REAL ROCK
Three organ notes and a bassline that refuses to die. Sound Dimension cut Real Rock at Studio One in 1967, and generations of singers and deejays have kept reopening it ever since.
Real Rock came out of the Studio One session-band world: a spare instrumental whose Hammond-organ hook and bass movement are recognizable within seconds. Sound Dimension recorded it for Coxsone Dodd in 1967, just as rocksteady was turning toward reggae. The astonishing part is not only the original recording but its afterlife. Willie Williams’ “Armagideon Time,” Junior Murvin’s “Cool Out Son” and many later cuts reused or rebuilt the foundation. Real Rock became one of those riddims that functions almost like a Jamaican standard: musicians can change the surface while listeners still hear the old room underneath.