Willi Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Willi Williams | |
|---|---|
| Born | Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica |
| Genre(s) | Reggae, Dub |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, producer |
| Instrument(s) | Singer |
| Years active | 1960s-present |
| Label(s) | Studio One, Soul Sounds, Heartbeat, Black Star, Jah Shaka, Drum Street |
| Website | www.williwilliams.com |
Willi Williams (also Willie Williams) is a Jamaican reggae and dub musician and producer. He is known as the "Armagideon Man" after his hit, "Armagideon Time", first recorded in 1978 at Studio One in Kingston. The song was covered by The Clash as the flipside of their "London Calling" single.
[edit] Biography
Williams was born in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. He attended Trenchtown Comprehensive High School, where he was a classmate of Sly Dunbar. He first recorded at Studio One in the late 1960s, while he was still in school. In 1969 he started his own record label called Soul Sounds and among the artists he recorded was Delroy Wilson. He moved to Canada in 1974 and split his time between Toronto, Ontario and Kingston.
He worked with keyboardist Jackie Mittoo and producer Coxsone Dodd on "Armagideon Time", which was the title track of an album released in 1978. The song was later covered by The Clash, featured in the film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack (is featured on the Reggae radio station K-JAH Radio West but not on the soundtrack album). Another of Williams' songs is Messenger Man, the title track of a 1980 album.
In 2003, he released the career-spanning anthology album, From Studio One to Drum Street, on his own Drum Street label
Recently, He took part of the dub mix CD by Gov't Mule, "Mighty High".
As of 2007, Willi was working on an album with an up-and-coming Toronto artist named Visionary.
[edit] References
- "From Studio One To Drum Street: The Soul Sounds of Willi Williams", by Carter Van Pelt, 2003, Columbia University.
