<Happy Birthday to the World’s First Hippie – Haile Selassie I> 68 sec.
Greetings,
Ras Tafari Makonnen: The Head Creator
Haile Selassie I: Power of the Trinity
<Power of Jah Trinity; 27 sec.>
Negusa Negast: King of Kings; 30 sec.
Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Elect of God, Ever Living God, Earth’s Rightful Ruler
<Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah; 13 sec.>
Without this little short man (Selassie was 5 foot 2) Reggae consists of love songs, novelty records and pop and soul covers. This is the heart of Smile Jamaica.
Rastafari gospel love songs to His Imperial Majesty from the Rastas. In Jamaican, when Nationalist hero Marcus Garvey was recruiting blacks to return to Africa, he prophesized: “Look to the east where a black king will be crowned. That will be the signal to load up the Black Star Liner (as opposed to the Titanic passenger liner White Star Line) to go back to Africa
<Garvey’s prophecy; 63 sec.>
Marcus Garvey: Look to the East, where a king will be crowned leading all blacks back to Africa
From that moment the movement grew from the impoverished in Jamaica who wanted a black Jesus not a colonial white Jesus. Selassie was the reincarnation of Jahova (Jah).
He ruled in Ethiopia until the communists in the hinterlands took advantage of corrupt Selassie courtiers who refused to acknowledge famine in the provinces. Selassie was deposed and most likely murdered in the basement of his Imperial Palace in 1974.
<Selassie’s downfall; 30 sec.>
I call myself a Rasta enthusiast or empathizer and even a Sumerian Fundamentalist like myself, is powerfully moved by such beautiful musical devotion that we will hear on this Ark-Ive Podcast.
Haile Selassie – July 23, 1892.
bless, Bobbylon
Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives: July 21, 2018: Happy Birthday His Imperial Majesty; 95 sec.
Smile Jamaica: 30 Years of Rastafari Gospel love songs
Set 1:
Naturalites – Picture on the Wall; Rub a Dubble vol. 1 (CSA) ’86 UK – 3 hours for Haile Selassie – July 23, 1892
Roots Radics/Bunny Wailer – Roots Raddics; Dub D’sco vol. 1 (Solomonic) ’77 JA vinyl Dub Album of the Hour
Ras Michael & the Sons of Negus – Ethiopian National Anthem; Movements (Dynamic) ’78 JA vinyl; nyahbinghi style drumming
<National Anthem of Ethiopia; 23 sec.>
Black Uhuru – I Love King Selassie; Tear It Up” Live (Mango) ’83
Chalawa – Jah Collie Weed; Capture Land (Green Weenie) ’78 Can. vinyl 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement
African Princess – Jah Children Cry; 12″ (Jah Shaka) ’85 UK vinyl comp
Royal flag of Ethiopia
Set 2:
Keith Hudson – I Broke the Comb; Rasta Communication (Greensleeves) ’78
<The Old Testament Nazirite Vow and Dreadlocks; 84 sec.>
Sister Carol – Jah Is Mine; Black Cinderella (Jah Life) ’84 on McCartney/Jackson Girl is Mine
Peter “Roots” Lewis – Jah Is My Salvation; Wicked Roots (Reggae Retro) 2000
Hugh Mundell – That Little Short Man; 12″ (Rockers International) ’78; Selassie was 5 foot 2
Set 3:
Jacob Miller – False Rasta; Don’t Give Up Your Culture (Moll-Selekta) ’77
<Beware the Follow Fashion Dread; 47 sec.>
Judy Mowatt – Many Are Called; Black Woman (Shanachie) ’76
Aswad – He Gave the Sun to Shine; New Chapter (CBS) ’81 UK
Ranking Trevor – Give Thanks and Praise Unto Jah; 12″ (Greensleeves) ’78 UK to Heart & Soul
Augustus Pablo – Chant to Selassie I; East of the River Nile (Shanachie) ’78 Dub Album of the Hour
Set 4:
Cedric Myton & the Congos – Where He Leads; Face the Music (VP) ’81
Burning Spear – Jah Is My Driver; Farover (Heartbeat) ’83
Daweh Congo – Jah Is My Shepherd; Human Rights & Justice (Roots & Culture) 2000
Hortense Ellis – Jah Mysterious Works; Women in Reggae (Shanachie) ’75 extended
Set 5: Vinyl Is Vital
Leroy Smart – Jah Jah Forgive Them; Live Up Roots Children (Striker Lee) ’85 UK
Clint Eastwood – Whip Them Jah Jah; Step It in a Zion (Third World) ’78 UK
Michigan & Smily – Jah Ruled Over I; Step By Step (Hitbound) ’82 Brooklyn
Jah Malla – Jah Love; Jah Malla (Modern) ’81 US – children of Reggae players in JA
<Jah Malla: songs of Reggae players: Val Douglas, Roland Alphanso, Ernest Ranglin, Sylvan Morris; 30 sec.>
Zema – Selassie; Zema (Melchizedek) ’86 So Cal female singer
2nd gen Reggae group
