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The Golden Age of Reggae
Note to Reader: I'm going to attempt to reconstruct the journal I began way back in 2009 on the golden age of reggae. The links to all of the songs in the journal were cut off by YouTube over a dispute I had with them over the fair use of intellectual property back in 2011. It's now two and half years later (2014) and I won the dispute, and I'm allowed to post music on You Tube again. Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to attempt to reconnect all of the original links from The Golden Age of Reggae & perhaps revive the journal with some new posts. Below is a copy of the original post I opened the journal with in 2009.
-------------------------------------------- The Golden Age of Reggae Historical Background The "Golden Age of Reggae" is a term I've used to cover the era from roughly 1973 until 1986 which was the era when roots reggae, dub and dancehall were in their prime. It's also the era when reggae music went international and reggae musicians like Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear. Peter Tosh, U-Roy, Gregory Isaacs, Steel Pulse and Culture brought reggae music to the attention of people all over the world. Reggae music didn't really exist before 1970 when the Wailer's drummer Carlton Barrett developed the slower one-drop drumming riddim that distinguished reggae music from faster ska riddim. During the next 2 or 3 years other Jamiacan drummers, most notably, Horsemouth Wallace and Sly Dunbar adopted the one-drop riddim and by then end of 1972, this distinctive one-drop riddim music with a Rastafarian consciousness became known as "reggae" all over Jamaica. http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...ris-Bl-001.jpg Chris Blackwell in the late Seventies Chris Blackwell and Island Records changed everything. Blackwell, a British national Jamaican citizen founded Island Records. Island Records was the most successful indie rock label of the 60s. Blackwell signed such rock stars as the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Fairport Convention, King Crimson, and Emerson Lake and Palmer to Island Records. As a sideline, Blackwell had been recording ska music in Jamaica since 1959 and Blackwell became the most prominent figure in the rise of reggae. Blackwell founded Trojan Records to distribute ska music in the UK where it developed a small but devoted following among West Indian expatriates and a youthful audience of skinheads and mods. Because of his involvement in early ska music scene, Blackwell became the most prominent promoter of reggae music outside of Jamaica almost by default. His only competitor was Richard Branson, another British national who was scouting Jamaica for reggae talent for his newly founded Virgin Records. In 1973 Blackwell's Island Films released the theatrical film The Harder They Come, and in the same year Island Records released Bob Marley and the Wailers' first globally distributed major label album, Catch A Fire. Both the film and the album marked ground zero in the rise of reggae music to international prominence. Few people outside of Jamaica knew what reggae music was before The Harder They Come and Catch A Fire were released. Reggae music received even wider international attention when Eric Clapton recorded a version of Marley's song I Shot the Sheriff on his 461 Ocean Blvd. album a year later in 1974. Clapton was still the most influential rock guitarist of that era and he served as a gateway to introduce the music of Bob Marley to millions of rock music fans all over the world. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YQIjWzE1hJ...30%2Byears.jpg Bob Marley Roots reggae music was at it's peak between 1977 and 1982 when Bob Marley and the Wailers, Burning Spear and Peter Tosh were doing extensive American and European tours and the newly arrived punk music scene began to incorporate the one-drop and dub effects of the reggae idiom into their highly stylized rock music. The Clash produced the Black Market Clash extended play single with dub oriented producer Mikey Dread at the controls, Public Image experimented with dub on their Metal Box album and the Specials founded 2-Tone Records and began recording like minded ska and reggae oriented groups like the English Beat, Madness and the Selector. I was a big fan of punk and the 2-Tone bands but I spent most of the early 80s ingoring "new wave" music and listening to dub music and the early dancehall deejays, like U-Roy, I-Roy, Big Youth and Mikey Dread. My biggest reggae hero was, and still is the mighty U-Roy who created the dancehall style during the ska era, became the first reggae (and still the best) reggae dancehall deejay and is currently an influential force on the electronica scene with his Love Trio In Dub group. http://www.kalamu.com/bol/wp-content...es/u%20roy.jpg U-Roy It's all too easy to say that the decline of reggae began with Marley's death in 1981, however Bob's presence was a central force in maintaining the socially conscious integrity of roots reggae. Ironically it was the success of reggae that contributed to it's decline. The Jamaican deejay music and dub music became a big influence on the rising American hip hop and rap music scene, in the late Seventies. As a result, reggae producers began experimenting with different tempos and began adding synthesizer tap loops to dancehall music. Roots reggae was mutating into a form of tropical hip hop. As hip hop went international, the one-drop riddims of real roots reggae got lost in the mix. The "Golden Age" ended around 1986 with the rise of the 165 beats per minute of the sleng teng riddim and the increasing prominence of the dancehall deejays who toasted in the boastful and misogynistic slackness deejay style instead of the roots consciousness style of the early deejays like U-Roy, I-Roy and Big Youth. Slackness is a Jamican term for rude boy behavior. There really hasn't been a significant international roots reggae star to emerge from Jamaica since the early 80s. The elder statesmen U-Roy is now 71 years old, Burning Spear is 67 years old and the last young turks of the early 80s dub music movement like U-Brown & the Mad Professor are now in their middle aged 50s. |
The Songs
Country Boy - the Heptones This is one of my favorite roots tunes in which the Heptones criticize a rude boy who grew up in bush country and moves to Trenchtown and gets himself in trouble by falling into the company of urban gunslingers and drug dealers. This is the original Channel One 1974 pressing of Country Boy is very hard to find and the most heartfelt version of the song that the Heptones recorded many times during their career. ========== African Blood - Congo Ashanti Roy I found this song on a 1994 collection of Bill Laswell produced reggae songs called On U-Sound Crash Mix. I don't know anything about the history of the song but Congo Ashanti Roy is half of the legendary Congos vocal duo along with Cedric Myton. =========== The Border - Gregory Isaacs Gregory is best known for his silky smooth renditions of lover's rock but throughout his careeer he wrote just as many sufferer's tales and roots conscious songs as love songs. The Border is a sufferer's tale about a rastaman on the lam from the law. Gregory was writting from experience and he did more time in Jamaica's harsh General Penitentary than just about any other reggae singer. This song was recorded sometime in the late Seventies and he's backed by the Revolutionaries a collection of various musicians that played as the Studio One house band, most notably Sly and Robbie. But Sly Dunbar isn't drumming on this cut... On the drum-kit for this session was Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace whose crisp, elegant, and riddimatically complex drumming makes him my favorite reggae drummer. The Tamlins are singing the sublime harmony parts on on the chorus of the song. =========== |
The Songs
Rub A Dub Sound - Sugar Minott The hypnotic groove of Rub A Dub rocked dancehalls from Kingston to Sav La Mar in 1980. The muscular drum and bass of Sly and Robbie drives the riddim of this Sugar Minott song. ======== Under Mi Sensi - Barrington Levy Like Rub A Dub Sound, Under Mi Sensi is a riff driven song with a mezmerizing drum and bass line. Recorded in 1984, Under Mi Sensi is one of the most sampled songs in the history of reggae. It's a killer riddim. ===== Peace and Love in the Ghetto - U-Roy This the first single by a reggae toaster I ever purchased and it's still my favorite. It came out in 1977 under the imprint of the newly founded Virgin Frontline label which was founded by British air travel tycoon Richard Branson. There's a lot of Studio One players on the song. Horsemouth Wallace's distinctive drumming drives the riddim and it's a version of the popular song The Man Next Door a song that was a big hit in Jamaica by Johnny Clarke and later a hit for Dennis Brown. You can find this song and 8 other smokin' toasts by U-Roy on Jah Son of Africa, perhaps the greatest deejay album ever to come out of Jamaica. ====== |
The Songs
Hail Mi Idrin - Ina Kamoze - When I visited Jamaica in 1984 Ina Kamoze was being hailed as an inheritor of the roots conscious legacy of the the recently deceased Bob Marley. Ini recorded Hail Mi Idrin and about a dozen stellar tracks at Sonic Studios with Sly and Robbie. I love Kamoze's chilled out minimalist approach and the spacey dub sounds on the cut. Ini Kamoze never lived up to his early expectations but his first album the self titled Ina Kamoze is a reggae classic. ======== Dance In A Greenwich Farm- Cornell Campbell - Cornell Campbell was a big star in Jamaica but never broke through as an international star. His smooth falsetto voice reminds me a lot of Smokey Robinson. Dread In A Greenwich Farm is typical of of the the long string of hit records during his collaboration with producer Bunny Lee at King Tubby's studio in the Seventies. There about a two dozen Cornell Campbell songs from his Bunny Lee/King Tubby period that are seriously dread. You can hear those tracks and others on the 2 CD Natty Dread Anthology recently reissued on the indie label Sanctuary. ====== Gunman - Michael Prophet Gunman was Michael Prophet's commentary on the violence by gun and machete wielding possies who caused a great deal of violence leading into the 1980 Michael Manley vs. Edward Seaga presidential election. Michael Prophet wrote this song after a gang of gunmen rousted him out of bed one morning wanting to know who he was voting for in the presidential election. Most Rastafarians were supporters of Manley but as a group they steered away from the partisan fussing and fighting that dominated the Jamaican political world throughout the Seventies and early Eighties. ====== |
This thread is so full of win! Cheers to you Gavin B!
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Thanks for your interest in old school, roots reggae. I'm hoping to get all of the broken links fixed by the end of the week and I'll start doing new posts by next week. I've been meaning to do the technical repairs to the links for over a year but I've been so busy with other things.
