http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/27/BAG4RJ3CLB1.DTL&feed=rss.bayareaDesmond Dekker, the Jamaican singer whose 1969 hit, "The Israelites," opened up a worldwide audience for reggae, died on Wednesday. He was 64.
He died after collapsing from a heart attack in his home in Surrey, England, his manager, Delroy Williams, told Reuters.
"The Israelites" was the peak of Mr. Dekker's extensive career in Jamaica and England, selling more than a million copies worldwide. He was already a major star in Jamaica and well known in Britain. "The Israelites" was his only U.S. hit, but the song was a turning point for Jamaican music among international listeners.
The Jamaican rhythm of ska had already generated hits in the United States, notably Millie Small's 1964 hit, "My Boy Lollipop." But that song was treated as a novelty. "The Israelites," with its biblical imagery of suffering and redemption, showed the world reggae's combination of danceable rhythm and serious, sometimes spiritual intentions.
Mr. Dekker was named Desmond Adolphus Dacres in Kingston, Jamaica, when he was born in 1941. As a teenager he worked in a welding shop alongside Bob Marley and auditioned unsuccessfully for various producers until Marley encouraged him to try out for his own first producer, Leslie Kong.
Kong produced Mr. Dekker's first single, "Honour Thy Father and Mother," in 1963, and it reached No. 1 in Jamaica. A series of songs including "Rude Boy Train" and "Rudy Got Soul" made him a hero of Jamaica's rough urban "rude boy" culture. Mr. Dekker's 1960s songs used the upbeat ska rhythm, a precursor to reggae also known as bluebeat.
"Honour Thy Father and Mother" was released in Britain in 1964 on Chris Blackwell's Island label, which would later release Bob Marley's albums. Three years later, Mr. Dekker had his first British Top 20 hit with "007 (Shanty Town)," a tale of rude-boy ghetto violence -- "Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail" -- sung in a thick patois, which Americans would hear later as part of the soundtrack to "The Harder They Come" in 1972. Paul McCartney slipped Mr. Dekker's first name into the lyrics to the Beatles' ska song, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," on "The Beatles" (also known as the White Album) in 1968, the year Mr. Dekker moved to England.
With "The Israelites," released in Jamaica in December 1968, Mr. Dekker had an international impact. "I was telling people not to give up as things will get better," Mr. Dekker said in an interview last year for the Web site Set the Tone 67.
The punk era of the late 1970s brought with it an English revival of ska by groups like Madness and the Specials. Mr. Dekker's songs were rediscovered, and he was signed by Madness' label, Stiff Records. His 1980 album, "Black and Dekker," featured members of a venerable Jamaican band, the Pioneers, and Graham Parker's band, the Rumour. But in 1984, Mr. Dekker declared bankruptcy, blaming his former manager.
In 1993, the Specials reunited and backed up Mr. Dekker on the album "King of Kings," with remakes of ska hits, and he released the album "Halfway to Paradise" in 2000. He continued to tour regularly; his final concert was May 11 at Leeds University.
