Lloyd Parkes

These days, Lloyd Parkes is known primarily as a bass guitar player (after all, not many musicians have their name in the band's). But before he lays down the grooves at a show as part of Lloyd Parkes and We The People, he always takes time to welcome the audience 'Officially', with the song of that name.

And the response indicates the staying power of a song that topped both the JBC and RJR charts for six weeks in 1970. Still, it was a second coming of the same song - almost.

Parkes told The Sunday Gleaner that Officially, a love song in which he declares to a lady that their relationship has to be 'up front', was a slight reworking of Feel a Little Better, which he had written and recorded a few years earlier. The slight adjustment of adding the line "if you want to be my queen you've got to be officially" proved to be a charm.

Both songs were recorded with the same set of musicians, Neville Grant (drums), Ansell Collins (keyboards), Radcliffe Bryan (lead guitar), Phillip Grant (rhythm guitar) and Parkes on bass, with the Rocking Horse duo (including Keith Poppin) providing harmony. Officially was recorded at Randy's, North Parade, in a high-noon session.

When the session was finished, Parkes knew he had a good song, but not necessarily a number one song. He was distributing it himself (Officially came out on his own Parkes label) and the record store people always encouraged him to push it.

Wonderful feeling

The number-one announcement was made at night. "I remember the night it went number one. Allan Magnus was one of the people who believed in that song. The night he said it was number one it was a great, wonderful feeling," Parkes told The Sunday Gleaner.

He points out that it also became a slang, where somebody would say that they were going to do something 'officially'.

Still, Parkes went on to focus on the bass guitar. "Because I was an established bass player, I ease off the singing for a while and start to concentrate on the instrument," Parkes said. His choice is not an indication of a greater love for one over the other, but Parkes points out that in playing an instrument "you are always sure you can put on your pot. You don't have to wait on a hit song".

Ironically, learning the guitar came out of singing. "I came out of the Studio One stable. I used to sing with the Termites (with Wentworth Vernon). We did a song called Do the Rocksteady which was a top 10 song in the mid-60s. While I was in that group, that guy could play guitar. He showed me the first three chords on three chords, G, C, D," Parkes told The Sunday Gleaner.

Seizing an opportunity

And progressing to the bass was a matter of seizing an opportunity.

"I was a rhythm guitarist in a band. One night the bass player did not show up. I told the bandleader (Bobby Aiken) I could play it. Him say 'yu sure yute'?" Parkes recalled. And the then 19- or 20-year-old Parkes said "yes".

"I never looked back from the bass," he said.

Officially was not written for anyone in particular, as Parkes says "my imagination goes wide and deep". As has Officially. "Internationally now, it is one of my biggest songs. People love it all over the world," Parkes said, naming Japan and Australia among the places where he has been to and found that his voice had gone before him - 'Officially'.

Officially was not written for anyone in particular, as Parkes says, "my imagination goes wide and deep". As has Officially.