Morgan's recording career stretches back to the birth of the Jamaican record industry, c. 1959-60. An imposing figure invariably topped with an almost brimless pork-pie hat, his cool, hip and rhymic voice, enlivened by the occasional excited yelp, applied itself successfully to a variety of styles in those formative years, such as the Latin beat of "Fat Man" (1960), the gospel fervour of "I Pray For You" (1961) and the shuffling R&B of his Jamaican Independence anthem, "Forward March" (1962). He duetted with female singer Patsy on a series of Shirley And Lee-styled numbers, that duo being currently popular in Jamaica, before settling into ska style with "Shake A Leg" (1962) and other recordings for Prince Buster.
His split from Buster to join the Chinese-owned Beverley's Records led to an entertaining, and successful, exchange of insults on singles like Morgan's "Blazing Fire" and Buster's unequivocal "Blackhead China Man" (Buster resented the idea of the Jamaican music industry beiing controlled by non-blacks). Morgan recorded prolifically throughout the 60s and into the 70s, recording rocksteady cuts such as "Greedy Gal" (1967). He quickly became a very popular figure with reggae UK skinhead followers. About this time his sight, always impared, deterriorated to the extent where he could see only "light and clouds", and he is now musically less active, though as recently as 1990 he travelled to London for a ska revival concert.
Quelle: Larkin, Colin (Ed.): The Guiness Who 's Who Of Reggae, Enfield, 1994
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