One love, brothers & sisters... Gavin B. http://www.smiley-lol.com/smiley/musique/bob.gif |
The Songs
Uptown Ranking - Athena and Donna This song by a pair of female vocalists blew my mind when I first heard it in 1978. The Joe Gibbs production on the single bubbles along while Athena and Donna throw down their seriously dread lyrics. It's an amazing cut. ============== Make It Up - June Lodge Junie Lodge has been called the Diana Ross of Jamaica, but take my word for it, Junie is a whole lot better than Diana the diva. This song got a ton of dancehall play in 1980. Her winsome and elegant vocal on Make It Up established her as a major star in Jamaica in the Eighties. ======= Mi God Mi King - Papa Levi This is one of the fastest reggae toasts ever recorded. Shortly into the song Papa Levi starts rapping in double time and his blazing speed outclocks any rapper or toaster I've ever heard. It was recorded at Taxi Studios with Sly and Robbie in 1984. One day when I had nothing better to do I translated and wrote down the amazing lyrics to Mi God Mi King and they're provided below the embedded You Tube video below. Lyrics to Mi God Mi King Intro: yeah in smoking sensimelia,yuh gotta give thanks an praise unto di almighty LORD GOD JAHOVIA. do it JAH. murda. chorus1x: mi GOD mi king him name JAHOVIA JAH MAN mi GOD mi king him name JAHOVIA verse1: HIM inspire mi to be a mic chantah mi mass wid di mic rrroun di amplifiah mi fling way di slackness cau now a culchah di conscious lyrics yuh a go hear mi uttah so if you are a adult or a teenagah say everyday yuh wake yuh fi read a chaptah beginning of wisdom is di fear of JAH di bottomless pit mek wi trow lucifah dem tek way wi gold JAH MAN dem tek wi silvah dem heng mi puhpa an rrrape mi maddah dem trick wi from di wondaful land a AFRICA fi slave fi di plantation ownah dem tek way wi name JAH MAN dem call wi niggah di only word wi know "i is a coming mastah" dem tell wi say wi ignorant an inferiah an how dem intelligent an superiah true di complexion of dem skin colah but i as a yute bawn as a supah mi badda dan di bite from a tarantulah yuh hear fi mi voice a come tru di speakah but it soun sweetah wid di echo chambah say R fi di roots C fi di culchah say S fi SELASSIE earth rightful rulah say once as a lamb going to di slawtah now di conquering lion a di tribe a JUDAH yuh cann enta ZION wit a bushmastah a m16 or a rrrevolvah say tana babylon wid yuh ammunition cau deh so a di ultamate destruction bridge: puhpa levi pon di version hail JAH MAN a levi pon di version how mi stay verse2: (speed rap this verse) JAH MAN mi cool nuh stubbon like mule mi walk pon di street nuh gwaan foo fool arrive a di dance di mic a mi tool eat off a table sit on a stool nuh black mi brown,mi brown nuh black mi ribs deh a mi chest,mi spine in mi back trousiz have pocket an pocket have flap well soul a rock but REGGAE mi chat cap a nuh buck an di buck a nuh cap an di bottom a bass an treble a top wheh hot nuh cold,di cold nuh hot electricity can gi yuh a shock nuh fraid fi nuh mouse nuh fraid fi nuh rat stawt from di bottom mi reach to di top eat up di snack di crackle di pop mi run in di toilet fi cut di crap mi hungry again mi nuh eat a snack an from mi a yute mi nuh scowa nuh pot fi mi head dread mi head it nuh platt nuh live inna house mi live inna flat lawd if yuh hear wen dis ridim drop yuh head yuh toe yuh body a rock from mi pon di mic it's a lyric attack put slackness a bottom an culchah pon top AFRICAN land affi i an i spot in time ah trouble JAH naw tunn him back mi pray to JAH mi neva will stop who worship satan a foolish idiot JAH blow breath di devil cannot who get a bullet nuh mista Sadat afta reagan public fiyah shot MALCOLM X dem kill pon di spot up inna ZION di righteous a clap dung inna hell di wicked a rot di sweetest singa a sugah minott di madess comedian a kenny everett dracula tunn inna vampiah bat but wen him si sun him caan tek dat yuh eye dem dawk affi use contact but a me pon di mic is levi a chat not so long JAH walk pon di lan di peaceful righteous RASTAMAN trod wid di MACCA B inna him han preaching love to man an woman him crucify by di roman dem nail him to di cross tru him foot an him han rise again di resurrection well a him create di earth an heaven tek six day nuh tek seven give riches to king SOLOMON make him wisa dan all odda man EVE couldn't mek wid out ADAM living in Babylon as a blackman well all mi face is racism wen mi weak dem say dat mi strong wen mi right dem say dat mi wrong true mi nuh check fi politician nuh care who win di election pon di mic mi please everyone flashing down style an fashion chorus:1x then 1st verse to fade |
The Songs
Ganja Smuggling - Eek-A-Mouse The charismatic Eek-A-Mouse has a completely unique singing and deejay voice. A lot of his singing sounds influenced by Arabic musical modalities of singing. Ganja Smuggling was released in 1982 and was produced by Henry Lawes and mixed by King Tubby and Prince Jammy at King Tubby's Firehouse. The Roots Radics lay down the riddim track and it's Eek's own epic saga of working as herbs smuggler. Eek is a bit of a scary person who stands 6'6" tall. When he stayed at my house during a 1981 tour in Boston, he frequently would check out to get "sushi." Sushi, I later found out, was Eek's code word for cocaine. ============ Government Land- Horace Andy Government Land is Horace Andy's musical demand for land reform in Jamaica. It was a big hit for him in 1977. It was produced at Harry J.'s has an all-star studio group consisting of Jah Malla, Horsemouth Wallace, Leroy Sibbles, Michael Taylor, Andy Bassford, Privy Dread, Augustus Pablo, Bobby Kalphat, Bernard Touter Harvey, Tommy McCook, Don D. Junior, Charles Bashford, Dirty Harry, Scully Sims, Horace Hinds, and Sylvan Morris. Horace has achieved international notoriety as one of the vocalists for the crossover trip hop and dub group, Massive Attack. Horace sings lead such Massive Attacks songs as Spying Glass, Man Next Door, and One Love. =========================== A Song- Pablo Moses A Song was recorded in Jamaica using the island's finest session players and then remixed in London in 1980. It comes from an album with the same title and it established a cult following for Pablo Moses in Europe, South American, Canada and the USA. He backed off the reggae scene for several years but he's begun to tour again in Europe, Africa and South America where he draws large crowds. Pablo maintains a frequently updated page at My Space with great jukebox of his tunes. ================= |
The Songs
3 Early UK Ska Hits Carry Go Bring Come - Justin Hines and the Dominoes Justin Hinds and the Domino's Jamaican smash Carry Go Bring Come mashed up sound systems in the UK way back in 1964 and may be the earliest song with a Rastafarian message. Hinds has recorded the song dozens of times and it is one of the foundation songs of ska. ======================= Red Red Wine - Tony Tribe The original of Red Red Wine by Tony Tribe was played at a much faster tempo than the 2nd wave UB40 version. It was another UK ska hit that got a lot of play in UK dancehalls during the first wave of ska. ==================== Pressure Drop - Toots and the Maytals Another early ska hit that folks in the UK are probably already familiar with. It was originally release on Trojan Records UK and included in the soundtrack of the epic reggae movie The Harder They Come This version is a beautifully restored and resmatered version of the 1972 original single. ===================== |
The Songs
3 American Hit Songs from From the Early Eighties Nancy Reagan - Blue Riddim Band The most unlikely success in the history of the Reggae Sunsplash was the appearance of the Blue Riddim Band 5:45 in the morning on August 8 1982. It was unlikely because Blue Riddim Band was an all-white band from Kansas singing a song about Nancy Reagan. http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/50...im+4+cover.jpg The Blue Riddim Band I was operating a video camera that was doing the pan shots of the crowd for a Sunsplash documentary and I was stunned at the enthusiastic reaction of the mostly all black Jamaican crowd. Even the mighty reggae singer Burning Spear (Winston Rodney) was skanking and clapping his hands to Blue Riddim's dubwise version of Nancy Reagan. I have the rare 7" original single and dub version of the song which really smokes. I'm happy to say that Nancy Reagan is now available on iTunes as a digital download after 32 years of being out of issue. ================ No Vacancy - Sugar Minott Sugar Minott's populist cry for jobs in Jamaica was a monster hit in the island in 1982. No Vacancy refers to no job vacancies and it's a suffer's tale about humiliating state of poverty that exists on the island. The lyrics are in the militant style and Sugar lays down the line with these lyrics: Quote:
======================== Slave Market - Gregory Isaacs Soon Forward is a crucial album in the history of reggae music. It's 1979 and reggae was standing at the crossroads of roots conscious, dub and dancehall styles and this album pulled it all together into a collection of songs that stand up to the test of time. Slave Market is a sufferer's tale from that album and Gregory sings it with a winsome but fiery vocal. Sly and Robbie do drum and bass with most of the Roots Radics on other instruments. The Roots Radics were far and away the best studio musicians of golden age of reggae and Isaacs was using the Radics as his live backing band during this era. Soon Forward was one of the earliest albums recorded at Sly & Robbie brand new Taxi studio and released the Virgin owned Frontline label in the UK and the USA. ======================= __________________ |
The Songs
Lazer Beam - Don Carlos - Lazer Beam came out of a 1983 session produced by Bunny Lee with the Aggrovators and Sly and Robbie playing the riddim track. Don Carlos founded the stellar reggae group Black Uhuru in 1974 and left the band after one single to perform with a band called Gold. The 12 tracks recorded from the Bunny Lee sessions were the best work Don Carlos recorded in his post Black Uhuru years primarily because of Bunny Lee's minimalist dubwise production values. =========== War - Wailing Souls- War was the Wailing Souls' 1976 epistle against violence in the Jamaican national elections. "War in the East, war in the West, rumors of war." Rumors swirled through the streets insisting the guns were supplied by the CIA, a charge later confirmed by numerous witnesses. As the carnage rose, fears grew of a U.S.-sponsored coup. That was untrue, but with the fall of the Allende's government in Chile still fresh in people's minds, the fear was real, and the violence seemingly unstoppable. "War only bring destruction," the trio insisted, and so it proved. By the time the PNP swept the elections in December, over 100 Jamaicans lay dead, and much of the inner city ghetto had turned to ashes. Beyond the island, too, havoc reigned. 1976 was a blood strewn year, and the Souls also refer specifically to the terror raging in Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe). This is the original 12" single of War with dub. The toaster sounds uncannily like U-Roy but in reality it was a 16 year old protege of U-Roy's named Ranking Trevor (Trevor Grant). Trevor was was a major force in the sound systems on both sides of the Atlantic during the roots age. Most of his recordings remain infuriatingly out of print, and his singles and albums, now with hefty price tags attached, are much sought after by collectors. ======================== Police in Helicopter- John Holt- Police in Helicopter was a militant anthem in response to the crackdown on herbs cultivation by the Jamaican police and the CIA in the early Eighties. In 1983 the Reagan CIA used crop dusters to spray a defoliant called paraquat with crop dusters to kill the marijuana crop. Later Jamaican drug agents showed up to burn the remains of the defoliated marijuana crop. The paraquat defoliation of the herbs crop caused a great deal of hardship on the island. The spraying was not only killing herbs crop, but also killed the bread fruit, banana and coconut harvest which are staples of a poor person's diet in Jamaica. I was in St. Ann's parish that year and personally witnessed the damage the paraquat spraying did to the food supply in the hills. You never heard about the epidemic of starvation in the bush and the hills of Jamaica because of the Reagan era paraquat spraying policy. Back in the 80s when Jamaicans were complaining about the paraquat spraying by the CIA, the Reagan State Department officials ridiculed those claims, insinuating that the complainers were a bunch of paranoid Rastafarians who were high on marijuana. By 1990, Freedom of Information Act requests by journalists actually proved that the Reagan CIA actually did underwrite paraquat spraying of the herbs crop in the Eighties...Jah know know. Police In Helicopter was the ubiquitous song of the moment in 1983 in all the Jamaican dancehalls. Holt's defiant tone, threatening toward the herbs burning agents with militant retaliation, "If you continue to burn up the herbs, we're going to burn down the cane fields." It was an invocation of the Maroon rebellions in the days of slavery. Runaway outlaw slaves often hid out in the mountains but returned under the cover of darkness to burn the fields of their former British masters just before the sugar cane harvest during the Maroon rebellion. It was produced by Henry Junjo Laws and the Roots Radics are the session band. ======================= __________________ |
