In 1972 George Carlin did a famous routine on the Seven Dirty Words you can’t say on television (or radio)
shit
piss
fuck
cunt
cocksucker
motherfucker
tits
In Jamaica you might want to add a #8: bumbaclaat. When Aunt Flo comes a callin’ each month, Rasta women in Jamaica living in the hills don’t go for Kotex or Tampax but have to do what rural and poor women have done for centuries: rags.
In some Rasta societies the stigma of menstruation makes women “unclean” and they are often kept apart from the Rasta men.
The term used for these menstruation rags in Jamaica: bumbaclaat. Bumba slang word for….pussy. Claat/cloth = Bumbaclaat. It can also mean the rag you use to wipe your backside. A nasty epithet forbidden in polite company but a rude retort akin to dropping F-bombs from the stage.
Seven Dirty Words
Peter Tosh is most identified with the term. He put a song entitled “Bumbaclaat” on his album Wanted Dread & Alive. HIs American record label was none too happy and excised the song from domestic release. If you have seen the Tosh biography Red X, he talks about how a duppy (Jamaican malevolent spirit) paralyzed Peter one night and his only way to break free was to scream out BUMBACLAAT! to free himself from demonic possession.
That story is one of many I tell on the June 20, 2015 edition of Smile Jamaica. End of June 2015 tallies up 27 years of Reggae Radio for I ‘n’ I on KRCL 90.9FM Salt Lake City, Utah. Give thanx!
bless, robt
Bumbaclaat to chase the Devil away
<HIgh-lights of the June 20, 2015: Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives: 73 sec.>
Summer jam skiffle and soul covers
4:20 and Seven Leaf set, 4 down, 46 to go!
Wailers Family Tree: Tosh teaches us a swear word. Wailers mix ‘n’ match on Stop That Train – Catch a Fire. Marcia at Studo One. Bunny Wailer Gumption. Chalice covers Stevie livicated to Bob
Best of 25 Years: My favorite selections from 1988-1990 on Reggae Radio
Roots Dawtas – Marcia, Lorna, Ranking Ann, Fabiane, Alpha & Omega trancers, Marvels do Aretha
Vinyl is Vital: herb, dawta, deejays, youthmen
Mutant Dub: Jah-pon, Snoop, African Head Charge
Set 1:
Jimmy Riley – Summertime; 12” (DEB) ’75 from Porgy and Bess
<Summertime and the living is easy; 17 sec.>
Burning Babylon – Sproing-a-Dub; Beat, Beat, Beat (I Tones) 2008 Boston; Dub Album of the Week
Ken Boothe – In the Summertime; Keep on Running (Trojan) ’70 Mungo Jerry cover; 15 sec.
Marvels – Rock Steady; 100% Dynamite (Soul Jazz) ’71 Aretha Franklin cover w/ female vox; 7 sec.
Max Romeo – My Jamaica Collie; Pray For Me (Trojan) ’73; 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement; over My Jamaican Girl
<Max Romeo – My Jamaica Collie; 13 sec.>
Chalice – Master Blaster (Jammin’); Best of Reggae (Sonoma); Stevie Wonder tribute to Bob Marley
<Stevie Wonder – Master Blaster Jammin’; 6 sec.>
<Bought this one at the Mall-Wart; 26 sec.>
Only go in one of these when I have to chauffeur my Mom around town
Set 2:
Peter Tosh – African; Live at the Jamaican World Music Festival (Peter Tosh Foundation); 11/27/82: Montego Bay, JA
<Jamaican swear word: Bumbaclaat!1 min. 41 sec.>
Fabiane – Prophecy; 12 the Hardway (Tribes Man)
Dennis Brown – No More Shall I Roam; 10” (Observer) ‘74
Bumbaclaat – Jamaican F-bomb
Set 3: Best of 25 Years – Smile Jamaica
Bim Sherman – Slummy Ghetto; Across the Red Sea (ON U Sound) ’82
The Tamlins – Baltimore; Taxi Fare (Heartbeat) ’80; Nina Simone cover; 13 sec.
