Dirty Music

[Blackwhite]

Cheers.

[eric olthwaite]

Listening to a Vybz Kartel hour on NTS on the train this morning. Ultimate example of the kind of homophobic, misogynist, violent arsehole any sense of social responsibility would tell you to steer clear of but, well, bangin' tunes

[dirty leeds]

Listening to a Vybz Kartel hour on NTS on the train this morning. Ultimate example of the kind of homophobic, misogynist, violent arsehole any sense of social responsibility would tell you to steer clear of but, well, bangin' tunes

Aye, a problem we've frequently encountered at the mag over the years with certain reggae/dancehall bods: do we continue to write about artists who drop [say] homophobic lyrics? Can we really ignore them unless they recant... when their tunes [the majority of which do not contain such lyrics] are at the top of the reggae/dancehall charts and they are the island's hottest property. Can we really pretend they don't exist? Our reggae audience obviously knew otherwise and would sell out tickets to their UK live shows.

A lot of the most notorious homophobes did amend their ways after the international outcry against them in the nineties/early 2000s, but generally to protect their image/sales abroad rather than deciding that they actually had nowt against the batty men dem. [From their angle, they were, after all, only sticking to the religious teachings we white Christians instilled in them when we made them slaves. And Jamaica is still a way more homophobic society than we see here, so it's often just reflecting what they grew up on. Obviously I'm not excusing it, just noting the historical context.]
What we ended up doing was challenging such artists in our interviews about their views - so we didn't let it pass but also didn't try to pretend they'd just disappeared. Our main reggae man got into some awful rows with some of 'em - and yet still didn't have his legs broken, which was good going, I thought. [It's far less violent in soul country.]
Some of those same artists were very popular within their own communities, where they'd often give away large portions of their earnings to local people via charitable or other private donations. Some even walked down the street handing out cash. [I guess not knowingly to gay people, though.]

For those who don't know, Kartel is currently banged up for life - min 35 years to parole - for murder. Hasn't stopped him releasing new music. We interviewed him in prison a few years back. Caused a bit of trouble with the local prison authorities, who then decided, what the fuck, let him get on with it.

[eric olthwaite]

From their angle, they were, after all, only sticking to the religious teachings we white Christians instilled in them when we made them slaves

Not music-related, but this is one of those odd historical things that I have to say I've never quite understood: we abused the fuck out of the Asian subcontinent but let them crack on with being Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Buddhist etc. We did the same to Africa and rammed Christianity down their throats. Why?

I presume it's to do with the idea that the Eastern religions had structure, deities, churches etc in a recognisable sense, but African folk religion was probably considered too weird. But I'm not really sure.

[It's far less violent in soul country.]

As the old ditty used to go:

It's my party and I'll die if I want to, die if I want to, die if I want to. You would die too if your father shot you...

[Blackwhite]

From their angle, they were, after all, only sticking to the religious teachings we white Christians instilled in them when we made them slaves

Not music-related, but this is one of those odd historical things that I have to say I've never quite understood: we abused the fuck out of the Asian subcontinent but let them crack on with being Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Buddhist etc. We did the same to Africa and rammed Christianity down their throats. Why?

I presume it's to do with the idea that the Eastern religions had structure, deities, churches etc in a recognisable sense, but African folk religion was probably considered too weird. But I'm not really sure.

[It's far less violent in soul country.]

As the old ditty used to go:

It's my party and I'll die if I want to, die if I want to, die if I want to. You would die too if your father shot you...

Remember watching a very interesting doc about historical colonial portraiture at the time of the first contact with Indian and African folks.
The Africans represented as uncultured savages, but the Indians represented as nobles in their finery. The clincher? These wallahs have a rigid class system, so clearly they're civilised... These egalitarian African chappies are clearly uncultured, what.

[eric olthwaite]

Remember watching a very interesting doc about historical colonial portraiture at the time of the first contact with Indian and African folks.
The Africans represented as uncultured savages, but the Indians represented as nobles in their finery. The clincher? These wallahs have a rigid class system, so clearly they're civilised... These egalitarian African chappies are clearly uncultured, what.

