Talk:Alton Ellis

Wording
The third paragraph: His first hit was "Dance Crasher", a plea for peace, and followed it up with "Get Ready - Rock Steady", perhaps the first rocksteady recording. The song was recording with keyboardist Jackie Mittoo playing the bass guitar part because the bassist did not show up; Mittoo could not keep up with the ska beat, and the tempo was slowed down to accommodate him. This allowed for a choppier rhythm that led Ellis to expand his vocal range.

was pretty much stolen from All Music Guide's Biography for Ellis at

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:oe861vkjzzba~T10

Ellis quickly scored a major hit with the antiviolence plea "Dance Crasher," and the following year, he released what was arguably the first rocksteady single, "Get Ready - Rock Steady." Its innovative beat grew out of a session where the scheduled bassist didn't show up, forcing keyboardist Jackie Mittoo to play the bass part himself; Mittoo's left hand couldn't keep up with the frantic ska beat, so he elected to slow down the tempo. The result was a choppier rhythm that wound up allowing the vocalist to stretch out more, and soon the rocksteady sound had taken over Jamaican music, with Ellis leading the charge.

Is paraphrasing other's original work how Wikipedia operates?

I just noticed this by chance looking up info about Alton Ellis.

(above comment by User:74.99.214.118 March 18, 2007) - seems to have been fixed. Wwwhatsup (talk) 05:13, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Songs
Surely "I'm Just A Guy" and "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" merit a mention. Wwwhatsup (talk) 05:10, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Death
It's sad that people have been in such a rush to declare Alton dead. There have been several reports of his death that have proven to be untrue. We now have Trojan Records as a source for the latest claim of his death but this is not reported anywhere else. It may have been better to wait for multiple reliable reports of his death before adding details in this article, given the misinformation that has been going around for the past few days.--Michig (talk) 14:24, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

He's definitely dead; it has been reported by the mainstream media. Werdnawerdna (talk) 20:28, 11 October 2008 (UTC)
 * It was reported for about 3 days before he actually died.--Michig (talk) 21:11, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

The birth and death dates are missing from the article. Only the year is given for his birth; only the month and year are given for his death. The cause is also not stated. Those details need to be found out, and added to the article. Werdnawerdna (talk) 20:37, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

Vere's Opportunity Hour
In a video interview on Reggae Unplugged Ellis says he spent 18 months as a dancer and that when his early records drew attention he was still working at Vere's Opportunity Hour. He mentions that the people involved in the show actually told him that now he had a record out that it was counter-productive (my words) for him to stay with the show. The article gives the impression that he won a dancing competition - that may be what originally happened but unless he was entering the competition every week for 18 months it does sound as though he was employed as a dancer. Sluffs (talk) 21:25, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

Chronology problems with this article
This article has problematic chronology. Alton Ellis was recording throughout four major periods in Jamaica: R&B, Ska, Rock Steady and Reggae. The fact that he was a prolific recording artist means that its going to take time to sort the periods and associated releases in this article. At the moment I'll add material in a general way with dates and then later on sort out the chronology so that the article follows a logical path through his recording career.

Sluffs (talk) 20:44, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Introduction rewrite
I would like to rewrite the introduction. Ellis had a career that spanned three different periods: ska, rock steady and reggae. Not only was he one of the earliest Jamaican artists to ever be recorded by the fledgling Jamaican record industry (the charts show that until Ellis and a handful of other artists started recording that it was mainly American artists who dominated the charts). I think it has been worked out that he was the ninth Jamaican artist to record, release and enter the Jamaican charts with a track recorded in Jamaica and released by a Jamaican label (might be the track "Muriel"). I think this is important and should be included in the introduction.

I would also like to move the Hall of Fame award to the bottom of the article so that it fits chronologically. I find that having an award in the introduction is fine but it doesn't really state in any detail (obviously we know he had musical achievements) what contributions or landmarks Ellis achieved to get the award. Usually Hall of Fame awards are given in the twilight years of a career and are retrospective.

The informal title also gives a tight focus to one period: rock steady. He is one of the originators of Rock Steady but I think with a wider intro like:

"Ellis was one of the earliest successful recording artists in the fledgling Jamaican recording industry during the R&B and Ska periods as well as one of the originators of Rock Steady."

and then I'd add the informal title elsewhere. Not too sure if that would be the intro though - an intro statement like that pins his career to the Rock Steady period at a point where the article introduces him as an R&B artist. It would make a good heading for his Rock Steady period rather than the "Ska and Rocksteady" heading that the article has now.

Sluffs (talk) 20:49, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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