Reggae Music

MUSIC MY ROCK

I realized today that this blog is supposed to include some "musical adventures" when really, all I’ve been doing is writing about lame Finnish outdoor activities with the occasional rant containing slightly objectionable subject matter. But I’ve changed my ways. Apologies to those individuals I may have used as fuel for my banter. From now on, the jokes on this blog will only be on me, and perhaps also Bank of Montreal employees.

What’s really on my mind is music. So I’m going to try to make these posts more related to music. Music is a major part of my life. I don’t mean to sound like it is a bigger part of my life than your life. But it’s quite big for me. I’ll elaborate on this later, but let me kick things off with a little story about how I came to like reggae music.

ROOTS AND CULTURE

A little more than a week ago, I went to a great reggae show in the student union building bar, Ilokivi. Wow, it truly re-ignited my love affair with reggae, which had diminished greatly after 6 months in a country where the Rasmus and Nightwish reign supreme.

(Cue flashback sequence)

Ah yes, I can still remember the first time I heard Bob Marley. I must have been 16 years old. Of course, I had known who Bob Marley was for quite some time and had friends who listened to his music. The people whom I knew listened to him were mainly skaters and potheads. For some reason, I figured Marley was nothing but a poster boy for drug usage and teen angst. It just didn't seem that special to me. I had Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Beck and the Beastie Boys to entertain me. As if these groups weren’t poster boys for teen angst, but whatever…

One day, I was curious. My sister, like so many people around the world, owned a copy of Bob's Legend CD (actually it was a cassette tape). I put it on, and nothing was ever the same for me. The first song that played was One Love/People Get Ready. Within the first listen, I knew I had been completely wrong about Bob Marley and reggae music. It was simply the purest, most beautiful song I had ever heard. I guess it was no contest seeing as my previous favorite songs had included “Hey Mickey, you’re so fine you blow my mind”, by Toni Basil…

I never knew how chill pop music could be:


One love! one heart!
Let’s get together and feel all right.
Hear the children cryin’ (one love!);
Hear the children cryin’ (one heart!),
Sayin’: give thanks and praise to the lord and I will feel all right;
Sayin’: let’s get together and feel all right. wo wo-wo wo-wo!

Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (one love!);
There is one question I’d really love to ask (one heart!):
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner,
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs?

Let’s get together to fight this holy armagiddyon (one love!),
So when the man comes there will be no, no doom (one song!).
Have pity on those whose chances grows t’inner;
There ain’t no hiding place from the father of creation.

One love! one heart!
Let’s get together and feel all right.


I could not believe my friends were using this to symbolize their rebellion! The music was so pure and peaceful. This could easily be felt through its lyrics and rhythm. Surely the least offensive lyrics I had ever heard. At the time, I didn't know anything about Ras Tafari, the religion practiced by Bob Marley. I didn't realize smoking ganja was part of their doctrine. But I don't think any of my friends really understood it either. They just saw Bob Marley smoking weed and they thought it'd be cool if they did also. But for me, it is the music that has drawn me to the culture. When I started listening to Ska, I got hooked on original Jamaican ska music (Skatalites, prince buster, Laurel Aiken, etc.). So much that I played in a ska band for 6 years.

The band, Puppa J, that I saw last week, was awesome. The songs kind of sounded the same the entire evening, but the beats were sweet. They did a lot of dancehall breaks and had a few classic rocksteady grooves while keeping riddims coming all night. But even they had songs about smoking weed. Bob Marley almost never sang about smoking weed. He preached peace among man and respect for the black man. He, like many Rastafarians, wished that Jamaicans exit from Jamaica (which they thought was the modern Babylon) and return to the promised land of Ethiopia, the land in which the first people were created.

I'm currently reading a Bob Marley Bio. I'm on page 50 and have not learned anything about Bob so far. They story begins with the Ethiopian emperor, Emperor Haile Selassie I (born Ras Tafari Makonnen). Selassie, who reigned Ethiopia for a greater part of the 20th century, was said to be a direct descendent of the Biblical King Solomon. The Rastas believe he was a prophet, King of Kings, the Lion of Judah who would somehow save the black man from oppression.

So smoking pot is not something I've indulged in very often, least of all to associate myself to reggae music. I respect the Rastafarian faith but I don't feel any interest in joining it. But their music is simply inspiring. Nyahbinghi is a reggae form where the themes are based solely on Religious themes. It's like Rastafarian Gospel Music.

Last week, I hung out with my buddy Tuomas. He is the biggest Reggae music fan I have met so far in Finland. I went over to his place and we had a serious 3-hour listening session. He played me the best Finnish Reggae. I actually went back tonight for a second listening session. Next week, we may go to the music department and break out the Riddums on some instruments.

Hmm...Finnish Reggae falls into 3 categories. The first category is the kind that makes you laugh because you can't get over how lame it sounds to sing in Finnish with a Jamaican accent. The second earns your respect because they are not trying so hard and the music seems Jamaican influenced, but also firmly Finnish. And the third simply makes you think, 'this stuff is pretty damn good!!'

Anyway, Tuomas has most of the Trojan Record Box-sets. Trojan Records is a Jamaican/British label that specializes strictly in Jamaican styles. I don't know what it is about this little island in the sun that is responsible for such a rich and successful musical heritage. Reggae is just the tip of the ice berg; Ska, Dub, Rocksteady, Dancehall, Nyahbinghi and Sound-clashes are all great forms of music created in Jamaica. It is simply astounding.

Here are some pics of the show I went to. There were some Ratas there (the first I see in Finland). Notice one of them brought their own props to the show...pics coming soon.


I wonder what a Finnish Rastafarian living in a town with two reggae shows per year does on a Monday, 9 AM...oh well.

So I’m not pretending to be some great authority with Reggae music. I am still a student of its various styles and cultural idioms, but I am bound to learn more because reggae is actually a drug you get hooked on really quickly.