Manley Augustus Buchanen was born in February 1955 to a preacher mother and a policeman father, as one of five children. He left school at 14, and started work in his teens as a cab driver and hotel mechanic at the Skyline and Sheraton hotels in Kingston. From singing at work, he gradually worked his way up to become the top deejay of the Lord Tippertone sound.
His first recording, the Gregory Isaacs produced "Movie Man" didn't really do much, but further ventures increased his profile, and by the time Youth worked with producer Keith Hudson, he was at his peak. His "S.90 Skank" went gold, (& red & green) just like the jewels he had sometime dentist Hudson place in his front teeth. In between he cut some killer material with Gussie Clarke which resulted in the fabulous "Screaming Targ
et" LP.
In 1973, Youth formed his own labels, Negusa Negast and Augustus Buchanen, and these quickly saw some quality releases, but Mr. Buchanen still found time to work with other producers, such as Prince Buster, Joe Gibbs, Derrick Harriott and Winston Riley. Due to his phenomenal output at this time, Jah Youth at one stage had 5 of the top 10 singles in Jamaica.
Jah Youth cut a version of The Wailers "Keep On Moving" with Lee Perry, "Mooving Version" in 1972, as well as two version's of Bunny Wailer's song "Bide Up", ("Bide", and "Black On Black"). Youth kept up the pace through the mid-1970's with other great tracks, such as "House Of DreadLocks", "All Nations Bow", "Wolf In Sheeps Clothing", "Mosiah Garvey" and too many more to mention.
These songs helped make Big Youth a superstar in Jamaica, and he soon travelled to England with a young Dennis Brown, to stage some spectacular live shows. The Youth Man was backed by The Ark Angels, and Brown by Joe Gibbs and The Professionals, giving English audiences a first hand taste of what was hot in Jamaica.
If you want to find out more about this phenomenal artist vist- http://www.geocities.com/studiowon/BigYouth.htm
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