The Loser Riddim – Crystal, Big Ship

The Loser produced by Derrick Harriott, Freddie McGregor for Crystal, Big Ship in 1967

The Loser Riddim – Crystal, Big Ship comes from Derrick Harriott and Freddie McGregor’s Crystal imprint, with the post placing it in 1967 and keeping the set tight at six cuts. Alton Ellis’ The Winner, Derrick Harriott’s The Loser, Augustus Pablo’s Bells Of Death, and Freddie McGregor’s later I Was Born a Winner give it a neat winner-versus-loser theme across different eras, while Scotty and The Crystalites and The Crystalites add more of that classic Jamaican sound. Harriott’s original The Loser has also been sampled and revisited over the years, which underlines how durable the tune and its melody have been. It plays like a compact, vocal-driven roots collection with a strong historical thread and a clear tension between triumph and defeat.

The Loser Riddim Tracklist:

1. Alton Ellis – The Winner
2. Augustus Pablo – Bells Of Death (1973)
3. Derrick Harriott – The Loser (1967)
4. Freddie McGregor – I Was Born a Winner (1992)
5. Scotty & The Crystalites – Sesame Street (1973)
6. The Crystalites – Queen Of Sheba