Good morning,
Welcome to your weekly free edition of The New Cue, AKA The Only Good Thing About Monday. Today we’ve got a chat with a fired-up Don Letts to get your week rolling.
We’ll see you on Friday for some Recommender action - don’t forget to Subscribe if you don’t already and share it if you like it. Spread the word!
Enjoy the edition,
Ted, Niall and Chris
Start The Week With… Don Letts
On Friday, film-maker, writer and DJ Don Letts added another page to his CV when he released his debut solo album Outta Sync. He might not have released a record under his own name before but he’s been involved in a wealth of other projects. Back in 1978, around the time Don was a key figure in The Clash’s inner-circle, he made this EP with Jah Wobble, Keith Levene and Steel Leg:
A few years later, he co-founded Big Audio Dynamite with Mick Jones after Jones had been ousted from The Clash. Operating as the band’s sampler and co-vocalist, Don released four records with BAD until Jones reconfigured the line-up in 1990. Killing Joke bassist Youth was the man who convinced him now was the time to make his own record. Outta Sync is an excellent album, a psychedelic dub record with Don very much at the centre of things as an array of guests including John Cusack, Wayne Coyne, Don’s daughter Honor, Hollie Cook and more pass through. Making the record hasn’t been without its tribulations, however, as Don told Niall when they spoke on the phone last week…
Hello Don. Your album is finally out tomorrow, how are you feeling about it?
Mixed emotions really, because I’ve had a lot of obstacles put in my way. As you probably know, it was supposed to come out a year ago, so mixed emotions, not as happy as I could be. Also, one of the hurdles is that because of all the nonsense, there’s no vinyl version of the album. At the moment, there’s no vinyl version. It’s a convoluted story.
Having no vinyl version feels very un-Don Letts.
Tell me about it now. It’s killed the vibe for me, I gotta be honest. I’m old school, I’m of the vinyl generation. I was always looking forward to holding the finished thing in my hand. Having said that, there is a version of it on vinyl, but I’m not allowed to release it. But that’s a whole other story.
Did you have any inkling that there was going to be so many subplots in making the album?
Not at all, because no one could have foreseen the passing of Terry Hall. All I can say is that on the original album, there were two tracks featuring Terry, which I had permission from him and powers beyond my control and decided I can’t put it out, which begs the question, who owns the fucking culture?
I was going to ask what happened to the songs featuring Terry, I remember seeing his name on the credits when it was announced.
And now what’s happened is he’s not on there. My hands are slightly somewhat tied as to what I can and can’t say. Although I will say this: there is no-one alive on this planet that can look me in the face and tell me this is what Terry would have wanted. Nobody. And I mean that.
Yeah, I bet. Terry was originally on The Universe Knows What You’ve Done, wasn’t he?
Terry was on that and The Doorman. I’ve had to take him off The Doorman and I’ve had to replace him on …Universe with John Cusack. In a weird way, that John Cusack appearance is courtesy of Joe Strummer because John Cusack is a big Clash and Joe Strummer fan. It came through that lead, that’s how I hooked up with him. No-one’s on there for namesake, everybody has to have some kind of organic connection to me, or indeed to the songs. When you hear the …Universe, you’ll understand John’s connection.
Although what’s weird is when the record was supposed to come out almost a year ago now, there were listening copies sent out, so people will have heard the Terry version. But like I said, apparently, I’m not supposed to talk about this too much. I mean, the whole record is about telling the truth. Without a doubt, it’s unashamedly grown up and age appropriate.
Haha.
No really, you’re laughing but I tell you what, in the first song Outta Sync, one of the lyrics says, ‘the young ain’t what they used to be but neither are the old’, that’s what I mean about age appropriate because what the record companies seem to have a hard time getting their head around is that the landscape has totally changed. My generation did not become our parents and that older market are the ones that actually got the money to buy the fucking vinyl records and the gig tickets and the concert tickets. Obviously, the younger market feeds the older market, but the older market didn’t exist before. Older people that are still going out, still buying records. And that’s who the record is for, it’s definitely for an older crowd. And a hipper younger crowd.
It's got a swagger to it that you wouldn’t really associate with what you’re calling an older crowd, though.
See, I disagree with you. I DJ out and about all over the place and my crowd ranges from about 18 to bloody 60. I don’t have any problem embracing what I am, that’s another reason why the record called Outta Sync. What’s that old adage about you’re only as old as you feel? There comes a time in life when there’s no denying you’re as old as your fucking are. Your body tells you that. Having said that, because of 50/60 years of rock’n’roll music or music generally, old ain’t what it used to be, so I’m actually loving where I am. I’ve had a great fucking journey and I’m still in the saddle.
Take me back to the very beginning of the album, what was the spark for it?
