The Cool Ruler has left the building. RIP Gregory Isaacs

I grew up on dub. My uncle Alfred was something of a Rastafarian head we were constantly exposed to this music. He being the youngest had a lot of his whims catered to. But we didn’t complain. This was music.

I remember when I first heard Gregory Isaacs the first time. It was in sleepy suburb of Southwold. It was at that time already an old song. It was ‘Night Nurse’. He played it a lot so it became a memory etched deeply into my consciousness.

It was not confrontational. It was just beautiful and unassuming.

That was Gregory Isaacs for you. The quiet cool ruler who was unassuming. He made music that tugged at your heart strings and made a statue sway from side to side.

Today is not the day to talk about the cocaine addiction that eventually affected his voice or some of his run-ins with the law.