King Tubby's Prophecies Of Dub

‘King Tubby’s Prophecies Of Dub’ almost looks like an album that was designed to confuse record collectors and dub enthusiasts. Firstly, the record carries nearly the same title as a slightly earlier release, also produced by Vivian Jackson, aka Yabby You.

Yabby You: “First we do ‘King Tubby’s Prophecy Of Dub’, it come just after my first vocal LP. Then there was ‘King Tubby’s Prophecies Of Dub’ that was mixed by Pat Kelly, who was working at Tubby’s at the time.”

Pat Kelly: “Well fortunately Yabby You put my name (on it). I think I made them three one night, and then another week also he come back and do another three, and so it was done over some period of time. Yabby was with me most of the time, but I was always left to do what I wanted with the mix.”

Secondly, King Tubby is named in the title, but the rear sleeve states that the album had ‘Pat Kelly at the control’. This is more understandable, as the record was mixed at Tubby’s studio and carries its signature sound. After 1975, Tubby had partly stepped back from mixing work, but was still credited with most of the music coming out of his studio.

Yabby You: “Pat Kelly is a nice guy and a real gentleman, so I give him full credit as the engineer. Him have a different sound from Tubby’s – each have their own style, but Tubby’s have the talk, and the sound and the studio named King Tubby’s. So Pat Kelly’s works wasn’t well promoted like Tubby’s, and when the customers come they want Tubby’s name.”

Pat Kelly: “I mix a whole lot of thing for many people, but often the producer don’t credit the engineer properly, they just put King Tubby’s Studio. But Tubbys used to mostly concentrate on his electronics at the time. He was also a technician, so he loved building the amplifiers and things like that. That true story has never been told. I know it too, but I’m gonna offend a lot of people, and I don’t like offending people… I’m goin’ tell you something about knowledge: if you’re accustomed to a pattern, or something you’ve been hearing for years, it’s quite difficult to accept something else. So best to leave that! Heheheh.”

And thirdly, further confusion comes from the fact that most of the backing tracks used were not actually produced by Yabby, but belonged to Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee.

Bunny Lee: “Yabby You and Pat Kelly go behind my back and make it up. Me never even know about it til years later when Steve Barrow bring it to my attention. But it was my riddims and they used them.”

Pat Kelly: “Most of these tapes were Bunny Lee tapes, and Tubbys get a cut from the song. A lot of people didn’t even know that it wasn’t Tubbys who went to the studio and do the recording, it was Bunny Lee. Bunny Lee would be with the musicians, and then take the tape to Tubbys, and he say he like that one, or he need a cut from this one.”