He left home at the age of 14 and worked on a sugar plantation outside Clarendon, cleaning out irrigation ditches, before winning a local talent competition when he was 18; prompting a move to the capital, Kingston, in order to achieve a successful musical career.
In 1965 he joined up with Kenneth Knight and Lloyd Shakespeare in The Emotions, whilst also working as a record plugger for Ken Lack's Caltone label. The group were unsuccessful in auditions for other producers, but Lack offered them an audition after overhearing Smith singing to himself as he worked one day. In 1966, the group had their first hit, with the Lack-produced, "Buy You a Rainbow". The Emotions went on to have several hit singles and by 1968, the singer, by this point known as Max Romeo, felt confident enough to launch a solo career. Working with producer Bunny Lee, the young star recorded a number of pop songs, mainly love ballads, but they failed to be popular and so he returned to The Emotions, now recording for Phil Pratt. During this time he began work as a sales representative for Bunny Lee and did some recording with The Hippy Boys, which would later became The Upsetters.
Later on in 1968, Romeo wrote new lyrics for the rhythm track of Derrick Morgan's "Hold You Jack" and handed them over to Lee. Morgan, who was due to add his vocals to the track, ultimately gave it a miss, as did several other vocalists (including John Holt and Slim Smith), leading the producer to turn to Romeo to sing the lyrics he had written. The result, "Wet Dream", was an instant hit in Jamaica, although in the UK it was met with a BBC Radio ban, despite Romeo's somewhat-disingenuous claim that the song was actually about a roof that has a leak. Still, the ban only made it more popular and the single charted in the Top Ten, in the UK Singles Chart, spending almost six months therein, before featuring on his LP, A Dream, which included several follow-up singles in a similar vein, such as "Mini Skirt Version", "Fish in the Pot", "Belly Woman", and "Wine Her Goosie". A UK tour also met with Romeo being banned from performing at several venues, although many allowed him to play, the singer staying in the UK for eighteen months.
In 1970, Romeo returned to Jamaica and set-up Romax, an unsuccessful record label and sound system. Following which, he recorded several singles, mainly with old producer Bunny Lee, before going on to work a host of other producers including Niney Holness. This was followed by a period of which saw the release of a series of politically charged singles, most advocating the democratic socialist People's National Party (PNP), which chose his song, "Let The Power Fall On I", as their campaign theme for the 1972 Jamaican general election. Romeo joined the PNP Musical Bandwagon, travelling around Jamaica, playing on the back of a truck. After this, Romeo recorded a number of religious songs, until he worked with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, producing the classic singles "Three Blind Mice" (an adaptation of the nursery rhyme with lyrics about a police raid on a party), "Sipple Out Deh", and "Chase the Devil". A remixed version of "Sipple Out Deh", entitled "War Ina Babylon", was another popular track in the UK, the first fruits of his deal with Island Records, and was followed by an album of the same name, and a follow-up single "One Step Forward". Shortly after this the pair fell out, leaving Romeo to self-produce his follow-up album, Reconstruction, which could not match the success of its predecessor. Perry's animosity towards Romeo was demonstrated by his single "White Belly Rat", with Perry also writing the word 'Judas' over a photograph of Romeo on the wall of his Black Ark studio.
He moved to New York City in 1978, where he co-wrote (with Hair producer Michael Butler) the musical, Reggae, which he also starred in. In 1980 he appeared as a backing vocalist on "Dance" on The Rolling Stones album Emotional Rescue. In 1981, the favour was returned when Keith Richards (of The Rolling Stones) co-produced and played on Romeo's album, Holding Out My Love to You. The rest of his output during the decade went practically unnoticed, with Romeo finding work at a New York electronics store. He returned to Jamaica in 1990, and began touring and recording more regularly.
He visited the UK again in 1992, recording the albums Far I Captain of My Ship and Our Rights with Jah Shaka. In 1995 he recorded Cross of the Gun with Tappa Zukie, and he joined up with UK rhythm section/production team Mafia & Fluxy in 1999 for the album Selassie I Forever.
His music has been sampled by other artists; The Prodigy sampled his track "Chase the Devil" for their 1992 UK Top Ten hit "Out of Space". Kanye West has also used samples from it to produce Jay-Z's hit song "Lucifer", which appeared on Jay-Z's 2003 release - The Black Album.
"Chase the Devil" is featured on the reggae radio station K-JAH Radio West in a popular videogame Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, released in October 2004. Romeo's single "Sipple Out Deh" appeared in John Peel's Record Box.
