Bob Marley.

was also going to say that, while there are doubtless many political/cultural/'external' mechanisms going on in canonisation, to some extent the cream rises to the top over time - no, that's not the metaphor for the process whereby whatever is good will be rescued from erosion and oblivion by its evident goodness

paging professor harold bloom

luka said:

oh yeah that. i was i the british museum this afternoon thinking
'i hope he sticks up for himself'

what drugs did you do? snout in the trough?

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no good ones really, just didn't sleep properly two nights in a row

british musuem - rodin and the greeks?

luka said:

corsepy was saying recently that the '8-s used to be the most unfashionable decade and now it is the most fashionable. but it's more than that. it's that the unfashionable aspects of the '80s became fashionable.
not marshall jefferson, egyptian lover and juan atkins.

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This is interesting - is this because the conditions are similar to those of the 80s, or because they are dissimilar - or nothing of the sort? Is it simply that the unfashionable music is so long gone that it has left the zone of derision?

Also, that we might now think of things as being similar to the 80s, and that that 'we' might not have been ALIVE in the 80s, and even the ones who were might only know the 80s by some increasingly faint memories and by the version of the 80s that has been memorialised, mythologised, etc.

This is the essence of everything isn't it, what was once charged with meaning becomes meaningless or meaningful in a different way

Beethoven the revolutionary becomes Beethoven the can I put you on hold jingle

luka said:

no. there was a silk scarf with a Thoth print on it I needed to buy.

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Coincidentally (perhaps not as we've been talking about yeats and all that) I've been coveting a scarab necklace lately

Realistically I'm not a jewellery kinda guy but I like the scarab myth

'In ancient Egyptian religion, the sun god Ra is seen to roll across the sky each day, transforming bodies and souls. Beetles of the Scarabaeidae family (dung beetle) roll dung into a ball as food and as a brood chamber in which to lay eggs; this way, the larvae hatch and are immediately surrounded by food. For these reasons the scarab was seen as a symbol of this heavenly cycle and of the idea of rebirth or regeneration. The Egyptian god Khepri, Ra as the rising sun, was often depicted as a scarab beetle or as a scarab beetle-headed man. The ancient Egyptians believed that Khepri renewed the sun every day before rolling it above the horizon, then carried it through the other world after sunset, only to renew it, again, the next day. A golden scarab of Nefertiti was discovered in the Uluburun wreck.[1]'

All of this, btw, might not be too tangential, given the religious significance of much reggae music (but not for atheists, or even for pot-head christians in midwestern frat houses)

Burning



So Burning is the first Island album. Which is basically what this thread is about if we use Luka's caveat.

I heard it for the first time on Sunday. It's a good album with some amazing songs but also some complete duds like Hallelujah Time, One Foundation and Pass It On which are just cheesy. The production across the board is quite grating for me but I can see how it fits into the rock schtick of the time. You can't argue with this lot:

Get Up, Stand Up,
I Shot The Sheriff
Burnin' And Lootin'
Small Axe
Duppy Conqueror

I was also surprised by how much enunciation Bob does and how clearly the lyrics are expressed. I guess that's obvious but it really stood out.

"Put It On" is a pretty great example of why Island-isaton was inevitable at the time but looks like an awful idea in retrospect. It's an amazing song rendered simply OK by the arrangement here:


The demo version IS objectively better, less fuss and no lyrics about "I feel like toasting" either:


Studio One version from late 60s is also great.


For me there is just no contest - these are great songs played by great players but just messed up in the studio in a way that wouldn't have been except for Island. But Island had to happen and these albums changed the world basically.

1973 was when it started happening for Bob and the gang (Burning, Catch A Fire, African Herbsman).

For context, this lot also came out and are certainly better than Burning:

I Roy - Presenting I Roy
Tappa Zukie ‎– Man Ah Warrior
Burning Spear ‎– Studio One Presents Burning Spear
Cornell Campbell ‎– Cornell Campbell
Count Ossie And The Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari ‎– Grounation

Instrumental + Dub '73:

Impact All Stars ‎– Java Java Java Java
The Upsetters ‎– Upsetters 14 Dub Black Board Jungle

To be continued...

Larry Marshall ‎– Presenting Larry Marshall
The Heptones ‎– Book Of Rules
Horace Andy ‎– You Are My Angel

john eden said:

For me there is just no contest - these are great songs played by great players but just messed up in the studio in a way that wouldn't have been except for Island. But Island had to happen and these albums changed the world basically.

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island's thing was obviously fusion. right back to wayne perkins guitar on catch a fire.

musos have a big problem with fusion because of the (*kinda* erroneous) idea of the authentic.

but just because something isn't aspiring for authenticity - or in that place - doesn't make it invalid in my book.

certainly that's how i come at later bob. it's next level stuff. big international studios etc. sometimes a bit hollower but equally gains some mystique from that scale of cultural ambition.

Was listening to a bit of LIVE! the other day and was surprised by how genuinely thrilling it is

luka said:

even going as far as to adopt patois and wearing crocheted rasta tams as Eden and Droid have been known to do!

irie mon!

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is this true? lolll

I think Matt is right about fusion.

What I'm hoping is that as I get through to the later Marley albums that this fusion becomes more successful.

I think for me it's sonic fetishism rather than some kind of cultural insistence on authenticity. I mean I've championed UK Dub and steppas which is about as inauthentic as you can get. The Bug stuff also, breakcore, you name it.

What's funny though, is Luka et al insisting in one thread that Jungle is terrible after 1993 and that "Timeless" is an abomination which shouldn't exist. Whereas on this thread the opposite is true.