Dillinger Marijuana In My Brain

In the early 1970s, top-ranking toaster Lester Bullock got his start on the El Paso sound system in the mean streets of western Kingston. Initially known as Young Capone, since he was a protégé of the better-established Dennis Alcapone, he was renamed Dillinger by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, the first producer to record a significant number of tracks with the youth. “Dub Organiser” and “Tighten Up Skank” were somewhat popular when released in 1973 and there were individual tracks cut for Phil Pratt, Augustus Pablo, Prince Tony Robinson and Joe Gibbs, as well as Studio One, who issued debut LP, Ready Natty Dreadie, in 1975. By then, Dillinger was recording a series of singles for hit-making produce Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee, particularly on Johnnie Clarke’s rhythms, though recordings for Channel One and the CB 200 album were what catapulted him into overseas consciousness in 1976, once the outstanding single, “Cokane In My Brain,” reached the European pop charts. Marijuana In My Brain dates from 1977 and placed the toaster over some of the Striker’s hottest rhythms, previously utilised for Johnnie Clarke scorchers like “Satta” and “Poor Marcus” (along with the odd Ronnie Davis track); Clarke’s reading of “Going To A Ball” is here transformed into an ode to the Bouncing Ball, then one of the most popular clubs for black Londoners, and his “African Roots” anthem gets the Dillinger treatment too. Of course, the title track was the biggest hit of the bunch, an ode to the ‘wisdom weed’ driven by cosmic space synth overdubs.