Robert Allen Zimmerman: b. May 24, 1941; Duluth, Minnesota
Greetings,
All my heroes are named Bob*
Bob Marley (natch)
Bob Dylan (Happy Birthday Bob!)
R. (Bob) Crumb – cartoonist and fellow crate digger extraordinaire
*(mere coincidence that I am a Bob as well. Known as Bobby to my family and friends in Montana. Son of a Bob, grandson of a Bob. I became Robert when I moved to Utah in 1986)
Today at 4 PM on Smile Jamaica: 90.9FM KRCL or live stream
Happy Birthday Bob Dylan: covers and woozy Reggae originals by Bob in livication for his birthday. Brilliant Roots updates of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and “Man in Me”
Dub Album of the Week: Dennis Bovell’s 4th Street Orchestra – Scientific Higher Ranking Dubb ’77; UK dubwize
Wailers Family Tree: Bob’s last live show in Pittsburgh, Jah-sylvania (9/23/80); rarities from dubble disk upgrade of Peter Tosh’s Equal Rights ’77. Bunny Wailer – Rootsman Skanking ’86. Bob cover disk
Vinyl is Vital: Half way through. I give you one extra in every Vinyl set. Female dub poetry, herb tune, Sunsplash Live
Mutant Dub Files: Last half hour acoustic levitation inna Irie meditation! Heavy bass downtro, lounge, echo, dub step
Plus music from the sistren, 10″ extended mix vinyl, Seven Leaf tributes.
Interstellar overdub!
bless, robt
Sandra Bullock, “Houston! I need more bass for re-entry”
Bob Marley: Feb. 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981. Conductor of Jah’s Heavenly Choir
Greetings,
A sad milestone in the history of Reggae music. On this day in 1981 Bob Marley lost his brutal fight with cancer.
How does as black man die of melanoma? Ah, but remember, Bob’s father was a white man. Cruelest of ironies.
Bob’s father: Capt. Norval Marley
There has been a lot of second guessing with Bob’s disease. He supposedly had an infected toe from accidentally being spiked while playing soccer. As the wound festered, somehow it turned to cancer.
The Secret History of Reggae would suggest that Bob needed to have half of his foot amputated.
One of the theories is that Bob would not abide amputation because it went against his Rasta/Nazirite beliefs that you neither cut nor crease your flesh.
Wikipedia on Nazirite vows blended with Rasta belief by Bob and his fellow Rastas:
Surgery of that magnitude would have made Bob’s phenomenally successful “Babylon By Bus” tours promoting Exodus and Kaya impossible. Bob was conquering Europe, Japan and America during those crucial years. 100,000 in Milan, Jah-taly.
And to validate his rebel spirit, Bob was the musical act to celebrate the liberation of African Zimbabwe ousting white minority Rhodesia. Bob Marley the Real Revolutionary.
By Survival and his last album, Uprising.Bob was starting to gain the support of the last holdouts to his musical charisma. That would be the important American black music consumer coming out of the decadence of Disco.
Kevin MacDonald’s superb biography of Bob’s life Marley went as far to suggest that doctors would have preferred to have Bob’s leg disarticulated entirely.
Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives Grade: A+
Disarticulation is the clinical term for radical amputation.
In the wake of Bob’s passing, at least a score of his bredrin & sistren took to the recording studios to rush tribute songs to the airwaves.
Over the decades, I have devoted Smile Jamaica editions to his legacy entitled Memorial Roots: Livicated to the life works of Bob Marley.
Livicated never dead-icated. One of the Nazirite vows is to not be around death or houses of death. As The Wailers, Peter Tosh and Bunny have sang: No Funeral. No Burial.
Yet, for me, the tragedy becomes the mechanism to recognize the dramatic legacy of Bob who died as he was just about to shoot off into superstardom. With MTV, the breakdown of barriers to black music sold to white kids, his exotic charisma, Bob Marley would have had an 80s musical discography to rival Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, U2 and Madonna.
