As we take a pause to raise money for the support that community radio provides for prime time, Saturday afternoon, Reggae programming, enjoy this Digital Dubplate.
Recent additions from the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives to the ITunes Library. Converting analog to digital for the social media/podcasting massive.
And it starts with a perfect theme song for I ‘n’ I: Music is My Desire!
bless, Bobbylon
Pablo Moses – Music Is My Desire; A Song (Mango) ’76
Derrick Morgan – Black Superman (Muhammad Ali); Sucker Punch (Trojan) ’75 Johnny Wareika cover
The Selecter – My Collie Not a Dog; Too Much Pressure (2 Tone) ’80 UK ska w/ female vox
African Head Charge – Wicked Kingdom; Sankofa (Bonjo I) ’97 Mutant Dub recorded in Ghana
Bad Brains – Jah Love; Into the Future (ROIR) 2012 DC punk/reggae
<Vinyl vindication: vinyl to outsell cds; 1 min. 55 sec.>
I’ve always been a record guy. Back in Montana as a youth, I would drive 35 miles each way to record shop at the local Hastings outlet in Great Falls. Usually buy a couple pieces of vinyl and a cassette for the drive back home.
Bankrupt 2016.
When I moved to Utah for University in 1986, I was already dabbling in CDs. In 1985, Cactus Records in Bozeman, MT had a small rack of CDs in a corner of the shop. I remember buying Fleetwood Mac and the Police Outlandos d’Amour. $16.99 (in those days a fortune). I didn’t even have a CD player yet.
For Christmas, I got a Fisher deck, (probably from Montgomery Wards), – 1 drawer, no frills: just the song number in red LED. I was blown away! Space age technology in rural Montana!
Bought this CD before I even owned a CD player. Fall 1985. Bozeman – Cactus Records
What’s not to love? Smaller. Harder to scratch. Easier to store. Portable players to play them on.
Yet, the smaller size and lack of information on many of the disks didn’t make collecting CDs as enjoyable as buying vinyl. Especially, when I switched to collecting Reggae. Early on in CD’s history there was not a whole lot of Reggae available. And a total lack of the 12″, 10″ and 7″ vinyl I especially was looking for. The rarest of the rare.
Jimmy Cliff’s Reggae Greats. Probably the 1st CD in the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives
I was in a Record Shop in San Francisco. Summer of ’87. Up to my elbows in vinyl racks. The shop owner was trying to up-sell me into CDs. He was like, “Why are you so hot for vinyl? Everybody is moving into CDs”. I shrugged, “I’ll always be a record guy.”
Here is how it worked back then. CDs were new. And expensive. So, many people sold their vinyl for pennies on the dollar to add up cash for CDs.
Vinyl was cheap and plentiful. CDs were exotic, limited in selection and expensive. So the stores were in transition from black wax to shiny metal disks. I built the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives this way: buying other people’s vinyl discards.
All the great things you hear me play today came about through hoovering up as much black wax as I could in the voluminous Bay Area Record stores. I was flush with student loan cash (Thanks Ronnie Raygun!) and I went from store to store digging through the crates.
I would stay at the Travelodge across the street from Tower Records in North Beach: Columbus and Bay. Some days, I would be tired after a day of cratedigging. It was awesome.
*****
Wheel it forward 30 plus years. Most of the record stores are long gone, (Hastings went under in 2016), via over committing to CDs in a digital age of iTunes, Pandora and Spotify. People wised up and started piecing out vinyl for the Ebay collector’s market.
I saw a VG- record with a water damaged cover go for $400 on ebay. My cost? $4: Streetlight Records San Francisco
But for 20 years, I maxed out the opportunities even if around 2005 I started to notice stores were no longer there when I would visit.
When Tower Records and later Virgin and Circuit City went under, that was the nadir of my CD era collecting.
Record and DVD stores were crushed out of business during the 2008-2010 Great Recession
That is why when I heard on the news that 2019 will be the first year since 1986 that Vinyl is expected to surpass CDs in aggregate sales, I felt a sense of vindication.
