De eerste grote hit in het buitenland voor Desmond Dekker. Dekker schreef de tekst n.a.v. een volledig uit de hand gelopen studentendemonstratie, waar de stenen al gauw door de lucht vlogen. De Jamaïcaanse politie – echt nog even van een heel ander niveau dan hun Rotterdamse collega’s – hakte er stevig op in: “I write this song because of what was happening at the time. The students had a demonstration and it went all the way around to Four Shore Road and down to Shanty Town. You got wild life and hting like that because it down near to the beach and the higher ones wanted to bulldoze the whole thing down and do their own thing and the students said no way. And it just get out of control. And whasoever you hear on the records, that is what was going down. Man take a stone and throw it through the window, lick after somebody, and you read it as somebody just knock it and gone. Is just a typical riot ‘cause I say – Them a loot, them a shoot, them a wail. It was wild, wild. …”.
007 Shanty Town bereikte de eerste plaats in Jamaïca en de twaalfde plek in het VK. Het succes van de song bewees dat Jamaïcaanse muziek ook buiten het eiland commerciële potentie had.
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At ocean eleven
And now rudeboys a go wail
‘Cause them out of jail
Rudeboys cannot fail
Cause them must get bail
Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail
A Shanty Town
Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail
A Shanty Town
Dem rude boys deh pon probation
A Shanty Town
Them a rude boy a bomb up the town
A Shanty Town
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At ocean eleven
And now rudeboys a go wail
Cause them out of jail
Rudeboys cannot fail
Cause them must get bail
Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail
A Shanty Town
Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail
A Shanty Town
Dem rude boys deh pon probation
A Shanty Town
Them a rude boy a bomb up the town
A Shanty Town
Police get taller
A Shanty Town
Soldier get longer
A Shanty Town
Rudeboy a weep and a wail
A Shanty Town
Rude boys a weep and a wail
A Shanty Town
Uitgelichte afbeelding: By Original photo by sean mason from Austin, Texas, USA. Cropped by Gaaarg. – originally posted to Flickr as Desmond Dekker, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4138652
