THINKING OUT LOUD

I’m gonna interrupt my usual satire done in poor taste with some finely seasoned drama.

Wal-Mart…where lower to middle class consumers like my currently unemployed self go to shop. While the wife was gathering together the necessary goodies, I wandered over to the music aisle in morbid curiosity to check out the REGGAE selection. Only one single CD of one single REGGAE artist was stocked. Guess who?

Of course, that one lonely disc was a ROBERT NESTA MARLEY release.

Guess which title? LEGEND of course silly, that title is only the biggest seller in REGGAE’S 40 plus year history.

Wal-Mart doesn’t fuss around with small potatoes like the TROJAN record label. So that leaves only major label moguls Island/Universal for your Marley choice. Wal-Mart was kind enough to make up your mind for you.

I wasn’t shocked, but I wasn’t happy either. Part of me loves being considered an insignificant slice in the demographic pie. As someone who beats his eardrum with Reggae Dancehall I feel like I belong to a secret society.

But is that attitude profitable for “our” music’s vitality? I mean the health of REGGAE music is at stake here.
No serious money coming in means no reinvesting. Why produce new product if the old stuff is getting’ stale? No waiting fans with fists full of cash to spend means no new REGGAE releases.
Sure REGGAE will always exist in JAMAICAN ghetto YARDS and local DANCEHALLS but am I gonna hear the next generation of stars way up here in North America? Hell no! No JAMAICAN businessman is about to push supply where there is no demand. Which means a slow death.

So as long as ROBERT NESTA MARLEY’S LEGEND continues to shift astronomical numbers, new fans will come to the music. Some will stick around for more. Brave souls will seek out the names we take for granted. Remember they have no clue as to who an AUGUSTUS PABLO or a SIZZLA KALONJI is yet. Give ‘em time though. Ganja may not be habit forming but REGGAE is downright addictive.

My only fear is that “our” beloved music will reach too huge a listening audience. Which is initially a good thing fiscally. But the backlash will be critically devastating. There will be the usual media over saturation. The music will be diluted with every POP influence to the very inch of its authenticity. “Yeh Mon!”

And then quietly disappear as last year’s fad.

Then my only choice will be the thousands of faceless R ‘n’ B and country twang discs that line their shelves. And I like to think for myself. Not to completely diss Wal-Mart, my wife scored some great deals on everyday items.

Time Magazines Most Important Album Of The Twentieth Century...Obama Agrees

To say that the color of a man’s skin does not matter is awfully naïve. George Bush f’ed up this country so bad that even staunch republican rednecks voted to “hire a black man for the job.” The American people seemed to believe in it’s own hype, you know, that crazy little notion that our forefathers wrote about- ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL! Talk was huge but then a quiet hush fell upon the lips of certain circles. Sort of like once they slept on it they woke up the next morning feeling ashamed. I mean, God above, decent Christians voted in an Original Man with a Muslim sounding name. Me? For once I was proud to say I was an American! Having said that…Personally, I do not trust lawyers or politicians, but for the first time I felt like I was choosing from a ballot and not a police line up. That whole settling for the lesser of evil thing.
Barack Obama being sworn in as this nation’s top dog is the single most important historical event since the fall of the Roman Empire. Okay, those two World Wars made pretty big headlines.


The Natural Mystic

What has this rant got to do with my next post? Everything. Time Warner’s choice for record of the century is the most politically correct gesture since calling WHOP's Italian Americans. Time magazine is playing it SAFE. It is also an INSPIRED choice. Pick something to Wonder Bread white and you will offend LA’s drive by crews. Pick something with a good ass shaking funky beat and you will confuse the honky-tonk two steppers. Pick a record that shifted millions of radio friendly copies and you will piss off the self styled hipsters. In other words, what record will not alienate the Black community or work the White folks into a huff? That my friends must have been a hard decision to face. I believe the suits and not the music critics made this choice. Plenty of research. Plenty of political correctness. Lots of demographics and ample population statistics where analyzed. Like I said, I doubt the music critics had a say. Sounds impossible. I doubt they flipped a coin. So? Bob Marley’s Exodus is what the computer calculations deemed the perfect answer.


