Last show of 2018 before I head out for the Holidays. So nuff Christmas a gwaan. And a lickle Hanukkah stylee for good measure.
<Reggae Christmas at the Nelson Family gathering; 40 sec.>
Ancient Astronaut Theory suggests Santa is an Alien
<Santa: spaceship, Rudolph’s nose – tracking beacon; 36 sec.>
But, in fact I tell you the story about Saint Nicolas from modern day Turkey. Baba Noel (father Christmas)
<Baba Noel; 18 sec.>
I ‘n’ I never know the right mix of Christmas tunes to play. If I don’t play any, listeners call in to complain. If I play too much, listeners call and complain.
Last week I was 0 for 2. I played a take on Handel’s Messiah called the Sensimilla Choir. A woman called in and thought that was blasphemous and I shouldn’t be play songs about drugs.
Then I played Fishbone’s Slick Nick — you devil you! Saint Nick (Baba Noel) gone to seed and wrecked Christmas.
Listener called: That song was the worst and Smile Jamaica keeps getting worse.
So for those naysayers, they want I ‘n’ I to postpone Christmas!
<Mutabaruka – Postpone Christmas; 39 sec.>
So no matter where you fall on the spectrum, I hope you have a great Holiday. I get to take my Mom and Pop shopping for the medicinal mistletoe in Sun City West
<All I want for Ismas….>
Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives Annotated Playlist: Jah-cember 15, 2018; 81 sec.
Set 1:
Steel Pulse – Reggae Fever; Caught You (Island) ’80 UK vinyl
Black Uhuru w/ Sly & Robbie – Let Us Dub; Brutal Dub (RAS) ’86 DC vinyl dub album of the hour
Kiddus I – Love Child; Natty & Nice (Rhino) 70’s tune about Jesus
Akabu – Warrior Queen; Warrior Queen (ON U Sound) ’89 UK female roots group
Martin Campbell – Iliteracy (sic); Historical Tracks (Channel One UK) ’92 mispelled word on perpose
Jacob Miller & Ray I – All I Want For Ismas; Natty Christmas (RAS) ’77 herbtune: All I want for Ismas is my collie herb
Medical cannabis shopping with my parents in Sun City West, Jah-rizona for New Years
Set 2:
Temple Rockers feat. Linval Thompson – The Blessing + Days Long Ago; Festival of Lights (Fresh Roots) 2018 Hanukkah
The Ethiopians – Let Me Blow My Smoke; Owner Fe De Yard (Heartbeat) ’84 herbtune
Cornell Campbell – King’s Heart; Natty Dread in a Greenwich Farm (Striker Lee) ’75
Sister Carol – Santa Claus; 12″ (Grade One)
Inna Hanukkah stylee
Set 3: Best of Smile Jamaica 29+ Years
Carlene Davis – Ism and Schism; 15 Classic Tracks (Sonic)
Clint Eastwood & General Saint – Vote For We; Stop That Train (Greensleeves) ’82 UK
Lucky Dube – False Prophets; Prisoner (Shanachie) ’90 South African
Freddie McGregor – Irie Christmas; Reggae Christmas From Studio One (Heartbeat/Studio One) ’80
Joe Ferry – Skalalleujah; Skalellujah (Big Music) ’97 Christmas ska album of the Hour: Handel’s Messiah
No Xmas until Black Friday. No Xmas Reggae til Dec. 1. So enjoy some Holiday Reggae set (including a Hanukkah jam).
<Happy Reggae Hanukkah; 53 sec.>
Just got back from Las Vegas on a cratedig. So we hear the fruits of that labor. More vinyl than CDs. The CD is going, going, gone. Vinyl, even rare vinyl for I ‘n’ I as a collector, was really a good trip.
And in the land of 10 down (with 40 to go), I wasn’t a criminal. Here was my stop in Vegas. Since I’m an Ancient Astronaut Theorist, (who believes in the 12th planet Nibiru), of course my go to Vegas dispensary was Planet 13.
bless, Bobbylon
Smile Jamaica Annotated Playlist: Jah-cember 1, 2018: 1 min. 54 sec.
Set 1:
Al Campbell – Words of Wisdom; Rainy Days (Hawkeye) ’78 UK vinyl
Soul Syndicate & Big Youth – Inside Out; Reggae Gi Dem Dub (Nichola Delita) ‘ JA vinyl dub album of the hour
Sammy Dread – Jah Guide; Roadblock (Hitbound) ’82
Zema – Joy in the Morning; Black Sheep (Melchizedek) 2003 So Cal female
Johnny Clarke – Waiting in Vain; Sings Bob Marley in a Dancehall Style (Rhino UK) ’77 Bob Marley cover
Dillinger – Hearsay; 12″ (A & M) ’81 US picture sleeve
Had a great week cratedigging in Vegas during the Thanksgiving Holiday. Enjoy this Best of Smile Jamaica out of the Ark-Ives collection while I was off air.
bless, Bobbylon
0-30 min.
Rita Marley – I Know a Place; Sings Bob Marley and Friends (Shanachie) ’91
UB40 – Folitician (Remix); UB44 (DEP) ’81
Lloyd Parks & Hugh Brown – Into the Night (extended mix): Music Works vol. 2: Lovers Dancehall (Ambassa) ’81 Benny Mardones pop cover
Tena Stelin & Sound Iration – Jah Powers + Dub Seal (Part 3); Wicked Invetion + In Dub (Mr. Modo) ’89
30-60 min.
Blood Sisters – Ring My Bell; Hustle! (Soul Jazz) ’79 disco cover of Anita Ward
No matter where you come down on the election: from Blue Wave to Purple Puddle, cannabis did well at the polls. Took 3 out of 4.
Green Wave at the ballot box:
<Green Wave: 19 sec.>
Michigan legalized the Seven Leaf
Utah medical marijuana
Missouri medical marijuana
10 legal + DC + all of Canada
33 states medical marijuana
<Without seeds; 23 sec.>
Had a great conversation with my window installer this summer. He was a young Mormon man with a family. We got to talking based on my Reggae/cannabis menagerie of posters up in the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives.
He has excruciating pain in his back. None of the official pain meds were tolerable: gave him terrible constipation and nightmares. His wife was offered pharmaceutical anti-nausea medication while pregnant. Later the drug was found to cause birth defects.
Both of them relied on cannabis for pain and nausea relief. Not CBD. Cannabis. Smoked not eaten. My Dad uses it for neuropathy and carpal tunnel in Arizona. It’s a medicine. Congrats to Utahans for exercising their free agency.
Utah’s Prop 2 legalizing medical marijuana
So what will 2020 bring?
I’m predicting these states go for it:
Wisconsin
Ohio
Illinois
New Jersey
Florida
Montana (my homeland!)
New Mexico
Arizona (second try)
Hawaii? (they should be no brainer)
10 down, 40 to go! Maybe Pres. 45 will legalize it nationally if he wants to get re-elected?
Wow. That was quite the election without objection. Say what you want about Pres. 45, he motivates people to the polls. Although 5 billion dollars seems like quite a squandering of resources for such lack of choice.
But listening to Reggae for 3 plus decades, I learned to give the Hairy Eyeball to the isms and schisms.
So, this Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives delves into the real politik. And the same thing for breakfast.
I also think The Cream has it on the money too….
<Same thing for breakfast & The Cream’s Politician; 85 sec.>
The Cream – Politician
I’m a political man And I practice what I preach I’m a political man And I practice what I preach So don’t deny me, baby Not while you’re in my reach
I support the left Though I’m leaning, leaning to the right I support the left Though I’m leaning to the right But I’m just not there When it’s coming to a fight
The Cream – I support the left, but I’m leaning to the right aka “The Same Thing for Breakfast”
Best outcome for I ‘n’ I
Michigan legalized the collie weed
Missouri medical MJ
Utah Proposition 2 – Medical Marijuana puff puff passed
Since nearly the very beginning I ‘n’ I have harvested all the various Halloween tunes found in Reggae music.
<25+ Years of Jah-loween on 29 Years of Smile Jamaica; 24 sec.>
Over the 3 decades of Reggae Radio my Devil’s menagerie has grown to 2 60-CD suitcases, a crate full of vinyl, a box full of 7″.
About a decade ago, I started hacking up horror bytes, movie trailers and Jah-loween intros. Then like Dr. Frankenstein in his laboratory, I hunker down in my Secret Dubratory and stitch it all together.
It’s alive! It’s alive!
So now enjoy this look back to all Hallow’s Eve and admire how Horror Reggae fits the Season. 11 sec.
Roll a lickle spliff wif di papyrus. Smoking sensimenia inna Mesopotamia!
Jah-tober 20th Smile Jamaica, livicated to the late great Peter Tosh – born Oct. 19, 1947.
