This is an account of the rise and the fall of Studio One, also the brave attempt to rise again from the damaging image setup after Dodd passing on May 4, 2004 Damages done by his inexperience and malicious wife Norma Dodd and her daughters in efforts to make sure the other of Dodd's children would not receive their fair share of the estate left behind by Clement Dodd. The funds Mrs. Dodd took from the banks, (First The Victoria & Blake, Nova Scotia branch, plus The New Kingston branch of The RBTT) in addition to opening fictious accounts called "Beneficiary Account" where on such account she and her daughter were the only two installed signatures. All the cash drawn from these bank accounts in quick succession were stored at her resident. After her death during 2010, the money was removed by one of her trusted helper, who was later fired by her daughter Carol Dodd. Dodd used to play records to the customers in his parents' shop, In 1954, he set up the Downbeat Sound System When the American R&B craze ended in the United States Dodd and his rivals were forced to begin recording their own Jamaican music in order to meet the local demand for new music. Initially these recordings were exclusively for a particular sound system but the records quickly developed into an industry in their own right. In 1959 he founded a record company called World Disc. In 1963 he opened Studio One at Brentford Road, Kingston. It was the first black-owned recording studio in Jamaica. Here he discovered Bob Marley, singing as a part of The Wailers. He gave them a five year exclusive contract with 20 pounds for each song recorded. Their song Simmer down, a Dodd production of a Bob Marley song, was number one in Jamaica in February 1964. Marley was invited to sleep in a back room at the studio for a while until Marley left Studio One in 1968. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Studio One sound was virtually synonymous with the sound of Rocksteady, and he attracted some of the best of Jamaican talent to his stable over this time. Without the rock steady and ska that he was so involved with there could have been no Reggae music
About the Author: Lou Gooden is a renowned Jamaican author and radio disc jockey; who attended Crescent College, which was located at 1E North Street, in Kingston Jamaica. Long before he graduated he had the opportunity of being the youngest sound system disc jockey for Jamaica's first known sound system "Tom (The Great Sebastian). During 1971 he launched "The Metromedia Sound System" from the Baby Grand Club that was located in Cross Roads. After a number of years working with the Epiphany nightclub in New Kingston and Hedonism 2 in Negril, he migrated to the U.S.A where he attended four different radio broadcasting colleges. During 1996 he embarked upon a broadcasting career at New York's W.N.W.K. 105.9 FM and later moved on to W.R.T.N. 93.5 FM. Lou Gooden returned to Jamaica with a wealth of knowledge during 2002 to complete his first non fiction book titled "Reggae Heritage". Lou help to establish Bess Fm Radio during 2006 and work as a presenting disc jockey and Station /program manager until November 2011. Lou now stream live on Ustream radio via link..