Greetings,

Banished to your living room. No work, no school, no shopping, no travel, no toilet paper. In Chicago even going for a walk outside can get you arrested.

A whole lotta down time while we all wait for the virus to come get us!

I ‘n’ I was telling Tristin Tabish, KRCL station manager, that a “shelter in place” situation would be ideal for radio listeners. Already we are seeing Netflix and Prime streaming explode.

For. I ‘n’ I, home is a work space. In the Secret Dubratory of the Smile Jamaica Ark-ives, when called  upon to generate digital content while KRCL is on lockdown, I just do what I always do, cut and mix sound

Routine is how people can handle the doom porn the media has generated during this crisis. Whenever friends or family start to hyperventilate, I ‘n’ I remind them:

By my Liberal Arts science background, it is not a pandemic until newborns and third graders start dropping like flies.

But what about the boredom? Many diehard KRCL listeners have a weekend pattern of turning on classic rock for breakfast and listen all the way through to Roots Reggae for dinner. Repeat a similar pattern on Sunday.

If you are shut in and forced inside, KRCL ought to have a captured audience of weekday listening akin to weekend “radio companionship.”

Then I get a call from Program Director, Ebay Jamil Hamilton. KRCL is locking down its studio and offices. Mayday! He asked if I would curate a three hour Smile Jamaica from home.

I gladly complied. I’m stir crazy as everyone else.

Everybody is frazzled. Instead of repeating the same old reminders: “social distance, wash your hands, don’t eat bat soup, etc.”, Smile Jamaica listeners have a tether to normality as part of their weekend routine. How about three hours of distraction on a beautiful first Saturday of Spring?

Except…

So those listeners wanting to chill with “One Love” or “Irie Up Yourself” or “Burn One Down” you are in for a rude shock. I ‘n I introduced the show with “Smile Jamaica puts the panic in pandemic!”

<Pandemic show intro; 2 min.>

First five Reggae jams:

1. Twinkle Brothers – Stomach Sick­­; Me No You (Twinkle) ’81
2. The Police – Don’t Stand So Close to Me; Zenyatta Mondatta (A & M) ’81
3. Tenor Saw – Fever; Fever (Blue Mountain) ’85
4. The Clash – Lost in the Supermarket; London Calling (Epic) ’79
5. Michigan & Smiley – Diseases; Dancehall (Soul Jazz) ’81

In the same way Pete Townshend wrote Tommy. Or Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage rock opera, I ‘n’ I was crafting a narrative through a digital medium.

I was driving around a deserted Salt Lake City looking for toilet paper and blasting Smile Jamaica, as a listener, from my car hi fi. When I got home a friend texted me: “After ten fever songs followed by Burial , I thought I had the virus.”

Just like Ira Glass. Digital storytelling in a quarantine. Nearly everyone who hit me up on social media wanted to know the same thing: “What was that song you played at the end of Smile Jamaica?”

Spiritual Rez – Let’s Go Out With a Bang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LUUq_xk4ZE

Be well. Don’t hoard. Try to ration your panic like you are with using toilet paper

bless, Bobbylon

Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives: March 21, 2020 – Homegrown Pandemic Edition

Set 1:

• Twinkle Brothers – Stomach Sick­­; Me No You (Twinkle) ’81
• The Police – Don’t Stand So Close to Me; Zenyatta Mondatta (A & M) ’81
• Tenor Saw – Fever; Fever (Blue Mountain) ’85
• The Clash – Lost in the Supermarket; London Calling (Epic) ’79
• Michigan & Smiley – Diseases; Dancehall (Soul Jazz) ’81
• Neville Grant – Sick and Tired; Give Me Power (Trojan) ’73 Fats Domino cover
• The Toyes – Green Doctor; Strange Animals (CD Tunes) ’99 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement
• Half Pint – It’s Too Late; Greetings (Power House) ’86 

Set 2:

• Horace Andy – Fever; Studio One Classics (Studio One) ’73
• The Clash – Clampdown; London Calling (Epic) ’79
• David Lindley – Tu-ber-cu-lucas and the Sinus Flu; El Rayo-X (Elektra) ’81
• The Pioneers – Reggae Fever; Best of (Trojan) ’77
• The Ethiopians – Hong Kong Flu; Original Hot Sounds (Trojan) ’69
• The Dynamics – Fever; Version Excursions (Groove Attack) 2007 dubby version of Little Willie John/Peggy Lee
• Max Romeo – Horror Zone; Horror Zone (Nu Roots) 20016
• Junior Byles – Fever; Curly Locks (Heartbeat) ’74 Little Willie John/Peggy Lee cover
• Twinkle Brothers – Constipated People; Me No You (Twinkle) ’81 

Set 3:

• Gregory Isaacs – Night Nurse; Night Nurse (Mango) ’82
• Thievery Corporation – Culture of Fear; Culture of Fear (ESL) 2011
• Thievery Corporation – Sound the Alarm; Radio Retaliation (ESL) 2014
• Yerba Buena – Fever; Island Life (Razor & Tie) 2005 African
• Dennis Alcapone – Fever Teaser; My Voice Is Insured For Half a Million Dollars (Trojan) ’72 dj to Horace Andy Fever
• Hepcat – Earthquake and Fire; Out of Nowhere (Moon) ’93 LA ska group
• Laurel Aitken – Witchdoctor From Amsterdam; It’s Too Late (Unicorn) ’90
• Bob Marley & the Wailers – No Water (Can Quench My Thirst)  ’70 

Set 4:

• The Maytals – Fever; Sensational Ska Explosion (Jamaican Gold) ’65
• Lady Ann – Doctor, Doctor; Bad Gyal Inna Dance (Jump Up)  2008
• Jingo – Fever; Afro Rock (Evolver) African
• Peter Tosh – Bush Doctor 12″; Bush Doctor (Rolling Stones) ’78 herbtune
• The Rolling Stones – Dear Doctor; Beggars Banquet (abkco)  ’68
• Peter Tosh – Reggae Myelitis; Wanted Dread and Alive (Rolling Stones) ’81

Set 5:

• Dr. Alimantado – Still Alive; Born For a Purpose (Greensleeves) ’76
• Susan Cadogan – Fever; Susan Cadogan (Trojan) ’76 cover to Little Willie John/Peggy Lee
• Tenor Saw – Ring the Alarm; 200% Dynamite (Soul Jazz)
• I Roy – Hospital Trolley; Don’t Check Me With No Lightweight Stuff (Blood & Fire) ’73
• Laurel Aitken – It’s Too Late; It’s Too Late (Unicorn) ’71
• Barry Brown – Burial; Rich Man Poor Man (Moll-Selekta) Peter Tosh cover
• Bob Marley & the Wailers – Redemption Song; Uprising (Tuff Gong) ’80
• Third World – Dreamland; 96 Degrees in the Shade (Mango) ’76 Bunny Wailer cover

 

 Set 6: 

• Fela & Afrika 70 – Zombie; Zombie (Polydor) ’76 African
• 8750 Band – Stayin’ Alive; Run For Cover (Tommy Chong) Telluride reggae cover of Bee Gees
• Spiritual Rez – Let’s Go Out With a Bang; Apocalypse Whenever (Spiritual Rez) 2014

Words of Wisdom: