[Chorus] Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail(A Shanty Town) Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail (A Shanty Town) Dem rude boys deh pon probation (A Shanty Town) Them a rude boy a bomb up the town (A Shanty Town)
[Verse] 0-0-7, 0-0-7 At ocean eleven And now rudeboys a go wail 'Cause them out of jail Rudeboys cannot fail 'Cause them must get bail
[Bridge] Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail(A Shanty Town) Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail (A Shanty Town) Dem rude boys deh pon probation (A Shanty Town) Them a rude boy a bomb up the town (A Shanty Town)
A classic reggae song released in 1966 as a single and then part of Desmond Dekker And The Aces LP., it is known as one of the most popular reggae songs, with rapping in the bridge.
“007 (Shanty Town)” was a number one song in Jamaica and reached number twelve in the U.K. charts in July 1967 prompting a tour of England to support the song. The song also appeared in the highly influential soundtrack to Jimmy Cliff’s The Harder They Come and is an influence for The Clash’s “Rudie Can’t Fail.”
In Dekker’s own words:
I write this song because of what was happening at the time. The students had a demonstration and it went all the way around to Four Shore Road and down to Shanty Town. You got wild life and hting like that because it down near to the beach and the higher ones wanted to bulldoze the whole thing down and do their own thing and the students said no way. And it just get out of control. And whasoever you hear on the records, that is what was going down. Man take a stone and throw it through the window, lick after somebody, and you read it as somebody just knock it and gone. Is just a typical riot ‘cause I say – Them a loot, them a shoot, them a wail.
It was wild, wild. … “Shanty Town” was the one that gave me international recognition.
Source: Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music by Kevin O' Brien Chang and Wayne Chen (1998)
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