Imagine Bob Marley at the vanguard against Reaganism and Thatcherism in the 80s. How he would have celebrated the end of the Cold War, the liberation of South Africa. So for me I can’t resist the tragic irony.
Saturday May 11, 2013, the calendar synched for Smile Jamaica to feature 3 hours of Bob Tributes, bootleg live, covers and rarities. Worth a listen to hear the love Bob’s contemporaries had for him and his legacy.
I think in 500 years they will be talking about three artists of the 20th century like we all know Bach, Mozart and Beethoven: The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Bob Marley
bless, robt
Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives Presents: Memorial Roots – Tribute to Bob Marley; May 11, 2013
Playist:
Tribute to Bob Marley who joined Jah’s Heavenly Choir on this date, 32 years ago.
Cedella Marley Booker – Mother Don’t Cry; Awake Zion (Rykodisc) ‘84; tribute from Bob’s Mom. Happy Mother’s Day!
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Roots Rock Reggae in Dub vol. 1 (Tuff Gong); Dub Album of the Week; dub cuts to Marley vox
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Wake Up and Live; Brisbane, Australia ‘79
Ronnie Davis – Kaya; Jah Love (Music Club); 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement; version galore(1); Bob cover vox
Shorty the President – Kaya; Fire Fire (Charmers); ‘78 Canadian vinyl; version galore(2): Bob cover deejay; ***End of Set 1
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Kaya; Milan, Italy ‘80; herb tune
Sister Carol – Dedicated to Bob Marley; Black Cinderella (Jah Life/Heartbeat) ‘84 singjay tribute
Jimmy Cliff – No Woman No Cry; Follow My Mind (Wounded Bird) ‘75 cover
Johnny Clarke – Crazy Baldhead; Authorized Rockers (Virgin Front Line) ‘76 UK vinyl ‘76; ***End of Set 2
Stevie Wonder – Master Blaster (Jammin’); Hotter Than July (Motown) ‘80
Jah Pelikaho & the Wailers – Jammin’; 21st Century Dub (ROIR) ’80 Wailers go a Jah-pon
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Heathen; Live at the Sunplaza; Tokyo, Jah-pon Apr. 10, 1979; ***End of Set 3
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Africans Unite; Libreville Gabon West Africa; Libreville Jan. 6, 1980
Rita Marley – I’m Still Waiting; Who Feels It Knows It (Shanachie) ‘80
Culture – Double Tribute to the O.M.; Lion Rock (Heartbeat) ‘87 Order of Merit Jamaica’s highest honor; ***End of Set 4
Heptones – Natural Mystic; Good Life (Greensleeves) UK vinyl ‘79
Ziggy Marley – Pass It On; Hawaii 5-0 Soundtrack (CBS)
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Positive Vibration; Kaya Deluxe Edition (Tuff Gong) ‘78; bonus disk: Live at the Ahoy, Rotterdam Netherlands July 17, 1978
Judy Mowatt – Joseph; Black Woman (Shanachie) ‘76; comparing Bob to the Biblical Prophet
Bob Marley & the Wailers – War/No More Trouble – Portland July 14, 1978; Request. Lyrics from speech HIM gave at the UN
While you enjoy your Mint Julip watching the best two minutes in sports. What you gonna do for the next 2 hr and 58 minutes?
Check Smile Jamaica: 90.9FM KRCL KRCL.org; 4 -7 Mtn. Time
Gonna start off with a set of Jah-maican horse race songs
Dub Album of the Week: 10 Ft. Ganja Plant – 10 Deadly Shots vol. II (ROIR)
Wailers Family Tree: Bob’s last live performance in Pittsburgh, PA; Peter Tosh’s dubble disk of rarities Equal Rights; Bunny Wailer – Rootsman Skanking ’86
Vinyl Is Vital (rhymes with Ital): Midway
Mutant Dub in the last half hour
Rockers doing Reggae: recent vintage Garland Jeffreys, Live 420 Ben Harper, Patti Smith and as I promised earlier in the week: Billy Idol w/ Generation X
Plus roots from the Sistren, 420 Cannabis Service to the Seven Leaf; classics from Spear, Cliff and Dennis Brown
I added a new Tab up top on the Smile Jamaica Webpage entitled Reggae History Lessons
I’m going through Smile Jamaica Ark-Ive air checks and harvesting the stories that I call Reggae History Lessons. My show for 25 five plus years has been to entertain and maybe do a little dab of educating about the Roots & Culture behind Reggae.