School is in session. Quick upload of last week’s Smile Jamaica. Be sure to play through the last 45 minutes with Mutant Dub selections by guest Mixcloud deejay from Ogden: Nerd Show!
To “rinse out” is a deejay term commonly used to showcase a fresh stash of vinyl on your sound system or deejay gig.
I ‘n’ I use it on this edition of Smile Jamaica as a way to juggle the Reggae vinyl I recently purchased while on vacation in Denver.
Bobbylon’s Guide to Cratedigging
Plan your record (and book and dispensary) shopping before you leave the house. I tend to go neighborhood by neighborhood to minimize transit time. Yelp, Yellowpages online, Google.
Upload my discographies to Google Drive or Dropbox so I know what I have and don’t buy duplicates
Print out my wishlist of items I’m looking for
Load up on coffee and green smoke for the excursion. Cratedigging on the Seven Leaf is one of life’s great pleasures
Comb through the racks: I start with Rock and Blues. Spend time on Soul and Jazz. Mutant Dub gets the second most time “digging”: Techno, electronic, lounge. Then Reggae CDs (many of them I already have.)
Spend the bulk of time in the Reggae Vinyl section.
Mention I’m a Radio Deejay and try and score 10% off
Take my trusty Burning Spear record bag to keep everything together
Never leave vinyl in the car during warm months.
Always put your stash in the trunk to deter break ins
At the end of the day sift and sort my haul
And that is how you Cratedig!
*****
So I bought about $200 work of Reggae vinyl and let it simmer for the week. So I could hear it fresh from the needle to the monitor speakers on Smile Jamaica.
First time audio experience for I ‘n’ I as well as the masses. Tune in and hear the fruits of my labor!
bless, Bobbylon
Wax Trax records. Parking is a bitch but worth the wait
Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives Jah-gust 31, 2019: All Vinyl
Set 1:
Black Uhuru – What Is Life; Anthem (Island) ’83 JA vinyl (no overdub mix): 3 Hour Vinyl Show
Blackbeard – Electrocharge; I Wah Dub (More Cut) ’80 Dub Album of the Hour
The In Crowd – Born in Ethiopia; His Majesty Is Coming (Creole) ’78 Fr.
Judy Mowatt – Mr. Big Man; Mellow Mood (Ashandan) ’75 JA
Johnny Organ – Bewitched; Come Back Darling (Techniques) ’70 JA
Sugar Minott – Ease Up Mr. Customs Man; Time Longer Than Rope (Greensleeves) ’85 UK
Idren Natural & Seventh Sense – Sip a Cup; 12″ (Jah Works) 2007 UK 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement
Jamaican mix of the album that made me a stone cold Reggae fanatic
Set 2:
Paul Davidson – Midnight Rider; Reggae Chartbusters 76 (Cactus) ’76 UK
Yellowman – Honour Your Mother; Jack Sprat (Hit) ’82 JA
Barbara Paige – Babylon Must Fall; Hear Me Now (Epiphany) ’82 Santa Cruz, CA
The Upsetters feat. The Heptones – Zion Blood; Super Ape (Mango) ’76 Lee “Scratch” Perry/Black Ark prod’n
Mark Jah Jah Bryan – Revelation Song (Rohit International) ’83 Barbados Reggae
Cratedig Denver: 2019 addition to the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives
Set 3:
Dennis Brown – Slave Driver; Joseph’s Coat of Many Colours (Laser) ’79 UK
Bomb Shelter – Stampede; Human Rights (Total Sounds) ’89 US
Doreen Shaffer – This Love; Pirates Choice (Studio One) ’80 JA
Jonathan Arthur – Burnin; 12″ (Emerald Isle) ’89 Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Bullwackies All Stars – Recording Connection; Black World (Wackies) ’79 Dub Album of the Hour
Rootsy for 1989. Cratedig: Denver 2019 score!
