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The food of love
Published: Tuesday | January 10, 2012 Jamaica Gleaner
by Gordon Robinson
I'm often asked to devote a column to the deteriorating standards of our modern music industry.
I won't. By which I mean I won't disparage the state of our music industry. Some of what is released today does struggle to be categorised strictly as 'music', but it's all art. All art, including music, is reflective of a country's realities as seen through artistes' eyes.
"Dream a dream no suffering no more.
Can't take a dream to the grocery store.
Can't tell a dream from the time of
the day.
Listen to this sound, spread it all around.
Rebel music taking over."
When I grew up listening to Alton Ellis, Toots, Desmond Dekker, Ken Boothe, John Holt and later Ernie Smith, Pluto Shervington, and others, my father despaired for me, calling the music "noise". Now they're all classics. Retreating further into history, the songs of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler et al were regarded as pop music of the time. Eventually, they, too, became classics.
Also, please stop criticising the youth for sampling 'vintage' music. It's done. Sampling has always been an acceptable tool of creativity far superior to the simplistic covering of someone else's song. Did you know that Tony Bennett's 1950s 'classic' Stranger in Paradise includes a sample of Borodin's Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor? Perry Como's Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom) samples Chabrier's España Rhapsody and his Catch a Falling Star uses themes from Brahms' very popular Academic Festival Overture, itself considered during its time as common, based as it was on German students' drinking songs.
Finally, one of my favourites, My Prayer (by the Platters; originally recorded in 1939 by Glenn Miller) is a bold rip-off of Avant de Mourir (Before I Die), composed by famed Romanian violinist, composer and conductor, Georges Boulanger.
So, relax. Society evolves and 'music' evolves with it. If you find the music vulgar and base, it means society is vulgar and base. Improve the society and you'll improve the music.
"Sufferer no want pretty music.
Sufferer no have no bread.
Sufferer just rock to the rhythm.
Hungry belly but no hungry head.
Rebel music taking over."
In the days of Holt, Boothe, Ellis and others, it was all about love. The few writing and singing protest songs (like the two Bobs) were labelled hooligans and troublemakers. But they were prophets.
"This is not something new.
It's only new to some of you.
Rebel music taking over."
There's nothing truly 'new'. 'Fiction', properly so called, doesn't exist. Fiction is the product of a creative mind interpreting and expressing personal experience. It has to do with how we look at things, not whether they're real. Artistes' perspectives vary from societal norms. Where accountants (or correctional officers) see only numbers, Toots used personal experience to create the seminal 54-46, that's my number. Where lawyers see only precedents, Pluto created Your Honour.
Lessons in observation
The 'original' character of Sherlock Holmes, a scientifically minded detective 'created' by struggling physician, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, was, in reality, built around lessons in observation learned from Conan-Doyle's medical school lecturer Joseph Bell. Conan-Doyle may have been the first to conceptualise a serialised hero with a sidekick as the central focus of a continuing conflict with a nemesis.
In Holmes, Watson and Moriarty, Conan-Doyle invented the perfect ménage à trois from which cottage industries were spawned. American comic book 'creators' copied his model to great effect. Batman, Robin and The Joker were an early example. Marvel Comics tweaked the concept further, with heroes in teams or alone. The Fantastic Four fought Doctor Doom; Spiderman battled the Green Goblin. Captain America's career began during World War II with sidekick, Bucky, and nemesis, The Red Skull, but Bucky died and the resuscitated, modern 'Cap' founded the Avengers.
Creative freedom for artistes is a most fundamental of freedoms. It builds nations. Artistes' expression should never be restricted. The most famous and influential Jamaican worldwide is an artiste named Bob Marley. None of our political leaders can emulate his reach or the reverence in which he is held globally. The artiste's voice is the nation's voice. Like the messages or not, we'd better listen and learn or be perpetually out of step with reality.
So, if you just can't let go of the old music, don't worry. It'll return in some form, but you'll have to listen carefully to recognise it.
"Watch and wait my friend.
Righteous man will walk again.
Rebel music taking over."
Lyrics for this piece were created by the great Glenroy Anthony Michael Archangelo ('Ernie') Smith.
Peace and love.
Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.
Published: Tuesday | January 10, 2012 Jamaica Gleaner
by Gordon Robinson
I'm often asked to devote a column to the deteriorating standards of our modern music industry.
I won't. By which I mean I won't disparage the state of our music industry. Some of what is released today does struggle to be categorised strictly as 'music', but it's all art. All art, including music, is reflective of a country's realities as seen through artistes' eyes.
"Dream a dream no suffering no more.
Can't take a dream to the grocery store.
Can't tell a dream from the time of
the day.
Listen to this sound, spread it all around.
Rebel music taking over."
When I grew up listening to Alton Ellis, Toots, Desmond Dekker, Ken Boothe, John Holt and later Ernie Smith, Pluto Shervington, and others, my father despaired for me, calling the music "noise". Now they're all classics. Retreating further into history, the songs of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler et al were regarded as pop music of the time. Eventually, they, too, became classics.
Also, please stop criticising the youth for sampling 'vintage' music. It's done. Sampling has always been an acceptable tool of creativity far superior to the simplistic covering of someone else's song. Did you know that Tony Bennett's 1950s 'classic' Stranger in Paradise includes a sample of Borodin's Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor? Perry Como's Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom) samples Chabrier's España Rhapsody and his Catch a Falling Star uses themes from Brahms' very popular Academic Festival Overture, itself considered during its time as common, based as it was on German students' drinking songs.
Finally, one of my favourites, My Prayer (by the Platters; originally recorded in 1939 by Glenn Miller) is a bold rip-off of Avant de Mourir (Before I Die), composed by famed Romanian violinist, composer and conductor, Georges Boulanger.
So, relax. Society evolves and 'music' evolves with it. If you find the music vulgar and base, it means society is vulgar and base. Improve the society and you'll improve the music.
"Sufferer no want pretty music.
Sufferer no have no bread.
Sufferer just rock to the rhythm.
Hungry belly but no hungry head.
Rebel music taking over."
In the days of Holt, Boothe, Ellis and others, it was all about love. The few writing and singing protest songs (like the two Bobs) were labelled hooligans and troublemakers. But they were prophets.
"This is not something new.
It's only new to some of you.
Rebel music taking over."
There's nothing truly 'new'. 'Fiction', properly so called, doesn't exist. Fiction is the product of a creative mind interpreting and expressing personal experience. It has to do with how we look at things, not whether they're real. Artistes' perspectives vary from societal norms. Where accountants (or correctional officers) see only numbers, Toots used personal experience to create the seminal 54-46, that's my number. Where lawyers see only precedents, Pluto created Your Honour.
Lessons in observation
The 'original' character of Sherlock Holmes, a scientifically minded detective 'created' by struggling physician, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, was, in reality, built around lessons in observation learned from Conan-Doyle's medical school lecturer Joseph Bell. Conan-Doyle may have been the first to conceptualise a serialised hero with a sidekick as the central focus of a continuing conflict with a nemesis.
In Holmes, Watson and Moriarty, Conan-Doyle invented the perfect ménage à trois from which cottage industries were spawned. American comic book 'creators' copied his model to great effect. Batman, Robin and The Joker were an early example. Marvel Comics tweaked the concept further, with heroes in teams or alone. The Fantastic Four fought Doctor Doom; Spiderman battled the Green Goblin. Captain America's career began during World War II with sidekick, Bucky, and nemesis, The Red Skull, but Bucky died and the resuscitated, modern 'Cap' founded the Avengers.
Creative freedom for artistes is a most fundamental of freedoms. It builds nations. Artistes' expression should never be restricted. The most famous and influential Jamaican worldwide is an artiste named Bob Marley. None of our political leaders can emulate his reach or the reverence in which he is held globally. The artiste's voice is the nation's voice. Like the messages or not, we'd better listen and learn or be perpetually out of step with reality.
So, if you just can't let go of the old music, don't worry. It'll return in some form, but you'll have to listen carefully to recognise it.
"Watch and wait my friend.
Righteous man will walk again.
Rebel music taking over."
Lyrics for this piece were created by the great Glenroy Anthony Michael Archangelo ('Ernie') Smith.
Peace and love.
Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.
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