Jah-tober is Jah-loween on Smile Jamaica,
Peter was at the pinnacle of the masses of Reggae songs devoted to the Halloween menagerie: vampires, ghosts (duppies in Jamaica), witches, mummies, anti-Christs, zombies and general evil. I and I have hundreds of Jah-loween tunes on CD, black wax: LP, 12″, 10″ and 7″.
Peter’s additions to the canon?
Dracula
Vampire
Mark of the Beast – about his brutal beating at the hands of Jamaican cops
Jumbie Jamboree – ska update of a classic soca song about the cousin of the duppy – jumbies.
With the Wailers: Mr. Brown (who drives around in a coffin) and Duppy Conqueror.
There is one more….
My very first Reggae LP was Peter Tosh – Wanted Dread & Alive; Christmas 1981. Thanks mom!
It was only after I got into Reggae that I discovered that was not the intended track list.
For European markets: lose Poor Man Feel It, Cold Blood and That’s What They Will Do. Substitute: Rok With Me, Guide Me From My Friends and Oh, Bumbo Klaat.
Peter’s tale of how a Jamaican spirit (Duppy) had him paralyzed. The only way to free himself from malevolent possession was to scream the Jamaican equivalent of Mother F******: Oh Bumbo Klaat
Bum: coarse word for our four letter “c” word. Klaat as in cloth – menstrual rags, not to be indelicate.
Such a foul epithet would horrify Jamaicans to hear uttered anywhere. But Peter mustered all his energy and burst out: OH BUMBA KLAAT
The duppy was so shocked at hearing such an utterance that he let go of Peter and the Stepping Razor broke free of his paralysis:
<Smile Jamaica story on Peter’s possession: Oh Bumbo Klaat; 102 sec.
[Verse 4] One night, an evil spirit held me down I could not make one single sound Until Jah told me, “Son, use the word” And now I’m as free as a bird
I was very happy to be cratedigging in SLC, at Get In Here Records I scored the above 12″ black wax aboved.
Tosh’s tragic end belied an “Omen”. I had just got into Reggae bigly as 45 would say around Sept. ’86. A year later I was working at Graywhale CD and used my employee discount to buy 2 CDs:
Ramones – Halfway to Sanity
Peter Tosh – No Nuclear War.
I think the Tosh album dropped on Sept. 3, 1987. On Sept. 12, I remember going to the SLC airport to pick up my sister off the plane. On page 2 of the paper that morning:
Reggae singer Peter Tosh killed in Jamaica.
Peter Tosh dead on, …wait for it: Sept. 11.
The other 9/11 tragedy
Peter the mystic did not go quietly to Jah’s Heavenly Choir. He got his “revenge” on his birthday that year: Oct. 19, 1987:
<Peter Tosh murder: Sept. 11, 1987. Black Monday – Oct. 19, 1987; 75 sec.>
Black Monday was the worst stock market collapse since the Great Depression. Only, since, eclipsed by the Great Recession of 2008.
Dow Jones stock market lost 22.6% of its valuation in one day. Peter Tosh exacted his revenge against the “shystem” in A-sad-ica. Because for the poor there is nothing “merry” about America.
Happy Birthday to the Stepping Razor: #PeterTosh. Murdered on 9/11 '87. Crashed the stock market from beyond on his birthday. 10/19/87 #BlackMonday. Chanting down the shytstem in A-sad-ica b/c for the poor, there is nothing "merry" in America pic.twitter.com/QjNWMBvwse
It was October 2003. My bredrin Grizzlite and I headed up to Park City to catch one of my favorites from the 90’s: Lucky Dube. Terrific South African roots singer in the era of apartheid.
A huge favorite with the Pacific Islander community, the club was packed. Everyone singing along on a cool fall night in the mountains.
Grizz and I got a beer and angled ourselves and positioned ourselves on the patio with a view of the stage. Everyone bumping along to Lucky’s melodic Peter Tosh-esque vocals.
All of a sudden the packed dance floor scattered and the music screeched to a halt. A youth had been shot. Later I found out it was a gang assassination. Tribal war in the Polynesian community. Assassins were dispatched from California. They knew their target would be out in the open and vulnerable at a must see event: Lucky Dube is on a par with Bob Marley among the Island community.
Before we knew it, the paramedics had wheeled the victim pass Grizz and I on a gurney. One of the EMT’s was straddling his chest doing CPR. Right next to me, a massive Island dready stepped up and punched the dying man in the face, caving in his nose.