Set 4:
Dillinger – Tallowah; Tribal War (New Cross) ’86 UK
Kojak & Liza – Two Bad Duppy; Showcase L.P. (Kojak) ’80 JA
Michael Palmer – Mr. Officer; Ghetto Living (Bebo’s Music) ’85 Wheaton, MD
Carlton Livingston & U Brown – Mr. Deejay; 12″ (A1) ’81
Cratedig from Ganjarado
Set 5:
Kofi – Reggae Starship; Black…With Sugar (Ariwa) ’89 UK female
Owen Gray – Turning Point (Version); Dreams of Owen Gray (Trojan) ’79 dub to Tyrone Davis soul cover
U Roy – Babylon Burning; Natty Rebel (Virgin Front Line) ‘ UK dj to Turning Point
Sylford Walker – Books of the Old Testament; 12″ (Art & Craft) ’79 UK
Ganjarado cratedig
Set 6: Wailers Family Tree
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Let Him Go; Marley, Tosh, Livingston & Associates (Studio One) ’66 JA – Wailers Family Tree; Bunny/Peter on vox
<Let Him Go; 90 sec.>
Peter Tosh – No Sympathy (1972 mix); This Is Reggae Music vol. 3 (Mango) ’76 US diff. mix than on Legalize It
Dress: Reggae T shirt for Smile Jamaica broadcast, shorts and sandals. Plus tin foil hat
Hit the morning news cycle of my favorite news sources via Ipad: RT, Truthdig, Moon of Alabama, Zerohedge
No CNN (CIA News Nutwork); No FUX news; No MS-NBC (Mainstream nothing but crap); No Presstitute Bullshit Syndicate (PBS) for I ‘n’ I.
Since 2003 and the corporate media’s providing of legitimate cover for an illegal war, I am strictly alt news. I do not trust the 6 companies who own 90+ percent of our news media. Mostly Alt-Left but I’m a fan of a libertarian Bulgarian market site called Zerohedge for leavening. (They predicted the 2008 economic collapse before anyone else.)
I’m so “alt” I am driving 500 plus miles to Denver in a week to watch this political comedian: Jimmy Dore.
Jeffery Epstein allegedly committed “suicide.” My first reaction? How neat and tidy. Dead men tell no tales, eh? Especially considering the document dump the day before outed several high profile politicians, academics and hedge fund billionaires as accused of having sex with underage girls procured by the odious creep.
<Jeffery Epstein’s murder? suicide? escape? 2 min. 29 sec.>
I try to live the moral and upright life that I absorb through 30+ plus years of listening to Reggae music. I’m more of a paradox of virtue than any sort of saint, but I do believe government corruption and the abuse of children are part of that lens. Government interference led to Epstein’s slap on the wrist sentence a decade ago.
As compelling a story as the lurid conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s death: Was it suicide? murder? alien abduction? It still comes down to the outrageous sexual exploitation of children. Which is getting completely lost in the #EpsteinMurder and #ClintonBodyCount back and forth.
Mea culpa. I am susceptible to conspiracy theories. Probably due to my belief in Ancient Astronaut Theory, via the Anunnaki skygods traveling back to Earth from Nibiru. I do not believe 9/11 happened the way they said it did anymore than I would believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy.
When this went down, my brother in law said to my sister: “Can’t wait to see how your wacko brother responds to all this.”
I went for breakfast with my best friend Nardo-jan (fellow Anunnaki/UFOria enthusiast, Ph.D. in Medieval History, librarian) and our mutual friend John (former journalist at the Salt Lake Tribune).
Of course Epstein’s “suicide” was the coffee topic of conversation. I queried both of them: (I knew Nardo-jan’s answer) but wanted to see what a professional newsman thought.
None of us believed the suicide story. Neither does my Mom, Dad and Sister.
What do I believe?
Now you understand where my brother in law is coming from!Don’t even get me started on Building 7.
Inconvenient conspiracy fact. Trust your eyes! Do not scoff!
bless, Bobbylon
Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives: Jah-gust 10, 2019 Annotated Playlist; 70 sec.
