Fred Locks -

Fred Locks — aka Stafford Elliot — is a Jamaican reggae artist who released the 1976 Vulcan album Black Star Liners / True Rastaman, followed by two albums with the Creation Steppers on Revelations and Regal.

Background

Fred Locks was born Stafford Elliott on June 7, 1950, in Kingston, Jamaica. His father played guitar while his mother sang at home. His older brother Levi Elliott played guitar with Jackie Mittoo in the early-Sixties group The Rivals. Elliott sang for bar patrons as a child when his father took him to local rooms with a guitar.

Elliott started his first school group, The Flames, around age twelve with Donald Harrison, Junior Harvey, and Harvey Campbell. Harrison’s father managed their rehearsals and entered them in an amateur festival. Elliott formed The Lyrics in 1965–66 after he joined older singers Delmar Campbell and Albert Tomlinson on street-corner rehearsals.

Mittoo brought The Lyrics to Studio One, where they cut 1967 sides with Coxsone Dodd. They cut further sides at Randy’s, including “Give Thanks,” “Heed to the Right,” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Albert Tomlinson produced the group’s self-released “Sing Along” after a Randy’s session with members of Soul Syndicate.

Elliott withdrew from regular music work around early 1969 as he deepened his Rastafarian practice and grew the dreadlocks behind the Fred Locks name. He met Owen Goode at Harbour View, where Goode raised Marcus Garvey and the Black Star Line as subject matter for “Black Star Liners.” Locks first sang the song in 1973 at Harembee Theater in Seven Miles, Bull Bay.

He got his ultimate break with Hugh “Boothie” Boothe, a Harbour View associate of Locks and a Twelve Tribes of Israel member with Kingston College ties to Jackie Mittoo. Boothe and fellow Twelve Tribes member Michael “Jah Mix” Mowatt produced the 1975 “Black Star Liner” single, which first circulated through Jah Love Music before Tommy Cowan helped bring the record to Jamaican radio.

Black Star Liners

Fred Locks released his debut album, Black Star Liners, in 1976 on Vulcan.

The album contains ten Stafford Elliot songs. Locks recorded with arranger-bassist Bagga Walker, multi-instrumentalist Pablove Black (keyboards, glockenspiel), singer-arranger Sangie Davis, drummer Albert Malawi, and guitarist Earl “Chinna” Smith. The wider ensemble includes backing singers Anicia and C. McLear, bassist Junior Dan, and guitarists Jah Jerry Haynes, David Bryan, Howard “Patch” Roberts, and Noel “Wow” Bailey. Horn players Lloyd Kerr and Michael Carroll appear with bongo players Duke “Glasses” Ferron and Little D. Clue.

“Black Star Liners” chants its repatriation call over a compact backbeat, with the title phrase returning as the main cadence. “I’ve Got a Joy” brightens the lead line and sets the refrain in a lighter, upward register. “Sing-A-Long” returns to a communal chorus shape from the earlier Lyrics song, with the repeated invitation carrying the replies. “True Rastaman” steadies the lead chant around a plain code-of-conduct refrain. “Don’t Let Babylon Use You” tightens the warning into a direct admonition. “Wolf Wolf” and “Time To Change” close the set around short caution phrases and clipped cadence work.

A1. “Black Star Liners” (2:50)
A2. “Vision of Redemption” (3:03)
A3. “I’ve Got a Joy” (3:54)
A4. “Songs of the Almighty” (2:56)
A5. “Sing-A-Long” (3:06)

B1. “True Rastaman” (3:40)
B2. “Don’t Let Babylon Use You” (2:52)
B3. “Walls” (3:17)
B4. “Wolf Wolf” (2:47)
B5. “Time to Change” (3:15)

Jahlovemuzik and Tommy Cowan produced the album with arrangements by Walker, Black, and Davis. Sessions occurred at Randy’s, Channel One, and Harry J. studios in Kingston with recording engineers Errol Brown, Ernest Hoo Kim, Errol Thompson, and Sylvan Morris. The production team mixed the album at Treasure Isle with Brown, Black, and Davis.

Pig Pen Studio designed the cover package, whose front image frames a close Fred Locks portrait beneath a star-shaped title mark. Jahmikmusic issued “Black Star Liners” as a 1975 Jamaican single before Grounation issued the title in the UK.

Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon

Fred Locks & the Steppers released Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon in 1978 on Revelations.

The album presents a sung-and-dub sequence credited across Fred Locks, the Creation Steppers, Albert Malawi, Little Roy, and Cherry Rock. The program pairs five titled cuts with five corresponding dub versions. Side A opens with Locks and the Creation Steppers before Albert Malawi bridges the side break. Side B gives the final four cuts to Little Roy and Cherry Rock.

“Love and Harmony” lopes through Fred Locks’ lead chant, then leaves the title phrase ready for the corresponding version cut. “Born in Slavery (Kill Nebuchadnezzar)” answers the Babylon title cry through group-led chorus work before its paired reduction. “Let’s Get It Right” steadies Albert Malawi’s plain call, with “Get Right Dub” recutting the refrain as a version-side pattern. “Touch Not My Locks” places Little Roy’s warning in a short repeated cycle. “Love Enough To Share” gives Cherry Rock the set’s softer address before “Love Dub” pares the song to echo and return.

A1. Fred Locks – “Love and Harmony”
A2. Fred Locks – “Love and Harmony Dub”
A3. Creation Steppers – “Kill Nebuchadnezzar”
A4. Creation Steppers – “Kill Nebuchadnezzar Dub”
A5. Albert Malawi – “Let’s Get It Right”

B1. Albert Malawi – “Let’s Get It Right Dub”
B2. Little Roy – “Touch Not My Locks”
B3. Little Roy – “Touch Not My Locks Dub”
B4. Cherry Rock – “Love Enough to Share”
B5. Cherry Rock – “Love Enough to Dub”

Revelations issued the LP as REV 001. The sleeve shows a Babylonian king, a statue, and a seated elder inside a pyramidal frame.

Love and Only Love

Fred Locks & the Creation Steppers released Love and Only Love in 1982 on Regal.

The album contains ten songs: four Stafford Elliot titles at the start, “News Carrier” at the end of Side A, and five Basil Thompson–Eric Griffith titles on the second side. The Creation Steppers place lead lines against close harmony responses.

The rhythm section includes bassists Bagga Judah, Lloyd Parks, and Robbie Shakespeare; drummers Albert Malawi, Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, and Sly Dunbar; lead guitarist Earl “Chinna” Smith; and rhythm guitarists Sangie and Brownie. Keyboardists Ansell Collins and Gladstone Anderson join percussionists Skully and Sticky, with horn players Bobby Ellis, David Madden, Glen Da Costa, Tommy McCook, and Trommie.

“Love and Only Love” sways through close-voiced harmony and a rounded title refrain cut for sound-system reach. “Give Jah Your Heart and Soul” turns the devotional address into a steady lead-and-response pattern. “Voice of the Poor” sends the complaint through a firmer chorus and socially pointed lead phrases. “Cut Eye, Cut Eye” clips the contempt phrase into repeated calls, with the refrain marking each return. “News Carrier” works a direct message line through compact chorus placement. “Homeward Bound” carries the trio voices toward a return motif, while “Africa Africa” lengthens the repatriation call through repeated title phrases.

A1. “Love and Only Love” (3:18) – Stafford Elliot
A2. “Give Jah Your Heart and Soul” (3:57) – Elliot
A3. “Voice of the Poor” (4:06) – Elliot
A4. “Cut Eye, Cut Eye” (3:40) – Elliot
A5. “News Carrier” (3:37)

B1. “Homeward Bound” (3:43) – Basil Thompson / Eric Griffith
B2. “Eternally” (3:22) – Thompson / Griffith
B3. “Africa Africa” (4:28) – Thompson / Griffith
B4. “What You’re Not Supposed to Do” (4:03) – Thompson / Griffith
B5. “No Further Woman” (3:41) – Thompson / Griffith

Sessions occurred at Channel One and Harry J.’s in Kingston, where Lloydie Coxsone produced and arranged the album. A. Nero created the cover artwork, whose image presents the trio against a green field with yellow-red title typography. Tribes Man issued “Voice of the Poor” as a single (b/w “Voice of the Poor Dub”).

Discography: