About the editor: I was shocked to hear of Harry Belafonte’s passing. It reminded me of one night in August 1965, when the Watts Riots happened, when my wife and I heard him sing at the Greek Theater.

As we drove downtown from Baldwin Hills on Highway 10, we could see the smoke rising over the city. When I reminded my wife this week after we learned of Belafonte’s death, she responded with a comment he made during the performance that we both remember very clearly after all these years: “I’m going back to Harlem, where it’s safe.”

Rest in peace Harry.

Robert Rosen, Granada hills.

About the editor: Many years ago I talked about Belafonte’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys.

In the mid 1950’s he introduced calypso to America, so that evening I asked him why he never recorded reggae music. “Oh,” he sighed, “I’ve always wanted to be ahead of the curve, and when Jamaicans like Jimmy Cliff and Desmond Dekker broke through, I didn’t want it to look like I was stealing their thunder. But looking back I should have.”

I replied, “Imagine if you had covered ‘Rivers of Babylon’ in 1968, you could have been breaking reggae in North America five years earlier.”

“Don’t remind me,” he said as he walked away.

A true giant, not only as an entertainer but also as a moral hero.

Roger Steffens, Echo Park The author is a reggae archivist and former DJ at KCRW.