Joe Higgs

Pictures

joe higgs circa 1975

Listen to, buy or share

Buy

Buy on Amazon Amazon Expand purchase options
  • Digital download
  • Amazon Amazon
  • 7digital 7digital
  • iTunes iTunes
  • Physical media
  • Amazon Amazon Search
  • eBay eBay Search
  • 97,885
    scrobbles
  • 18,544
    listeners

Tags

Everyone’s tags

More tags

Biography

Joe Higgs (June 3, 1940 – December 18, 1999) was a musician from Jamaica. In the 1960s he was part of the duo Higgs and Wilson together with Roy Wilson.

Higgs knew Bob Marley from the early 1960s. In fact, Marley acknowledged later on that he had been an influential figure for him. Most people interested in classical reggae do not recognize his name, however Higgs has been regarded as the “Father of Reggae’ by Jimmy Cliff. For a while Higgs toured with Cliff as well as The Wailers when Bunny Wailer refused to go on the tour in mid 1970s while The Wailers were having disputes.

A majority of Higgs’ songs were connected to his impoverished life in Trenchtown where he grew up. Higgs considered that it was out of the poverty and violence of Kingston’s shantytowns such as Trenchtown and Johnstown that the reggae music had grown. Before reggae hit big on the western music scene with Bob Marley, it was understood as a “ghetto music”. Higgs was the very first artist out the ghetto music scene to have lyrics which primarily dealt with every day troubles.

Higgs died of throat cancer on 18 Dec’ 1999.
Read more… Edit bio

Top Albums

Listening Trend

18,544listeners all time
97,885scrobbles all time
Recent listeners trend:

Start scrobbling and track your listening history

Last.fm users scrobble the music they play in iTunes, Spotify, Rdio and over 200 other music players.

Create a Last.fm profile

Shoutbox

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up.

Top Listeners