General Degree - "Pot Cover" - Is anything else like this??

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Dubquixote

Submariner
For years now one of my secret weapons in the record box has been a fantastically strange old dancehall tune by General Degree called "Pot Cover" which is on the 400% Dynamite compilation on Soul Jazz. It's got a double-time beat and infectious bass with strange sounds on top that sound literally like the cover of a cooking pot being dropped down stairs, and MC's riding on top without so much as rhyming or flowing but chatting mostly indecipherable weirdness. It's a complete mystery to me and unlike anything else that I have managed to track down. Every time I play it people come up to me and ask what the fuck it is.

Does anybody know about this tune and how it came to be and more importantly if there are others like it???
 
Grievous Angel

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
This is big tune no doubt. There's quite a few tunes that got full release on that rhythm and a couple of them are on the Pot Cover section of Friday night special: John Eden’s ultimate roots’n'dancehall mix
 (actually the first full-length reggae mix John ever did, though it's immensely accomplished).

Track listing, blog entry and label scans:
http://blog.grievousangel.net/index.php?p=213

Just the audio:

Loading…

www.grievousangel.net

It's on 400% Dynamite, so expect the recognition factor to get a lot stronger.
 
D

droid

Guest
Is this the one you're talking about?

http://raddy73.tripod.com/samples/potcover.ram

That's a Degree riddim - he made it himself. Theres a great Mad Cobra tune on it called 'tek it off', and another Degree vocal called 'Dutch Pot'.

If you like that, youll probably also be into riddims like 'Grass Cyatt', bada bada, Underwater, Joint, High Grade, Baddis, Wave, Warlord etc.. a lot of the mid-late 90's dancehall has that same quirky edge to it.

Other General Degree produced riddims include Quicksand and Dry Cough, neither of which are particularly mind-blowing...
 
R

redcrescent

Well-known member
More GD riddims: Arrow, River Bed, Rattlesnake, Dingy + Gravity (?)
Dutch Pot is also the name of his label, I believe.

John Eden's mix is absolutely blindin', take up Paul 2Stepfan's kind offer to d/l it if you haven't already done so.
 
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Dubquixote

Submariner
Wow this is super. I'll definitely look for all those other ones.

And I'll definitely check your mix, John. The JA vs UK one was big.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
Thanks for the nice comments...

Tek it Off and Pot Cover are on that mix. There are other cuts as well but I don't have them. There is also one side of a riddim LP dedicated to it, which I foolishly passed up a couple of years ago and haven't seen since.

It's mad, and we like that...
 
D

droid

Guest
One thing I forgot to mention. The 'Now thing' Lp on Mo Wax, released about 3 years ago, has a load of riddims (without vocals) on it from around the same period, including some of the ones I mentioned above... I think Molexroots put up a mix from it a few months back, so you should be able to check it out on his site...
 
C

Clubberlang

Well-known member
Are you guys sure this tune is self-produced by General Degree? 400% lists S. Marsden as the co-writer which would indicate to me that it is a Lenky tune.
 
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droid

Guest
Clubberlang said:
Are you guys sure this tune is self-produced by General Degree? 400% lists S. Marsden as the co-writer which would indicate to me that it is a Lenky tune.
Click to expand...

'Twas the first Riddim Degree produced. If Lenky was involved I imagine he engineered it. The original 7 came out on 'Size 8', and Im pretty sure it only credits Degree (but Id have to double check that).
 
R

redcrescent

Well-known member
I concur with droid.
The production credit on the Dutch Pot and (Chrissy D's) Strike like matches 7" (Size 8) goes to one 'Snapple Dapple', none other than Degree himself.
He's also produced things as 'Papa Lover' and 'Rudy Valentino'.
Degree has worked with a number of producers such Mainstreet, Penthouse, Shocking Vibes and Bobby Digital. His Yeah Man album has self-produced material as well as Richie Stevens and Dave Kelly productions.
I think it's plausible Lenky was involved in some way. However, (musician/songwriting/production/engineering) credits on JA releases are often misleading.
 
G

gabriel

The Heatwave
mmm... 'producer' is often the person who has financed the production rather than actually 'producing' it in the english/other sense of the word. (this is often called engineering i think). then there's the 'musician' credit, which on an entirely electronic riddim, sounds very much like 'producer' in the english/other sense to me!

i think we can safely call this riddim a degree/lenky collaboration :D
 
D

droid

Guest
xiquet said:
mmm... 'producer' is often the person who has financed the production rather than actually 'producing' it in the english/other sense of the word. (this is often called engineering i think). then there's the 'musician' credit, which on an entirely electronic riddim, sounds very much like 'producer' in the english/other sense to me!

i think we can safely call this riddim a degree/lenky collaboration :D
Click to expand...

Dunno about that... Id trust the credits on a 'Size 8' 7" just as much as I would a '% dynamite' LP, seeing as its Degree's label and all... plus I remember hearing an interview with him on Goldfinger where he was going about it - saying he was happy with the reaction to his 'first riddim'... (although that was over 5 years ago, so my memory could be playing tricks. :confused: )
 
G

gabriel

The Heatwave
it's not about the trustworthiness of the credits (though jamaican labels are famously inaccurate, for a variety of reasons) but rather a question of terminology. all i was getting at was that 'producer' in jamaica doesn't necessarily mean 'producer' in england.
 
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