Reggae music is
music of the Americas,
but also of an island culture that is dimly perceived by most music listeners.
Music in our current culture is in a fairly sad state of affairs, with a sort
of apartheid between commercially produced and fairly franchise sounding work,
and independent work that gets a cult following at best. In addition, the urban
aesthetic of most music—even music that is supposedly the opposite of the urban
sensibility, and which calls itself country, is so heavily produced in its
sound that authenticity seems more nostalgic than actual—is of a mechanized,
formulaic construction that yields any meager expressiveness in a series of
lyrics that tend toward emotive clichés. Reggae music, while still firmly of
the island culture of its origins, has modernized itself into some mainland
tropes, most probably in the interest of commerce.
Thus, refreshingly, this CD by one of the Royal Family of
Reggae, Damian Marley is exceptionally welcome.
As unlikely as it is to offer critical
political and cultural insight in music anymore, the first track on this CD
“Confrontation” opens with an audio tape of a public speech, a bass drum in a
marching beat and a voice saying: “ Since the beginning of modern
civilization/generations have witnessed and inherited the only conflicts of
world wars […] then mother earth shall honeymoon in peace. Forever eliminating
the aspirations, lust and anguish of wars and rumors of wars” . The song then
moves into fuller instrumentation, with the voice becoming a chant, and the
beat being both distinctly reggae in its meter emphasis, but highly
hip-swinging at once. This opening track sets a tone of deeper thought than the
beach-and-booze/weed vibe of music that too many listeners associate with
reggae. The mere mention of mother earth in a song that is not croony-folksy
provides a surge of joy to this listener. The song is not a call to arms, it’s
a notification of revolt already present: “Any day a revolution might erupt/
[…] for the new generation rising up”.
Yet, the lyrics maintain the modern trope of end rhyme, with a supreme
hop-contest scream of exceptionally clever configurations and phrase inversions
that almost remind the ear of Whitman.
Marley’s critical
thought ranges into the realm of inappropriate behavior in a number of other
tunes on this CD, including another danceable mix “In 2 Deep”. With lyrics that admonish” If you're over 10/
and watch CNN/ And believe everything” while repeating “In 2 Deep” after each
phrase, the chanted lyrics coupled with
a potent metrical structure have a weight that is pleasurable without
being flaccidly superficial. This obvious power allows the too rare concept of
the song’s message to gain import and influence.
Marley’s effort to
teach also includes a paradoxical love song called ‘Pimpa’s Paradise”.
To the first listen, the song has the required aspects of a love song-- sweet
guitar riffs, a honeyed voice –However, this love song involves the destruction
of the beloved as witnessed by the lover. In similar modern songs, the lover
boasts of prowess and sometimes of explicit activity; in “Pimpa’s Paradise” the love relationship is unrequited: “ cause
coke was a thing that once she first try/was once a blue moon to once a blue
sky”. Although the narrative of unrequited love is an archetype, the witness
never overtly professes the emotion, but
the listener is sure of the sentiment by the quality of the intimate details of
the narrative: “now it’s broken crack pipes with lipstick traces/ walks the
cold nights red district places”.
Eventually, the beloved becomes abandoned when “ Old friends walk pass
going ‘bout their own/as if she is someone that they don’t know”, and while the
concept of a known person becoming an addicted bit of street trash is a common,
modern symbol, this song paints the addicted-abandoned with a tender heart that
is entirely different than the self-righteous condemnation typical of this
symbol.
In addition to the
striking nature of Damien Marley’s lyrics, the quality of the instrumentation
on this CD is far above that which is the normative pabulum these days.
Utilizing audio and multiple tracks, sound effects, rhythmical variance, song
and the rapid-fire chanting familiar to
rap listeners, this CD is both nuanced and strong. You Tube shows hits in mere
hundred thousand range for a release that’s
been a decade in our culture. That the release dates back to the turn of
the twenty first century is more of an indication of the very problems that
Marley endeavors to illuminate. That the tracks play as booty bumping fresh is
all the more reason why this CD ought to be on repeat play on everyone’s
dashboard for their daily to- and-fro. Maybe even then Marley’s message will
get more into our bones; it’s our shame that any deaf ears be turned now.
No comments:
Post a Comment