It was just pre-lockdown and I was on the phone with Youth, bass player extraordinaire for Killing Joke and super-producer. We’ve been friends for a long time. I’ve known him since the punk rock days, and he was going on about me doing my own thing, that it’s about time. I’m like, ‘Look, I’m 67 years old, did Big Audio Dynamite, not really looking to switch lanes now’. Anyway, he ended up sending me four or five basslines and I’m a sucker for bass, man. Being Youth basslines, they immediately fired up my brain to be creative.
So he knew what he was doing, he was coaxing you out.
Let’s put it this way, he’s served his apprenticeship. He knows the things I like, we’re both disciples of sound system culture. Anyway, he gives me these basslines that fire up my creative juices. The next thing I do is rope in a gentleman called Gaudi, another musician and producer extraordinaire. I have to say, without him, this record would not exist, because anybody that knows Don Letts knows I can’t play any musical instruments. Never could, still can’t. I play ideas, I don’t play instruments. I got together with Gaudi and that was on the back of actually a friendship that was formed when we did a dub version of E=MC2 for my Late Night Tales comp. I’ve worked with a lot of fucking people in my life and Gaudi is amazingly talented.
Did you learn anything about yourself making this record?
I think everything I had to learn about myself came through Covid because lockdown was interesting, wasn’t it? Because the good thing about lockdown is that it gave you a lot of time to think, didn’t it? The bad thing about lockdown was it gave you a lot of time to think... you’re supposed to laugh at that.
Oh, hahah...
So I put what would have been a dilemma into the lyrics on this album. It’s not so much about this week’s newspaper headlines, it’s more to do with, dare I say, eternal themes that are constants, things that have a longer shelf life. I’m not really good at disposable. I’m of that generation that believes you need to justify the space you occupy otherwise you’re fucking baggage, so I never took that space for granted. Also, because I’m not a technically trained singer by any means. I put all my strengths as I see them into the lyrical content and the melodies. I grew up with pop music, pop’s not a dirty word in my house. I wanted to make something that resonated with people. I love the combination of bass and and that’s what I tried to explore on this record.
How did you find approaching the lyric writing?
Don’t forget, I co-wrote half the lyrics with Mick in Big Audio Dynamite. I like putting words together, I always have, I just haven’t had the opportunity other than in my documentary films. But I really enjoyed putting words together, sometimes being straight to the point, sometimes being a little cryptic, but always leaving room for interpretation.
Out of your vast skill set, which one comes most naturally?
Over the last few years, I’ve had the Late Night Tales comp out, the book came out, There And Black Again, somebody made a film about me called Rebel Dread that came out, and it made me start thinking, ‘What the fuck is all the fuss about?’. It made me own the fact that my work has connected with X amount of people and that gives the work meaning, so that’s got to count for something. But I’ve come to the conclusion that my only real discernible talent is having good taste and in the 21st century, apparently, that’s serious fucking currency. Ironic really. I’ve always just been honest about what I liked, that’s why they call me the Rebel Dread.
How it was collaborating with your daughter Honor on Civilization?
It was interesting, because that song was actually inspired by me getting lost in Africa many years ago. Africa is part of my roots but when I got there, I realised, for better or worse, I was something different, I was this black and British hybrid, so the song is about disconnection. Then I took my daughter to Jamaica, and I’m of Jamaican heritage but I realised that she has the same disconnect, not quite sure whether to embrace or reject the culture of her father.
I realised the idea of the song Civilization had a wider appeal than my experience in Africa, especially with all the emigration that’s happened over the last 50+ plus years. It had ideas that a lot of people could resonate with, people that have been displaced, either through choice or through their parents’ migration. I heard Honor singing along to the song and I did like that idea of exploring harmonies between relatives, that there’s supposed to be DNA connection. Although that’s assuming that you can all sing. She can!
Yeah, it would all go to pot if a member of the family was tone deaf.
Yeah, exactly. I gotta put my hand up and say not being a trained singer, I figured that to have some sort of sonic dynamics, I needed some vocal help. The guest vocals are there for a sonic break from my monotony, to be quite frank.
You’ve done the book, the film and now the album. What’s next?
I tell you what I’ve realised is that between all three, you really get to know me if you give a shit. Because at this age now, you’ve got to own what you are, man. I think my biggest thing nowadays is just being bloody honest. In times of bullshit, honesty is a great strength. Who is it who said, ‘In times of crisis, the truth is revolutionary’. It wasn’t me, but I’ll quote him or her or them.
I think after all the hurdles it’s been through, you should allow yourself a bit of satisfaction that the album is coming out tomorrow.
Thank you very much. I just hope people get to hear it. It’s not a bad ride top to bottom and it is, for better or worse, the sum total of my cultural journey and reflection of who I am, which is black and British. There’s no getting around that shit.
ND