Editorial
Reflections on the Relationship Between the Dance Hall DJ & the Hip-Hop Rapper Some of the most significant trends in contemporary mainstream pop were reggae innovations including the dancehall sound system, dub, and track remixing. Most importantly, there would be no rap music today without U-Roy, Big Youth and the other Jamaican deejays who exported the practice of toasting to the hip hop scene in the Bronx and Brooklyn in the Seventies. One of the reasons I've never been terribly fond of rap music is that U-Roy was rapping a long time before Kurtis Blow, the Furious Five or Run DMC. Back the Seventies, African American music promoters began sponsoring dance parties in lofts and empty warehouses in Brooklyn & the Bronx. Those promoters simply did a one night rental of an empty space, hired one or two deejays and charged the general public 5 bucks at the door. It was illegal to serve liquor at these dance parties, so folks usually brought their own bottles to the dance party. Many of the deejays began spin reggae dance music in addition to their usual musical fare of soul, funk and disco. Pretty soon a few Jamaican born deejays started spinning at these dances, and began featuring live toasters to rap over their reggae dub plate music. It was only a matter of time before the African American deejays hired on their own American toasters to rap over dub plates of funk and soul music...And hip-hop music was born. One of the first American toasters to break into the Brooklyn/Bronx party scene was Shinehead, a Jamaica born deejay who moved to New York and he obtained American citizenship as a teenager. But prior to the rise of Shinehead, several native born Jamaican toasters were touring & playing dance party gigs in the Bronx & Brooklyn. Those Jamaican dancehall toasters became a crucial influence upon the African American funk community. http://culturecatch.com/files/users/...-heron.jpg.jpg Jazz poet Gil Scott Heron was an early influence the hip-hop/rap scene Prior to the rise of hip-hop, jazz poet Gil Scott Heron developed his own singular style of jazz rapping... And Scott-Heron, in turn, was influenced by the Last Poets, a militant collective of black consciousness poets who used jazz music as a backdrop at their poetry recitals in the Sixties. A handful of American rappers were influenced by Scott-Heron & the Last Poets, but it was the omnipresent Jamaican dancehall music played at dance parties in Brooklyn and the Bronx that had the biggest influence on the budding hip-hop scene. http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/50...nes%2Bcove.png Blondie and other NYC punk groups played a big role in bringing reggae & hip-hop music to the ears of white American youths. The New York downtown punk club scene also played a crucial role in introducing both Jamaican dance hall toasting & hip-hop to a white audience in America. Blondie's 1980 hit Rapture was a tribute to Grandmaster Flash. Grandmaster Flash returned the favor by sampling Rapture on his mega-hit single, Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel. Another Blondie hit The Tide Is High was a cover of a Jamaican ska era hit by John Holt & the Paragons. The Tom-Tom Club song Genius of Love was actually sampled by Grandmaster Flash & the Funky 4 plus 1 on their hit single It's Nasty. Another Tom Tom Club song Wordy Rappinghood had a hip-hop influenced rap vocal. Nearly all of the Tom-Tom Club songs had reggae influenced one-drop drumbeats in the background. http://www.losanjealous.com/wp-conte...0-09-10_17.jpg The Tom Tom Club dabbled in both reggae music and hip hop music The original Jamaican toaster,U-Roy, had better lyrics and a more refined delivery than any American rapper. Only only a trio American hip hop groups come close to the political consciousness and lyrical sophistication of the original Jamaican toasters and dub poets. Those groups were Public Enemy, Arrested Development and Digable Planets. The rest of the American hip hop scene was consumed by slackness rappers, bling boyz and gangsta wannabes. Eminem for all of his supposed lyrical and rapping prowess would be blown away by old school Jamaican toasters like U-Roy, I-Roy, Papa Levi or Charlie Chaplin in a rap throw-down. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the hip-hop scene in the UK has developed into a far more sophisticated scene than their American counterparts. Brilliant artists like Massive Attack, Neneh Cherry, Ghostpoet, Dizzee Rascal & M.I.A. have expanded the artistic vision of hip hop over the two decades, while the American hip hop scene has stagnated, a victim of it's own bling-oriented myopia. |
The Music of Joseph Hill & Culture
http://tafadzwa22.files.wordpress.co...ill_joseph.jpg Joseph Hill, lead singer of Culture Culture has always been my favorite reggae band. Part of my love of Culture had to do with my friendship with Joesph Hill, the charismatic singer and songwriter for the group. I first met Joseph in 1982 when I hosted a dinner for the Culture and the Roots Radics during an east coast tour in support of their newly released album on the St. Louis based Nighthawk Records. After that dinner and rambunctious game of soccer in the park across the street, Joesph was distraught about not having a suitcase to carry all of his albums he purchased in the USA back to Jamaica. I gave him one of my cheap pieces of luggage and from that point on Joseph called me the Suitcase Man and that became my permanent street name whenever we visited. Culture's material was devoted almost exclusively to spiritual, social, and political messages, and Hill delivered them with a fervent intensity that grouped him with Rastafarian militants like Burning Spear and Black Uhuru. Off stage Joseph was quiet and diminutive man who only stood about 5' 6" tall but his stage personnae transformed him into a towering lion of Rastafari. Over the years he'd visit me at home or the radio station whenever he was on tour and I visited him at his family home at Linestead in St. Catherine Parish in Jamaica. Joseph was generous with his time and despite his devout Rastafarianism had a wicked sense of humor. Joseph was always gracious to my friends and taught me much a about life and music. Through Joseph I met the Itals, Albert Griffiths and the Gladiators and the Tamlins who also became vistors to my home and my reggqae radio show in Boston whenever they were touring the East Coast. I was heartbroken when Joseph collapsed on stage in Berlin and died unexpectedly in August 2006. Dem A Payaka - Culture The anthem on behalf of the youths was produced Sylvian Morris at Harry J.'s studio with the Roots Radics providing the riddims It. is one of my favorite Culture tunes. The lyrics on on the YouTube screen. It was released on that Nighthawk collection called Calling Rastafari in 1982. ===================== This Time - Culture- This Time came out of the same Harry J./Roots Radics session and in another cry for justice on behalf of the youths of the ghetto. Lyrics for This Time Quote: Burning an illusion in Babylon (3 x) Ia seh If Babylon kill one more rastaman, I seh, The sun will stop from shining The grass will stop from growing Blood, blood, blood ina Babylon (3 x) This time...no other time This time...we're not waiting any longer This time... it's time to come over This time.... the youths are crying out This time Babylon is your turn to go on the cross...this time No other time, the youths request it now Fire fire fire ina Babylon (3 times) ====================== International Herb - Culture Culture's joyful ode to the use of the herbs. Virgin's original 1979 LP version of International Herb generated some controversy thanks to its front cover, which showed Culture's members smoking large spliffs while standing in front of a tall, bushy marijuana plant. Marijuana advocates loved the cover, marijuana opponents hated it. ======================== http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0-nqCRzfl-...laway_1997.jpg __________________ |
Three Early Eighties Monster Hits from Henry "Junjo" Lawes
http://shimmyshimmy.co.uk/wp-content...2/03/Junjo.jpg Jujo Lawes strikes a pose with his massive sound systme speakers Henry "Junjo" Lawes had no studio of his own but usually worked out of Channel One Recording Studio at Maxfield Avenue, north of Spanish Town Road. His session band of choice was the Roots Radics. Lawes is important because he established himself as the leading producer of the next generation's dancehall sound. He discovered and first recorded Barrington Levy, Frankie Paul and Eek-A-Mouse. During the early Eighties Junjo produced such smash hits as Diseases by Michigan and Smiley, Wa Do Dem by Eek A Mouse, Water Pumping by Johnny Osbourne, Under Mi Sensi by Barrington Levy, Rocking Dolly by Cocoa Tea, Ram Jam Dancehall by Charlie Chaplin, Zungguzunggugguzungguzeng by Yellow Man, and the Wailing Soul's classic lp Firehouse Rock. No producer in the history of reggae was as attuned to the sound of the street and voices of the youths as Junjo. Pass the Tu Sheng Peng - Frankie Paul Another monster hit in 1984 from producer Henry Junjo Lawes. The hook on this one was the brass arrangement of Norweigan Wood to counterpoint the bubbin' riddims of the Roots Radics. With Jah as my witness, Tu Sheng Peng is the most irie song to listen to when you're high on the herbs. =========================== Please Jah Jah - Barrington Levy Barrington Levy is letting loose with the bounciest sufferer's song around. It's Friday, but he didn't get paid, he ends up in jail, and didn't get no bail, no wonder he's crying out to Jah for justice. The Radics fiery backing perfectly complement the singer's aggrieved tones, as he wails over his misfortune, shouting out to Jah for relief. A classic. ============================= Prison Oval Rock - Barrington Levy This song came from the same session as Please Jah Jah and was another smash hit. On all three songs you can hear the emerging trademark dancehall style as it was being perfected by Junjo and the Roots Radics... The bubblin' percision of the Radics, the use of reverb on vocals, one-drop rim shots from drummer Style Scott, and the use of dubwise mixing board techniques. The Radics also did double duty as Gregory Isaac's studio and touring band. ======================= |
Three Hits from Lee "Scratch" Perry's Black Ark Studio
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/50...2BIn%2BDub.jpg Wild man & reggae producer, Lee "Scratch" Perry at the controls in his Black Ark studio Life Is Not Easy - Meditations- This is the original 10 minute dub single of Life Is Not Easy that was a big hit for the Meditations in 1978. The dub plate version includes a special appearance by the legenday Black Ark cow. Lee "Scratch" Perry always worked the sound board standing up and dancing. Lee Perry pulls a switcheroo when he flips over to the dub version, listen carefully, it's no longer the Meditations singing... it's the distinctive sound of the Heptones, another Perry produced vocal trio. The two groups sound very similar but faithful listeners can tell the difference. ======================= Fisherman - Congos- From the masterpiece album 1978 Heart of the Congos which many reggae enthusiasts consider the best roots reggae album that ever came out of the Black Ark Studios. The duo of Cedric Myton and Roy "Ashanti" Johnson had a unique sound, revolving around the former man's crystalline falsetto, which was set off by the latter's rich tenor. The Meditations provide the background vocals on the track. The video has amazing footage of a community fishing event that looks like it was filmed around Negril. ======================== Beat Down Babylon - Junior Byles This 1972 smash hit complete with Perry's use of the bullwhip effect was a crucial song in the forthcoming dub revolution. It's the first Lee Perry production I ever heard and it blew me away. ======================== |
Dread Ina Inglan Part I -
The Dub Poetry of Linton Kwesi Johnson http://www.pantellerialink.com/rocks...si-johnson.jpg Inglan Is A Bitch - Linton Kwesi Johnson The studio performance of Ingland Is a Bitch with the magnificent Dub Band headed by Dennis Bovell. Swear to jah... the Dub Band was the best live reggae band I've ever heard. I deejayed an appearence of LKJ and the Dub Band and Gil Scott Heron at a Boston club in 1984 and it was the best concert I ever attended. I've transcribed the lyrics to Inglan Is A Bitch beneath the YouTube embed. Lyrics to Inglan Is a Bitch by LKJ w´en mi jus´ come to Landan toun mi use to work pan di andahgroun but workin´ pan di andahgroun y´u don´t get fi know your way around Inglan is a bitch dere´s no escapin it Inglan is a bitch dere´s no runnin´ whey fram it mi get a lickle jab in a bih ´otell an´ awftah a while, mi woz doin´ quite well dem staat mi aaf as a dish-washah but w´en mi tek a stack, mi noh tun clack-watchah Inglan is a bitch dere´s no escapin it Inglan is a bitch no baddah try fi hide fram it w´en dem gi´ you di lickle wage packit fus dem rab it wid dem big tax rackit y´u haffi struggle fi mek en´s meet an´ w´en y´u goh a y´u bed y´u jus´ can´t sleep Inglan is a bitch dere´s no escapin it Inglan is a bitch a noh lie mi a tell, a true mi use to work dig ditch w´en it cowl noh bitch mi did strang like a mule, but bwoy, mi did fool den awftah a while mi jus´ stap dhu ovahtime den awftah a while mi jus´ phu dung mi tool Inglan is a bitch dere´s no escapin it Inglan is a bitch y´u haffi know how fi survive in it well mi dhu day wok an´ mi dhu nite wok mi dhu clean wok an´ mi dhu dutty wok dem seh dat black man is very lazy but if y´u si how mi wok y´u woulda sey mi crazy Inglan is a bitch dere´s no escapin it Inglan is a bitch y´u bettah face up to it dem a have a lickle facktri up inna Brackly inna disya facktri all dem dhu is pack crackry fi di laas fifteen years dem get mi laybah now awftah fifteen years mi fall out a fayvah Inglan is a bitch dere´s no escapin it Inglan is a bitch dere´s no runnin´ whey fram it mi know dem have work, work in abundant yet still, dem mek mi redundant now, at fifty-five mi gettin´ quite ol´ yet still, dem sen´ mi fi goh draw dole Inglan is a bitch dere´s no escapin it Inglan is a bitch is whey wi a goh dhu ´bout it? ======================== Mi Want Fe Goh Rave - Linton Kwesi Johnson A great live performance of Mi Want Fe Goh Rave by LKJ and the Dub Band. This video gives you a good picture of the power and precision of the Dub Band's playing. The are all expert players bringing elements of funk, jazz and blues to the reggae riddims of LKJ's dub poetry. Dennis Bovell is the bass player with the kerchief on his head. I transcribed the lyrics to Mi Want Fe Go Rave below the YouTube embed. Lyrics to Mi Want Fi Goh Rave by LKJ I woz waakin doun di road road di addah day when a hear a lickle yout-man say him seh: y´u noh si mi situation mi don´t have noh accamadaeshan mi haffi sign aan at di station at six in di evenin´ mi seh mi life got no meanin´ ah jus´ livin´ widout feelin´ still mi haffi mek a raze kaw mi come af age an mi want fi goh rave I woz waakin doun di road annadah day w´en ah hear annadah yout-man say him seh: mi naw wok fi noh pittance mi naw draw dem assistance mi use to run a lickle rackit but wha, di police dem di stap it an ah had woz to hap it still mi haffi mek a raze kaw mi come af age an mi want fi goh rave I woz waakin doun di road yet annadah day w´en ah hear annadah yout-man say him seh: mi haffi pick a packit tek a wallit fram a jackit mi haffi dhu it real crabit an´ if a lackit mi haffi pap it an´ if a safe mi haffi crack it ar chap it wid mi hatchit but mi haffi mek a raze kaw mi come af age an mi want fi goh rave ==================== Peach Dub by the Dub Band- Dennis Bovell's Dub Band backed Linton Kwesi Johnson on his first four albums and was his touring band for several European and American tours. On Peach Dub, Bovell (aka Blackbeard) shows off his smokin' dub wise soundboard techniques. ======================== |
The Songs
Tenement Yard - Jacob Miller= Jacob Miller's 1978 debut solo album Dread Dread was United Artists first attempt to sell reggae music to a crossover audience. Oddly enough the cut Tenament Yard and the other cuts on Dread Dread were actually Jamaican hits by Inner Circle, the band Miller sang for. United Artists released the Inner Circle material as a solo album by Miller, causing chaos for future reggae music archivists. This video clip is from the movie Rockers. I used it instead of the original single because it gives you a pretty good idea of Jacob's charismatic stage presence. ===================================== Sweet Sensation - Melodians- This is an 1969 ska hit by the Melodians produced by Leslie Kong. The Melodians successfully reinvented themselves as a reggae group and recorded By the Rivers of Babylon, perhaps the most covered song in reggae history. =========================== Country Living - The Mighty Diamonds- "City life is not for me," lead vocalist Donald "Tabby" Shaw insists. "I'm going back to country living." And so the Mighty Diamonds bid farewell to Kingston and head off to where the skies can be seen. The backing Revolutionaries seem eager to accompany them on their way. Sly & Robbie lay down a toe-tapping rhythm that sets the piece jauntily on its way while the rest of the group keeps the melody bouncing gaily along. Producer JoJo Hookim keeps it clean and bright, and Country Living found much of Jamaica wishing for a return to country life in 1975 when the song was released. This early single was released in Jamaica around 1975. It was the same year Mighty Diamonds inked a deal with Virgin around this same time, however Country Living wasn't released in the States or the UK until 1977. http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/q.../Rastalion.jpg |
Dread Is Not Dead - Three Post Millenium Reggae Stars
Cold Feet - Anthony B.-Anthony B. is proof that dread is not dead in reggae music and launched his career with a single that covered a Tracy Chapman's song, Cold Feet, a sufferer's tale about the hazards of the gunman lifestyle. Lyrics are below the YouTube embed. Cold Feet - Music and Lyrics by Tracy Chapman as Sung by Anthony B. Ooohhhoohhh M-16, AK-47, pump rifle, desert eagle All home made one to Dem a walk wid gun in the hand and a run the town All in front ah station man ah shot man down Dem a walk wid gun in the hand and a run the town All in front ah station man ah shot man down 'Cause they've got Cold feet, cold, cold, cold, cold feet Cold feet, cold, cold, cold, cold feet There was a little boy Once upon a time Who inspite his young age Small size knew his mind For every copper penny and clothes he would find Making wish for better days And for all time for no more Cold feet, cold, cold, cold, cold feet 2x He grew up to be a worker Determined to succeed Made a life for himself Free from worry wants and needs With nobody to share his life with With nobody to keep him warm At night when he go to sleep He sleep alone with his Cold feet, cold, cold, cold, cold feet He struggled all his life just to be an honest man Proud of the dirt in his palm the soil of the land Some guys I knew from my school days Said they had a plan To get rich too quick They had to bound to me, Lawd Dem a walk wid gun in the hand and a run the town All in front ah station man ah shot man down Dem a walk wid gun in the hand and a run the town All in front ah station man ah shot man down 'Cause they've got Cold feet, cold, cold, cold, cold feet Cold feet, cold, cold, cold, cold feet He decided to drive a car He decided to carry a gun To take the biggest risk of all Prove his loyalty to his friends He decided to tell his wife things would soon turn around Said a little boy is dead A man stand wid him now, Lawd Dem a walk wid gun in the hand and a run the town All in front ah station man ah shot man down Dem a walk wid gun in the hand and a run the town All in front ah station man ah shot man down 'Cause they've got Cold feet, cold, cold, cold, cold feet Cold feet, cold, cold, cold, cold feet He didn't stop to set his clock right He didn't stop to set his watch He left in such a hurry He didn't think to wish for luck Makes no difference if you're early No difference if you're late Once you're out of time And the flowers have been laid You're six feet underground with your Cold feet, cold, cold, cold, cold feet ================================== Barack Obama by Cocoa Tea- Cocoa Tea had a monster international hit his 2008 dreadwise tribute to Barack Obama. Various video versions of the the song went viral on the internet and got millions of YouTube hits during the 2008 election campaign in the USA. Anyone can run for president of the United States but Barack Obama is first candidate to have his own reggae tribute song. ===================== No More My Love- Culver City Dub Collective- [Cut to 2008] .. out in LA, the Culver City Dub Collective a group of skateboard slackers and reggae culturalists began producing their own homemade dub records and videos. CCDC's first album Dos sparked a wave interest in roots reggae and dub out there in LaLa Land. There is a touch of post-modern irony in their music but I've seen CCDC live and deh are de real ting, mi bredren. The song remains the same. __________________ |
Winston Rodney- aka Burning Spear, the Elder Statesman
http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/P...pears-tt01.jpg Burning Spear is one of the last surviving first generation reggae stars. Carrying the torch for the gospel of Marcus Garvey, Burning Spear is the single greatest proponent of self-determination and self-reliance for all African descendants, but his message is not exclusively based on the teachings of Garvey. Through his music, Burning Spear has consistently been able to educate, inform, and uplift people the world over with his positive message based on honesty, peace, and love. Spear is now 66 years old, still making albums and touring. He only does only thing: roots reggae music... But it does it better than anyone. Down the Riverside - Burning Spear This 1977 song by Spear is still my one of my favorites. Burning Spear's sound is called "churchical" in Jamaica, because because a lot of it comes from gospel music. _____________________________ Days of Slavery - Burning Spear I never went to a Spear concert where he left the stage without singing this classic song from his 1975 Marcus Garvey album. It has a hynotic groove. The video is from a live concert at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in 2012. ____________________________ Marcus Garvey - Burning Spear- The video is a studio re-recording of a song from his classic Marcus Garvey album. I chose these newer sessions because I'm sure most reggae fans have heard the originals and these sessions show that Spear is capable at age 66 of pouring the same amount of passion into the songs he wrote while he was still in his twenties. __________________ http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_L-E-iGTaRg...rcusGarvey.jpg |
