World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Lord Creator

Artist. Ska

Active
1962-2023
Sunrise
August 21, 1935, San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago
Sunset
June 30, 2023, Hanover, Jamaica

Lord Creator (born Kentrick Randolph Patrick) was a Trinidadian singer who settled in Jamaica and recorded "Independent Jamaica," the first release on Island Records in Britain, and "Kingston Town," which UB40 took to the international charts.

He was born in San Fernando and began as a calypsonian, cutting "The Cockhead" in 1958 and "Evening News" in 1959, both with Fitz Vaughan Bryan's big band. He came to Jamaica at the turn of the 1960s and worked for Vincent "Randy" Chin, who produced "Independent Jamaica" for the 1962 independence celebrations; the record was the first issued on Chris Blackwell's Island label in Britain. He had, by one account, "one of the best voices in early Jamaican music," a "honey-toned voice." "Don't Stay Out Late," also for Chin, was a Jamaican hit in 1963, and "Big Bamboo," produced by Coxsone Dodd with Tommy McCook on saxophone, followed in 1964. The Star newspaper named him the best male singer of 1963, and at Studio One he also recorded duets with Enid Cumberland in 1963 and 1964. "Such Is Life" came in 1967.

"Kingston Town" was cut for Clancy Eccles in 1970 and reworked "Babylon," a song Creator had written as a teenager in Trinidad and recorded for Randy's on a ska beat in 1963. It sold steadily in Britain without charting. His crooning style went out of fashion as roots reggae took hold, though he recorded "Life," a remake of "Such Is Life," in 1977, and "Big Pussy Sally" for Lee Perry at the Black Ark in 1976, which Island issued in Britain backed with an Upsetters dub. By the early 1980s he was destitute in Kingston, and Eccles raised the money to return him to his family in Trinidad in 1984.

UB40 recorded "Kingston Town" in 1989 and it went platinum in Britain the following year; Creator and Eccles appeared in the video. The royalties revived his finances and he returned to Jamaica, performed again and toured Japan, though ownership of the song remained in dispute between the two men. He was awarded the Order of Distinction (Officer) on National Heroes Day in 2022. He had suffered a series of strokes, the last in 2005, and departed at eighty-seven.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide says "Evening News" (Cooks International) "was recorded in Trinidad with the Fitz Vaughan Bryan Orchestra around 1959, and was an important hit throughout the Caribbean, including Jamaica." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 22. Mills gives 1958 for "The Cockhead." Claude Mills, "Lord Creator, Original 'Kingston Town' Singer, Dead at 87," DancehallMag, June 30, 2023, https://www.dancehallmag.com/2023/06/30/news/lord-creator-original-kingston-town-singer-dead-at-87.html.
  2. Creator told Roy Black that Vincent Chin heard him at the Havana Nightclub on Windward Road and asked for a song about independence, which he wrote "in about half-hour"; Black dates his arrival, on a Caribbean tour, to 1962, while Mills says "late 1959." Roy Black, "The Music Diaries: Lord Creator, Trinidadian-Turned Jamaican," Jamaica Gleaner, August 23, 2018, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20180826/music-diaries-lord-creator-trinidadian-turned-jamaican; Mills, "Lord Creator." Mills calls it "the first record on Chris Blackwell's newly founded Island Records label in the United Kingdom." Mills, "Lord Creator." The Rough Guide names Creator as Chin's "biggest success." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 3, 46.
  3. "Trinidadian Lord Creator Arrived in Time for Jamaica's Independence and Took the Spotlight," reposted on Clinton Lindsay, June 24, 2012, https://clintonlindsay.com/2012/06/24/trinidadian-lord-creator-arrived-in-time-for-jamaicas-independence-and-took-the-spotlight.
  4. Mills, "Lord Creator." A Columbia producer recording Jamaican ska with Byron Lee and the Dragonaires in 1964 picked out "Don't Stay Out Late" as one of three sides for early release. Heather Augustyn, "People Get Ready: Curtis Mayfield and Jamaica," SkaBook (blog), April 10, 2015, https://skabook.com/2015/04/10/people-get-ready-curtis-mayfield-and-jamaica/.
  5. The Star's awards for 1963, presented by Edward Seaga in July 1964, named him best male singer. Heather Augustyn, "Ska Awards," SkaBook (blog), June 18, 2017, https://skabook.com/2017/06/18/ska-awards/. On the duets, which include "Simple Things" and "Love Lost," Heather Augustyn, "Enid Cumberland," SkaBook (blog), November 14, 2014, https://skabook.com/2014/11/14/enid-cumberland/.
  6. Wikipedia dates the original "Such Is Life," a Chin production, to 1968. "Lord Creator," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Creator.
  7. Mills reports Creator's account that Eccles asked for a B-side to "Molly Is a Big Girl Now," and that Creator reworked "Babylon," which "he had composed as a teenager in Trinidad and later recorded for Randys, back in 1963, on a Ska beat." Mills, "Lord Creator." The Rough Guide lists "Kingston Town" among Eccles's Clandisc releases. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 109.
  8. Wikipedia. "Lord Creator."
  9. Black says that "In 1984, family members assisted his passage home," and Mills that he returned "almost against his will in 1984." Black, "Lord Creator, Trinidadian-Turned Jamaican." Mills, "Lord Creator."
  10. Black calls UB40's version "a No. 1 hit" in 1989; Mills reports that it "was certified Platinum in the UK" in March 2023. Black, "Lord Creator, Trinidadian-Turned Jamaican." Mills, "Lord Creator."
  11. Mills reports that Creator came back to Jamaica the following year, gave Eccles "$250,000" but then refused more, and that Eccles claimed half the song while Creator claimed all of it; the revival took him to oldies shows in Jamaica and later Japan. Mills, "Lord Creator."
  12. Mills, "Lord Creator."
  13. His widow told Mills he "had suffered two strokes, the last one in 2005," and that he died on June 30, 2023. Mills, "Lord Creator."

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