Set 1:
Pancho Alphanso – Watch This Sound; Watch This Sound (Shanachie) ’82 Ho Ho Kus NJ vinyl
Supersonics – Construction Dub Style; Treasure Isle Dub vol. 1 (Treasure Isle) JA vinyl dub album of the hour
Third World – 96 Degrees in the Shade; Live at Reggae Sunsplash ’81: Tribute to Bob Marley (Elektra) ’81 Aug. in Montego Bay, JA
<“Entertainment for you, martyrdom for me”; 30 sec.>
Carlene Davis – My Mistake; 15 Classics (Sonic)
Horace Ferguson – Sensi Addict; Dancehall – The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture (Soul Jazz) ’87 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement
Dan I – Like a Seed; 10″ (Moa Anbessa) 2008 Jah-taly
Set 2:
Culture – This Train; Cumbolo (Shanachie) ’79 gospel/Woody Guthrie cover
The Rolands – Johnny Dollar; Crucial Reggae (Mango) ’84
Afro Omega – Watcha Need; Pick Up the Pieces EP (Afro Omega) 2006 SLC w/ female vox
Lee “Scratch” Perry – City Too Hot; 12″ (Upsetter) ’77 UK Black Ark
Set 3: Best of Smile Jamaica 29+ Years
Prince Buster – Shake a Leg; Original Golden Oldies vol. 2 (Melodisc) ’61: Burning Spear – Oh What a Happy Day; Creation Rebel (Heartbeat/Studio One) ’74
Akabu – People Get Ready; Warrior Queen (ON U Sound) ’89 UK roots dawtas; Curtis Mayfield tune
Jah Iney & Augustus Pablo – Classic Rockers Chapter 1 & Chapter 3; Rockers International (Greensleeves) ’80
Scientist – 11 Guava Road Dub; King of Dub (Kingdom) ’81 Dub album of the hour
Set 4:
General Public – Never You Done That; All the Rage (I.R.S.) ’84 post 2 Tone ska/pop
Rhoda Dakar – The Wreck; Cleaning in a Another Woman’s Kitchen (Moon Ska World) 2007
Pablo Gad – What Makes a Natty Dread Cry; Blood Suckers (Melodie) ’78
Earl Sixteen – Gates of Hell; 10″ (Sip a Cup) 2004 UK
Set 5: Vinyl is Vital Set
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Rolling Stone; Marley, Tosh, Livingston & Associates (Studio One) ’82 JA vinyl; Bunny Wailer lead vox
<Bob Dylan cover; 2 min.>
The Jaytees – A Prayer to Jah; Pirates Choice (Studio One) ’81 JA female duo
Inner Circle – Mary, Mary; Everything Is Great (Island) ’79 UK herbtune
Ken Boothe – I Shot the Sheriff; Blood Brothers (Trojans) ’78 UK Wailers cover
<Why the Sheriff hated Bob; 27 sec.>
Arthur Louis – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door; This Is Reggae Music (Island) ’75 US – Bob Dylan cover
Set 6: Jamaican Jukebox 7″ 45’s
King Stitt – Herbsman Shuffle; 7″ (Trojan) ’80 UK picture sleeve: 7″ Jamaican Jukebox
Carl Dawkins – Witchcraft; 7″ (Sir J.J.) ’72 JA
Sharon Black – Struggling; 7″ (Clintones) ’77 US
Dennis Brown – Armagideon; 7″ (Emmanuel) ’80 Bunny Wailer cover
Sly & Robbie – Plastic Dub; Overdrive in Overdub (Sonic) Dub Album of the Hour
Set 7:
Black Uhuru – Somebody’s Watching Me; Anthem UK Rmx (Island) ’83 cover of Rockwell soul
Bunny Wailer – Revolution; Hall of Fame (RAS) ’95 50 Bob songs for 50th birthday
Peter Tosh – Pick Myself Up; Wanted (bootleg) Sept. 29, 1981 NYC @ the Ritz
Set 8: Mutant Dub
Bob Marley/Bill Laswell – Is This Love; Dreams of Freedom (Axiom) ’97 ambient translation: Mutant Dub Set
Likkle Mai – Your Love; Roots Candy (Beat) 2006 Jah-ponese dawta from Dry & Heavy
Alpha & Omega – Fire; Watch and Pray (A & O) ’92 UK trance dub
Bush Chemists – Haste Make Waste; Light Up Your Chalice (Dubhead) ’99 on Bunny Wailer Armagideon riddim
Reggae Radio for 31 years. I am a fundamentalist when it comes to how I program Smile Jamaica
No digital for I ‘n’ I. I play LPs, 7″ vinyl, 12″/10″ vinyl singles and CDs. I don’t care to learn your virtual deejay software. Let it be a mystery. As I tell my nieces and nephews: I put the “old” in Old School.