Capital Letters – Run Run Run; Headline News (Greensleeves) ’79 UK youth group
Peter Broggs – Just Because I’m a Rastaman; Rastafari Liveth! (RAS) ’82 DC
Akabu – Feeling Good; Warrior Queen (ON U Sound) ’89 UK female group
1978 comeback cover of Randy Newman. Baltimore in the news.
Baltimore by Randy Newman
Beat-up little seagull
On a marble stair
Tryin’ to find the ocean Lookin’ everywhere
Hard times in the city In a hard town by the sea Ain’t nowhere to run to There ain’t nothin’ here for free
Hooker on the corner Waitin’ for a train Drunk lyin’ on the sidewalk Sleepin’ in the rain
And they hide their faces And they hide their eyes ’cause the city’s dyin’ And they don’t know why
Oh, baltimore Man, it’s hard just to live Oh, baltimore Man, it’s hard just to live, just to live
Get my sister sandy And my little brother ray Buy a big old wagon Gonna haul us all away
Livin’ in the country Where the mountain’s high Never comin’ back here ’til the day I die
Oh, baltimore Man, it’s hard just to live Oh, baltimore Man, it’s hard just to live, just to live
Set 6: Jamaican Jukebox 45 RPM; 6 sec.
Rob Smarley (aka Albert Griffiths) – Holiday Ride; 7” (Portland) ’78 JA; 7” Jamaican Jukebox set
<Albert Griffiths as Rob Smarley? 14 sec.>
Anthony Johnson – Oh Jah; 7” (Corner Stone) JA
Lady Ann – Informer; 7” (Taxi) ’83 JA
Carlton Livingston – Chalice in Hand; 7” (Taxi) herbtune
Some sort of inside joke by The Gladiators lead singer? Albert Griffiths
Set 8: Mutant Dub*
*Programming Note: power surge from all the Mutant Dub bass knocked the station off air. Most of Jah Woosh and 2 Bad Card zapped by KRCL’s weak sauce transmitter. 2 minutes of dead air chopped from the stream. Mea culpa — the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives. 21 sec.
Ari Up – Kill Em With Love (Collision) 2005 former lead singer of The Slits punk group; mutant dub set
<Reggae History Lesson: punk dubstress Ari Up: The Slits, New Age Steppers, solo 14 sec.>
The Archives feat. Ras Puma – Who’s Correct?; The Archives (ESL) 2012; Eric Hilton of Thievery Corporation
Red I – Jahdgement Day; Jahdgement Day (Red I) Phillipines dub
Jah Woosh – Woodpecker Sound; Wild Paarty Sounds vol. 1 (ON U Sound) ‘81
2 Bad Card – Weed Specialist; CD single (ON U Sound) ‘95
Jah Rej – Yes I; 12” (Jah Works)
African Head Charge – Fruit Market; Drastic Season (ON U Sound) ‘83
Ari Up of The Slits and New Age Steppers. Johnny Rotten was her father in law
Parting Shot Words of Wisdom: Do yourself a favor educate your mind!
The Lion of Judah shall break every chain and give I the Victory again and again…Robert “Nesta” Marley
<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.
Michael Rose of Black Uhuru: “I n I are the Living Dread Inna dis ya Dawn of the Living Dead!”
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.
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)
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”.
This shirt could get you a year in jail in France. Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite….Bullshit all the way!
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
Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives: One of the earliest and still most beloved female Roots Reggae offering in the Ark-Ives
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.>
Lee “Scratch” Perry Black Ark gem
Primal Scream – Higher Than the Sun (A Dub Symphony in Two Parts); Screamadelica (Sire) ’91 UK
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.
Out of Denver, Collie-rado. Prince’s original was bass free. WTF?
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.
Smile Jamaica Jah-loween Extravaganza: Sat. Oct. 25, 2014 (4-7 PM). All treats, no tricks!
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 