Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Half Pint

Twenty-one years after it was recorded, Greetings is a guaranteed 'forward' in the dancehall, the Half Pint standard inevitably followed by the 'ri bi du ba deh' of Supercat's Under Pressure. It is one of those rare songs, though, that crosses the divide between genuine dancehall enthusiasm and the embrace of 'officialdom', having been a part of the 2007 Cricket World Cup'sofficial song and dance about the game of grace and rhythm.

It is the song that Half Pint used to set umbrellas dancing in the hands of the tiny crowd that stayed until the rainy dawn on Reggae Sunsplash 2006 in Richmond, St. Ann, and it was integral to his festival-closing performance at Reggae Sumfest 2007 in Montego Bay, St. James.

Maybe it is fitting that the song, which is a universal 'hail' on the Powerhouse label, was done cross-Atlantic fashion in the first place; after all, it has crossed many borders. It was the rhythm that came to the singer, not the singer to the rhythm

"The rhythm come. I was in London in 1986, I think it was about March. The rhythm come and I went to the studio in London, TMC. I recorded it straight, one recording. I did another song straight too, Heartbreaker," Half Pint told The Sunday Gleaner.

That 'one recording' was possible because Half Pint says "that song is like I write it in Jamaica, but never record it". He did not write it in the sense of committing it to paper, but when he went into the studio "the soul of my voice just flow".

What flowed were the lyrics and melody which being with one of the reggae commandments, as Half Pint sang:

You live the life you love

You love the life you live

Everything you have in mind Jah will give ...

Greetings I bring, from Jah

To all ragamuffin ...

Those 'ragamuffin' were key.

"Eighty-four, '85, I was was still seeing the economic condition in Jamaica looking dull. When I reach London, I see the situation the same way. I see people broke, not quite having that financial strength and looks about them. I see it in London, in Brixton, in Cold Harbour Lane. I was wondering and I say this don't look like foreign to me. This feel like a poor town. This feel like Jamaica," Half Pint said.

For the hard-up, ragamuffin residents on both sides of the ocean, Half Pint sang:

For all the diamonds and the money and pearls

I hope reggae music keeps tearing down the world

No matter what the price reggae music is nice

All you little children got suppen tonight

It was a matter of empathy and encouragement. "As a yute grow we learn from yu no dead all tings possible. Is not like drought was on the land. Food could be found," Half Pint said.

"Me was giving thanks for being alive."

This was even though he was in a situation where "me used to do electrical welding, but people could not afford to make grille.

"We might be bruck, but the music still a play," Half Pint said.

'Yardies', 'posses'

As for that 'ragamuffin', this coming at a time when the Jamaican criminals dubbed 'yardies' and 'posses' were rearing their deadly heads in England and the United States, respectively, Half Pint said, "ragamuffin is ordinary people like meself, who did still proud inna we min' and feel grateful.

"Some say Greetings is referring to a rude boy. It was not them I was referring to," Half Pint said he noted that some of them call themselves ragamuffin. "It was just recognising people who still have good ways and clean heart, proud to be alive. Those were the people I was referring to, like meself, up to this time."

Those who have answered the greeting have turned out to be many and varied. "I see white poor people on the streets in London, U.S., Europe, they gravitate to that song. They can relate to it. Even the rich man, I see them dance to it too," Half Pint said.

A particular mix of Greetings was handed over to distributor Jet Star, with a heavier bassline coming to Jamaica courtesy of engineer Mikey Riley at Dynamics Studio. Lighter or not, the Jet Star distribution took off, as Half Pint said "about a week later we hear Greetings tearing down Europe", getting into the top 100 of the charts. Locally, "I hear it tearing down Jamaica.

"I think people find great enthusiasm in Greetings. Good or bad, they establish as having to relate to them. They get some of the glory, the joy. Even the bad man jump to it," Half Pint said. Some of those 'bad man' may have been on either side of Jamaica's political fence, as the song was used by both the People's National Party and Jamaica Labour Party in the 1989 general election campaign.

Cemented his place

It was the song that cemented Half Pint's place in music as he says "previous songs they knew, but it was like the mastermind of them. That song play every night, four, five, six times, every dance. It lead me up to the Sunsplash, which I closed '86, with Greetings as the closing song.

"I went on the Taxi Connection tour with Ini Kamoze and Yellowman. When I reach America and Europe that is when I know it was a monster hit. Deep in Europe, November '86, I realise entire Europe know the song. Every night I get on stage it was like the MC song," Half Pint said.

In Tokyo, Half Pint said he performed Greetings to 120,000 people, the largest crowd it has been ever been presented to.

And in addition to the song cementing his place in reggae, Half Pint said Greetings also helped reggae recover some ground after the onslaught of digital dancehall, which began with the 'Sleng Teng' rhythm of 1985. "Reggae was on a low," he said. But with Greetings, "de energy did deh deh.

"Give thanks for the joy that Greetings bring to people over the years," Half Pint said.