Jack Sparrow – Ice Water

29th September 1965 · 1960s, 1965, Music, Reggae

Jack Sparrow (aka Leonard Dillon of The Ethiopians) puts the rude into rude boy with this ska classic from 1965 with innuendo-laden lyrics.

Let’s go right back to 1965 for this little slice of reggae history that puts the rude into rude boy with its innuendo-laden lyrics.

‘Jack Sparrow’ is an early pseudonym used by Leonard Dillon, soon to become the founder of the vocal group The Ethiopians, who dominated the rocksteady era.

On this tune, one of four he recorded at Studio One after befriending Peter Tosh when he moved to Trenchtown (and getting an introduction to Coxsone Dodd) actually features The Wailers – at the time a vocal trio of Tosh, Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer.

It also features what I thought was a tremendous trumpet solo but I’m now led to believe is a tenor sax, played by Roland Alphonso of The Skatalites. Either way, it’s a classic.

And while ‘Jack Sparrow’ never set the music charts alight, the name would live on…