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New York Times
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Max Romeo, Leading Voice in the Heyday of Roots Reggae, Dies at 80
Max Romeo, a reggae singer whose earliest hits dripped with sexual innuendo, but who then switched to a soulful, politically engaged message that provided a soundtrack to the class struggles of 1970s Jamaica and made him a mainstay on the international tour circuit, died on April 11 outside Kingston, the capital of Jamaica. He was 80. Errol Michael Henry, a lawyer who represented Mr. Romeo, said the cause of his death, in a hospital, was heart complications. Mr. Romeo, whose real surname was Smith, was among the last of a generation of Jamaican musicians who came to prominence in the 1970s, among them Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Burning Spear. Their sound, known as roots reggae, centered on the lives of ordinary people in Jamaica, blended with a heavy dollop of Black liberation and Rastafarianism. Until then, reggae had been seen, at least beyond Jamaica, as a musical novelty focused on fleeting love and sex. But the 1970s musicians' political message and laid-back sound, combined with their open marijuana use, gave reggae a new and lasting cultural resonance. Mr. Romeo's career tracked that transition. He began as a clean-cut crooner in Jamaica, part of a trio called the Emotions. After setting out on his own, he found success with raunchy songs like 'Wet Dream,' a 1968 track so explicit that many radio stations refused to play it. Nevertheless, it spent 25 weeks on the British singles chart, peaking at No. 10. Similar songs followed, several with titles involving a feline euphemism that can't be printed in a family newspaper. As a result, he came to be known as 'the original rude boy of reggae.' But Mr. Romeo was unhappy. He later told interviewers that he had been forced to record the songs by his producers. 'So after I see the glory of it, I give them a barrage of songs like that,' he told the Jamaican interviewer Teach Dem in 2023. 'But then 1971, you know, I just pulled up and say, 'Wait, I can't have a catalog like this for my grandchildren.'' He embraced Rastafarianism, grew out his hair and began recording songs about the political and class conflicts rocking Jamaica in the early 1970s. Songs like 'Revelation Time' and 'Chase the Devil' became anthems for the left-wing People's National Party and its leader, Michael Manley. Mr. Romeo stumped for Mr. Manley during his successful 1972 run for prime minister. Mr. Romeo hit his stride in the mid-1970s, thanks to a fruitful collaboration with the reggae producer Lee (Scratch) Perry. Together they created what is widely considered Mr. Romeo's best album, 'War Ina Babylon' (1976), which included 'Chase the Devil,' perhaps his best-known song. As Jamaican politics changed through the decade, rifts grew between the Manley government and many of the leading roots musicians, including Mr. Romeo. After recording a string of songs critical of the People's National Party, he feared retribution and moved to New York City. The political storms eventually passed, and he returned to Jamaica in 1989. By then recognized as a paragon of reggae, Mr. Romeo recorded 17 more studio albums over the next 30 years and maintained a heavy tour schedule; on his last tour, in 2023, he performed in 56 cities. His music took hold in other ways as well, with snippets of his lyrics appearing as samples on dance tracks and rap songs — 'Chase the Devil,' for example, shows up prominently in the Prodigy's 'Out of Space' (1992) and Jay-Z's 'Lucifer' (2003). Maxwell Livingston Smith was born on Nov. 22, 1944, in Alexandria, a town in north-central Jamaica. His mother, Emily Morris, moved to Britain when he was 8, after which he and his father, Irvin Smith, a chef, moved to Kingston. Unhappy at home, Max ran away at 14 and spent several years living on the streets. He found work as a runner for a Kingston record label, delivering singles to local radio stations. One day the label's owner heard him singing and offered to record a song he had written, 'I'll Buy You a Rainbow.' It became a hit in Kingston in 1965, and it put his career in motion. Around the same time he adopted the stage name Max Romeo, drawing on his reputation as a charmer (and his insistence that the name Max Smith lacked a certain appeal). He briefly formed the Emotions with the singers Keith Knight and Lloyd Shakespeare, the brother of the bassist Robbie Shakespeare; he also performed with the Hippy Boys, a band that included the bassist Aston Barrett, known as Family Man, later of the Wailers. Despite his lasting popularity in Jamaica and Europe, Mr. Romeo did not find similar success in the United States, even during his decade in New York. It was not without trying. He contributed songs to the 1980 Broadway musical 'Reggae,' produced by Michael Butler, who had also produced 'Hair.' He sang backup on 'Dance,' a track on the Rolling Stones' 1980 album, 'Emotional Rescue'; in return, a year later Keith Richards played on and helped produce his album 'Holding Out My Love to You.' None of it caught on. He continued to turn out albums during the 1980s, but he also worked in a record store to make money. Finally, in 1989, a friend persuaded him to return to Jamaica, and even let him live at his house for a year. Mr. Romeo's survivors include his wife, Charm; 11 children, including his daughter Xana and his son Azizzi, themselves famous singers; three sisters; three brothers; and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Like other roots reggae artists, Mr. Romeo remained committed to his Rastafarian beliefs,; they were, he said, his core motivation for making music. 'I made a pledge to Jah that every time I open my mouth, I must be giving praise,' he told Counterpunch magazine in 2019. 'Every time I move my hand, it must be something positive. But it's always about Rastafari. And I cling to that until today. That's my faith.'
