In 1976, Max Romeo, a relatively unknown reggae singer at the time, faced a BBC ban on his song “Wet Dream,” a risqué hit from 1969 that gained popularity through word-of-mouth and underground play among skinheads in the U.K. The song released by Trojan Records was considered “slack” both in Jamaica and the U.K.’s reggae culture, filled with innuendo and sexual references. “Lie dung gal make me push it up push it up lie dung” he sang.
Max Romeo, now 78 filed a lawsuit last week against Universal Music Group contending that he has not seen any money form the exploitation of the song since 1976. himself clarified that “Chasing the Devil” wasn’t meant to be taken literally but symbolized the act of removing negativity from one’s mind and letting positivity prevail. He expressed dissatisfaction with the compensation he received for his highly-sampled classic, humorously noting, “How do you fight the Devil with a lawyer?”
Given name Maxwell Livingston Smith, Romeo’s early songs that drew inspiration from the sometimes lewd Caribbean calypso tradition of the 1950s. However, as the 1970s progressed, his music evolved into messages of social and political significance. In comes the tracks “Chase the Devil,” in which he declared war on Lucifer and vowed to “put on an iron shirt and chase the Devil out of Earth” and “send him to outer space.”
Island Records released “Chase the Devil” as part of Romeo’s album “War Ina Babylon” in 1976, and the album remained a classic in reggae for years. While Romeo’s original fans might have been surprised by the shift in his music’s tone, reggae enthusiasts recognized the craftsmanship and social commentary in his songs. “Chase the Devil” was also released as a single and gradually spread its roots message to a broader audience beyond reggae’s heartlands.
In typical reggae fashion, the song’s producer and co-writer, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, reused the same backing track or “rhythm” for several other records, including “Croaking Lizard” and “Disco Devil.” “Disco Devil” criticized the influence of disco and cocaine in Jamaica’s musical culture, with lines like “Give it to the Pope, make him take the dope,” referencing the Vatican’s historical role as an antagonist to Rastafarianism due to Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia in 1935 according to the Financial Times.
In 1992, The Prodigy sampled “Chase the Devil” for their single “Out of Space,” which featured Max Romeo’s voice and became a chart-topping hit in the UK. The Prodigy’s rendition emphasized the song’s cosmic message, and bootleg 12-inch singles combined “Chase the Devil” with their track.
Artists like German DJ Mellow Trax sampled for 1999 the European hit Outa Space Jay-Z, Kanye West took the line “Lucifer Son Of The Morning” for the track Lucifer from the 2003 Billboard No. 1 album “The Black Album” released by Universal.
Madness covered covered “Chase The Devil” in Dangerous Sessions Vol 1 in 2005, and Dreadzone sampled “Chase the Devil” for Iron Shirt. The song has been featured in Grand Theft Auto and the Sci-Fi movie Paul. Several reggae artists also covered the song in various versions, keeping the reggae spirit alive in the track.
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