My weapon of choice!
Vinyl is sleek and beautiful. Large size album covers tell a visual story. CDs are smaller and more functional. You would think more durable too.
KRCL has two turntables and three CD players. I was juggling some Wailers Family Tree. Hoped to debut a Peter Tosh bootleg: NYC ’81. Pop the CD into a tray. Cue it up. Fade Studio One Wailers vinyl….remote start the disk.
After 20 seconds the CD started looping back to the beginning. WTF? I usually always have a disk in the tray in case of sonic malfunction. This time I was caught dry. I fumbled for a Bunny Wailer CD and recovered.
30 seconds of dead air on Radio? Is the equivalent of an hour to the listener. It is the worst screw up a deejay can make outside Carlin’s seven dirty words.
No worries. I keep a trusty cloth in my kit to wipe down CDs. Bunny fades and Peter 2.0 segues. Same thing: 20 seconds and loop, loop, loop.
So all I could say was BUMBO KLAAT
Listen to Peter describe what is Bumbo Klaat
<Bumbo Klaat; 96 sec.>
In Jamaica, a bumbo klaat is a vulgar derivative of the American femine hygiene product. In the U.S. the vernacular, “Are you on the rag?” Would be “Oh bumbo klaat” in Jamaica. But times ten in offensiveness.
I could be wrong on this but: In England “fanny” or “bum” refers not to the buttocks, as Americans assume, but the vagina.
So a sanitary napkin translates in Jamaican patois turns as “bum” cloth. Which elides to bumbaclot. As in cloth/clotting effect of the material.
That word however, is a YUUGE expletive in Jamaica. Like imagining saying MOTHER FUCKER in church or a staff meeting.
Peter, the Malcolm X to Bob Marley’s Martin Luther King, was always willing to push the buttons of the Babylonian shitstem against the Crime Minister and the House of Represenathief.
As an anti-authoritarian curmudgeon myself, I always love the “in your face grit” of Tosh. Even his violent death was in tune with dark forces that haunted him.
So for him to release a love song duet with Gwen Guthrie, called Nothing But Love b/w Oh Bumbo Klaat on the flip? That’s the kind of fuck you attitude I’m talking about!
For Peter, paralyzed by a psychic vampire during the night, he called out to Jah: “What do I do?” His Imperial Majesty telepathed to him the statement: “Son, use the word!”
The year was 1988. Early Spring. My college roommate and I were having a slice at The Pie Pizzeria near our apartment close to the University of Utah campus.
The pizza place had KRCL 90.9FM on the hi fi. Community radio. Programmed by volunteers who pick their own music. We heard they were doing a new volunteer training. My roommate wanted to do 80’s indie. I had recently discovered KRCL’s Smile Jamaica.
Another college friend had turned me on to Reggae via the album at the top of this blog post: Sly & Robbie 80’s hardcore digital mix of Black Uhuru. Militant Reggae in a drum and bass style.
<Black Uhuru – Anthem and what it means to Smile Jamaica; 38 sec.>
Thanks to Pres. Ronald Raygun’s student loan program, I started collecting Reggae and had enough to be trained for an late Sunday night/early Monday morning show called 3 o’clock Roadblock
<How I started at KRCL; 39 sec.>
It was just before 4th of July 1988 when I debuted. I found that I couldn’t sleep if I needed to be loading my car for the 20 minute drive to the station. So I would stay up all night, lay down riddims, go home and crash and then get up to go class mid Monday morning.
I did the show for a little more than a year. It was a great way to learn radio without a lot of pressure. My listeners? Night owls, insomniacs, graveyard shift workers and cab drivers.