All my knowledge of Reggae and Dub for over 25 years makes its way into the show.
Sound clips plus the Smile Jamaica definition and visual cue.
“Get Ready to Rock Steady”. 4 PM Utah Time (Mountain). krcl.org 90.9FM SLC
Here’s some of what I have i cooked up in the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ive for this afternoon’s show
Wailers Family Tree: Tracking through Bob’s last live show in Pittsburgh, PA 9/23/80; rarities and obscurities from Peter’s dubble disk edition of Equal Rights (’77); Bunny’s Rootsman Skanking ’87
Plus sifting in quality roots from the sistren. Kif I mean Keith Richards niyahbinghi supergroup the Wingless Angels. And a whole heap of good quality Rootical Dubbers
Check it!
bless, robt
2 branches of the Wailers Family Tree “smoke up de ‘sensi!
I bet I am up and at ’em before any of you readers take the tykes out for any Easter Egg Hunt.
So my 4 hr 20 min Mutant Dub Herb Special is finished. Magnum Dopus!
So I’ve rinsed out 50 plus tracks from around the globe. Starts with my favorite Weedstepper Soom T and ends with the Bush Doctor Peter Tosh dubadelic 10″ pic sleeve vinyl mix from Record Store Day a few years ago.
Here’s how your Holiday Weekend works: Good Friday, Record Store Day Saturday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday
I will hit send on the Interwebs this Sunday 4/20 at 4:20 AM at the Smile Jamaica Mixcloudpage as well as here
Mutant Dub Files: Episode 4 – Space Dust. 260 minutes of Seven Leaf mixed with heavyweight dub
For once I don’t say a word. Just herbal meditations and Canna-bass
Here’s the Straight Dope:
Bong – 4
Collie – 1
Dope – 4
Flavors – 2 High Grade, Lebanese Blonde,
Ganja – 1
Growing/Farming – 1
Hemp – 1
Herb – 4
High/Stoned – 4
Legalize – 3
Lifestyle – 5
Marijuana – 3
Police/Arrested – 2
Rizla/Rolling – 3
Sensimilla – 4
Spliff – 2Weed – 3
Countries/Places:
Brazil: 1
Brooklyn: 2
France: 1
Jah-cago: 1
Jah-maica: 2
Jah-many: 3
Jah-pon: 5
Jah-scow, Scotland: 3
Jah-stria: 2
Jah-suchusetts: 1
Los Jahngeles: 2
Ska-dinavia: 1
UK: 21
US: 4
Wash’n DC: 3
“See ya” or more like “hear me” Sunday AM and have this Dub Episode for your Soundtrack as you celebrate early and often
I was cratedigging last weekend and swung by the magazine rack. Something caught my eye and I nearly wet myself.
Whenever I go to Jah-buquerque to see my Sister and family, we go to a local cafe for breakfast. They used to have a whole wall devoted to magazines. I liked that because they had The Beat magazine: a Reggae and World Music mag that I wrote Mutant Dub reviews for in the mid to late 90s. I’d grab a copy off the wall and point out my review to my fams.
So we pop in last month and boom: All the magazines were deemed redundant when everyone reads content for free on their gadget. They apologized to the evolution to more seats with plugins.
How does a perennial magazine like Rolling Stone move units in that environment? One way is to release issues for collectors of “artifacts”. Those of us dwindling consumers who want a physical memento as opposed to a utilitarian digital object.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my iPod. I have to have something to listen to from my car in the parking lot to my office and back. But very little of the music I play on Smile Jamaica comes digital born. It’s vinyl at home, CDs in the car and office.
