Greetings,
<Greetings: This week on Smile Jamaica: 55 sec. intro>
Jump straight to the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ive Jah-tober 11, 2014: Stream. Below is the Annotated Playlist with photos and captions and soundbites
- Reggae History Lessons: Robert Palmer Meets Scratch; When Doves Cry; Hooters Reggae, Jamaican minorities in the music business
- Tributes: Malala Yousafzai Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Primal Scream
- Fire and Brimstone: France’s war on the Seven Leaf
Back from two weeks of Radiothon: raising cash to keep Smile Jamaica commercial free. No Walmart for I ‘n’ I. Selah!
Getting into the Halloween, I mean Jah-loween, uh…spirit! The Island of Jamaica. Out of many one is the national motto.
Much like I have in excess of 800 4/20 Seven Leaf Reggae and Dub jams, I probably have 666 or so Reggae Jah-loween gems.
Superstition plus the evil metaphor of the living dead sucking the blood of the righteous, makes Reggae well attuned to the undead or Un-Dread.
Black African folk tradition plus British concepts of spooks and spirits. Immigrant communities from Syria, India, China add their traditions of the Evil Eye into the stew.
Plenty of Reggae tunes devoted to witches, vampires, ghouls/duppies, zombies, mummies, werewolves and other assorted witchcraft and soul theft.
<Smile Jamaica Ark-Ive Jah-tober 11, 2014: Jah-loween inna Rub a Dub Style; 14 sec.>
Here is the Annotated Playlist for the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ive; Jah-tober 11, 2014
*Jah-loween Tune: (15 of 34 = 44.1% of 3 hours). Bootiful!
Set 1:
- Chalice – Back Way Evil Forces; Stand Up! (CSA) ’85 UK vinyl*
- Delixx – Coming in From the Cold; Uprising in Dub (Weston) ’80; Dub Album of the Week; Marley album dubwize
- Bunny Wailer – Jolly Session; Rule Dance Hall (Shanachie) ‘86
- Aswad – Back to Africa; BBC Sessions (Strange Fruit); John Peel Radio Show: Aug.8 , 1976
- Weeding Dub feat. Humble-I – Sounds of Reality; 10” (Control Tower) 2009 Fr. Mutant dub 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement; 41 sec.
Don’t partake of the Seven Leaf in France:
The French law on drug use is severe: every use, no matter the circumstances, is liable to penalty. The maximum penalties for cannabis use are a sentence from two months up to a year and/or a fine from 500 Euros to 25,000 Euros. ($636 – $31,815)
France War on Decriminalization Lobby.
In what would be one of the more aberrant recent decisions of the French justice system, two pro-pot activists risk spending a year in jail for wearing T-shirts emblazoned with a picture of a cannabis leaf.
A zealous public prosecutor this week demanded 12-month prison terms for Jean-Pierre Galland, president of the Cannabis Information and Research Collective, and Laurence Duffy, head of the campaign group’s Lyon branch, for contravening article 630 of the French public health regulations.
The law bans French citizens from “portraying in a favourable light and promoting or inciting the consumption of any product classed as a banned substance”. The pair are also accused of selling CDs bearing the deeply suspect title of “A little piece of hemp music”.
Set 2:
- Aisha – Evil Spirits; High Priestess (Ariwa) ’88 female; Mad Prof. prod’n*
- Culture – We Deh Yah Still; Lion Rock (Heartbeat) ‘88
- 4th Street Orchestra – One Life to Live; (Scientific) Higher Ranking Dubb (Rama) ’77 UK, Dennis Bovell
- Junior X – Legalize It; 7” (Dollar Production); Tosh cover; Request
Set 3: Rockers do Reggae
- Robert Palmer – Love Can Run Faster; From the Heart of the Congo (RUNNetherlands) ’78; Lee Perry prod’n
<Love Can Run Faster; 29 sec.>
- Primal Scream – Higher Than the Sun (A Dub Symphony in Two Parts); Screamadelica (Sire) ’91 UK
<Primal Scream: Jurassie Era Mutant Dub; 20 sec.>
- Denver Dub Collective – When Doves Cry; Purple Rain (Denver Dub) 2009; Collie-rado
<Bass free: Prince “When Dubs Cry”; 30 sec.>
Prince wrote and composed “When Doves Cry” after all the other tracks on Purple Rain were complete. In addition to vocals, he played all instruments on the track. The song’s texture is remarkably stark. There is no bass line, which is very unusual for a dance song; Prince has said that there originally was a bass line, but decided, after a conversation with singer Jill Jones, that the song was too conventional with it intact.[4] During live performances of the song on the Purple Rain Tour, Brown Mark, Prince’s then-bass player, added bass lines in this song and other songs without a bass line.
- The Hooters – All You Zombies; Nervous Night (CBS) ‘85*
The Hooters were formed in 1980 and played their first show on July 4 of that year. They took their name from a nickname for the melodica,[1] a type of keyboard harmonica which is German in origin and created by Hohner after a friend of Eric Bazilian lent Rob Hyman a Hohner model Piano-36 which was used on their recordings and never returned to the friend.[That same year, Bazilian and Hyman were asked to write, arrange and perform on the debut album of a relatively unknown singer named Cyndi Lauper, She’s So Unusual, which was being produced by their former producer and friend, Rick Chertoff. Hyman co-wrote the song “Time After Time” (and also performed the distinctive harmony vocals during the chorus), which would go on to hit Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and was subsequently nominated for a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
<Unholy Trinity: Rockers, Reggae, Jah-loween; 63 sec.>
Set 4:
- Marcia Griffiths – Peaceful Woman; Steppin’ (Shanachie) ’79; livicated to Nobel Peace Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai
<Livicated to Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Top Rank Roots Dawta: Malala Yousafzai; 44 sec.>
<Reggae Prophecy: Marcia’s Peaceful Woman for Malala’s Nobel Peace Prize; 27 sec.>
- Capital Letters – Smoking My Ganja (Rootical Re-rub); 12” EP (Reggae Archives); herbtune remix
- The Teacher – Soul Vibration; Aquarius Rock (Pressure Sounds); Herman Chin-Loy, Chinese Jamaican producer
<Reggae History Lesson: Chinese, Syrian/Lebanese, Jews in the Jamaican music industry; 18 sec.>
- Don Carlos – Night Rider (In Danger); Deeply Concerned (RAS) ’87*
Set 5: Vinyl is V-Ital. All Jah-loween
- Clint Eastwood & General Saint – Talk About Run; Two Bad D.J. (Greensleeves) ’81 UK: Ghosts in the Graveyard*
<Making out in the Graveyard; 68 sec.>
- Prince Alla – Evil Forces; Evil forces (Calabash); ’84 Opa-Locka, FL*
- Dennis Brown – Spellbound; Spellbound (Joe Gibbs) ’80 Miami, FL*
- Amp-Ech; Living Dead + Version; Against Injustice (Amp-Ech) JA*
Set 6:
- Bob Marley & the Wailers – Could You Be Loved; Live Forever (Tuff Gong); 9/23/80: Pittsburgh, Jah-sylvania. Last live show
- The Selecter – James Bond Theme; Too Much Pressure (Chrysalis) ’80 2 Tone ska homage to Neoliberal Hitman
- Fab 5 – Ooh! Aah!; Countryman Soundtrack (Mango) ‘82
- Keith Hudson – Satan Side; Rebel Music (Trojan)*
Set 7:
- Peter Tosh – Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised); One Love Peace Concert (Pressure Sounds) 4/22/78 in Kingston
- Hollie Cook – Desdemona; Twice (Mr. Bongo) 2014 mutant dubstress*
<Hollie Cook: Mutant Dubstress: Daughter of Sex Pistol Paul Cook; 25 sec.>
- Bunny Wailer – Reincarnated Souls; Blackheart Man (Mango) ‘76*
Set 8: Mutant Dub
<Mutant Dub Jah-loween = Dubloween; 35 sec.>
- Allan Pallay – Demonic Forces; Wild Paarty Sounds vol. 1 (Cherry Red) ’81 UK*
- Zion Train – Dance of Life; Homegrown Fantasy (China) ’95 with female vox
- Heavyweight Dub Champion – Exorcism; Rise of the Champion Nation (Champion Nation) 2009, Collie-rado*
- Brain Damage feat. Parvez – Sufferation; Brain Damage; Brain Damage Meets Vibronics (Hammerbass) 2013
<Song about colonials fighting for France and Britain in WWI and WW II: Cannon fodder; 10 sec.>
- Tino – Vampire Circus Dub; Tino’s Breaks vol. 6 (Hallowe’en Dub) (Tino Corp.) 2002*
Smile Jamaica 