A month prior, I tried to recreate the first radio show of 3 o’clock Roadblock with what was a new medium at the time: the compact disk. This week I went through my Ark-Ive and harvest vinyl LPs.
And to mix it up, I organize from A-Z and Z-O for the black wax nostalgia mixdown.
<Early vinyl gems laid out A-Z; 36 sec.>
And 31 years later, except for 1 LP (Eek a Mouse), the black wax is sounding crisp. Or criss as the dreads would say.
Enjoy and thanks for listening!
bless, Bobbylon
“Vinyl is what we listened to before CDs.”
Smile Jamaica Ark-ives July 27, 2019: 31 Years of Vinyl A-Z
Set 1: A-E
Jimmy Riley – Summer Time; 12″ (DEB) ’76 UK Porgy & Bess cover
Soul Syndicate – Only Jah Dub; Visions of Love (Epiphany) ’79 Dub Album of the Hour (Earl Zero bonus dubs)
Horace Andy – Oh Lord, Why Lord; Best of Horace Andy (Coxsone) ’72 JA
Black Uhuru – Anthem; Anthem (Island) ’83 UK Groucho Smykle rmx
Culture – Behold the Land; Africa Stand Alone (April) ’79 US
Carlene Davis; Angel in Your Arms; At the Right Track (Carib Gems) ’80 UK Hot soul cover
Eek a Mouse – Sensee Party; Skidip! (Greensleeves) ’82 US 4:20 Cannabis Service
Just about the only LP that had surface noise from today’s all vinyl show
Set 2: F-J
Phillip Frazer – 2000 Years; Come Ethiopians (Freedom Sounds) ’79 JA
Sophie George – Girlie Girlie; Fresh (Winner) ’86 UK
Heptones – Cool Rasta; Cool Rasta (Trojan) ’76 UK
I Roy – Union Call; Whap’n Bap’n (Virgin) ’80 UK
Wayne Jarrett – Love in a Mi Heart; Chip In (Greensleeves) ’82 UK
Set 3: K-N
Ini Kamoze – Rough; Pirate (Mango) ’86 US
Ijahman Levi – Are We a Warrior; Are We a Warrior (Mango) ’79
Judy Mowatt – Mr. Big Man; Mellow Mood (Ashandan) ’75 JA
Natural Ites – What About the Africans; Marvellous (CSA) ’87 UK
Scientist – Miss Know It All; Trojan Dub Box Set (Trojan) ’98 Dub Album of the Hour
Set 4: O-R
Johnny Osbourne – Rude Boy; In Ah Disco Style (Cha Cha) ’81 UK
Michael Prophet – Give Me the Right; Blood Stain (Ashantites) ’83 DC
Quasar – Stir It Up; Fresh (LASN) US Bob Marley cover
Ras Midas – Too Long in the Wind; Rastaman in Exile (Disc’ AZ International) ’80 Fr.
Set 5: S-W
Sister Nancy – Gwan a School; One Two (Techniques) ’82 JA
Tamlins – Big Girl Now; I’ll Be Waiting (Live & Learn) ’87 DC Stylistics cover
U-Roy – Babylon Burning; Natty Rebel (Virgin) ’76 UK
Smile Jamaica pays tribute to the King of Kings/Negusa Negast, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Elect of God. Everliving God. Earth’s Rightful Ruler. Ras Tafari – the Head Creator. Haile Selassie I – Power of the Trinity. Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930-1974. The Jah in Reggae MusicGospel produced by Rastafari devotees.
<Honorifics of His Imperial Majesty; 25 sec.>
Or is he the world’s first hippie?; 48 sec.
Descended from the lineage of King David by way of his son, Solomon. Abyssinian (the name of Ethiopia in antiquity) princess Queen Makeda married Solomon. Which is why His Imperial Majesty is often called the Lion of Judah.
<Lamb of Judah; 30 sec.>
And as befits the Lion of Judah, you and I might have pet cats or dogs or goldfish. His Imperial Majesty had pet lions! 56 sec,
Why Rastafari from Jamaica?
In the 1800’s slavery was abolished in Jamaica. Freed black slaves didn’t want to harvest sugar cane for rich British colonials. So, the plantation owners looked to another colony for indentured labor: India.
