Sixty Special Virgins

AWSoP rewritten by Pat Kelly

4CD Box: Real Reggae (Disky Records, 1998)

Despite the name leading you to expect an Irish wrestler, this turns out to be a fairly standard light reggae version closest to the style known as 'lovers' rock'.

Yet more strange word variations are bestowed upon us. None of this is due to pronunciation as the only words delivered in patois are 'although' and 'truth'. ['all-doo' and 'troot'].

The variants are as follow:

'you skip a light embangle'
'... the ceiling drew away'
'the miller drove his chair' alternating with 'the mirror drove his chair'
'her face was burst just ghostly'
'they said there is no reason'
'sixty special virgins'
'....just as well been closed'

The organ part follows Fisher fairly closely although the sound of the keyboard is more like early 60s UK instrumental group the Tornados. One of the solo organ passages does come to a rather sticky end when the player attempts something of his own. If you sat down and tried to imagine a low-wattage reggae version, with very little evidence of any drugs on board, it would probably be something like this you had in mind.

I do not know the original date of this piece as the box gives only the names of the record labels from which the material was sourced but not for individual tracks. Judging by the sound this may be a late 70s or early 80s piece as there are a few strange drum sample effects verging on disco.

Pat Kelly was a 60s reggae contemporary of Alton Ellis, who did AWSoP then: I think he has taken his version from hearing Ellis, but done it much later when he recorded a lot of standards such as Bridge Over Troubled Water. I have never seen Kelly on any other reggae compilations.

Thanks, Sam Cameron