Edward O’Sullivan Lee… “but my friends call me Bunny or Striker Lee”

Always a man who could make things happen, Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee commanded respect and affection in equal measure, and his reputation in the Jamaican recording business is truly beyond compare. As a creator of innumerable musical innovations, he not only made some of reggae music’s biggest ever hits but also ensured that everyone else was looked after too.

“Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee has faithfully met the needs of his audience for music that accurately reflected their concerns and, in the process, enjoyed huge hits and provided work for dozens of singers, musicians and studio technicians” – Steve Barrow

Born in Kingston’s Jubilee Hospital, his enduring epithet derived from “the first film I see (The Hitchhiker starring Edmond O’Brien) and everybody used to shorten it and say Chiker first… now some say Triker and some say Striker.” Growing up in the Kingston 13 district of Greenwich Town, “it was Greenwich Farm then”, on leaving school he trained as an electrical engineer then repaired NSU Quicklys (German manufactured mopeds) before working as a sales clerk for Uni Motors and Kingston Industrial Garage. An avid sound system devotee and enthusiastic dancer, Striker’s initial involvement in the music business came in 1962 as an independent plugger for Duke Reid at Treasure Isle, Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd at Studio One, Ken Lack at Caltone and Lesley Kong’s Beverley’s Records.

“When I say plugging I used to get their records played on Teenage Dance Party [an influential JBC live broadcast radio show hosted by Sonny Bradshaw] and we’d dance so if you had a record to plug you’d put it on and dance to it and show the latest moves. Yeah man! We had to just create some moves!” – Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee

Striker was firm friends with many of the top singers of the time including Roy Shirley, Slim Smith and especially his brother-in-law Derrick Morgan, who “was a good teacher and I used to go to the studio and watch him recording”. He himself began producing records in 1967. “Desmond Dekker should have won” that year’s Festival Song Competition with “Unity” but The Jamaicans’ “Baba Boom” for Duke Reid was the eventual winner thanks to Striker’s relentless promotion campaign. In return the Duke generously gifted Striker some studio time and he produced “about four tunes” with Lyn Taitt & The Jets at Treasure Isle. Roy Shirley’s “Music Field” from the session released on his own Lee label was his first hit. “That was when I left KIG,” and this “favour for a favour” approach set a template that Striker adhered to throughout his career.

His early productions were released in the UK through Rita & Benny King’s Caltone label and Graeme Goodall’s Doctor Bird imprint. In 1968 Striker flew to London for the first time to establish links with Chris Blackwell’s Island Records. Instead of money he told them “better you give me some instruments… Bobby Aitken got a Gretsch guitar, Alva ‘Reggie’ Lewis got a Gibson guitar I think and some little Hofner bass like The Beatles used to play.” By now Striker was producing prolifically and the London based Trojan and Pama organisations also issued his recordings, which were instrumental in establishing both labels. The Palmer brothers released Max Romeo’s risqué “Wet Dream” on Unity, a subsidiary label dedicated solely to Striker’s productions. Despite being banned by the BBC and Mecca Ballrooms, the following year “Wet Dream” spent 25 weeks in the UK National Charts “coming like Frank Sinatra and “My Way””. It was one of the first Jamaican records to cross over, yet Alan Freeman had to describe it as “a record by Max Romeo” on Sunday afternoon’s chart rundown on BBC Radio One… even as he could never play it.

“From “Wet Dream” you don’t know what’s going to hit… so after that if I told a man to sing a tune… even if it was foolishness… he would do it” – Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee

Working with every major player in the reggae world, his propensity for hit making was unprecedented – “Striker strikes again!” – and from 1969–72 he was awarded the annual title of Jamaica’s Top Producer. In 1971 his production of John Holt’s interpretation of Shep & The Limelites’ “Stick By Me” gained the record for the longest consecutive period at the Number One position in the Jamaican Charts. That year Striker also won Jamaica’s first gold record, presented by Tom Dowd of Atlantic Records, for Eric Donaldson’s “Cherry Oh Baby”, a song using Striker’s broken beat that was the runaway winner in that year’s Festival Song Competition. Now acknowledged as Jamaica’s biggest selling record ever, it’s the most popular Festival song of all time – every year since the judges complain that there are far too many “Cherry Oh Baby” sound-alikes. The song was later covered by The Rolling Stones and UB40.

Alternative instrumental and vocal versions of popular songs were a long established component of Kingston’s cut throat musical scene. “We couldn’t afford for every song to get a different set of musicians so we use the same rhythm over again,” said Striker. And, at the beginning of the 1970s, ‘version’ B sides, featuring the A side rhythm track with only snatches of the vocal, became standard procedure for reggae singles. Striker and Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock proved pivotal in the next step forward into the music that would become universally known as dub. “Tubbys started to get popular and I started to get Tubbys to mix and used him as an engineer,” Striker recalled, and, in 1972, he brokered a deal between Byron Lee at Dynamic Sounds and Tubby. As a result, Tubby purchased the four-track equipment, including the MCI console, from Dynamic’s Studio B. Striker went on to ask Soul Syndicate drummer Carlton ‘Santa’ Davis to build a new style of rhythm based around the Philadelphia disco sound, termed flying cymbals that became known as flyers.