In the rural areas where freed blacks now eked out an existence as small farmers, Hindus in the area cut the cane. As the two cultures mixed, two ideas from Hinduism meshed with local protestant Christian religion imposed on the black Jamaicans:
Reincarnation
Cannabis
Jesus Dread aka Haile Selassie – Return of Jesus
This crossing of cultures would later come to pass in the early 20th century. Jamaican born African Nationalist, Marcus Garvey, said look to the east where a king will be crowned and that will be the signal for repatriation to Africa. Get out of Babylon captivity as the ancient Hebrews left their bondage in Mesopotamia.
Marcus Garvey – the Moses of Rastafari
Haile Selassie was prophecy. Long story short: Ras Tafari – the Head Creator, was foretold to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. (Pronounced Jess-us by the Rastas.)
As a signal of faith, these esoteric Christians began to grow dreadlocks as part of the old Hebrew Nazarite tradition:
Do not partake of wine or liquor.
No razor shall crease thy flesh nor thine hair.
Avoid anything dead. (Consume no flesh.)
If wine is not allowed as a Rasta sacrament, locally grown cannabis fit the criterion. Cutting sugar cane is hard work, the Hindus brought herb with them to take the edge off their labors. The psychoactive plant was part of their devotion to their Goddess Kali.
<Hindusm and Rastafari; 98 sec.>
Rastas adapted to collie (sinsemilla smoked in chalices) for their devotion to Haile Selassie.
Burning Spear smokes the chalice
Here is the foundation book on Rastafari*
*Rastas tend to avoid isms and schisms. They don’t want to be called Rastafarian. That is an “ism”. Rastas as a collective would be: Rastafari. I tend to say Rastafari fellows. Or Rastafari believers.
Reggae music prior to “Rastafari Gospel” was limited to pop radio covers, love songs and novelty records. What was loved world wide was shunned by local Jamaicans horrified by these dreadlock ruffians. To be a Rasta in Jamaica was like being a punk rocker in London: a target for police abuse.
The cops and army in Jamaica had discriminated against Rastas. There was even a notorious massacre chronicled in song called the Green Bay Killing.
<Discrimination against dreads in Jamaica; 44 sec.>
Rastas would often be shaved by Johnny Law in Jamaica: the ultimate insult. Imagine knocking a yarmulke off of a Jewish man’s head. Or ripping the habit or hijab from a Nun/Muslim woman.
<Police Trim Rasta; 30 sec.>
Selassie’s hold on Reggae music is best epitomized by Bob Marley. He took HIM’s speech to the United Nations against War and put the words to song.
On the question of racial discrimination, the Addis Ababa Conference taught, to those who will learn, this further lesson:
that until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned;
that until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation;
that until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes;
that until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race;
that until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained.
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed;
until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-will;
until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven;
until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil.
But alas, it wasn’t to be. Ethiopia got caught up in the maelstrom of the Cold War proxy hot wars. Famine in the provinces led to communist revolution. The Soviet Union looked to topple a Western allied autocracy. Selassie’s governors were corrupt and incompetent.
In Sept. 1974, the Dergue communists overthew the Emperor and Selassie died an ignominious death similar to the Czar in Russia.
Rastas, refused to believe it. You can’t kill God! Bob Marley’s Jah Live and Peter Tosh’s Fools Die speak to this heresy.
<Jah Live; 2 min. 57 sec.>
One man who means so much to Reggae music. No Jah. No Roots Reggae. No Smile Jamaica. That is why I ‘n’ I pay tribute today.
bless, Bobbylon
Selassie kept pet cheetahs too
Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives: Jah’ly 20, 2019: Annotated Playlist: Haile Selassie I Birthday Showcase; 69 sec.
