Lone Ranger - Exclusive Interview in Jamaica 2019 🇯🇲
Born in Kingston, Jamaica Anthony Waldron emigrated to the UK as a child where he spent much of his youth in London before returning home in 1971. He began deejaying in 1974 as the Lone Ranger, taking his nom de mic. from one of the most renowned television shows of the fifties and sixties, for a local sound system in the Dunkirk area of Kingston. His lyrical inventiveness and sense of humour soon placed him at the forefront of a whole new wave of deejays.
He began his recording career at Studio One where he worked in combination with Welton Irie before starting on a series of solo recordings that combined new lyrics and old, classic rhythms that helped lay the foundations of the dance hall style. Recording at Brentford Road gave him immediate access to all of the top Studio One rhythms and Slim Smith's 'Rougher Yet' became 'Love Bump' and Slim's 'Never Let Go' became known as 'The Answer' after the Lone Ranger's hit versions of these dance hall staples became the definitive cuts. His debut album for Studio One 'On The Other Side Of Dub' featured the Ranger on Side One only while Side Two contained dubwise versions of the rhythm tracks. His first big breakthrough came for Alvin 'GG' Ranglin(Alvin Ranglin) in 1979 when 'Barnabas Collins', performed over a version of The Uniques' 'My Conversation' rhythm, became a huge hit in Jamaica and the UK.
Now top deejay for Virgo Sound System, voted top sound of 1980, the Lone Ranger was the number one attraction in Kingston's musical maelstrom. During this time cassette tapes of live dance hall sessions were becoming commercially available and the Lone Ranger on Virgo was always a favourite for the 'yard tape' aficionados. The Ranger's influences came from far and wide and his understated style was sometimes at odds with the previous generation of Jamaican deejays... but the Ranger did not have to shout to make his point. He now consolidated his live success with hit records and, together with deejays including the aforementioned Welton Irie, Johnny Ringo and Yellowman, the Lone Ranger led the way as the music moved from the seventies cultural chanting style towards the eighties dance hall explosion.
Every producer in Kingston began queuing up to record the Lone Ranger and 1982 was undoubtedly his year. His Studio One follow up album, 'Badda Dan Dem', was one of the most eagerly awaited of the year and his long player for Channel One, 'M 16', would go on to become one of the most celebrated releases of the era. His third album release for 1982, 'Hi Ho Silver Away', was produced by the Lone Ranger alongside New York based Mikey Jarrett and this release consolidated his position at the top. On his live tours of the UK and the USA he showed that he could deliver every bit as well on stage as he did in Kingston's recording studios and dance halls. He was not only hugely popular in Jamaica but also a big star in the USA and England too where he was invariably cited as a major influence by the UK MCs when they began to demonstrate that good reggae music does not necessarily have to come from Jamaica.
His ability to ride a rhythm as if he was in the saddle of his namesake's faithful steed Silver has endeared him to generations of dance hall fans and the Lone Ranger has rarely stopped touring. He is always a very popular draw on the 'revival' circuit... renowned and recognised not only for his classic recordings but also in appreciation of the fact that he was the starting point for a whole school of imitators. During his tumultuous career a number of his records became better known than the original vocal versions and his ubiquity is such that perhaps the definition of a foundation reggae fan from creation would be someone who could hear U Roy's 'Scandal', or even The Uniques 'Secretly', without thinking of the Lone Ranger's 'M 16'.
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