As for most Jamaican vocalists
Rico participated in his earliest recording sessions for Duke Reid; he
can be heard on "Lover Boy" and on "Love Not To Brag" bothe
re-issued on a compilation by the Heartbeat
label in 1997.
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.
Rico's
Music