Jamaican Halloween Spooktacular 2011 - Track Two - Copie Duppy

Before I get into today's post, I just wanted to provide a little background information for those of you who are new to the spooky side of Jamaican music or are joining us for the first time... plain and simple a duppy is the patois term for a ghost. Okay so let's keep rollin'....

Now, you may be asking yourself why am I posting the Jamaica Star article about the Font Hill duppy again... if you recall, a couple years back I shared the story of the purported real-life haunting that took place in the rural village of Font Hill during the summer of 1974.

I'm not going to recount the entire story again but if you want to give it a read you can check out the verbatim article here... it does make for some fine spooky reading.

Count Lasher's telling of the tale on the Bongoman label quickly became one of my favorite "duppy tunes" because with the article (thanks once again to Luke Ehrlich) I was finally able to disseminate the back-story and it made it all that more enjoyable.

Well rewind to last October... I had seen online that there was a 7" record on Phil Pratt's Sunshot label by someone named Tammie Lee called "Copie Duppy" - I learned that Tammie Lee was probably who wrote this song but the vocalist was none other than Max Romeo. I immediately set out to locate this record and tried unsuccessfully for months to acquire it! But as you'll soon hear, I eventually did!

Unlike Count Lasher's lighthearted take on the ghost story, Max Romeo's telling is a little more sinister... not only will Copie make you sweat, earn your respect and break your neck he'll also induce flatulence! And there ain't nothing scarier than that!