Masters of the Dub Universe
Mad Professor's Lesson in Dub Mad Professor is a second generation dubmaster who was a protegee of Lee "Scratch" Perry. The Professor is credited with bringing dub music to the alternative electronic music scene when he remixed the entire Blue Lines album for Massive Attack in the early Ninties. Mad Professor was born Neal Fraser (or Neil Fraser) circa 1955 in Guyana, a small country in the northern part of South America. He earned his nickname as a preteen, thanks to his intense interest in electronics; he even built his own radio. At age 13, his family moved to London, and around age 20, he started collecting recording equipment: reel-to-reel tape decks, echo and reverb effects, and the like. In 1979, he built his own mixing board and opened a four-track studio in his living room in the south London area of Thornton Heath. Calling it Ariwa, after a Nigerian word for sound or communication, he began recording bands and vocalists for his own label of the same name, mostly in the lovers rock vein. In the video below, Mad Professor will school you in the art & science of head-spacing dub. __________________________ Roots and Culture- Mikey Dread- Mikey Dread (birth name: Michael Campbell) was Jamaican deejay who repatriated to London around 1978 after leaving a big mark on the Jamaican reggae scene in the mid-Seventies. Mikey is internationally known for his production work on the Clash's 1980 Black Market Clash extended play ep. It was Mikey Dread's production that brought dubwise studio production techniques to the Clash's punk sound. http://insomniaradio.net/wp-content/...ls-podcast.jpg Michael Campbell came to national prominence in Jamaica the early '70s with a weekly radio show on JBC (Jamaican Broadcasting Company). Taking the name Mikey Dread, the DJ's four-hour spot, which he called Dread at the Controls, was a revelation. Jamaican radio had not revolved around local talent, but rather imported music mostly from the United States When I was living down in Jamaica in the early Seventies, most of the local Jamaican radio stations were playing American country and western, easy listening artists like Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin & classic America soul music. The Dread at the Controls show changed all that and listeners could hear locally produced reggae music on the radio for the first time. The only place you heard reggae music prior to Mikey Dread's show was in dancehalls and record shops. Mikey also produced and recorded an album titled Dread at the Controls a crucial roots dub album which was influential in both in the UK & Jamaica. In October 2007, it was announced that Campbell was being treated for a brain tumor. He died on 15 March 2008, surrounded by his family, at the home of his sister in Stamford, Connecticut. My YouTube video selection,Roots and Culture, is from Dread's first big mainstream album release Pave the Way (1979). Roots & Culture also became the theme song for Mikey Dread's Channel 4 television show in the early Eighties. Among the session players on Roots & Culture are Rico Rodriguez, Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, Flabba Holt, Ashante Roy, and the Clash's Paul Simonon. Roots and Culture almost sounds like it could be an outtake for the Black Market Clash ep. ___________________________________ Scientist Ganja Dub - Scientist - Overton Brown (aka Scientist), like Mad Professor, was also child prodigy at fixing electronic gadgets and King Tubby originally hired to keep his massive sound system up and running. King Tubby was so impressed with Overton's knowledge of electronics he dubbed him Scientist and gave him his first shot at the mixing board at age 16. Scientist's dub remix of Ganja Dub was a massive hit in the late Seventies and is one of the most frequently sampled songs in reggae music history. _______________________ |
Straight From the Horse's Mouth
The story of reggae's finest drummer: Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace I've never made a secret of the fact that Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace is my favorite drummer reggaewise or otherwise. He's played in hundreds of studio sessions and toured with Gregory Isaacs, the Roots Radics, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, Yellowman and just about everybody who's anybody in reggae music. Horsemouth is also the funniest and most intelligent reggae artist I've ever met. He's had me laughing to tears with some of his off-the-cuff observations about the absurdity of the world around him. He has an absolute attitude of joie de vivre toward everything in life. The first video is a short drumming demonstration by Horsemouth ______________________________ Horsemouth gave a short speech in a scene the 1978 movie Rockers. He told me there was no script and he ad-lib his lines in the first take. ______________________________ In another scene from Rockers, Horsemouth is film with his dread bredren jammin' it down in de yard. Notice the song they're jamming on is Want To Make It With You, the 1970 hit by the pop group Bread. ____________________________ The final live video is of Horsemouth sitting in with the American reggae group Groundation for a ravin' version of Bob Marley's Trenchtown Rock. The video captures Horsemouth's charismatic stage presence and his rock solid mastery of the one-drop drumming style. _____________________________ |
Babylon Is Falling - The Music of Steel Pulse
http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/en...steelpulse.jpg David Hinds, singer/guitarist for Steel Pulse Then in 1978, Steel Pulse, a Birmingham reggae unit thundered onto the UK music scene. What was unusual about Steel Pulse was they had as many punk rocker fans as Jamaican national reggae fans in London. I visited London in 1978 and attended a Culture concert in Brixton and I was the only white person at the show. Two nights later, I saw Steel Pulse perform in a punk club in London and there were more white fans in the audience than black fans. Clearly, Steel Pulse had built a bridge between London's white punk rock community & the black Jamaican reggae community. It was the first bi-racial reggae music concert I'd ever seen, outside of a Bob Marley show. David Hinds on the origins of the Steel Pulse name: Quote:
Steel Pulse's biggest break was being designated as the supporting band for Bob Marley's European tour in 1978. The twelve-date tour included sold-out concerts in Paris, Ibiza, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Oslo, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Brussels and kicked off with an outdoor festival at the New Bingley Hall in Stafford (Marley later released an album culled from some of the live shows, Babylon By Bus.) David Hinds recalls: Quote:
__________________________________ Ku Klux Klan - Steel Pulse Steel Pulse's first single for Island Records was the classic "Ku Klux Klan," which happened to lend itself well to the band's highly visual, costume-heavy concerts. I saw Steel Pulse in London, New York and Boston in 1980 and the band was at the peak of their power as a live band. This clip of Steel Pulse playing "Ku Klux Klan" live at the Rainbow Theatre London, England September 18th, 1980 captures that energy. This was also included in the film Urgh! A Music War. ____________________________ Babylon Makes the Rules - Steel Pulse= A hit in 1979, and got a lot play on a lot of sound systems in London, Kingston, Paris and New York. This video was recorded at a NYC show during their 1979 American tour. _______________________________ Roller Skates- Steel Pulse- Roller Skates may be the most requested Steel Pulse song ever. It's the epic saga of a roller skating rastaman who gets his wireless boom-box stolen by a big "cigar smoking" man in a flashy car and how the rasta becomes a ninja hero in his quest to recover his stolen boom-box. _________________________________________ |
Mutabaruka - Dark Prince of Dub Poetry
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MnPyo6StVl...600/Muta17.jpg Mustabaruka- The nightmare of every white, middle class, god fearing Christian Mutabaruka is the nightmare of every white, middle class, god fearing Christian. Muta has a larger than life, confrontational personae even when he's off stage. In 1984 I was assigned by the Channel Club to be Muta's driver for his one night appearance at the Channel in Boston. It was his first appearance in the United States and Muta came off the Air Jamaica flight at Logan Airport, wearing Rastafarian robes and was barefoot. He certainly turned a lot of heads as we walked from the terminal to my car in the parking garage. I'm still not sure how Muta ever got onto an international flight without wearing any shoes. As I drove him from the airport to his hotel destination in Cambridge, between Central Square and Harvard Sqaure, a Cambridge cop began following us, and at the bottom of Dunster Street he pulled me over for running a stop sign. The only problem was that there was no stop sign at the intersection and Muta proceeded to get into a heated argument with the cop on my behalf to keep the cop from issuing me a ticket. A crowd of Harvard students began to gather around the scene and soon it turned into a bit of a protest spectacle led by Muta. The cop radioed the station house and reinforcements and a German Shepherd attack dog were used to disperse the mob of about 50 Harvard students. The upshot of the story was that Muta spent his first night in the USA in jail on peace disturbance charges and I ended up bailing him out at 8 am the next morning, using the services of my own personal attorney, who couldn't figure out what the hell was going on with this dreadlocked wild man who dressed in robes and wore no shoes. Meanwhile the cops at the station house acted as if they captured the black version of the Unabomber and had plastered copies of the Mutabaruka concert posters they confiscated from my car all over the station house like some sort of law enforcement trophies. The fact that Mutabaruka exists is a crime in the mind of a lot of white folks and Muta was never reluctant to point out that grim reality to his audiences, and encouraged them to confront the racism of Babylon. Whiteman Country- Mutabaruka In Whiteman Country warns his black Jamaican bredren living in the UK that "it no good to stay a white man's country too long." ________________________ Johnny Drughead - Mutabaruka-Johnny Drughead is an update of the classic reggae song Johnny Too Bad in which Johnny moves from Jamaica to NYC and falls into drug trafficking. Muta's character, Johnny Drughead ends up wasted on cocaine and becomes just another drug casualty dead on the streets of New York City. _________________________ Dis Poem- Mutabaruka- Dis Poem is from a poetry recital performance by Muta on the cable show, Def Jam Poetry. It was recorded about 10 or 12 years ago. ________________________ |
Sleng Teng & the Globalization of Music
