Israelites (song)

"Israelites"
Single by Desmond Dekker & The Aces
B-side "My Precious World (The Man)" by Beverley's All Stars
Released October 1968 (1968-10)
Recorded 1968
Genre Rock Steady
Length 2:35
Label Pyramid Records - PYR 6058 (UK)
Uni Records 55129 (USA)
Writer(s) Desmond Dekker and Leslie Kong
Producer(s) Leslie Kong
Desmond Dekker & The Aces singles chronology
"007 (Shanty Town)"
(1967)		 "Israelites"
(1969)		 "It Miek"
(1969)

"Israelites" is a song written by Desmond Dekker and Leslie Kong that became a hit for Dekker's group, Desmond Dekker & The Aces,[1] peaking in 1969. Although few could understand all the lyrics, the single was the first UK ska number one and among the first to reach the US top ten.[2] It combined the Rastafarian religion with rude boy concerns,[3] to make what has been described as a "timeless masterpiece that knew no boundaries".[4]

Song

“ Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir,
So that every mouth can be fed.
Poor me Israelites		 ”

So begins the best known Jamaican reggae hit to reach the Hot 100's top 10.[3] Dekker wrote the song after overhearing an argument:

“ "I was walking in the park, eating corn [popcorn]. I heard a couple arguing about money. She was saying she needs money and he was saying the work he was doing was not giving him enough. I related to those things and began to sing a little song: 'You get up in the morning and you're slaving for bread.' By the time I got home, it was complete." ”
— [5]

The vocal melody is syncopated and is centred on the tone of B flat. The chords of the guitar accompaniment are played on the offbeat and move through the tonic chord [B flat], the subdominant [E flat], the dominant [F], and the occasional [D flat],[3] viz, [B flat] - [E flat] - [F] - [B flat] - [D flat].

Note the Mediterranean scale riff in the chorus played by the guitar.

It was one of the first ska songs to become an international hit, despite Dekker's strong Jamaican accent which made his lyrics difficult to understand for audiences outside Jamaica. The opening line, "Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir" was often misheard, one example being "Wake up in the morning, baked beans for breakfast".[6]

Despite "Israelites" being recorded and released in 1968, the Uni 45 discography shows its cataloguing as unmistakably in 1969.[7] In June 1969 it reached the Top Ten in the United States, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It hit number one in the United Kingdom,[8] Netherlands, Jamaica, South Africa, Canada, Sweden and West Germany. The song came almost two years after Dekker first made his mark with the rude boy song, "007 (Shanty Town)".[1]

"Israelites" brought a Jamaican beat to the British top 40 for the first time since Millie's number two hit "My Boy Lollipop".[1]

The disc was released in the UK in March 1969 and was number one for one week, selling over 250,000 copies.[9] A global million sales was reported in June 1969.[9]

Dekker had two more UK Top Ten hits over the next year, "It Mek" and his cover of Jimmy Cliff's song, "You Can Get It If You Really Want".[1][8]

Dekker recorded on the Pyramid record label, and when its catalogue was acquired by Cactus Records in 1975, "Israelites" was re-issued in a first-time stereo mix.[1] Just over six years after the original release, the song again reached a Top Ten position in the United Kingdom.[1]

Cover versions

An early cover of the song was recorded by a group called "Travelin Troubadours"[10] on the Roto label.[11] It is included on the album "Mondo Frat Dance A Go-Go" by Arf Arf Records. The style lacks any sense of ska or rasta, but is instead a rockabilly arrangement.

The song has been covered by the Swedish punk rock band, Millencolin. It was also covered by Madness for their cover album The Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1 (2005) and by Apache Indian for his single "The Israelites" (2005).

In 1978 the song was recorded in Finnish by Reijo Karvonen & Ikaros with the name "Mistä sais" ("Where to Get It"), lyrics by Anssi Tikanmäki.

In 1987 the Catalan ska band Skatalà recorded a cover version with changed lyrics named embolingats (meaning "drunk" in Catalan).

In 2000 the supergroup Oysterhead covered the song during their first live performance at the New Orleans Jazz Fest.

In 2008 the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra covered the song, both in live concerts,[12] and on their EP, A Little Bit Wonderful.[13] This version was used in a television advertisement for Whitcoulls booksellers in New Zealand.[14][15]

Canada's Reid Jamieson covered the song on his 'Songs of 69' collection.

In 2010 Israeli garage band Electra recorded a cover version as a B-side for their debut single, "Coming to Get You!"

Contemporary usage

"Israelites" (and a corresponding mondegreen) was used in a 1990 television advertisement for Maxell audio cassettes, and was parodied in the British TV advert for Vitalite from 1987 to 1995.[16] The song is infrequently used in the UK soap opera EastEnders mainly played by shopkeeper Patrick Trueman who has been shown to favour the song.

Xaphoon Jones of the hip-hop group Chiddy Bang used a sample of "Israelites" for the song "Get Up In The Morning," which would become the first track on their mixtape The Swelly Express. Maxi Priest and UB40 mimicked the song's melody and chord progression in their 2008 collaboration, "Dance Until the Morning Light", from the UB40 album TwentyFourSeven.

"Israelites" was featured on the soundtrack of the Gus Van Sant film Drugstore Cowboy and is the opening song on the soundtrack to Nigel Cole's 2010 film Made in Dagenham.

The Vampire Weekend track "Ya Hey" mentions this song in a poetic interlude.

The song is heard playing on a radio near the end of the motion picture A Walk On The Moon (1999), but does not appear on the soundtrack for the film.

In February 2016 the song was performed by comedian Vic Reeves on the UK version of lip sync battle shown on Channel Five.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 126. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.
  2. ↑ Roberts, David (2001). British Hit Singles (14th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 40. ISBN 0-85156-156-X.
  3. 1 2 3 Mark Phillips, GCSE Music, Books.google.co.uk, retrieved 2014-03-27
  4. ↑ "Biography by Jo-Anne Green". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  5. ↑ "Desmond Dekker"(obituary)
  6. ↑ Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music (1st ed.). Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing. p. 359. ISBN 1-904041-96-5.
  7. ↑ "45 Discography for UNI Records". Retrieved 2014-05-05.
  8. 1 2 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 149. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  9. 1 2 Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 258. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
  10. ↑ "Israelites by Travelin Troubadors". YouTube.
  11. ↑ http://www.45cat.com/record/r1202. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ↑ "WIUO - The Orchestra". Ukulele.co.nz. Retrieved 2014-03-27.
  13. ↑ "A Little Bit Wonderful - EP | Amplifier NZ Music". Amplifier.co.nz. Retrieved 2014-03-27.
  14. ↑ Archived October 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ Whitcoulls & Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra (2008). Baby Names (Video). New Zealand: Whitcoulls.
  16. ↑ "Vitalite advert 1994 - singing sunflowers and sun". YouTube. 2009-07-04. Retrieved 2014-03-27.

External links

Preceded by
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye		 UK number one single
April 16, 1969 		Succeeded by
"Get Back" by The Beatles
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