'Diseases' was never about polio outbreak Song written after go-go club visit

Mel Cooke, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Papa Michigan quickly dismisses one of the tales about the 1981 hit Diseases, performed by him and then deejay duo partner, Smiley. He makes it clear that the song was not written about a particular disease, although it mentions many - including poliomyelitis.

"Nothing never happen at the time. After the song was released there was a polio outbreak," he said. However, it is the 1954 polio outbreak which marks the disease's peak in Jamaica, The Gleaner reported in December 2000 that:

"The poliomyelitis outbreak in 1954 challenged the mettle of Jamaica's medical community. About 750 cases of the infectious and disabling disease were reported; 94 of them died and many more lost the use of their limbs. The acute cases were referred to the Kingston Public Hospital and a rehabilitation unit was set up at Plumb Point, near to the Norman Manley Airport. Later on, the Mona Rehabilitation Centre (once a World War II refugee camp) was established to care for those who would live the rest of their lives with a disabling reminder of the disease."

The song's chorus warns:

Min' Jah lick yu wid diseases

The most dangerous diseases

I'm talking like the elephantitis

The other one is the poliomyelitis

Arthritis and the one diabetes.

And Michigan says although the first verse of Diseases refers to women's attire, he was not relating the possibility of disease outbreaks to them. "Mi about to natty, so wi a look towards the Empress in dem dress and dem skirt, but still it was nothing negative," Michigan said. This is even though the first verse says:

Cause every day the girls dress up inna trousers

I say what happen to yu skirts and blouses?

Why can't I man see you in yu dresses

Cause these things unto Jah Jah not pleases

An' every day them a worship vanities

An' yu greates' lust is jewelleries

Min' Jah lick yu wid diseases ...

Papa Michigan wrote the first two verses on Diseases at the Ruthven Road, New Kingston, offices of his then management immediately after returning from an unusual visit. "Some youth carry mi go go-go club. All sort of things mi see happen. Mi say, 'Well, Michigan, a nuh your style dis'," he recalled. "Dem no bodda carry mi back."

Positive feedback

The final verse was written about a month later in Union Gardens, St Andrew, where he lived, after Michigan had seen the response to the first two verses at dances where he performed. "The people (in the community) hear me come back and want money," he said. So he wrote "while the star that shine from the galaxies/and it shine on human faces/hear the cry of the Israelite voices ...".

"But me no have no money to give them, so mi write Jah we need your advices/help us out of the crisis".

Armed with the full song, Michigan said he went to Smiley and said: "Mi have a tune. It going to take us to the four corners of the earth ... . This one make the whole city belong to wi."

Diseases was recorded at Channel One with Roots Radics Band in the mid-afternoon and, Michigan said, within two weeks of release on the Volcano label was at the top of the charts and stayed there for the next two or three months. And it has proven to be an enduring hit.

"Anywhere I sing that song it is hysterical. To this day. As a matter of fact, I don't sing it again. The music bounce low and mi and the crowd sing it together," Papa Michigan said.