c1966

DROP THE RATCHET * STRANGER COLE & THE CONQUERORS * DOCTOR BIRD 1040 * UK

Another late Ska / proto Rock Steady cut, this time from Sonia Pottinger's Gayfeet label JA. This recording has Stranger Cole, a. k. a. Wilburn Cole, pleading to those who would take their 'ratchet' (weapon) out with them to leave it at home. It is insights into the life of folk who live with physical violence day-to-day, that is not found in the more abstract songs of middle class songsters, who had little real connection with the attitudes brought about by living in such brutalised conditions. In London the songs reflected the life of many where only the word 'ratchet' would have been exchanged for 'tool'.

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