Lone Ranger

Anthony Waldron adopted his performing name from the well-known television Western protagonist and became one of Jamaica’s earliest and most significant dancehall DJs. He developed a sharply rhythmic, beat-aligned rhyming technique that carried the toasting tradition into its modern form, while peppering his deliveries with unusual vocal outbursts and imitative noises—chief among them “bim” and “ribbit”—that established him as the period’s most distinctive stylist. Much of his childhood was spent in the United Kingdom before he settled in Kingston. His first recordings were made alongside Welton Irie at Clement “Coxsone” Dodd’s Studio One, after which he began working alone, voicing over classic Studio One rhythms drawn from the rocksteady and roots reggae catalogs. He also served as the principal DJ for Virgo Hi Fi Sound System, which Jamaican audiences voted the island’s top sound in 1980.

His first major success arrived with “Love Bump,” a Dodd-produced adaptation of the rhythm from Slim Smith’s “Rougher Yet.” The recording that defined his career, however, was “Barnabas Collins,” a salute to the vampire lead character of the television series Dark Shadows. Produced by Alvin “GG” Ranglin, the single topped charts in both Jamaica and the United Kingdom in 1980. An album of the same name, also issued as Barnabas in Collins Wood, followed on Ranglin’s label and confirmed the Lone Ranger’s place among the leading DJ artists of the era. In the next two years he recorded extensively for Studio One, releasing On the Other Side of Dub, Badda Dan Dem, and M-16, the last of which many listeners regarded as his strongest album; its title track, “Natty Burial,” and “Fist to Fist” all became hits. Additional projects included the 1981 album Rosemarie for Channel One’s Winston Riley and the 1982 release Hi Yo Silver Away, recorded with Clive Jarrett.

The emergence of Yellowman together with the debuts of other prominent early DJs such as Brigadier Jerry, Josey Wales, and Charlie Chaplin eroded the Lone Ranger’s dominance, while imitators began copying his signature effects. After his initial period of high activity, his recording schedule slowed sharply by the mid-1980s. He completed one further album, DJ Daddy, for Winston Riley in 1984 and followed it with the low-profile Learn to Drive on Bebo Phillips’ label in 1985 before withdrawing from the scene.