The thin no frills orginal version!


After 30 years-gaining some weight with a few disco mixes!


Fat with so many extras it takes two discs to contain it all!

Bob has the street cred that the thug lifers can relate to. Bob has the smoky bloodshot vibe that the stoner rockers can roll into. Bob Marley has the poet’s philosophy that the Bob Dylan aficionados can appreciate. (The slipper and a pipe crowd) And unlike Dylan’s music you can dance to it. Shake it baby! There is serious Religion in these grooves but it does not come off as preachy. It might be as wholesome as a pauper’s prayer for a meager meal but this disc can feed the masses. Check the sales numbers. Big massive sales. Legend, the posthumous best of Marley is the biggest Reggae sales ever. Exodus, movement of Jah people, has impatient rock and roll chords. Thick chunky riffs that teen angst types can jam some air guitar along with. Hear the sound of the drums? Their calling us ALL children back to Mother Africa. Wise those suits for choosing Bob Marley. This record has something for everybody. Bob believed in One Love. This record is a COLORBLIND LISTEN!



I would of loved to see who the runner uppers were. Is that list available somewhere on the web? I am gonna think out loud here….


The God Father of Soul

This man broke through the race sound barrier. He stunned America from evening television sets. He danced like a demon on fire. A teenaged Elvis obviously paid attention to those swivel points. James also held the microphone like no man before him. I imagine prime time James Brown scared the Bejesus out of President Eisenhower’s America! Maybe the later in life disgraces discouraged the suits from voting his smash masterpiece “Live at the Apollo” for that top honor.



Okay, this guy, Sly and his Family Stone shook the charts up. One huge hit after another rattled off their records like a machine gun set on burst. It was an era of protest. Riots filled the big cities. Are you for or against Vietnam was the big question. Assassinated leaders began bleeding on American soil.



Sly’s band was a post card of picture perfect unity. Black! White! Male! Female! Yeah, like a good tomato sauce, it's in there! So influential was this band that they had Jazz greats like Miles Davis perking up his ears. One with his guitar Jimi Hendrix was tuned in. Even those British invaders, the Beatles could not ignore the new sounds. They got(tried) funky with electric keyboard magicain Billy Preston. Okay, Billy pulled a rabbit outta his hat but I do not think the Beatles sawed the lady in half. Anyway, Sly Stone's pysche was crushed from hard booze and even harder drugs. He did not survive the success. Do not get me wrong, Sly is still alive; I guess you can call it that.


Psychedelics were apparently abundant! And cheap!



Sly from Sly and Robbie got his nick-name from his love of Sly and The Family Stone. And we know what these two guys mean to all things reggae.

These prophets of the projects reaped words of praise from music’s establishment but most importantly they reaped profits from Middle America’s suburbs. They were called Black Punk Rock as an insult by those scribes who could not wrap their little minds around Public Enemy’s message. Black Punk Rock? Exactly! Fortunately the public understood what the hype was about. Sadly, Flava Flav ‘s VH1 foolery is all this generation remembers.


Public Enemy Number One!

These class clowns were the flip side of the coin. They even shared the stage together with their NYC natives, Public Enemy. Deceptively clever these bragging loud mouths. They brought Hip-Hop deeper into the corn fields of Cow Towns everywhere.


The Beastie Boys

The Beasties worked with Lee Perry and if ya press your ear up tight to the speaker, ya can hear some classic dancehall samples. A few bass notes lifted here, a few one drop beats borrowed there, and Barrington Levy's unmistakable voice sifting through.

Why not Miles Davis? Lets face it-only a dozen poeple really listen to Jazz. I know -I am the eleventh person...