Woebot
Well-known member
I think I must have waited 15 years for a piece like Wayne's. Ever since I heard about putative connections between the Clave beat and Steely and Cleevie's rhythms. Big up your hairy chest Wayne. When I at last made it to Kingston in 1991 and I picked up the seven inch of Dave Kelly's production for Buju Banton's "Batty Rider" in Halfway Tree (shameless boasting here) I had the feeling that the Jamaica I'd come looking for, at a time when I was obsessing over Coxsone had somehow disappeared over the horizon. Where did that freaky beat come from?
cf Spanish Reggae. The rogue seafaring father of an old girlfriend of mine told us he'd heard rapping years before it broke. He'd heard it in South America he said. I dunno if Roy knew about toasting in Jamaica, but obviously the meme was pan-caribbean.
Which makes one ponder, surely then Jamaica's music history could be subsumed in that of it's neighbours. Maybe Wayne's the one to write a proper delocalised version of that history. One which takes in Cuba, Colombia, Antigua and threads Reggae through Calypso and Mento. Sure Lloyd Barnes touches ever so lightly on this in "Bass Culture", but yunnuh, not really. There's talk of Kitchener and Sparrow inflecting Reggae isnt there.
But (sound of needle ripping across vinyl) HOLD ON FOLKS!!!! Isn't this starting to miss the whole point? Seeing it like this the "Shanty House" meme (or whatever the f*** you want to call it, frankly I couldn't give a shit) running virulently unchecked. And that point is that the Jamaican identity through those years of startling fecundity (at least musically) wasn't focussed on its local borders at all. It was an alien mindset, on the one hand intensely local, riding an eternal feedback loop and on the other, and surely this is the point, locked on to American R'n'B and Rock as though it's life depended on it. New Orleans and The South was the source. Listen to those early Upsetter instrumentals and it's strictly Booker T and The MGs and The Meters. And practically nothing else.
How many cover versions of Calypso and Mento can you name in Reggae? How many covers of Soul, Funk, Disco or even Rap tunes? Shedloads. Lots and lots innit. Lots and lots and lots. My favourite JA musical anecdote is Scratch saying that he got the idea for the Reggae Beat (and yes some people think Mento has something to do with it, but that doesnt really add up in the context), he got the feeling for the Reggae Beat from American Hard Rock. And that the heavy Dub took it's cues from things like Led Zeppellin and Black Sabbath.
OK sure this might be the case for today's dancehall. Dancehall really must be just another node on the glocal riddim network. But you know what, and this aint gonna make me lots of chums, that's exactly why Jamaican music is as boring and inconsequential as it's become. It's lost it's cosmic/stratospheric perspective and has sunk to the level of a dialect. Something like Grime (at least over the past 4 years, though it's future is currently in the balance with pabulum like "The Avenue", just heard this piece of crap, it's not on the Roll Deep LP is it, must have listened straight past if it it was) has been just that over-ambitious bursting-with-energy and ideas that Reggae was once, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Which brings me to my final thought, in this solid gold rant, if the future is Reggaeton, in the US and Jamaica (even!) what's that going to do but relegate the also fabulously fecund UK-JA axis to the dustbin of History? What room is there for English speakers in the underground ha ha ha? And I'm only being half-playful, KISS is on in the background at the office I'm working in and I've heard nearly 5 Spanish tracks today. Chortle, maybe we need a "Save the English tongue" mega-blog!
cf Spanish Reggae. The rogue seafaring father of an old girlfriend of mine told us he'd heard rapping years before it broke. He'd heard it in South America he said. I dunno if Roy knew about toasting in Jamaica, but obviously the meme was pan-caribbean.
Which makes one ponder, surely then Jamaica's music history could be subsumed in that of it's neighbours. Maybe Wayne's the one to write a proper delocalised version of that history. One which takes in Cuba, Colombia, Antigua and threads Reggae through Calypso and Mento. Sure Lloyd Barnes touches ever so lightly on this in "Bass Culture", but yunnuh, not really. There's talk of Kitchener and Sparrow inflecting Reggae isnt there.
But (sound of needle ripping across vinyl) HOLD ON FOLKS!!!! Isn't this starting to miss the whole point? Seeing it like this the "Shanty House" meme (or whatever the f*** you want to call it, frankly I couldn't give a shit) running virulently unchecked. And that point is that the Jamaican identity through those years of startling fecundity (at least musically) wasn't focussed on its local borders at all. It was an alien mindset, on the one hand intensely local, riding an eternal feedback loop and on the other, and surely this is the point, locked on to American R'n'B and Rock as though it's life depended on it. New Orleans and The South was the source. Listen to those early Upsetter instrumentals and it's strictly Booker T and The MGs and The Meters. And practically nothing else.
How many cover versions of Calypso and Mento can you name in Reggae? How many covers of Soul, Funk, Disco or even Rap tunes? Shedloads. Lots and lots innit. Lots and lots and lots. My favourite JA musical anecdote is Scratch saying that he got the idea for the Reggae Beat (and yes some people think Mento has something to do with it, but that doesnt really add up in the context), he got the feeling for the Reggae Beat from American Hard Rock. And that the heavy Dub took it's cues from things like Led Zeppellin and Black Sabbath.
OK sure this might be the case for today's dancehall. Dancehall really must be just another node on the glocal riddim network. But you know what, and this aint gonna make me lots of chums, that's exactly why Jamaican music is as boring and inconsequential as it's become. It's lost it's cosmic/stratospheric perspective and has sunk to the level of a dialect. Something like Grime (at least over the past 4 years, though it's future is currently in the balance with pabulum like "The Avenue", just heard this piece of crap, it's not on the Roll Deep LP is it, must have listened straight past if it it was) has been just that over-ambitious bursting-with-energy and ideas that Reggae was once, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Which brings me to my final thought, in this solid gold rant, if the future is Reggaeton, in the US and Jamaica (even!) what's that going to do but relegate the also fabulously fecund UK-JA axis to the dustbin of History? What room is there for English speakers in the underground ha ha ha? And I'm only being half-playful, KISS is on in the background at the office I'm working in and I've heard nearly 5 Spanish tracks today. Chortle, maybe we need a "Save the English tongue" mega-blog!