I have been doing Roots Reggae Radio for about 27 years now. Thousands of hours and most of it is devoted to Heavy Roots
<Smile Jamaica – The King’s Music, Jamaican Blues>
Smile Jamaica’s prevailing themes for 25+ Years:
socialism (small s) – Reggae the music of the community. The music of the Underdog. Universality for sure-ty. No isms and schisms!
Rastafari – I am myself not a Rasta but consider myself a Rasta empathizer who acts as a missionary for Jah’s Gospel and let you decide. It’s good enough just to enjoy the inspiration of the lyrics along with the groove of the Beat.
Politrix and politics – I did political interviews for 9 years as The Angry Liberal. Reggae music was talking about what Occupy Wall Street championed 40 years before the Greenspan Recession. Reggae music totally influenced my personal politics of peace and love to all. No war, no racism, no sexism, no exploitation
The one music sub genre I play somewhat sparingly is Lover’s Rock.Romantic Reggae. I will play romantic tunes if it has a hard riddim. But lyrically that’s never been a big motivator.
Every Saturday I bring down about 200 pieces of music. I get to play about 33 per week (Natch!) The gems I pull out of the crate tend to be Orthodox Roots and earsplitting Dubwize.
<At the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives: I put the Fun in Roots Fundamentalism>
Not much of this for 25+ years of Smile Jamaica……but a whole lot of this. “Screwface know a who fi frighten”. Bob Marley
Don’t kid yourself. There is plenty of great Lover’s Rock in the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives. I played the best of it for 3 Hours – Lover’s Rock Showcase.
<Smile Jamaica: Happy Valentine’s Day; 20 sec.>
Smile Jamaica Annotated Playlist: Jah-bruary 14, 2015: Happy Valentine’s Day; 33 and 1/3 sec.
Set 1:
Melodians – Passion Love; Irie Feeling (RAS) ’83 DC Vinyl
Black Slate Meets Soul Syndicate – Moodie in Dub (Moodie) ’78 Dub Album of the Week
The Dynamics – Whole Lotta Love; Version Excursion (Groove Attack) 2007; Led Zeppelin cover feat. Female vox
Aswad – Star of My Show; To the Top (Simba) ’86 UK; Aswad means “black” in Arabic, Amharic
<Out of thousands, one of the first 10 Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives – Aswad “To the Top”; 22 sec.>
Lacksley Castell – Princess Lady; Princess Lady (Negus Roots) ’83 youth voiced singer
<Reggae History Lesson: Only the Good die Young – Lacksley Castell; 24 sec.>
Maxine Miller – How Many Times; Showcase (Wackie’s) ’80 Brooklyn vinyl; Bob Marley cover
Johnny Clarke – No Woman No Cry; Jah Live (Music Club); Marley covers CD
Probably within the first 10 disks added to the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives 1986; Tower Records, Las Vegas
Set 2:
Prince + Princess Buster – Ten Commandments of Man to Woman; Woman to Man; Sings His Hit Song Ten Commandments (RCA) ‘67
<Answer Record: Lover’s Quarrel? 19 sec.>
Dennis Brown – If I Had the World; Complete A & M Years (A & M)
<Crown Prince of Reggae: Dennis Brown; 29 sec.>
Dillinger – Take Care of Your Wife; King Pharaoh (Blue Moon) ’84 UK vinyl over Melody Life
<Dillinger’s Marital advice: Don’t stab your wife with a knife! 19 sec.>
Prince Buster invented talkover sound. Shared a label with Elvis
I don’t want no ice cream love, That’s too cold for me, little girl. I don’t want no ice cream love, girl can’t you see?
I want a love that’s warmer than the summer sunshine, I want a love that’s as warm as mine, Because my love, is warmer than a chocolate fudge. Because my love, is warmer than a chocolate fudge.
And that is why, I don’t want no ice cream love, It is too cold for me, girl. I don’t want no ice cream love, it is too cold, can’t you see, little girl? I don’t want no ice cream love, It’s too cold for me.
Love in the winter, Should be warmer than the summer sun.. But if you’re giving me a ice cream love, little girl, that’s no fun, And that is why I say, Because my love, is warmer than a chocolate fudge. I say, my love, is warmer than a chocolate fudge.
No-no-no, ice cream love, too cold for me. No-no-no, ice cream love at all. No-no-no-no.. ice cream love, It’s too cold for me..
Myself (KRCL vet since 1988); Brian Kelm blues savant since 1980 and Renee and Dawn, Drivetime Imposters, 2002-2008 talk about how we got involved at KRCL.Your station that rules the nation!
Radioactive was KRCL’s listener call in show that ran from 2003 Labor Day until summer 2012.
I did the very first hour long interview on Labor Day 2003. The show was born from the 3 hour call in we did on Smile Jamaica when the 2003 March Iraq Invasion went hot. No music. Just listeners calling in with their thoughts on the war and me talking about Middle East politics which I have two college degrees in.
I probably did 400 interviews. Nick Burns, who was there the nearly nine years the show aired, interviewed us on our history at KRCL. Nice.
Radioactive Progressive Interviews. Sept. 2003 – July 2012. I did 400 of them: Howard Zinn, Amy Goodman, Ralph Nader
That Black Uhuru album above pretty much lit the fuse on nearly three decades of collecting, listening and promoting Roots Reggae and Mutant Dubwize.
25 years of Reggae Radio on Smile Jamaica.
Since Jah-tober 1989: krcl.org 90.9FM SLC
So to celebrate that legacy I am going to try and recreate what my first Smile Jamaica Ark-Ive show might have sounded like: Jah-tober 1989.
Now I am going to do the same with those antique aluminum by-products things which can serve dubble duty as a drink coaster:
Best of 25 Years of Smile Jamaica: All CDs.
Rare that I don’t bust out any Black Wax, but today I’m going through what I was deep into, Roots and Dubwise, back in the mid 80s (Oct. 1986 is when I first touched down on Black Uhuru – Anthem) up until 1988 when I started early mornings on KRCL (3 o’Clock Roadblock) and then primetime Saturdays on Smile Jamaica: Jah-tober ’89.
Dub Album of the Week: Early addition to the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives
So I spent the week jotting down tunes and artists that I would have really played in the first two years of being on air. Year 1: 3 o’Clock Roadblock, learning how to do radio. Then a little more than a year later doing Saturday Afternoons to a bigger and loyal Salt Lake Reggae audience on Smile Jamaica.
Wailers Family Tree: Bob (Uprising); Peter (Legalize It); Bunny (Blackheartman); Marcia – Naturally; Judy – Black Woman; Rita – One Draw
Heavy Roots: Spear, Culture, Israel Vibration
Seven Leaf: Rita, Max Romeo
2 Tone Ska: The Selecter and The Beat
Deejays and Dub Poets: LKJ, Mutabaruka, I Roy, Dillinger
Early addition to the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives
So I get 3 hours and that means about 33-35 songs. I pulled 50 and then put them in chronological order. (As a Librarian I have a database of my music.) “Year” is one of my data entry cells.
From the earliest (1967) Prince Buster to 1990 (African Head Charge). Tune in to see how it all sounds.
bless, robt
Smile Jamaica live every Saturday 4-7 PM Mtn. Time:
Ark-Ive. Here on Smile Jamaica blog; without commercial interruptions
Twitter: SmileJ_KRCL for live alert and stream upload/blog posts
When Island released the entire Marley LP catalog on CD, I bought every one on the first day of release. Graywhale CD – SLC. Thanks to Ronnie Raygun’s student loan program.
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.