Set 6: Wailers Family Tree
Peter Tosh – Iziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised); Legalize It (Columbia) ’76
Bunny Wailer – Rasta Dread (Natty Dread); Hall of Fame (RAS) ’95 50 tunes for Bob’s 50th Birthday
Rita Marley – Good Morning Jah; Who Feels It Knows It (Shanachie) ’80
<Rita encounters Haile Selassie; 81 sec.>
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Conquering Lion; One Love Peace Concert: Kingston, JA 4/22/78
Dub Specialist – Fire Coal Version; Version Dread (Studio One/Heartbeat) ’75 17 Dub Shots From Studio One
Set 7:
Cymande – Rastafarian Folk Song; Cymande (Sequel) ’74 UK – World’s first hippie
Aisha – One God, One Aim, One Destiny; True Roots (Ariwa) ’95
Winston Jarrett – Selassie Is the Chapel; By the Rivers of Babylo (Shanachie) ’95 comp: cover of the Orioles Crying in the Chapel
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Selassie Is the Chapel; Rebel Box Set (JAD) ’66
Set 8:
Alpha & Omega – Who Is the Ruler; Watch and Pray (A & O) ’89 UK vinyl trance dub
Doctor Alimantado – Chant to Jah; Born For a Purpose (Greensleeves) ’75
Johnny Osbourne – Jah Promise; Truths & Rights (Studio One/Heartbeat) ’80
Misty in Roots – How Long Jah; Live at the Euro Countervision (Kaz) ’79
Bim Sherman – Lamb of Judah; Bim Sherman Meets U Black and Horace Andy in a Rub a Dub Style (Original) ’79
Wailing Souls – Jah Gives Us Life; Very Best of (Greensleeves) ’78
The first song I played after being off air for six weeks with a blood infection/Sepsis that landed me in Intensive Care
Just say no to starving kids, eh Nancy? Thanks to your husband, Smile Jamaica was well stocked with fresh roots! Selah!
Greetings,
It was July 2, 1988. Late Sunday Night/early Monday Morning. I jumped in my car and drove from my apartment by the University of Utah campus downtown to community radio station KRCL 90.9FM.
Unloaded a suitcase full of CDs and a crate full of LPs. At 3 am on a hot summer night, I cued up Black Uhuru’s “What Is Life” from the album that made me a Reggae fanatic – Anthem.
Drop the needle pon the record and that began a 30 year legacy of Reggae Radio.
<Sunday Night/Monday Morning, July 2, 1988; 3-6AM, debut of 3 o’Clock Roadblock on KRCL; 30 sec.>
Not Bob Marley. Not Peter Tosh. Not Jimmy Cliff. Not UB40. Black Uhuru lit the Reggae fuse that led to Smile Jamaica
I had returned that Sunday afternoon from a massive cratedig in the Bay Area. Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco, Berkely, Mill Valley, El Cerrito, Oakland, Santa Cruz.
I was glad my car didn’t break down. It would be bad juju to be late for my debut radio show. Not to mention how would I keep two crates full of vinyl from melting on the side of the road somewhere.
Ronald. Wilson. Reggae. 666 as the Rastas might say. Not I ‘n’ I. I didn’t see eye to eye with Ronnie politically, but I am forever grateful to him as the benefactor of the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives, even if it was a misuse of funds.
The 80’s were a time you could get more student grants than student loans. Tuition was a fraction of what it is today. That left me about $2k left over to front load music for a Radio show. LPs and these recent creations called CDs. I was format agnostic. Good Reggae for the masses.
And I have Ronald Wilson Reagan to thank!
<Ronald Wilson Reagan – benefactor of the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives; 2 min.>
Ronald Wilson Reagan or as I call him – the Smile Jamaica financial enabler
So from July 2, 1988 to July 14, 2018 – 3 o’Clock Roadblock (July 1988-August 1989) to Smile Jamaica (Oct. ’89), let’s celebrate with the Sequel to my 30th Anniversary showcase (cd versions) from 2 weeks ago.
All vinyl this time out!
After 26 years, I might have to put Yammy down. Yammy is my Yamaha #Subwoofer. Blew a cone tonight listening to Prince Fari Dub Encounter Chapter IV. A moment of silence. Literally. My 1st night in a world without bass https://t.co/pJ664OhGbEpic.twitter.com/nUQCEvkye9
Smile Jamaica is a Roots Reggae radio program. Other than the Mutant Dub I spin in the last half hour, I would venture that 80% plus of what I have played for nearly 30 years comes from around 1970-1985. The Wailers, Burning Spear, Culture and their Rasta co-horts.
