Post #90664 by aquarj on Tue, May 11, 2004 3:08 PM

Thanks for posting this, and sorry to hear it. One summer during college (1989 or so) I was in New York, and I specifically rode out to Jamaica NY to visit Coxsone's Studio One store since I was a fan of the old rocksteady sound. I probably wasn't the typical looking customer but they treated me like family and started pulling records to play for me. In fact I think the people in the store were family of Coxsone. After playing a couple records and talking story, they said, "oh yeah, you wanna meet Coxsone?" Turned out he was there in person, just hanging out in the back. So they brought him out and he sat in a chair in the store area and started talking about different LPs and artists, and telling me to grab this or that and hand it to the guy behind the counter to play. I was probably there like an hour and a half. Stacks of raw vinyl sitting around next to stacks of labels and LP sleeves, waiting to be assembled and put out. Couldn't have had a nicer, more relaxed time with them. Only wish I brought more cash, since it was cash-only! But they even gave me some free stuff too since I was a dj back then.

Anyway, it was an honor to meet Coxsone and hear his stories. In some ways, he was originally another record geek too, who used to come over and get piles of records from the U.S. to bring back to Jamaica and play in the dancehalls. But in doing so he was a major music ambassador for the island, and a huge influence on one of the most prolific music cultures in the world. I'm really fascinated by people like him.

-Randy