- Albums:
A Dream (1970) Trojan
Let The Power Fall (1972) Dynamic
Revelation Time (1975) Black World
War Ina Babylon (1976) Island
Reconstruction (1979) Island
I Love My Music (1979) Wackies
Rondos (1980) King Kong
Holding Out My Love to You (1981) Shanachie
Transition (1989) Rohit
Fari - Captain of My Ship (1992) Jah Shaka
Our Rights (1992) Jah Shaka
Cross or the Gun (1995) Tappa Zukie
Selassie I Forever (1999) Mafia & Fluxy
Love Message (1999) Warriors
Something is Wrong (1999) Warriors
In This Time (2001) 3D (Max Romeo & Tribu Acustica)
Pocomania Songs (2007) Ariwa Sounds
- Compilations:
Max Romeo Meets Owen Gray At King Tubby's Studio (1984) Culture Press (with Owen Gray)
Max Romeo and the Upsetters (1989)
Wet Dream (1993) Crocodisc
McCabee Version (1995) Sonic Sounds
Open The Iron Gate (1999) Blood & Fire
The Many Moods of Max Romeo (1999) Jamaican Gold
Pray For Me: The Best of Max Romeo 1967-73 (2000) Trojan Records
Perilous Times (2000) Charmax
On The Beach (2001) Culture Press
The Coming of Jah (2002) Trojan
Ultimate Collection (2003) (compiled by David Katz)
Holy Zion (2003) Burning Bush
Wet Dream: The Best of Max Romeo (2004) Trojan
Crazy World of Dub (2005) Jamaican Recordings
One of Jamaica's most provocative lyricists, a singer who gave us such enduring songs as 'Chase The Devil' (which was sampled in the song 'Out of Space' by The Prodigy and the song 'Lucifer' by Jay-Z), 'Public Enemy Number One', 'One Step Forward' and 'Three Blind Mice'. It was Romeo who first introduced Britain to the concept of rude reggae with 'Wet Dream', which, despite a total radio ban, reached number 10 in the UK charts in May 1969.
In 1972 Romeo began working with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry. 'Babylon Burning', 'Three Blind Mice' and 'The Coming Of Jah' all maintained his star status in Jamaica between 1972 and 1975. Revelation Time was one of the best albums of 1975, and 1976's War Ina Babylon was hailed by the rock press as an all-time classic reggae album. Two outstanding contributions that will remain classic recordings from the so-called βgolden ageβ of Jamaican reggae music.
Wet Dreams
Max Romeo Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Every night me go to sleep, me have wet dreams
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
You in your small corner, I stand in mine
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
Look how you're big and fat, like a big, big shot
Give the crumpet to big foot Joe, give the fanny to me
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down, so he said
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
The lyrics to Max Romeo's song "Wet Dream" are about the artist's sexual desires and fantasies. He talks about having wet dreams every night he goes to sleep, indicating his strong sexual desire for a woman. He urges the woman to lie down and let him push it up, which is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. The woman seems resistant to his advances and is throwing punches at him, but he claims he can take them all. He even goes so far as to insult her appearance, calling her big and fat, and suggests giving her to another man before finally urging her to lie down and let him have his way.
While the lyrics are explicit and vulgar, they speak to a common theme in music across genres and time periods: sex. However, in the context of the time in which the song was released, it was considered taboo and was banned from many radio stations. The frank discussion of sexual desires and fantasies was not something that was widely accepted in society at the time.
Line by Line Meaning
Every night me go to sleep, me have wet dreams
Every night when I go to sleep, I have sexually explicit dreams.
Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down
Please lie down and let me have sex with you.
You in your small corner, I stand in mine
We are in separate places and in different social circles.
Throw all the punch you want to, I can take them all
You can insult me as much as you want, but it won't affect me.
Look how you're big and fat, like a big, big shot
You may act important and powerful, but you are actually overweight and unattractive.
Give the crumpet to big foot Joe, give the fanny to me
You can have sex with someone unattractive, while I have sex with you.
Lyrics Β© THE ROYALTY NETWORK INC.
Written by: MAX ROMEO, BUNNY LEE, DERRICK SEYMOUR MORGAN, MAXIE SMITH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@natetaiapa2218
Maxieβs reputation as a ladies man must have been on Bunnyβs mind when he tried to persuade Max to record βWet Dreamβ. Max had written the song but did not want to sing it and none of Bunnyβs Agro stable of established artists, including Slim Smith, Roy Shirley and John Holt would touch it. Even Derrick Morgan whose βHold You Jackβ rhythm was to be used for the song did not want to know.
