Proto-dub: the Morricone factor. An inquiry into the role of Spaghetti Western soundtracks in dub’s formative phase.

Abstract

In this thesis, I defend two positions. First, I argue that a fascinating cultural connection exists between Italian Spaghetti Western films and Jamaican Reggae music, which is currently underexplored in academia. In this cultural connection the Spaghetti Westerns provided thematic inspiration for the titles and content of the reggae songs, while the specific sounds and scores of the Spaghetti Westerns provided musical inspiration. To prove this, I have created a list of 42 Jamaican reggae tracks, all from the fertile and formative period of 1968-1972, that explicitly reference Spaghetti Western films. I explain why I classify these to be explicit references by pointing out the thematic inspiration that they had on the lyrics and titles of the songs. I also explain how the specific sounds and themes of these reggae songs point at a musical inspiration by drawing comparisons in sound.

It is this fertile and formative period of 1968-1972 in which the seeds were sown for the dub genre to grow out of reggae and rocksteady, fully coming into fruition in 1973 with the release of three genre-defining long-players. The aforementioned tracks were made on the cusp of dub, and fall in the so-called period of proto-dub. One of the fundamental players in the field of reggae and dub is Lee “Scratch” Perry, also responsible for many Spaghetti Western-referencing reggae and proto-dub tracks. In Spaghetti Western-scoring, Ennio Morricone stands out through his emblematic collaborations with director Sergio Leone.

So secondly, I argue that the music of Ennio Morricone was inspirational to the dub genre through its innovative uses of sound and its manipulation of musical meaning. By studying the most representative Spaghetti Western scores of Ennio Morricone and the most representative dub productions of Lee “Scratch” Perry, I conclude that Morricone’s scores have most likely played an inspirational role in defining the dub genre: in what it sounds like and in what it might mean.