Turn off your Wolf Blitzers, Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow and get your news from this guy: Burning Spear
So much great heartical music about peace and love, socialism (small s), the plight of the poor and the 400 year legacy of slavery in Jamaica.
Songs from that era chanting down Babylon. Still have resonance and prophecy today. So when the outrage of immigrant children in cages hit the news cycle, I knew the perfect song to play.
o t Same thing for breakfast: 2014 under Obama’s Presidency
On community radio Deejays are not allowed to espouse political support for any cause, candidate or party. I don’t need to do that. I can let the music do the talking.
Jimmy Riley – Have mercy upon poor immigrants. When Occupy Wall Street went hot, it was so easy and enjoyable to string a whole 3 hour Ark-ive backing the 99%ers.
Theme song: Peter Tosh – The Day the Dollar Died (1978)
That is why Reggae music from 40 plus years ago still has relevance. The Dreads and Dawtas warned us it would come to this. That is why you should listen to Smile Jamaica and ignore the Fake News Media
1979 Reggae. Fire bun the CIA News Network
bless, Bobbylon
Smile Jamaica Annotated Playlist: June 23, 2018; 52 sec.
Set 1:
Jimmy Riley – Summer Time; 12″ (DEB) 70’s cover of Porgy & Bess Broadway tune
Jimmy Riley – Poor Immigrant; Put the People First (Shanachie) ’82
Black Uhuru – Chill Out; Liberation Anthology (Island) 2 disk best of ’83
Gladiators – Dub ina Babylon; Singles Collection (Heartbeat/Studio One)
Gracy & Herbman Band – Forward Up; See Mi Yah (Funfundvierzig) ’91 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement; female singer
<Canada legalizes cannabis; 12 sec.>
Eek a Mouse – Wild Like Tiger; 10″ (Hit Bound) ’83 JA
Crystalites – Rasta Is Love; Scrub a Dub (Crystal) ’74 JA vinyl dub album of the Hour
9 down plus Canada, 41 to go!
Set 2:
Bunny Wailer – Wake Up and Live; Hall of Fame (RAS) ’95; 50 Bob covers
Belle Stars – Miss World; 80’s Romance (Salvo) ’81 UK New Wave female group
Daweh Congo – Herb Tree; Human Rights & Justice (Roots & Culture) 2000 herb tune
Now that we hit June, it’s Reggae Season as I ‘n’ I celebrate the last month on 2 decades of Reggae Radio before I celebrate 30 years in July; 1988-2018. From Reagan to the Cheetolini. All killer, no filler
I tried to warn you. Earlier in 2018, KRCL ran a station ID that touted the ability to listen to the station stream via personal electronic devices like Alexa from Amazon.
I came on air and said, “You know those gadgets report your conversations to the NSA.” I even ran in to a listener at the University of Utah campus who thanked me for the heads up.
I tired to warn you about Facebook a decade ago as well
If you ever listened to my political interviews on KRCL’s Radioactive you would know my world view is a tad askew: 9/11, JFK, Roswell and Skygods/Ancient Astronauts travelling from the outer galaxy. (Hint, it was Bin Laden on the Grassy Knoll.)
All those bongrips in your living room and recorded and sent to Bluffdale Utah.
NSA Spyhub in Bluffdale, Utah
I was correct about Obama beating Hillary in 2008 and Trump beating Hillary in 2016. How was I rewarded for my prognostication? My brother now calls me “Alex Jones.”
Haters can hate. Maybe you shouldn’t scoff when I say look to the skies.
Jamaicans love horse racing too. Every Kentucky Derby Saturday I try to spin a set devoted to Jamaican horse racing. Just as the bugle starts and gates fly, open I drop the bass and go for m own musical horse race.
In Jamaica, their main track is called Caymanas Park. And the jockeys tend to be Chinese-Jamaicans rather than Latin Americans, as in the US.
<Caymanas Park; 39 sec.>
And because this is Reggae, the best song is a track by Bojangles from when the Two Sevens Clashed (’77) on a grooving Culture riddim, he relays the race between these contenders in the Selassie I Cup: 24 sec.
Babylon 2-1
Soul Youth 3-1
Rome – Even
Pope Pius 3-5 (the guy in the Vatican in 1977)
Dreadlocks 8-1
Baldhead 15-1
Win! – Dreadlocks
Place! – Baldhead
Show! – Soul Youth
And here is what happened to Pope Pius….22 sec.
Pope Pius couldn’t finish out in the Selassie I Cup and the ambulance was called — Bojangles, ’77
bless, Bobbylon
Smile Jamaica Annotated Playlist: May 5, 2018; 90 sec.
