In commemoration of Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of Indepence from Britain, the Jamaica Observer’s Entertainment section recognises 50 persons who made significant, yet unheralded, contributions to the country’s culture. This week we feature Clancy Eccles.

THE politicians got most of the credit for the People’s National Party’s (PNP) general election victories in 1972 and 1976, but someone who played a critical role in those landslide triumphs was musician Clancy Eccles.

Last Wednesday marked 40 years since the PNP first won state power in independent Jamaica. Michael Manley was elected prime minister and Eccles was among the persons credited with bringing out the youth vote.

The St Mary-born Eccles organised the musical bandwagon that accompanied Manley on his islandwide campaign leading up to the February 29 poll. It featured the top reggae acts of the day: Junior Byles, Max Romeo, Inner Circle, the Wailers and Toots and the Maytals.

Their performances complemented Manley’s fiery rhetoric, and reflected the influence reggae and Rastafari had on Jamaican youth.

Eccles started his career as a singer in the early 1960s on the Ocho Rios hotel circuit, first recording for producer Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd’s Studio One label. Later that decade, Eccles and another Studio One ‘graduate’, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, established a partnership that produced songs like Eric ‘Monty’ Morris’ Say What You’re Saying and Feel The Rhythm which was done by Eccles.

Guitarist Ernie Ranglin, who played on both songs at the Treasure Isle studio, told American author David Katz (author of the book, Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae) that Say What You’re Saying and Feel The Rhythm are the first reggae songs.

Eccles’ standing on the entertainment scene made him the go-to man when the PNP decided to use music as part of their campaign for the 1972 election.

Four years later, Eccles was again in the PNP picture, producing the party’s campaign song, My Leader Born Yah by Neville ‘Struggle’ Martin. Recorded at the hot Channel One studio, the song promoted Manley’s bold initiatives including free education and repeal of the Bastard Act. For all his contributions to the development of Jamaican music and politics, when Clancy Eccles died from complications of a stroke in 2005, he was largely forgotten by an industry he helped shape.