actually did it, even Chris said there could be issues with clearance. A year or two ago I spoke with Patrice, the German Reggae artist, he is a good friend and I mentioned it to him. He said that I should do it, there would be no problem as his mum was friends with Paul McCartney’s associate so I said only if you (Patrice) do one of the songs. We went in the studio right away as I knew that if Patrice did it then all the Jamaican and European artists would follow. Gentleman, Danakil, Pierpoljak and my Jamaican artists were all ready to work after that.
VP: Many of the artists featured on the album are based in Europe as well as Jamaican veterans, how did you go about sourcing artists for the project?
CH: As I mentioned I started with Patrice and I knew that once I had him I could approach quite a few top Reggae acts in Europe and it worked out right. I was in talks with Nai-Jah, an African group living in Lyon, France and they wanted to do an album with me, They are a very interesting group with the bass player playing a tuba, but you could never know unless you see them. We had been talking for a while and I asked them to do a song, Taxman, I really like how that one turned out. I go about choosing songs, I remember even from when I was a little boy anytime whenever a Beatles song was released it would become number one on JBC or RJR within a few days. When I think about The Pioneers I wanted something with history and I believe that people from back in the day can do well nowadays in the market, it just depends on how they are marketed. I approached George (Dekker) as he is from my neighborhood in Jamaica. He’s from Yorktown, a satellite town in Linstead and he was into the song so he put me in touch with his singing partner (Jackie Robinson) who was living in Florida, I think it turned out well. The songs were selected as they are songs that I like or maybe an artist did suggest it.
VP: What’s your favorite Beatles song of all time?
CH: I have so many favorites from The Beatles, as well as all other kinds of music. When I listen to music I tend not to listen to the lyrics so much, more the music – the ones that grab me, that stay in my head and grab me. Me and Beres Hammond have problems with that! When we were in the studio he wanted me to listen to him but I just hear the music! And he said No you have to listen to the words and now it helps with how I arrange the music to co-ordinate with the words. Any of The Beatles songs are my favorite and any of Beatles songs by the individuals are also my favorites.