An editorial by Gavin B. http://wheelockglobalcauses.org/wp-c...balization.jpg The rise of King Jammy's sleng teng riddim ended the 12 year rule of the one drop riddim in the dancehalls with the digital (or digi) riddim. Reggae mutated into another subgenre under the amophous umbrella of "worldbeat" music which blended elements of hip hop,international, socca, reggae and even synth pop. Sometimes in our haste to move on to the next big thing, we forget about what was really great about the last big thing. Such is the case with the rise of the sleng teng riddim craze in Jamaica which all but pushed roots reggae out of the picture in the mid Eighties. Digi riddims refer to riddims created around the time that Jamaican producers began to use the drum machine and the ubiquitous Casio synthesizer. Three major digi riddims, sleng teng, ragga (or raggamuffin) and raggaeton began to displace Carelton Barrett's organic one drop to the snare riddim he developed with the Upsetters. The song that began this mind numbing synthesizer dance craze was Wayne Smith's 1986 smash hit Sleng Teng Riddim. It's not rastaman, nor roots reggae... it's souless dance music for the Attention Deficit Disordered. It's hard to believe that such an inane dance ditty would bring down the entire roots reggae musical idiom....But nobody looked back after the rise of the sleng teng & critics were all too quick to pronounce roots reggae dead on arrival. The next big thing had arrived, and even if it was lame, reggae music was the last big thing and therefore obsolete. Producers, instead of performers, became front and center with the rise of digi riddims and skilled musicians playing old school roots reggae became irrelevant to both the production of and the performance of music. It was far cheaper to produce an album using canned soundboard riddims rather than having to hire an entire band of backup musicians to play in a recording session. And guess what?...Music producers got a much bigger cut of the royalties by eliminating the need for session players. In the early Nineties the major American and British record labels were all too happy to drop roots reggae artists from their labels. In the late Seventies, the major labels saw reggae music as the latest gold mine but by the late Eighties record company executives were disappointed by the sales of reggae music. As it turned out, only Bob Marley & Peter Tosh sold millions of records worldwide, while other reggae artists were lucky to sell 100,000 units of their latest albums. 100,000 units is a respectable sales figure, but not good enough in a world where Michael Jackson & Whitney Houston were selling 30 million units of their latest album product. Sometimes we forget that the production of music is driven by the all mighty corporate dollar...And we're deluding ourselves if we think that music is a special force of nature that transcends the even more powerful force of global capitalism. It's all about the money, honey...Musical generosity and artistic integrity was over with when Woody Guthrie died in a New Jersey hospital with Huntington's disease. John Lydon was right, it's all a big corporate swindle. I don't like the post-reggae era (from 1986 and beyond) any more than I like music from the post-rock era. Nearly all of the real authentic roots genres of popular music have devolved into digitized parodies of the real thing. Even electronica and dub music have become subgenres of "dance music" in the music marketing nomenclature. The end result is the globalization of all music. All genres of music are beginning to sound like they were produced using the same banal mass produced template. Pop music sounds like pop music, ethnic music sounds like pop music, rock sounds like pop music, rap music sounds like pop music, blues sounds like pop music and even country music sound like pop music. We're all heading to toward the inevitable day when all music sounds like it's come off the same slick factory production line and all of those outlying fringe subgeneres will be consumed by globalization just as roots reggae was. There's still the remote possibility that the music consumer might rise up demand real authentic music instead of crappy pop digitized dance music. The jury is still out, but the future of music looks pretty grim from where I'm standing. |
Ina Soulful Style- Jimmy and Tarras Riley
http://reggaejournal.com/reggae_phot...8_10_1-954.jpg Father & son, Jimmy & Tarrus Riley singing at the 2008 Reggae Sunsplash Jimmy Riley and his son Tarrus Riley have both had successful solo careeers but frequently appear and record as a duo in Jamaica. Jimmy and Tarrus rocked Sunsplash 2008 with a take no prisoners performance. Jimmy Riley was born Martin James Norman Riley on May 22, 1954 in Jones Town, Jamaica. His first success came as a member of The Sensations (with Cornell Campbell, Aaron "Bobby" Davis, and his older brother, Buster Riley), who recorded such hits as "Everyday Is Just a Holiday" for Duke Reid's Treasure Isle label in the mid-1960s. Riley was just ten years old when he began performing with the Sensations. Riley left the Sensations in 1967 and as a solo singer and writer, Riley worked with a host of Jamaican producers, including Bunny Lee and Lee "Scratch" Perry, before settling in with Sly and Robbie. Jimmy was deeply influenced by the music of American R&B singers like Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield and Sam Cooke. Sexual Healing - Jimmy Riley This stunning cover of Marvin Gaye's tune rocked the dancehalls in 1981 and shows Jimmy's affinity for American R&B. He is backed by the deep grooves of Sly & Robbie's Taxi crew. ___________________________________ My Woman's Love - Jimmy Riley- My Woman's Love was a little known Curtis Mayfield song that Jimmy transformed into a big hit in Jamaica in 1980. It was also recorded at Taxi Studio at a time when Sly and Robbie were refining their bottom heavy sledgehammer drum and bass style that later became the signature sound of Black Uhuru. ___________________________ One of the most promising of the second generation of Jamaica roots reggae singers, Tarrus Riley is the son of Jimmy Riley. Like his father, Riley has a sweet, nuanced tenor vocal style, although his first connection with the Jamaican music scene was as a DJ (under the name Taurus). Riley taught himself to play keyboards and several percussion instruments and began writing his own songs, many of which had strong Rastafarian and consciousness-leaning themes. She's Royal is a 2007 single release by Tarras. _____________________________ |
Three Dancehall Killer Hits
http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-ge...DJ-Jamaica.jpg An outdoor dancehall in the bush country of Jamaica Billie Jean- Shinehead This version of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean complete with Ennio Morricone style whistling was a big dancehall hit in 1984. Shinehead (Edmund Carl Aiken) was normally a sound system deejay and toaster but he sounded eerily like the King of Pop on this Jackson tribute. Whether Shinehead was toasting or crooning or flat-out rapping, he always balanced his material between the positive and socially conscious with more lighthearted sentiments. Shinehead was born in London of Jamaican parents and moved to Brooklyn as a youth. He got his start by performing at New York sound systems events in the early '80s. His cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, truly got his career rolling. Shinehead currently divides his time living in both and NYC and Jamaica. ____________________________ Roll It Gal - Alison Hinds- Alison Hinds is from Barbados and currently lives in London. She is currently the top ranking female singer all over the Caribbean, including Jamaica. Alison sings a rasta conciouness blend of soca and reggae. She is taking soca places it had never been before and has major record labels in both the UK and the USA interested. Her first solo track, the empowering woman anthem Roll It Gal, appeared in 2005 and topped the charts in Barbados, Trinidad, and Jamaica. ___________________________ Murderer- Barrington Levy- Murderer first appeared on the Jamaican issued showcase album, Barrington Levy Meets Frankie Paul which I purchased in 1984. Strangely enough, the song didn't receive much attention early on, but when I visited Jamaica two years later, in 1986, in was a wall-to-wall smash hit on every sound system from Mo Bay to Kingston. Barrington Levy Meets Frankie Paul was culled from sessions produced by Henry Junjo Lawes and nearly every track on the lp became a monster hit in JA over the next couple of years. The album is currently out of print and has never been issued in cd form in the United States. ________________________________ |
Three Sufferer's Tales
Babylon - Sugar Minott- Babylon is an early dancehall hit recorded by Sugar in his early days at Channel One. Babylon appeared on Hard Time Pressure, one of Sugar's finest album. It's a killer cut ina dance hall stylee. The backing band sounds a lot like the Roots Radics and the producer may be Junjo Lawes. I don't know for sure because I could never find any log sheets for the album session. Maybe some fanatical reggae fan can help me out. _____________________________ Peeni Walli - Eek A Mouse This 1984 single is a comical suffer's tale written by Eek about his crash with a motorcycle when he was riding his bike one day. Peeni walli is Jamaican patios for a firefly. The lyrics are quite imaginative: Lyrics to Penni Walli by Eek A Mouse Riding on my bicycle Got knocked down by a motorcycle In front of a motor vehicle Luckily, I was Jah Jah disciple I lay on the ground I was so injured So unconscious, did not know what to do :/ Yeah, man! When the bike really hit me I see stars and peeni walli Beddameng! - pain all over me Me tink me get shocked by electricity Beddameng! I lay on the ground I was so injured So unconscious, did not know what to do :/ Yeah, man! Me say at the public hospital Crowd gather around like it was a funeral, 'ey! Some say it accidental or the lang youth ha look 'pon a fat gal _______________________________ G.P. - Gregory Isaacs- G.P. is shorthand for General Penitentiary, Jamaica's principal maximum security prison, located in downtown Kingston near the harbor. Gregory was no stranger to G.P., having done time for both herbs smuggling and possession of illegal firearms. In fact Gregory's career was seriously affected by his periodical stints in G.P. His first stint came at just as his music was breaking through in the USA and the UK but he was incarcerated and couldn't tour. After that Gregory spent a couple years unable to tour outside of Jamaica because of his undesirable status with both US and UK immigration. When I finally saw him live in the USA, it was 1985 and US Department of Immigration would only allow him a three day tourist visa which precluded any serious touring outside of gigs in Boston, New York and a few other Eastern Seaboard cities of the USA. It was sad because when Gregory could finally tour without any kind of travel constraints, his fleeting moment as a cultural zeitgeist of reggae music had passed. ____________________________________ |
Ina 2 Tone Style
Jerry Dammers of the ska revival band The Specials started the short lived but iconic 2 Tone record label in 1979. It spawned a cultural movement, which was popular among skinheads, rudies and some mod revivalists. The label stopped operating in 1986. In the first year of it’s operation, 2 Tone Records signed The Selecter, Madness and The Beat, but they all left within two years. 2 Tone Records acts signed a contract that allowed them to leave the label after releasing just one single, which was unusual in the record industry. Madness and The Beat both took advantage of this clause; the former to sign to Stiff Records, and the latter to start their own label, Go Feet Records. http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/wp-...hespecials.jpg The Specials Most of the 2 Tone bands were racially mixed and played a big role in a UK ska revival and the renewed interest in rock steady, blue beat, and roots reggae music in England. Many white band members were products the early punk scene in England which always had a symbiotic relationship with reggae music. When I visited London in 1980, I was amazed the amount of cultural overlap between the post punk movement and the reggae music scene in England. The reason why 2 Tone became more than just a curious footnote to reggae music history was because the 2 Tone bands delivered the musical goods as live bands and the influence 2nd wave ska revival has remained significant, 30 years after the fact. I was a skeptic when I first got wind of a ska music revival in England on the post-punk club scene. When I saw the Specials, the Beat, Selector and Madness play live shows in both London and New York I became a believer. Every one of the 2 Tone bands played so well that any question of racial authenticity became a moot point. http://www.kgbclothing.co.uk/images/...anvas2Tone.jpg Peter Tosh served as the model for the 2 Tone man The distinctive Jerry Dammers designed 2 Tone logo portrays a man in a black suit, white shirt, black tie, pork pie hat, white socks and black loafers. The fictional character was based on a photograph of Peter Tosh, during his rude boy days with the early Wailers. 2 Tone had two good years as a social movement and nearly all the first wave revival bands broke up by 1983, but the ska music refuses to die. http://coolalbumreview.com/wp-conten...2/THE-BEAT.jpg The Beat (known in the USA as the "English" Beat). Whine & Grind/Stand Down Margaret - The Beat The twin towers of the Beat were toaster Ranking Roger and Saxa. Ranking Roger was a nimble and imaginative black toaster in the JA style who came up through the punk club scene and Saxa was a 50 year old veteran of the Jamaican ska scene who played with both the Desmond Dekker band and Prince Buster. The multiracial band carved a distinct sound through the use of alternating lead vocals by guitarist Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger, supported by a tight band consisting of Andy Cox (guitar), David Steele (bass), and Everett Moreton (drums). The Beat was an awesome live band at the time of their debut album but Saxa departed due to the Beat's rigorous touring schedule. I Just Can't Stop It was the most musically accomplished album of the ska revival and over 30 years later the album remains a timeless masterpiece of punky reggae. Stand Down Margaret is the Beat's acerbic condemnation of the right wing policies of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vh_2oFkUo6...eat%2Blogo.jpg The Beat logo __________________________ http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-ge...ter-U08130.jpg Pauline Black & the Selecter Too Much Pressure - The Selecter- The Selecter didn't achieve as much notoriety as other 2 Tone bands during ska revival of the early '80s. The Selecter recorded one of the finest albums of 2nd wave ska revival and deserved better than they got. The Selecter's biggest musical asset was lead singer Pauline Black, arguably the best lead singer of the ska revival. The members of the Selecter hailed from Coventry which was also the home of the Specials. Selecter is the Jamaican term for the sound system deejay who selects the records played by a sound system at a dancehall event. ____________________________ http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vh_2oFkUo6.../madness_7.jpg Madness hails from the Camden section of London One Step Beyond -Madness The Madness recording of One Step Beyond takes the Prince Buster ska classic one step beyond the musical anarchy of the Prince's original. As it turns out, Madness has been a huge influence on 3rd wave ska bands. Madness reinvented themselves as a conventional rock band and had a fair amount of success in the USA, later in the decade. The best songs of Madness contained a great deal witty commentary on British working class life like the Kinks, Squeeze and XTC. ___________________________ Monkey Man- The Specials Without Jerry Dammers and the Specials there would have never been a 2 Tone Records nor a 2nd wave ska revival in the UK. Their live shows were frenetic and anarchic, often ending with the half the audience dancing on the stage with the band. The Dammers-designed logos, based in '60s pop art with black and white checks, gave the label an instantly identifiable look. Dammers' eye for detail and authenticity also led to the band adopting '60s-period rude-boy outfits (porkpie hats, tonic and mohair suits, and loafers). This cover of the Maytal's Monkey Man first appeared on their Elvis Costello produced debut album. Embeded below is a killer performance of Monkey Man at the 2009 Glastonbury Music Festival. It's a bit eerie... Jerry Dammers looks as if he's hardly aged since 1979. _________________ |
A New Generation of Dub
As much as the audience for roots reggae music has ebbed over the past 20 or so years, there has been a growing interest in all kinds of dub music. Remixers, techno sound system operators, trip hop artists along with producers and performers in the techno/electronica world have rekindled the public interest in dub and inevitably the road of dub always leads the traveller to the palace of roots reggae. Tribal War - Little Roy and Adrian Sherwood This electrifying live performance was filmed at the Independent Dub Day concert. _____________________________ Goin' Under - Rocker's Hi Fi with Kruder and Dorfmeister This stark and sinister K&D remix of a Rocker's Hi-Fi loop was one of the earliest hits of post-millennium dub from the trip hop school. While technically not a reggae song, Goin' Under was a genre splitting tune that enjoyed a lot of play in dance clubs. The song is also featured in the 2000 Academy Award winning film, Traffic. ______________________________ http://oneguyrambling.com/wp-content...tack-shara.jpg Massive Attack The Man Next Door - Massive Attack This song was originally hit in Jamaica for Paragon's vocalist John Holt during the mid 60s. Massive Attack, however, would look closer to home for their inspiration, incorporating elements of two definitive versions from musicians directly influential to their sound: a 1981 Sly & Robbie-powered dub version, and version by Slits, punk rock's original riot grrrls. Using these tracks to keep themselves in check, Massive Attack recorded what is perhaps the best-ever rendition of the song. Keeping a muddy, dubbed-out bass of Slits-ian proportion to drive the song, and they also sampled the drip-drip guitar from the Cure's "10:15 on a Saturday Night" and dropped it prominently into the song to punctuate the bridge. Reggae music veteran Horace Andy, whose own original version of the song is one of its finest early airings, then reprised his vocals to great effect. With Massive Attack's atmospheric retooling, the song has a menacing quality of veiled threat against a noisy neighbor. Give thanks and praise and listen in awe... Massive Attack is the past, present and future of popular music. |
Ina Turbo-Charged Style- Black Uhuru
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/50...+uhuru2_jb.jpg Black Uhuru Black Uhuru was founded by Don Carlos and Duckie Simpson in the mid Seventies and became the premier reggae band of the post-Marley era. From 1980 through 1984 Black Uhuru recorded nine albums that redefined modern roots reggae. Since 1980, drummer Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare have supplied the turbo-charged drum and bass to the Black Uhuru riddim. Sly and Robbie remain charter members of both the recording and touring unit of Black Uhuru. The frontline of Black Uhuru has changed over the years, but Sly and Robbie were element of Uhuru's sound that remained unchanged for almost 30 years. The most productive edition of the Black Uhuru was the unit that featured singing trio of Duckie Simpson, Puma Jones and Michael Rose. The crown jewel of their musical output was 1983's Anthem which won a Grammy and acheived crossover success in the USA and the UK. In early 1985 at the peak of their success, lead vocalist Michael Rose left Black Uhuru over creative differences. Rose was replaced by Junior Reid but Junior's visa problems kept him from touring with the band outside of Jamaica. Puma Jones left the band in 1987 to fight a struggle against cancer and she died in 1990. In 2001 Black Uhuru returned to the studio with Michael Rose sound-alike Andrew Beckford and Puma Jones sound-alike Pam Hall and recorded Dynasty which recalled Uhuru's glory days but has been silent since then. Choosing just three songs that reflect the glory of Black Uhuru is like trying to summarize Bob Marley's legacy with three songs. I decided to pick one track from each from their three most crucial albums Red (1981), Chill-Out (1982) and Anthem (1984). The Youth of Englington- Black Uhuru This is a live performance of the anchor song on the album Red and it gives you a pretty good idea of the power of their live performances. The performance was in Grugahalle Essen, Germany on October 17th 1981. __________________________ Right Stuff- Black Uhuru This song is from 1982's Chill Out an album which saw Uhuru using more state of art electronica techniques including the innovative use of the vocoder to process the background vocals. But despite the innovation, the sledgehammer one drop riddim of Sly and Robbie's drum n' bass keep Uhuru's is firmly rooted in roots reggae. _________________________________ Black Uhuru Anthem - Black Uhuru Black Uhuru Anthem was a dubwise declaration of faith in rasta in these times of sufferation. The song's power is underscored by Michael Rose's melancholy incantation of the stark lyrics. ______________________________ |
Johnny Nash- Reggae Music's American Connection
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xRiuXva-rt...OHNNY-NASH.jpg Johnny Nash & Bob Marley performing together at the Peckham Manor Boy's School, London in 1972. It's hard to believe that a guy from Houston Texas who signed the Cowsills to his record label was also the first guy to bring reggae music to the ears of an American audience. Most Americans first encountered reggae music with a series of Top 40 radio hits by a young R&B singer from Houston Texas named Johnny Nash. In the early Sixties, Johnny Nash was a moderately successful soul singer on the chittlin' circuit in United States. Johnny Nash also signed the teenbopper family band, the Cowsills his own record label and produced an album by them. The Cowsills moved on to MGM Records, recorded their mega-hit The Rain, The Park and Other Things & served as the inspiration for the television series about a family band, The Partridge Family. Following a visit to Jamaica in 1968, Nash decided to be the first artist to bring rocksteady and reggae music to the United States. While in Jamaica, Nash was introduced to a trio of struggling reggae singers named Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer & Peter Tosh. Nash signed Marley, Tosh and Wailer to JAD Records label, and recorded two unsuccessful singles, Bend Down Low & Reggae on Broadway. I Can See Clearly- Johnny Nash- Nash himself had better luck on the charts than the aspiring Wailers. In 1972 Nash wrote and recorded his own reggae styled song, I Can See Clearly Now which rose to #1 on the American charts & #5 on the UK charts. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in November 1972. Ironically I Can See Clearly Now sold more copies than any single ever recorded by the Wailers, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh or Bunny Wailer. ______________________________ Hold Me Tight- Johnny Nash- Following the success of I Can See Clearly Now, Nash re-released a single, Hold Me Tight which was originally released in 1968 in his earliest recording sessions in Jamaica. It rose to #5 both on the American & UK singles charts. ____________________________ Stir It Up- Johnny Nash- After Hold Me Tight, Nash released his own cover of the Bob Marley song, Stir It Up, which rose to #12 on the American charts & #13 on the UK charts. ____________________________ It was the rapid succession of those three reggae styled Top 40 hits that got both American & UK record label executives interested in scouting the burgeoning reggae scene in Jamaica for new artists. There was a feeding frenzy of reggae artist signings by American & UK labels over the next few years, but none of those artists except Marley & Tosh, were as successful as Johnny Nash. Johnny Nash retired from music in the Eighties and has been intensely guarded about his privacy every since. It's too bad Nash remains silent because he was one of the earliest witnesses to the rise of reggae music and he's never spoken to anyone about his involvement in bringing reggae music to the United States. |