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Max Romeo, Reggae Singer, Dies at 80: 'A Perfect Gentleman and a Gentle Soul'
Max Romeo, the reggae singer known for "War Ina Babylon" and "Chase the Devil," died on Friday, April 11. He was 80. His official Facebook page announced his death on Saturday, April 12. "It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Max," the statement read. "We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of love and tributes and kindly ask for privacy at this time. Legends never die." Romeo's attorney, Errol Michael Henry, gave a statement to The Guardian following his death, calling the news "quite shocking." "He was a perfect gentleman, and a gentle soul. He had great love for his family, and he was a legend in his own right. You couldn't meet a nicer person – which makes the loss more difficult." Per The Guardian, Romeo suffered from a heart condition. Romeo was a prolific artist, releasing dozens of albums and even more singles throughout his lifetime. Related: Paying Tribute to the Celebrities Who Have Died in 2025 The reggae musician was born Maxwell Livingston Smith in Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica on Nov. 22, 1944, per Billboard. Romeo started out as part of a music group called The Emotions before going solo in the late 60s. His first big hit as a solo musician was the 1969 provocative song "Wet Dream" which was banned from BBC radio stations despite it being a British top 10 song. The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! His music then took a more political turn. The 1971 song "Let the Power Fall on I" became future prime minister Michael Manley's campaign theme song, per Rolling Stone. Manley would be elected the following year. In 1977, Romeo moved to New York. While there, he collaborated with The Rolling Stones. Romeo can be heard on the 1980 Emotional Rescue track "Dance (Pt. 1)." Meanwhile, Keith Richards would wind up playing guitar for Romeo's 1981 album Holding Out My Love to You. Romeo eventually returned to Jamaica and continued recording music. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Romeo is perhaps best known for the album War Ina Babylon, which was integral to the roots reggae era. One of his most well-known songs, "Chase the Devil," has been sampled by Jay-Z, Cage the Elephant and The Prodigy. He told the BBC in 2011 he considered the devil in the 1976 song as the "negative within your psyche, just like God is the positive within your psyche. "Chasing the devil' simply meant "chasing the negative out of your mind and let it become controlled by positive." In a 2014 interview with Jamaica Observer, Romeo said at the time of his 70th birthday, "My aim is to reach 100 but if I get to 90, I will be satisfied." Romeo released his final studio album, Words From the Brave, in 2019. One of the final Instagram posts on the musician's official page was Romeo performing with his children Xana and Azizzi at the Wickie Wackie Music Fest in Bull Bay, Jamaica. Read the original article on People
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Max Romeo obituary
Max Romeo, who has died aged 80, reached his peak as a roots reggae singer in the mid-1970s with two albums, Revelation Time and War Ina Babylon, that focused on Rastafarianism and its juxtaposition with the fraught politics of post-independence Jamaica – ostensibly parochial topics that nonetheless gained him a worldwide audience. Much of Romeo's best work was done with the producer Lee Scratch Perry in the mystical Black Ark studio, where he wrote a number of reggae classics, including One Step Forward, Stealing in the Name of Jah and the memorably bombastic Chase the Devil, in which he declared: 'I'm going to put on a iron shirt / and chase the devil out of earth.' Romeo had first emerged in the late 60s with music of a more frivolous nature – notably the Rock Steady single Wet Dream (1969), which reached No 10 in the UK despite being banned from radio airplay for its sexual content. Although the popularity of his subsequent work failed to extend much beyond his mid-70s zenith, he continued to tour and record almost up to his death, notching up more than 25 albums and 75 singles. Born Maxwell Smith near the village of St D'Acre in northern Jamaica, he ran away from an unhappy home as a preteen, subsequently enduring bleak periods of homelessness and joblessness in the Jamaican capital, Kingston. He then worked as a record salesman while developing his singing in his spare time. After winning a talent competition at the age of 18, in 1965 he joined a group called the Emotions with Lloyd Shakespeare (brother of the bassist Robbie) and Kenneth Knight. They had a local hit the following year with (Buy You) A Rainbow. In 1968 Romeo went solo, and within a year had hit the big time with Wet Dream. Released first in Jamaica and then in the UK on the Pama label, initially the song received two outings on BBC Radio – until the higher-ups noticed its single entendre content and pulled it from the airwaves. Wet Dream was particularly popular with British skinheads, for whom it became an anthem, and despite official censorship it spent 25 weeks in the charts, in the process establishing Pama as one of the UK's major outlets for reggae. Romeo was subsequently able to tour the UK, and the same year released his debut solo album, A Dream, containing more sexually suggestive songs. But by the time his second album arrived in 1971 he had turned his back on such trifles, and was launching into a new phase based around his growing interest in Rastafari. 