Blasphemy

[ESG]

- Which cultural icon are we intent on

destroying for the sake of a cheap laugh?

>>

 

Bob Marley was [****!!****]! I know this almost akin to rock n' roll - or atleast token reggae artist - treason, but what did Good Old Bob bequeath us?

 

1. Rastafarianism - a religion so enlightened it makes the Jehovah's Witnesses look progressive. Despite being portrayed as politically aware disciples of pan-Africanism, rastas are infact nothing more than black hippies, who instead of tackling black poverty and oppression in a positive manner, hide away from the world and camouflage getting off their heads on weed and quoting moronic [****!!****] from the Old Testament as some form of spiritual enlightenment. The Ethiopians may indeed be descended from one of the 12 tribes of Israel - and? What has this got to do with anything in the real world?

 

2. The Dope Paraphernalia Industry - tacky posters, key-rings, t-shirts, jewellery, bongs and Free The Weed cannabis leaf insignia all crassly aligned to the image of Bob himself or the red, gold and green of his homeland. The main customer base for such dispiriting trash is middle-class white students who think they're pissing off their mummies and daddies by identifying with a black man and illegal drugs. Hey, Jez can roll a really great spliff and he loves his SoulJazz reissues.

 

3. Piss-poor Reggae - No Woman No Cry is [***!!***] garbage - up there with Imagine as one of the worst supposedly great records ever made. Yet it was the record that secured his international success and paved the way for romantic mush like Is This Love, Could You Be Loved and One Love (Marley as the Barry White of reggae anyone?). At the time of his tragic death, Bob had almost entirely given up on the rabble-rousing soulful, angry anti-colonial anthems of his early LPs and had transformed the Wailers into a mainstream pop-reggae cabaret act, that even whitey could 'dig.' It took less than a decade to get from Steel Pulse's Ku Klux Klan to Aswad's dismal Don't Turn Around - that couldn't have happened without Marley making reggae safe.

 

4. Eddie Grant. Enough said.

 

Let's face facts, if Bob hadn't died young, he would no doubt still be living the 'high' life, a Jamaican icon, doing ever more contrived tours, trotting out the same old [***!!***], content with his millions, worshiped by millions of easily pleased plastic lefties, his every bland statement about Holy Mount Zion (Iron Lion Zion - for [***!!***]'s sake!) being treated as visionary, mystic wisdom from up high. The failure of reggae as a force for social and political change is complete. Now, as today's dancehall stars prove, it's simply another vacuous form of trendy 'urban' music that says nothing and challenges even less. Elder statesmen such as Burning Spear and Lee Perry have become pet reggae heroes for a patronising white music establishment that long ago tamed anything radical about Jamaican music and now even the glorious ska and reggae produced in the 60s and 70s has become nothing more than a lifestyle accessory for Nick Hornby types who think Phill [***!!***] Jupitus is really, really funny. <<

 

[Chubbhead EFM]

Oh right, so white people aren't allowed to like reggae then? What a load of old [****!!****].

[ESG]

wheres it say that? <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

[Chubbhead EFM]

The negative refrences to white people listening to reggae music!

 

eg

'...transformed the Wailers into a mainstram pop-cabaret act, that even whitey could 'dig''

 

'Elder statesmen such as Burning Spear and Lee Perry have become pet reggae heroes for a patronising white music establishment that long ago tamed anything radical about Jamaican music and now even the glorious ska and reggae produced in the 60s and 70s has become nothing more than a lifestyle accessory for Nick Hornby types who think Phill [***!!***] Jupitus is really, really funny.'

 

That's [****!!****]! Why is it patronising? Anyhoo- the whole article is rubbish. Marley is a legend, but then again I'm a white middle-class student, what would I know! Who wrote it anyway?

[ESG]

firts and foremost i read it as very tongue in cheek, which you've fallen for

 

the writer a legend from the 80s/90s...'all together now'...

 

the whole article is very, very funny

reggae-lite for the masses,

the examples you pick up are in my opinion spot on...

many a time back in the day you'd turn up at some party and this dirge will be on in the background

go to any decent reggae club and your more likely to hear

Phil Collins than that nonsense

its hardly ....

Yellow man

Beenie man

August Pablo

Mikey Dread

John Holt

Huge Mandela

Jackie Mitoo

I Jahman Levi

U roy

I roy

Wailing Souls

Luciano

The Upsetters

Half Pint

Jah Wobble

Pappa Levi

Bounty Killer

Michael English

Michael Profit

Musical Youth.... now is it

[CANV EFM]

chubster, your mad..

[Colin Zeal EFM]

Bob Marley's crap.

 

 

[CANV EFM]

i agree but he has probably sold more 'best of' albums than elton bloody john

[Chubbhead EFM]

Well, I like Bob Marley and not just 'cos he's dead! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />