MAN NEXT DOOR

Created on 08/09/2003
Latest update on 02/03/2024

Artist: Paragons
Author: John Holt
Label: Supertone
Year: 1968

Produced by Duke Reid. Lyrical inspiration came from 1964 single B-side Quiet Place by Drifters' epigons Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters. Supertone was The Paragons' own shortlived label. Released variously titled as Man In My Neighborhood and (I've) Got To Get Away.

Covers:

1970:

Delroy Wilson

1973:

John Holt [on his lp Holt Plus]

1975:

Horace Andy [as Quiet Place]

1975:

Dr. Alimantado [as Poison Flour]

1979:

Slits

1979:

Dennis Brown

1980:

Bim Sherman [with Horace Andy]

1997:

George Nooks

1998:

Massive Attack [on Mezzanine; one of the guest vocalists on Mezzanine, reggae singer Horace Andy, made an album with author John Holt in '86 (From One Extreme To Another)]

2010:

UB40

This is the track that personified drum & bass personification Massive Attack of Mezzanine fame. This is the only song they didn't write for that album, but not just a simple cover. Their version is but a link in an endless chain. Massive Attack's massive success launched the hunt for the original. Bim Sherman, Sly & Robbie and even the early Slits lead us into reggae territory, rocksteady territory that is: versions by Alton Ellis and John Holt's band The Paragons. The latter gets all the Massive Attack credits. Makes for a nice retirement fund on top of what he gets from Blondie covering his The Tide Is High (see there).

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

No Facebook No Twitter