Set 1:
Jah Lloyd – Reggae Feeling; Black Moses (Virgin Front Line) ’79 UK vinyl to Mike Brooks
Armagideon – Spiral Galaxy; 12″ (Dubhead) ’96 UK mutant dub vinyl of the hour
Big Youth – Hit the Road Jack (Tribute to Bob, Peter, Bunny); Jamming in the House of Dread (Danceteria) 8/20/90 Live at Reggae Japansplash
Sandra Cross & the Wild Bunch – Free South Africa; Roots Daughters (Ariwa) ’88
Little John – Smoke Ganga (sic) Hard; 10″ (Well Charge) ’81 JA 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement
Good thing we smoked the peace chalice. Not another war!
<Korean Peace Talks – Light up the chalice!; 16 sec.>
Greetings,
I graduated High School in 1983. Right as I was getting ready to matriculate at Montana State University in Bozeman, three major events sent me off:
Soviets shot down a Korean airliner
Marine barracks bombing in Beirut killed several hundred Americans
America invaded the tiny island of Granada.
Fall 1983: Ronnie Raygun saving the Granadan people from an invasion of Cuban doctors
Welcome to the Cold War, son. After surviving the first one, who wants to live through the sequel: Russia/China/Syria Iran vs. US/UK/France/Israel.
China rattling Taiwan. India and Pakistan nose to nose. And Trump came in and immediately gave North Korea the hairy eyeball. So I was very encouraged that the two Koreas want peace.
Everyday I get to drop the needle pon the record at KRCL instead of a nuclear bomb shelter, it’s a good day.
So enjoy another World War III free edition of Smile Jamaica
bless, Bobbylon
Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives: Jah-pril 28, 2018 Annotated Playlist; 18 sec.
Set 1:
Eek a Mouse – You Na Love Reggae Music; Skidip! (Greensleeves) ’82 UK vinyl
Black Uhuru – Ion Storm; Dub Factor (Mango) ’83 Dub Album of the Hour
Hepcat – Coming on Strong; Push ‘N Shove (Hellcat) 2000 SoCal ska
Carlene Davis – The Harder They Come; 15 Tracks (Sonic) ’80 Jimmy Cliff cover
Dennis Brown – Tenement Yard; Best of Dennis Brown – Niney the Observer Years (Heartbeat) ‘77
Fred Locks – Collie Herb; 10″ (Sip a Cup) 2003 UK 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement
<Collie weed for Kali the Goddess of Destruction 36 sec.;>
Hindus from India brought cannabis to Jamaica. Kali the Liberator of souls. Collie – Jamaican herb
Set 2:
Afro Omega – Music Revolution; CD Single (Afro Omega) SLC roots w/ female vox
Charlie Chaplin – Chalice Burn; Take Two (RAS) ’90 herbtune
Winston McAnuff – Get Behind Thee Satan; Diary of the Silent Years (Makasound)
The Congos – Congoman Chant; 10″ (Glimmer) ’77 UK Lee “Scratch” Perry/Black Ark prod’n
Last week’s Digital Dubplate upload to Mixcloud – 420 was Smile Jamaica‘s biggest 1 week streamcast in the 5 years of the Digital Ark-ive. Over 275 people dialed in and burned one down!
So I want to see if I ‘n’ I can replicate that this week with the 420 Broadcast version on KRCL – ALL VINYL
Plenty of Cannabis History Lessons to learn and enjoy as burn and enjoy.
And in case you think I ‘n’ I are biased (9 down, 41 to go!), I also present the other side. The haters and cops who hate the Seven Leaf
<Smoke marijuana and DIE!; 29 sec.>
Law enforcement hate April 20th
So enjoy this 420 mashup until it’s 50 down, zero to go!
Augustus Pablo – Well Red; Ital Dub (Starapple) ’74 JA melodica herb tune
Set 7: Jamaica Jukebox of 45s
Black Uhuru vs. Black Sabbath – Guess Who’s Coming for Sweetleaf (bootleg) 7″ ; 11 sec.
Prince Buster – Minister of Ganja; 7″ (blank)
Stranger Cole & Gladdy – One Toke Over the Line; 7″ (Gayfeet) Brewer & Shipley cover
Dawn & Christine – Free the Marijuana; 7″ (Thompson Sounds)
Hopeton Lewis – Dreadlocks Chalice; 7″ (Thorough Bred)
Prince Hammer – Export Ganja; 7″ (Tamoki Wambesi)
Greg Robinson – Bong Master; 7″ (RT)
The Toyes – Smoke Two Joints; 12″ (Neurotic) ’95
Words of Weeds-dom:
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 