Set 1:
Natural Ites & Realistics – Picture on the Wall; Picture on the Wall (CSA) ’85 UK vinyl: 3 Hours for Haile Selassie 7/23/1892
Ja-Man All-Stars – King’s Dub; King’s Dub (Manzie) ’80 UK vinyl dub album of the hour
Love Joys – Wherever Jah Send Me; Reggae Vibes (Wackies) ’81 female roots duo
Benjamin Zephaniah – Rasta; Rasta (Workers Playtime) ’83 UK dub poet
Barrington Levy – Please Jah Jah; Prison Oval Rock (RAS) ’84
Mikey Dread – Walk Rastafari Way; Dread at the Controls (Trojan) ’79
Don Carlos – Jah Jah Hear My Plea; Prophecy (Blue Moon) ’84
Set 2:
Cedric Myton & the Congos – Wherever He Leads Me; Face the Music (VP) ’81
Sister Carol – Jah Disciple; Jah Disciple (RAS) ’89
Lee & Jimmy – Rasta Train; Voodooism (Pressure Sounds) ’75 Lee “Scratch” Perry Black Ark prod’
Bim Sherman – Lamb of Judah; Bim Sherman Meets Horace Andy & U Black in a Rub-a-Dub Style (Original) ’79
Set 3:
Keith Hudson – I Broke the Comb; Rasta Communication (Greensleeves) ’78
Cocoa Tea – Jah Made Them That Way; Rocking Dolly (RAS) ’83 update of Michael Jackson’s Human Nature
Althea & Donna – Jah Rastafari; Uptown Top Ranking (Virgin Front Line) ’78 female dj duo
Ijahman Levi – Jah Is No Secret; Haile I Hymn (Island) ’78
Augustus Pablo – Well Red; Trojan Dub Box Set 2 (Trojan) Dub Album of the Hour
Set 4:
Don Carlos – Just a Passing Glance; Just a Passing Glance (RAS) ’84
Judy Mowatt – Hold Them Jah; Love Is Overdue (Shanachie) ’87
Prince Buster – Police Trim Rasta; Sister Big Stuff (Sunspot) ’71
Silvertones – Rejoice Jah Jah Children; Words of My Mouth (Trojan) Lee “Scratch” Perry Black Ark prod’n
Set 5: Vinyl is Vital
Prince Far I – Every Time I Talk About Jah; Musical History (Trojan) ’83 uK
In Crowd – His Majesty is Coming; His Majesty is Coming (Creole) ’78 Fr.
Zema – Selassie; Zema (Melchizedek) ’86 So Cal roots dawta
Owen Gray – Jah Jah Train; Dreams of Owen Gray (Trojan) ’79 UK Curtis Mayfield People Get Ready
Ricky Grant – I Love Jah Rastafari; I Love Jah Rastafari + dub (Rockers) ’78 JA A. Pablo prod’n
Set 6:
Bob Marley & the Wailers – War; Rastaman Vibration (Tuff Gong) ’76 + Haile Selassie’s speech to the United Nations
Bunny Wailer – War; Tribute (Solomonic) ’81 JA vinyl; cover version
Rita Marley – That’s the Way (Jah Jah Planned It); 12″ (Trident) ’80 UK disco mix
The Revolutionaries – 79 Rock; Outlaw Dub (Trojan) ’79 UK vinyl dub album of the hour
Set 7:
Cymande – Rastafarian Folk Song; Promised Heights (Sequel) ’74 UK rock/reggae/soul/jazz
Aisha – Only Jah Works; True Roots (Ariwa) ’94
Wingless Angels – Rasta Army; Wingless Angels (MIndless) ’96 Keith Richards, Justin Hinds and nyahbinghi drummers
Bad Brains – Rally Round Jah Throne; Rock For Light (Caroline) ’83 DC punk reggae
Set 8:
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Jah Live; 7″ (Tuff Gong) ’75 – you can’t kill Jah
Peter Tosh – Fools Die; Wanted Dread & Alive (Rolling Stone) ’81 – you can’t kill Jah
Alpha & Omega – Jah Is Gonna Help Me; Daniel in the Lion’s Den (A & O) ’89 UK trance dub w/ female vox
Barry Isaac – Let’s Praise H.I.M.; Man of the Century (Reggae on Top) 2001
Tena Stelin & Jah Warrior – Keep Jah Vibes; Lion Symbol (Jah Warrior) ’99
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.
8
Smile Jamaica 