Black Ark recording orignal released 1977
One day during the early summer of 1977 singer Ronnie Davis and his longtime friend and business partner, music-producer Pat Sutherland better known as ‘Scabba’, went into Washington Gardens to visit Lee Perry at his Black Ark Studio. Ronnie recorded two songs on that day, the first one “You are the fool” , and the second “Laugh it off”. Both tunes were recorded using Perry’s in-house musicians and got mixed the same day by the Upsetter himself after the recording sessions had been finished. The songs got re-mixed further by Perry pairing both tunes with extended dub versions, later to be found on the b-side of the 7” releases.
The Black Ark was operating at its’ peak in 1977 and it was exactly during this period when Ronnie Davis recorded his only two tunes there. Neither of them does miss the typical flanger and phaser-sounds, so much associated with the Black Ark and so beloved by Lee Perry followers around the globe. The rhythm, laid down by Boris Gardiner, Mickey Boo, Chinna Smith and the other musicians, is one of the finest examples of purest 1977 Rockers-style. A 4-to-the-floor, forward grooving beat, with Perry and the whole ark in full swing. Harmony vocals to ‘Laugh it off’ were provided by a female group called the Full Experience.
More than happy with the results, Scabba went off to release both songs immediately. Decisions were made that the tunes would get used to further promote a local sound called Grotto’s Swing Disco from nearby Fletcher’s Land neighborhood. So finally both tunes got released in the summer of 1977 on 7” through the “Grotto”-label, specially launched for the occasion. 300 copies of each tune were done originally. While ‘You are the fool’ saw a later (re-) release on the ‘On Top’-label in around 2012, it is now the first time ‘Laugh it off’ gets a (re-)release since the days of 1977. A true Black Ark-“Killer”, now finally available again!