Bunny, a man never short of ideas, (one of his album sleeves even featured a cartoon of a manβs head with a glowing light bulb above it) realised that the song had definite possibilities. He would later gain the soubriquet βStrikerβ because of his almost innate ability to make hit records. Maxie was not over-keen, but Bunny allegedly told him if he didnβt do it he was βout of hereβ, and so they arrived one night at Studio One on Brentford Road to find Coxsone himself in charge of the session. When he heard Max sing the opening bars of βWet Dreamβ he was so disgusted that he refused to go any further and told his apprentice engineer, Errol βETβ Thompson, to take over on the board. Rude or βslackβ records were nothing new and, under the influence of American artists such as Blowfly, were currently undergoing something of a revival, but the format usually tended towards boasts of sexual prowess rather than a concern with βerotic dreams causing involuntary ejaculationsβ. Bunny promptly took βWet Dreamβ to the Palmer brothers in London who promptly released it on their Unity label.
It was an exciting time for Jamaican music in the U.K. as it bathed in its first real run of international success largely due to its adoption by Londonβs βskinheadβ cult. Oh how we laughed when we first heard the record, acknowledging that it was a version of an already established hit record on a popular rhythm and expecting that, like most βnoveltyβ records, it would disappear in a week or two as soon as something new came along.
However this one refused to go away and it proved to be instrumental in introducing reggae to the British public as it continued to sell and sell and sell. It made and stayed on the U.K. National Charts for an unprecedented twenty-five weeks where it reached the dizzy heights of number ten without the benefit of any radio play at all. The record was deemed so offensive that Alan Freeman was not permitted to even say the title on his Sunday afternoon βPick Of The Popsβ show and it was only ever referred to as βa record by Max Romeoβ. The potent blend of humour and sexual βsuggestivenessβ ensured its popularity with the U.K. audience who had never heard anything quite so blatant before.
It certainly proved to be a rude awakening for young Max who was really thrown in at the deep end and when he arrived in the U.K. to promote the record he steadfastly stuck to his story that his song was nothing whatsoever to do with sex at all. Oh no. In fact it was an everyday story of poverty in Jamaica where the roof of Maxieβs shack was constantly leaking β and we all know just how much it pours with rain in Jamaica.
The chorus of βlie down gal let me push it up, push it upβ actually alluded to the ever polite Max requesting that his young lady move out of the way so that he push a broom up into the hole in the roof to stop said leak. So now we knew that βWet Dreamβ was not rude and was all about Maxieβs good nightβs sleep being disturbed by a leaking roof. So thatβs all right then. Of course everyone believed him even though no-one thought to ask him what the lines about βgive the crumpet to Big Foot Joe, give the fanny to meβ meant and Alan Freeman persisted in calling it βa record by Max Romeoβ.
Just in case anyone had really believed him, Maxie went on to promptly record a number of innuendo filled records which, strangely enough, also failed to garner any air play and, to this day, βWet Dreamβ remains his sole U.K. chart entry. Surprisingly βWet Dreamβ was not a particularly big seller in Jamaica, but even if he found it hard to live down the stigma attached to the record in the U.K., Maxie had no such problems at home and he enjoyed hit after hit on the Jamaican charts. Reference: https://trojanrecords.com/artist/max-romeo/
@MrRichardcrowe
My mum plays this record in the garden so all the neighbours can hear. She's totally oblivious.
@johnrooney1749
You go that girl John moss side Manchester boy 1950s.John Rooney
@johnmilbourn8876
Classes
@wendyharper9454
Love your mum. Would have done the same, except that I was only about 16 when this record came out. Oh what an uproar - banned everywhere in the stuffy 60's!! Didn't stop all the illegal imports though. Great beginning for Trojan Music ...
@JamesJones-bb4bx
LMAO love man
@RetroReminiscing
ha ha ha !!! Love that thought! Id do it purposley so see the neighbours reactions lol
@oludotunjohnshowemimo434
It was definitely a blessing in disguise for Max Romeo when the BBC banned it as it became number one elsewhere.
@damienelliott4906
My old man's going out song ....should have seen the faces in the crematorium π€£
@jamesflynn6439
Good for him. Top Man
@spiritov69
Omg π€£π€£π€£
πππ