Israel Vibration – Licks and Kicks; Live Again! (RAS) ‘97 California live
The Ethiopians – Obeah Book; Slave Call (Heartbeat) ’77: Obeah = Jamaican black magic
Yellowman – Operation Eradication; One in a Million (Shanachie) ’82 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement
<Operation Eradication in Jamaica; 67 sec.>
The Gladiators – Evil Doers; 12” (Virgin Front Line) ’77 UK
Jamaican army on their way to burn the weed fields. Tips from the locals: stand down wind of the bon fire
Set 2:
Dennis Brown – Africa We Want to Go; Reggae Nuggets (Mojo Magazine) 50th anniversary of UK’s Trojan Records
Bananarama – Tell Tale Signs; Deep Sea Skiving (London) ’83 UK new wave female group; bonus 12”
The Itals – Give This Love a Try; Modern Age (RAS) ‘98
Barry Brown – Dreadfull (sic) Day; 10” (Hitbound) ‘83 JA
Bananarama on Smile Jamaica? WTF?
Set 3: Best of Smile Jamaica 29 Years
Jimmy Cliff – Many Rivers to Cross; The Harder They Come Soundtrack (Mango) ‘72
<Reggae popularity: The Wailers Catch a Fire and The Harder They Come; 16 sec.>
Fred Locks – Wheat and Tears; Missing Link (VP) ‘78
Judy Mowatt – Get Up Chant; Love Is Overdue (Shanachie) ‘87
Ranking Dillinger – See and Blind; None Stop Disco Style (Abrahama) ‘78
4th Street Orchestra – Higher Ranking; Scientific Higher Ranking Dubb (Rama) ’78 UK Dub Album of the Hour
Set 4:
Peter Tosh – Mystery Babylon; Scrolls of the Prophet (Columbia/Legacy) remix of Babylon Queendom
Bunny Wailer – Blackman Redemption; Hall of Fame (RAS) ’95 50 Bob Marley covers for his 50th Birthday
The Skatalites – Malcolm X; Rough Guide to Ska (Rough Guide) Request
Ranking Joe & Cha Cha – You’ll Never Know; 10” (Above Rock) 2010 UK ska rocksteady w/ female Chinese singer
Set 5: Vinyl ls Vital
The Wailing Wailers – Love or Affection; Wailing Wailers (Studio One) ’65 JA
<Love or Affection; 1 min. 39 sec.>
Paulette Tajah – Last Night; Lovers Delight (Ariwa) ’83 UK
Nigger Kojak & Liza – Two Bad Duppy; Showcase LP (Nigger Kojak) ’80 JA
Three Dimension – Roadblock; Roadblock (Nubian) ’87 UK herbtune
Set 6:
The Wailers – Slave Driver; Live 1973-1975 (Starbucks) 11/23/73 Live at Leeds (UK) Polytechnic
<UK Tour 1973; 62 sec.>
Dubblestandart feat. Ari Up – Surrender Dub; Return From Planet Dub (Collision) 2009 Jah-strian dub w/ female vox
Adrian Sherwood – Zero Zero One; 10” (Green Tea) 2001 UK mutant dub
Dub Specialist – Starring Dub; 17 Dub Shots From StudioOne (Heartbeat/Studio One) Dub Album of the Hour
Set 7: Jah-loween
Lucky Dube – Dracula; Prisoner (Shanachie) ’90 South African
Future Pigeon – The Mummy; Echdelic Sounds of Future Pigeon (Record Collection) 2005 LA
Sinead O’Connor – Vampire; Throw Down Your Arms (That’s Why There’s Chocolate & Vanilla) 2005 Devon Irons cover
Earth & Stone – The Devil Must Have Made You; Kool Roots (Pressure Sounds) ‘79
Murdered shortly after his SLC performance where a youth was murdered in Park City
Set 8: Mutant Dub
Tena Stelin – Flying Saucers; 7” (Mascot) ’99 UFOria
<Aliens in the Bible; 28 sec.>
Thievery Corporations – Warning Shots; It Takes a Thief (ESL) 2010 DC best of
Desmond Williams – Dread a the Roughest; Delights of the Garden (ESL)
Alpha & Omega – It Hurts + It Must Be Dub; Mystic Things (BSI) 2001 UK trance dub w/ female vox
Spiritual Rez – Let’s Go Out With a Bang; Apocalypse Whenever (Spiritual Rez) 2014 about Alien invasion
<When the Aliens attack. let’s go out with a bang! 47 sec.>
Words of Wisdom:
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.
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Smile Jamaica 