The History Behind A Classic Reggae Song
1865 (96 Degrees in the Shade) by Third World The Third World song 96 Degrees in the Shade is a retelling the events of the October 1865 Morant Bay rebellion that involved two people who were later to become national heroes of Jamaica, George William Gordon and Paul Bogle. http://cache2.artprintimages.com/lrg...8/33U3D00Z.jpg A lithograph depicting the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865 With the passage of the Emancipation Act slavery ended in Jamaica on August 1, 1834. On paper, former slaves gained the right to vote; however the British colonists had laws that that suppressed the voting rights of former slaves, similar to American Jim Crow laws which levied poll taxes and institutionalized voter literacy tests for all black voters. Only 0.0005% 2000 of eligible Jamaica's 400,000 freed slaves vote in the 1838 national election. The white colonial minority ran Jamaica by default. George William Gordon a wealthy mulatto member of the Jamaican National Assembly, was the son of a black slave woman and a wealthy British plantation owner. Gordon's father, like many other British colonial elites lived most of the time in England sired second surrogate families with native Jamaican women, unknown to their families back in Britain. George William Gordon was his father's common law heir under Jamaican law. George William Gordon was considered a troublemaker by Edward Eyre, the newly appointed colonial governor of Jamaica because Gordon's high profile activities on behalf of disenfranchised newly freed slaves. Gordon had assisted a group of former slaves draw up and circulate a petition to Queen Victoria asking her to bequeath a small amount Crown owned land in the bush of St. Ann's Parish for the local landless farmer to cultivate as they could not find land for themselves. At least, the Queen's worthless land would produce some tax income for the Crown and provide a means of living to many wretchedly poor Jamaican citizens who had no other means of survival. For the newly installed British colonial governor Eyre, it was unthinkable that a group of uppity "maroon negroes" would have the comeuppance ask Queen Victoria's permission to cultivate a few hundred acres of the vacant undeveloped land in a remote colonial town 4000 miles from Buckingham Palace. Eyre immediately regarded the charismatic mulatto legislator as a political enemy with a subversive agenda. On October 7, 1865 a black man was put on trial and imprisoned for trespassing on a long-abandoned plantation, creating anger among black Jamaicans. The black man was nothing more than a squatter using part of the property of an abandoned plantation to plant a subsistence crop for his family's needs. When one member of a group of black protesters from the village of Stony Gut was arrested, the protesters became unruly and broke the accused man from prison. http://olaps.com/images/george_william_gordonl.jpg George William Gordon, the mulatto plantation owner & co-conspirator in the Morant Bay Rebellion. Governor Eyres and the local constabulary falsely suspected that George William Gordon and one of his protégés, Paul Bogel a deacon at a local black Baptist church, were the key organizers of the protest and the subsequent prison break. Paul Bogle soon learned that he and 27 of associates had warrants issued for their arrest for rioting, resisting arrest, and assaulting the police. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nryIamKuUl...cture%2B26.png Paul Bogle the black Baptist deacon who was executed as the leader of the Morant Bay Rebellion. The historical record doesn't confirm whether either Gordon or Bogle were involved in any of the events up to that point but it's likely that Gordon wasn't involved and Bogel probably was. It's an indisputable fact that Bogel was firmly in command of a large contingency of protesters who marched on the Morant Bay courthouse, four days later. When the group arrived at the Morant Bay court house, they were met by a small volunteer militia (ie.. vigilantes) who panicked and opened fire on the group, killing seven black protesters before retreating. The black protesters then rioted, killing 18 people (including white officials and militia) and taking control of the town. In the days that followed some 2,000 black rebels roamed the countryside, killing two white planters and forcing others to flee for their lives. Governor John Eyre sent government troops to hunt down the poorly-armed rebels and bring Paul Bogle back to Morant Bay for trial. The troops were met with no organized resistance but killed blacks indiscriminately, many of whom had not been involved in the riot or rebellion: according to one soldier, "we slaughtered all before us… man or woman or child". In the end, 439 black Jamaicans were killed directly by soldiers, and 354 more (including Paul Bogle) were arrested and later executed, some without proper trials. Other punishments included flogging for over 600 men and women (including some pregnant women), and long prison sentences. Bogle was lynched and hung without a trial, moments after the British troops took him into custody. Gordon, who had little - if anything - to do with the rebellion was also arrested. Though he was arrested in Kingston, he was transferred by Eyre to Morant Bay, where he could be tried under martial law. Ever the politician, Governer Eyre saw a public hanging of Gordon as a high profile opportunity to assert his authority as the newly appointed governor of Jamaica. A kangaroo court convicted George William Gordon of sedition and treason in two days, but Gordon wasn't informed of his sentence until an hour before his hanging. Gordon was paraded through the streets of Morant Bay and led to the his hanging by a contingency of 10 thousand soldiers. And presiding over the surreal and carnivalesque events was none other than the portly Governor Edward Eyre dressed like a British dandy attending a night at the opera. People from all over the island attended the grotesque spectacle and the narrator of the story in the song, 96 Degrees in the Shade is none other than the condemned man, George William Gordon. The lyrics to the song are very close to the same final words of Gordon as he stood before the Governor. Gordon even began his remarks with a polite remark about the stifling humidity of the October day. The lyrics to the 96 Degrees in the Shade are included in this embedded video: _____________________________ George William Gordon issued final prophecy, faithfully spoken in lyrics of 96 Degrees in the Shade. Bogel's final defiant words to Governor Eyre were: "Today I stand here a victim but the truth is I'll never die ." And Bogel's final words came to pass. His courage made him immortal in Jamaican history. Shortly after the hanging of Gordon, Jamaican governor Edward Eyre was recalled back to England and following an investigation was fired by the Queen's Colonial Office. Today a statue of George William Gordon in memory of his contributions and martyrdom stands in front of the very Morant Bay court house where he was placed on trial in 1850. http://www.jtbonline.org/resources/i...rt%20House.JPG The courthouse in Morant Bay where the rebelllion began and the court where George William Gordon was placed on trial. In front of the building is a statue honoring George William Gordon as a national hero.. __________________ |
What a great thread, Gavin. The reggae/ska forum has always been a much ignored area of MB, which has been quite disappointing to the handful of us Jamaican music fans that are on here. It's about time that someone stepped up in the way that you have. Keep it up.
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[QUOTE=rostasi;1413424]Jah works in mysterious ways:
your last post is with Third World and Bunny Rugs died the next day. ®ø∂ --- Give thanks and praise for Bunny's long career with Third World. He also played with the crucial reggae group, Inner Circle. Bunny Rugs is now in the ever-present glory of Jah. |
Three 60s SKA & Bluebeat Songs Resurrected in the 80s Ska Revival
Rudy, A Message to You -Dandy Livingstone- Dandy's song was notably covered by the U.K.'s Specials in their self titled 1979 debut album. __________________________________ The Tide Is High- The Paragons Blondie did a great cover of this song their 1980 album Autoamerican. Debbie Harry had a great love of ska and reggae music Blondie frequently included one or two reggae covers in their live performance song lists. The group also had a minor hit in 1979 with the Debby Harry/Chris Stein reggae influenced song Die Young Stay Pretty. Here's the original 1967 recording of The Tide Is High by the Paragons. ________________________________ Madness- Prince Buster The Prince Buster bluebeat hit Madness was covered by none other than Camden's favorite sons, Madness on their 1979 debut One Step Beyond. The song was one of the first bluebeat songs to hit the charts in the UK, way back in 1963. ___________________________ |
Millie Small- Jamaica's First International Music Star
http://jamaicansmusic.com/images/upl...8_06_13_12.jpg 1964 is remembered by most as the year the Beatles invaded America and stormed the American pop charts with 22 top 5 songs, 6 of which reached the number 1 position on the Billboard chart. Many folks forget that in 1964 an 18 year old Jamaican named Millie Small stunned everybody with her international best selling ska hit, My Boy Lollipop, which reached #2 on both the American & UK pop charts. Millie was already recording at Channel One in her teens, when Chris Blackwell discovered her in Jamaica and brought her to England. My Boy Lollipop was recorded at a Blackwell produced London session that included the legendary Ernest Ranglin on guitar and the previously unknown Anglo rocker, Rod Stewart on harmonica. After the smashing success of My Boy Lollipop, Millie Small faded into obscurity but for many Americans and Brits, the song was their first encounter with the sound of Jamaican ska music. The video is from a December 1964 appearance of Millie Small on Finnish television. __________________________________ |
Four Dukes of the Dancehall Deejay Style
Aside from the mighty U-Roy, four other deejays come to mind from the golden age of reggae: I-Roy, Charlie Chaplin, Half Pint and Yellowman. Each man had his own unique style of toasting and commanded a large following a fans in their prime. World on Fire- I-Roy- I-Roy was a contemporary of U-Roy and suffered from comparisons to U-Roy. Perhaps he should have chosen a name that wasn't so similar. On it's own terms, World on Fire is a magnificent display of I-Roy's toasting skills. ________________________________ Ram Up Dance Hall- Charlie Chaplin- By the mid-Eighties, Charlie Chaplin had become the most successful dancehall toaster in Jamaica. Chaplin took a step away from the militant styles of many toasters and stuck to the nice-it-up themes of dance hall music. ______________________________ Mr. Landlord- Half Pint- I saw Half Pint open a show for Gregory Isaacs and was amazed at how well he sung for an artist who bills himself as a dancehall deejay. Mr. Landlord was a huge hit in Jamaica in 1983. It was produced by King Jammy. _________________________________ Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt- Yellowman- Yellowman was the first toaster to gain a huge international following of fans. His detractors dismissed his slackness (sexual boasting) style as sexist but many fans listened to him for that very reason. His recordings were drenched in dub effects. All things considered, Yellow was a nimble rhymer and often added hilarious social commentary to his songs. _____________________________________ |
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