I seriously average between 4-8 hours of active listening per day. Every day. Being a librarian I keep lists everywhere. I have 50,000 songs on my iTunes. And those are albums I listened to on headphones before I rip them and move them to playlists: herb tunes, UFO, Marley Tributes, Occupy Wall Streeet, Rockers doing Reggae.But it’s 99% physicality for surety! It was “rinsed out” on vinyl or aluminum (isn’t that what cds are made of?)
When I get iTunes gift cards at Holiday time, I mainly buy Dubstep 12″s I can’t find locally that I read about inMixmag.
There are diehards who want the cd (or better yet vinyl), magazines, actual books, magazines, comic books and music scores. There is something to be said for small scale catering to niche markets of collectors and people who want to give their eyes a break from the cathode ray nipple.
Rolling Stone has released several theme based issues devoted to the stalwarts like The Beatles, Dylan, Rolling Stones. Collections of stories and photos from the magazine on glossy page stock.
It is meant to drive even subscribers to reach for their wallet. (And I have a lifetime subscription to Rolling Stone. That is my next article for KUER Music).
.
If you dig the magazine Wax Poetics (and you should if you don’t), it is very reminiscent of that attention to a better quality page than magazine glossy slicks.
The Marley Special Collection issue is top rank.
How Bob Marley Changed the World
An Encounter With the Legend; excerpt of Bob’s first cover story Aug. 12, ’76; 4 months before he was nearly assassinated in Jamaica
Visiting Bob Marley’s Jamaica musical travelogue of the Island
Living Legacy: 5 of Bob’s 11 children reflect and share memories of their father.
Plus the obligatory Top 50 Songs and artist reflections. Before I read the magazine, I ventured a guess at what would be judged Bob Marley‘s #1 song. My guess came in at #3.
70 high quality photos in color and black and white.
And since this is Cannabis Service Month. The “toker’s tally” of those 70 is 4:
Now you see him in action, let’s hear a lickle drawof Bob in service to the Seven Leaf
Peter Tosh must be looking down from Jah’s Heavenly Choir with guitar in hand, spliff in mouth and smile on face.
“Legalize It, I will advertise it”. The penultimate herbtune in the Reggae canon. I wish he could see the progress of his missionary work on behalf of the Seven Leaf 25+ years after his gruesome murder.
It was the summer of 1987. I had really gotten into Reggae music. Started collecting it on these new inventions called CDs. Vinyl from around SLC (Cosmic Aeroplane, Randy’s*, Smokey’s Records, Starbound, Raspberry Records, The Mad Platter, etc.).
(*The only shop still in business 25 years later.)
I would travel and couch surf with relatives in the Bay Area and buy up all the cheap Reggae vinyl that was in all their great stores from Reno, Sacramento, San Fran, Berkley, Oakland, San Jose, Rasta Cruz, Mill Valley. Everyone was shedding vinyl for CD upgrades.
I had my student loan check in hand from Uncle Ronnie (Reagan that is) and I would binge on $4 vinyl discards that fetch $40 and more today on Ebay.
I even did a little half-assed Reggae show called Positive Vibrations on the University of Utah’s KUTE radio station which broadcast only in the Student Union.
Peter had a new album out called No Nuclear War. I figured the chances were excellent that he would go on tour in the States and I would get to see at least one of the Big Three since Bob had passed in ’81.
I remember I was in the airport picking up my sister Stacey for a little visit. This was in the wooly days before 9/11 when you could queue up to the gate to meet your party. I grabbed a coffee and a paper and waited for her plane to touch down.
Headline on the top of page 2: “Reggae Star Peter Tosh Murdered in Jamaica”. The date: Sept. 11, 1987.
Spooky eh? The usual senseless drug violence.* (See the movie Red X for how this went down from survivor testimony.)
*There is an alternate theory of why Peter was killed. But I’m not telling that story. “Ask me no questions and I”ll tell you no lies.”
Peter played one last trick on the shitstem of Bobby-wrong and wreaked havoc on the Crime Ministers s(h)itting in the House of Representa-thief of A-sad-ica. “Because there is nothing ‘merry’ about America”. He crashed the stock market on his birthday that year: Oct. 19. A mere five weeks later.