Yeah, that's just it, isn't it?

And, from a contemporary atheist-agnostic perspective, saying God is the river and the trees and the mountain has a bit more validity in some sense (I'm thinking Spinoza etc) than saying God's a magic sky fairy. Seems like, as usual, we got everything completely arse about face.

[dirty leeds]

As the old ditty used to go:

It's my party and I'll die if I want to, die if I want to, die if I want to. You would die too if your father shot you...

Ah, no, I meant violent towards journalists. My reggae man has frequently been threatened with shit, whereas I haven't.
One of our reggae writers referred to an artist's 'catholic musical tastes' in a feature and he got threats of violence from the guy because he thought we'd called him a Catholic! We couldn't explain it to him - he just didn't believe us that it also meant something else.
On the other had, I once slagged off a Janet Jackson/Jam & Lewis single really badly and ended up interviewing them both as part of The Time a few days later. Terry Lewis read out my review to the group during the interview and all Jimmy Jam and the rest did was piss themselves laughing.
Another soul artist - maybe Peabo Bryson? - actually agreed with my bad review of his tune and said, 'Yeah, it wasn't my best, to be honest'.
Soft as shit, soul guys.

[eric olthwaite]

AONIP I do enjoy coming across these random instances where soul / r'n'b singers pitch up in odd places in other genres. Only read recently that PP Arnold did the backing vocals on both 3am Eternal and Sledgehammer. Apparently she felt out with KLF on account of being asked to wear a get up she thought was a bit KKK-ish for the video.

[Terre Harte II]

The original version of “Jet Airliner” by Paul Pena. Steve Miller, who was lucky enough to hear this before it was released, did a pretty good version. This, however, is on another level.

[dirty leeds]

Frank Zappa died on this day in 1993. Musta left us about a month ago. I can't cope.

[Ontolly]

Frank Zappa died on this day in 1993. Musta left us about a month ago. I can't cope.

I wasn't aware that Musta was dead. Shame that. I'm proper gutted. I think he'd mentioned previously that, due to my interest in the instrument that he'd want me to have his base guitar (or is it bass I dunno). Anyone know where I can pick it up?

[Eddies Boots]

I thought Musta was doing gigs.

[Blackwhite]

I thought Musta was doing gigs in hea'en.

FTFY

[dirty leeds]

Frank Zappa died on this day in 1993. Musta left us about a month ago. I can't cope.

I wasn't aware that Musta was dead. Shame that. I'm proper gutted. I think he'd mentioned previously that, due to my interest in the instrument that he'd want me to have his base guitar (or is it bass I dunno). Anyone know where I can pick it up?

You don't deserve it now.

[dirty leeds]

Some of these Nubiyan Twist types must support Leeds, surely?

[dirty leeds]

I just asked the PR to find out. Might as well give him something useful to do.

[Tommy]

I’ve become a bit obsessed with seeing this London band called Los Bitchos of late. The first couple of times I saw them there were more people on stage than in the crowd but recently their shows are packed. They started as a bit of a joke (they quite literally play instrumental cumbia music whilst passing a bottle of tequila around on stage) but a recent tour seems to have galvanised them. I don’t usually have much time for new guitar bands but their songs seem to live in your head much longer than they have any right to.

[Blackwhite]

[Quiffy]

I’ve become a bit obsessed with seeing this London band called Los Bitchos of late. The first couple of times I saw them there were more people on stage than in the crowd but recently their shows are packed. They started as a bit of a joke (they quite literally play instrumental cumbia music whilst passing a bottle of tequila around on stage) but a recent tour seems to have galvanised them. I don’t usually have much time for new guitar bands but their songs seem to live in your head much longer than they have any right to.

did a bit of googling and quite enjoyed that myself. guitar bass drums becomes quite hard to create anything unusual with after people have been banging around for 70+years. that's why i love anyone who does somehow make this limited palate sound interesting or unusual.

only thing is, 'cumbia' music? what is that? i only listened to a bit but..

[Blackwhite]

Kinda like Colombian reggae, a bit.

Check out Will Holland/Quantic's crossover stuff and DJ sets full of old Colombian dudes.