“Yeah… I used to get Kentucky Fried Chicken and when it came they’d say, ‘put up the flyers for Striker’, meaning the chicken wings (which I loved) and they used to say ‘Striker. When you a go fly?’” – Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee

Throughout 1974–75 Striker’s flyers rhythms completely dominated the local scene following Johnny Clarke’s interpretation of Earl Zero’s “None Shall Escape The Judgment”, which Striker had given to Tubby for exclusive play on the Home Town Hi Fi. Two dub albums showcasing flyers rhythms, King Tubby The Dub Master Presents The Roots Of Dub and King Tubby The Dub Master Presents Dub From The Roots, came resplendent with photographs of Tubby at the controls in his Dromilly Avenue studio. The third album in the series, Brass Rockers: Bunny Lee & King Tubby Present Tommy McCook & The Aggrovatars, featured Tommy McCook and his tenor saxophone on the front with the entire line-up of The Aggrovators photographed and named with their respective instruments on the back cover. Released by Total Sounds, these were the first vinyl releases to promote King Tubby to music lovers in Jamaica and internationally, ensuring that “the music reached many people who were previously unfamiliar with this new development in reggae”, according to reggae photographer Beth Lesser. Tubby’s studio, in the heart of the Waterhouse ghetto, subsequently became “the undisputed mecca of dub”, stated journalist Dave Hendley.

“I started to put their names on the LP sleeves because people never used to put on the musicians’ names. I was the first to start that. Give Caesar what him due! Who play organ. Who play what. And that’s why these men made a name for themselves because now you could know ‘Sly on drums’ or ‘Santa on drums’” – Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee

As roots records came to the fore, Striker hit with ‘reality’ outings from Johnny Clarke and Linval Thompson and established stalwarts including Horace Andy, Cornell Campbell, Jackie ‘Wilfred’ Edwards, Owen Gray and Delroy Wilson. The first time Lowell ‘Sly’ Dunbar and bassist Robert ‘Robbie’ Shakespeare played together was on a John Holt session for Striker at Channel One, when he insisted that Sly “don’t tell me no”. Deejay records from Dennis Alcapone, Dr Alimantado, U Roy, Jah Stitch and Tapper Zukie helped to define this new art form and, inevitably, it was Striker who instigated the infamous on-record feud between I Roy and Prince Jazzbo... “straight to their heads” which “generated some life in a the music business!” Giving them a start in the business, Striker encouraged younger producers including Winston ‘Niney The Observer’ Holness, Lloyd ‘Prince/King Jammy’ James, David ‘Tapper Zukie’ Sinclair and Ossie ‘Black Solidarity’ Thomas. And, never missing a beat, he continued to make records that mattered in the 1980s dance hall era with Barry Brown and Don Carlos. In 1987, he was the first producer to take Beanie Man to the studio for The Invincible (The Ten Year Old DJ Wonder’) album.

During the 80s “I eased up and did turn to making soul and rhythm & blues music because it got too tough”, but Striker also began to rerelease and license his copious catalogue of hits worldwide. From the outset he had realised the importance of issuing his records internationally, and from 1994 onwards thoughtfully compiled releases on Blood & Fire introduced his music to an entirely new audience. Labels including Jamaican Recordings and Kingston Sounds in particular, Dub Store, Greensleeves/VP, Pressure Sounds and Soul Jazz have carried on this important work. His rhythms and songs have been endlessly sung over, recycled and sampled by artists and producers not only in reggae but also in countless other musical genres too numerous to list here.

In October 2008 at Kingston’s National Honours and Awards Ceremony, Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer for “more than 40 years of dedicated service to the music industry”. In 2012 he published his autobiography, Reggae Going International 1967–1976 The Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee Story, as told to this writer and the redoubtable Jah Floyd. There was never any need to embellish Striker’s narrative, recounted over a series of lengthy interviews and question and answer sessions held over the course of six years. Although many of his stories – and he had plenty – might have seemed so far-fetched as to be almost unbelievable, the facts bore him out every time. His prodigious memory and almost total recall, for example, of obscure 1950s R&B 78s, and who played what instrument on what recording session – “Cornell (Campbell) played the bass… he is an ace bass man too…” – and in what studio was nothing short of phenomenal. The following year Diggory Kenrick’s documentary film I Am The Gorgon Bunny 'Striker' Lee And The Roots Of Reggae was released.

Striker had been suffering from kidney problems for some time and died in Kingston on 6 October. My heartfelt condolences to Annette, Striker’s children, grandchildren, friends, acquaintances and associates worldwide. We shall not see his like again.

All quotes from: Reggae Going International 1967–1976 The Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee Story by Noel Hawks & Jah Floyd (Jamaican Recordings Publishing, 2012)