Before the Great Recession of ’08, Oct. 19th, 1987 was one of the biggest stock market collapses since the Great Depression. It’s known by the ominous term Black Monday. I’m certain Peter would have loved the irony.
Peter Tosh paid a personal price for his Cannabis devotion. A famous concert took place April 22, 1978 in Jamaica. It is known as the One Love Peace Concert. “The Woodstock of Reggae”.
This was a Reggae music festival hailed as the return of Bob Marley from exile. (He had been shot in the run up to the last major Jamaican attempt at a music benefit: The Smile Jamaica Concert; Dec. 5, 1976)
The concert movie Heartland Reggae is the artifact of this show. Peter took to the stage to harangue the two leaders in Jamaica. Michael Manley (left wing, PNP party); Edward Seaga (right wing JLP). Such a high profile public rebuke was a bold and reckless thing to do in a country that was at the point of a ghetto civil war.
It would be like Obama and Romney going to the Kennedy Awards dinner and getting called out for their failures and venality by Bob Dylan. Very impolitic and a response came soon enough.
About a month later the Jamaican police nearly frog stomped Peter to death. They paid special attention to beating him on his hands. Imagine the double viciousness to try and destroy a guitar player’s hands. It would be like putting a surgeon’s fingers in a meat grinder. The Reggae rebel had to feign death to get away.
Check this sound clip about the attack with author Stephen Davis. This is taken from the dubble disk set that includes Peter’s performance at the One Love Peace Concert called Talking Revolution (Pressure Sounds). It’s a great piece of musical history. Peter Tosh was fearless and Old Testament righteous. He definitely lived up to his nickname The Stepping Razor from the stage.
<Tosh I-view about his police beating 3 min.>
Peter wrote about the incident in his album Wanted Dread & Alive.Especially his “court transcript” set to music: “Cold Blood”
Every time I see Babylon my blood runs cold Every time I see the wicked men my belly moves
You say after me sir I solemnly swear That the evidence I shall give Shall be the truth The whole truth And nothin but the truth
So help me God So help I Jah(3x)… Rastafari Every time I see the wicked men my belly moves
You are brought before this court For having ganja in your possession Guilty or not guilty Not guilty your honor
How could one man do such a thing… ganja It is totally impossible your honor
I can remember yeah When I was framed and jailed, brutalized The grudge would find me guilty For an exhibit they could not find
Every time I see Babylon my blood runs cold Every time I see the wicked men my belly moves
When I see the condition I said it’s a curse For the past 400 years ago Things get from bad to worse
Every time I see Babylon my blood runs cold Every time I see the wicked men my belly moves
(Yes, that’s Keith underneath a halo of smoke)
Wanted Dread and Alive means everything to me. Is this gross? I broke my cherry I lost my “Reggae virginity” on (with?) this record. The very first Reggae artifact in the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives of several thousand. I got this Christmas ’81.
I would always put records on my Christmas list. My mom would simply take that list into the local record store in Great Falls, Montana (Eli’s Records; now known as the Hastings chain). She would give that list to the clerk. She would come back an hour later. Trim the stack – No Ted Nugent Wang Dang Sweet Poontang – and wrap the winners in one big obvious present under the tree.
I was always an impulse buyer and would often buy an album because I liked the cover. That was the case here as well with the great cover of Peter right out of the Wild Wild West. It wasn’t until Bob Marley’s Legendin 1984 that I picked up Reggae gem #2. Me and millions of others. “Satisfy My Soul” indeed.
So full circle to Peter Tosh and the price he paid for his advocacy, in America at least. Collie-rado and Washington succeeded in “legalizing it” with another dozen states going to the polls in 2014 and 2016 to do the same.
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has been tenacious in their efforts to decriminalize and legalize a plant that has zero overdose deaths in the 8000 plus history of human cannabis consumption. They have been the first line against cannabis prohibition whose purpose was always to criminalize a lifestyle.
Here is Peter’s very own Cannabis Service Announcement for NORML back in the good old days of when “only” 400,000 Americans were arrested and jailed for a “lickle herb stalk”. Half of what it is is today.
I pay tribute in “kind” to Peter with weekly Cannabis Service Announcements and yearly Cannabis Service Shows on Smile Jamaica. The least I can do to return the favor. “Everybody wants to go to heaven. Nobody wants to die.” Peter Tosh “Equal Rights”
(***The operator of the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives wishes those reading to know that we do not endorse, encourage or engage in illegal activity. These writings are in spirit with anti-authoritarian subcultures and are meant solely for informational and or educational purposes only. Edutaiment isn’t illegal….yet***)
Greetings,
Everyone knows about the 12 Days of Christmas. But what about the 20 Days of Cannabis? 420 that is. Anyone who has listened to Smile Jamaica over the, well, decades now knows that April is pretty much in bloom with the Seven Leaf Saturday Afternoons on Community Radio Station KRCL..
<Soundbyte>
For going on twenty years – on air between 4 and 7 PM Saturdays – every 4:20 is given over to what I euphemistically call “herbtunes”. I call it the Cannabis Service Announcement. A spin on non-profit radio and its promotion of *Public* Service Announcements. These Reggae and Dub boomshots sing praises to the Wisdom Weed.
The closest Saturday to the 20th day is devoted to an entire show of herbal meditations on all formats and styles: vinyl, singles: 7″, 10″ & 12″, cds and digital*; Roots Reggae, Mutant Dub and Rockers doing Reggae. 180 minutes celebrating free speech and diverse lifestyles. Selah!
*I even have Bob Marley’s Kaya (with the title track and “Easy Skanking” spliff tales) on 8-Track. No player to hear it on, alas.
Because of my job as Audio Engineer in the Marriott Library, I have a slick ProTools digital recorder. So my job pretty much requires me to be a whiz at editing digital files (a skill I originally honed at KRCL on 1/4 inch tape). So I edit a whole heap of sound clips to enhance the mood elevated listening experience. Clips from Cheech and Chong, George Carlin and Steve Martin. Movie dialog from Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and Saturday Night Live.
I taught myself the DVD audio-track ripper Handbrake just so I could chop a soundbyte out of the Reggae documentary “Land of Look Behind”. From crowd footage at Bob Marley’s funeral, a youth steps forward and shouts “Bob Marley smoked 100 splits a day! A 100 splits a day mon”.
<Bob Marley’s ganja prowess>
Saturday, April 19th. 4-7 PM Mountain Time on krcl.org or 90.9FM in Salt Lake City region.
<Soundbyte>
My annual April Cannabis Service Show. Yeah. It’s silly and obnoxious and totally rude. It’s my favorite show of the year. A lot of my Reggae deejay fraternity are disallowed by their Program Directors to play even a single marijuana ditty. Praise Jah for anything goes KRCL. “Your station that rules the nation!”
<Soundbyte>
Here is the story behind why I decided to livicate (not dead-icate) a potent blast of pot propaganda 20 minutes into each and every Smile Jamaica. And then some.
This could have been about 20 years ago. I was chatting up one of KRCL’s Drive Time deejays in a record store. His show was on one of the Week Days between and 3 and 6 PM. He got the clever notion to bust out a little weed set during his show that he called 4:20 Funk
Alas, someone at the station put the clampdown on his little exercise in musical free speech. 4:20 Funk was banned. Of course, when he told me his tale of woe I made sure the very next Saturday to debut my own Spliff Tales that I christened Cannabis Service Announcements. You have to be fearless and not back down because freedom of expression is under assault.
So in the Spirit of the Season on this Smile Jamaica blog, I will post 20 Cannabis related posts. I’m behind obviously so I’ll do two a day till I catch up.
Studio kinda cloudy!
<Soundbyte>
bless – robt
Smile Jamaica is hosted by Robert Nelson on 90.9 FM KRCL in Salt Lake City, Utah (Saturdays, 4-7 p.m. MT). Ark-ives available weekly here at the Smile Jamaica blog.
Smile Jamaica 