'I just pulled up and said: 'Wait, I can't have a catalogue like this for my grandchildren,'' he explained. 'So I changed to cultural songs.' As the mode of Jamaican music began to change from Rock Steady to the slower, more charged form of roots reggae, Romeo became one of its foremost exponents, with many of his songs addressing the struggles between Rastafarianism and the Jamaican establishment. He soon became associated with support for the leftwing People's National party, led by Michael Manley in opposition to the Jamaican Labour party, and his 1971 song Let the Power Fall on I was adopted as the PNP's election campaign tune. He was, however, independent-minded enough to offer some criticism of Manley, including in his 1973 song No Joshua No. The cover of Romeo's Revelation Time album (1975) featured a hammer and sickle. Its title track proved to be an enduring standout, and along with No Peace, Tacko and Blood of the Prophet, finally established him as a wholly serious figure. The following year War Ina Babylon, made in close collaboration with Perry, became one of the cornerstone records of roots reggae with four songs – War Ina Babylon, One Step Forward, Chase the Devil and Stealing in the Name of Jah – that rank among the best of the genre. Soon afterwards Romeo had a severe falling out with Perry, who was known as 'the upsetter' for good reason. His next album, Reconstruction, failed to demonstrate the same fire or originality that he had found with Perry, and in 1978 he decided to make a new start in the US. There he became involved in a Broadway musical flop, Reggae, for which he wrote some tunes, before picking up work as a backing vocalist on the Rolling Stones' album Emotional Rescue (1980). Keith Richards reciprocated by co-producing and playing guitar on Romeo's first US-based album, Holding Out My Love to You (1981), but it failed to generate much acclaim. With his mojo failing and reggae running in an increasingly digital, dancehall direction, Romeo largely disappeared from public view to run a courier service in New York. In 1989 he returned to live in Jamaica, marking his arrival with a new album, Transition. That, too, made few waves, but the recordings kept coming, and he was eventually able to find some material comfort through rereleases of old tunes on compilations. His regular issues of new material featured some interesting experiments, including the album In This Time (1999), with the Italian acoustic band Tribù Acoustica, and Pocomania Songs (2006), a collection inspired by the Afro-Jamaican religious cult. Although sales of his later recordings were modest, he remained a popular live artist, staging his final tour just two years ago with more than 50 dates across Europe. Two of his children, daughter Xana and son Azizzi, are also recording artists. He is survived by his wife, Charm. Max Romeo (Maxwell Livingston Smith), musician, born 22 November 1944; died 11 April 2025
The Guardian
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Max Romeo was a great social commentator, railing against inequality and discord
Max Romeo, who died on Friday aged 80 from complications related to a heart condition, was one of Jamaica's most celebrated vocalists; critiquing the island's pervasive class divides and wealth disparities with a distinctive tenor, he denounced punitive US foreign policy and detailed the turbulence of world affairs. Best known for War Ina Babylon, a playful commentary on the factionalism that blighted Jamaican society during the mid-1970s, and Chase the Devil, on which he vowed to banish Satan to outer space, Romeo enjoyed repeated chart success in Jamaica during his long and varied career. Collaborating with the Rolling Stones in the early 1980s, he later opened a recording studio at his home in the Jamaican countryside, helping a younger generation of artists to come to prominence, including his daughter Xana and son Azizi. Born Maxwell Smith in 1944 in Alexandria, a hillside hamlet below Browns Town in northern Jamaica, he moved to Kingston at 10 years old to live with his father following his mother's emigration, but clashed with his stepmother and absconded; moving between the disparate homes of extended family members, he was partly raised by strangers after enduring periods of homelessness. In the rocksteady era he began working as a record salesman for Ken Lack's Caltone label and made his first set of recordings for the label fronting the Emotions harmony trio, the love song I'll Buy You a Rainbow reaching the Jamaican Top 10 in March 1967. His determined courtship of a local girl earned him the nickname Romeo and after the Emotions disbanded, he got his first taste of international fame through the ribald Wet Dream, produced by Bunny Lee, which hit the UK Top 10 in November 1969, despite a BBC ban for its suggestive lyrics. The saucy hit brought Romeo to London for his first overseas performances, including at the Caribbean Music Festival held at the Empire Pool with Desmond Dekker and Johnny Nash, the bulk of Romeo's innuendo-laden debut album A Dream recorded in London with the Rudies backing band. Back in Jamaica, Romeo began focusing on social commentary, sometimes setting his lyrics to adapted folk songs or spirituals. Macabee Version referenced his newfound Rastafari faith and Black Equality attacked the Eurocentric mindset of postcolonial Jamaica; Chi Chi Bud used coded metaphors to decry the island's pervasive inequalities. Appearing on the bandwagons that helped bring Michael Manley of the leftist People's National party to power in 1972, Romeo recorded songs like Let the Power Fall and Press Along Joshua to signal his support for Manley's vision, but when change was slow to come after Manley took office, Romeo responded with the critical No Joshua No. After working on the Revelation Time album with arranger Geoffrey Chung at Lee 'Scratch' Perry's Black Ark studio in 1975, Romeo began working more concertedly with Perry, the single War Ina Babylon attracting Chris Blackwell's interest; the resultant album of the same name was released by Island Records overseas, introducing Romeo to a broader international audience. The follow-up, Reconstruction, was self-produced, with the censorious Melt Away its most outstanding number, but the album was rapidly deleted after financial disputes and the momentum further interrupted when Romeo moved to New York to star in a musical called Reggae, which flopped at the box office. He was an uncredited backing vocalist on the Rolling Stones' album Emotional Rescue in 1980 and Keith Richards subsequently appeared on Romeo's Holding Out My Love To You, a crossover attempt that broadened his fanbase in Japan, but failed to ignite in the US. Sign up to Sleeve Notes Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras. Every genre, every era, every week after newsletter promotion I remember him appearing in London in the late 1980s, where he had a galvanising effect on Lee 'Scratch' Perry. It was a fallow period for each of them and the meeting sparked a new determination to get back on track. Romeo abandoned the courier service he had run in New York for several years to make ends meet and returned to Jamaica shortly before the sensational success of the Prodigy's Out Of Space, which sampled Chase the Devil, sparking renewed interest in his work; a decade later, Kanye West mined Chase the Devil for Jay Z's Lucifer, cementing Romeo's original in the global consciousness. In the interim, albums for Jah Shaka, Mafia & Fluxy and Mad Professor made him a regular on festival stages throughout Europe and North America; the studio he opened at his home in Treadways, near Linstead, enabled his children to launch their own musical careers. Max Romeo undertook his final tour in 2023, performing in 56 cities throughout Britian and Europe, shortly after he filed a $15m lawsuit against Universal Music Group and Polygram Publishing for unpaid royalties (the companies later sought to have it dismissed). I remember Max as pragmatic, politically engaged and open minded, a thoughtful person with a strong sense of humour whose obvious intelligence and drive belied a lack of formal education. He is survived by his wife, Charm, and several children.
The Guardian
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Jamaican reggae artist Max Romeo dies aged 80
Max Romeo, the influential Jamaican reggae artist best known for tracks such as Chase the Devil and War Ina Babylon, has died at the age of 80. The singer, known to his family and friends as Maxie Smith, died after heart complications in Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica, on Friday. Romeo rose to fame in the late 1960s with his provocative hit Wet Dream. Despite being banned by the BBC, the song became a UK Top 10 single and spent 25 weeks in the charts, cementing his legacy as one of the world's most recognisable reggae voices. 'To hear of his passing is quite shocking,' said Max Romeo's lawyer, Errol Michael Henry. 'He was a perfect gentleman, and a gentle soul. He had great love for his family, and he was a legend in his own right. You couldn't meet a nicer person – which makes the loss more difficult.' Romeo began his career in 1965 as the lead vocalist for the Emotions, before his music became synonymous with the Jamaican social democracy movement of the 1970s. His song Let the Power Fall on I became a ballad for Jamaica's People's National party during its successful 1972 election campaign. His 1976 album War Ina Babylon, released on Island Records and backed by Jamaican band the Upsetters, is widely regarded as a classic of the roots reggae era. It featured Chase the Devil, a song that has since been sampled by artists across genres, including the Prodigy and Kanye West. Romeo later moved to New York in 1978, where he co-wrote and starred in the musical Reggae, while he went on to perform backing vocals on the Rolling Stones' track Dance on their Emotional Rescue album.
