Sach O dedicates this one to his lil brother chilling in Jamaica
When the time of judgment comes to pass, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell better hope that Jah’s into Pop music and not hardcore Roots. All of his accomplishments in promoting Jamaican music aside, his Mango subsidiary’s tempering of Reggae’s revolutionary aesthetic through dubious mixing and poor A&Ring will go down as a capital sin against music.
Case in point: Burning Spear’s incredible Marcus Garvey album. While the record stands as a classic example of Roots Reggae, precious few have even heard it in its intended form. Worried that a concept album about revolutionary black leader Marcus Garvey lacked crossover potential (garsh, ya think?), Blackwell and Island subsidiary Mango records decided to remix the album before its international release, resulting in a brighter, faster, sunnier record.
Naturally, Winston Rodney (Burning Spear), producer Jack Ruby, and backing band The Black Disciples went berserk, even as the album’s title track went on to become a substantial hit and sound system staple. To appease the pissed off Rastafarians before they chanted down Babylon (and more importantly, formed their own label), Mango then dropped a dub version named Garvey’s Ghost, which somehow managed to sound cleaner than the original, worsening matters.
Marcus Garvey: Much Cooler Than Steve Garvey
Sound disastrous? Thankfully the album isn’t nearly as compromised as its history would hint at. While a few joints have the keyboards and horns pushed up further in the mix than might be expected, no one will confuse these tracks with something off Bob Marley’s Legend. Ruby and Rodney put together a crack team of Jamaica’s finest session players and the results show with fantastic horn charts, inspired flute soloing and of course, deep heavy riddims. The album is ostensibly conceptual, exploring the ideas of Marcus Garvey such as black self-reliance and repatriation to Africa. Practically, this is a collection of roots songs so influential and defining that they’ve transcended any concept to form the foundation of an entire genre of music.
Not to harp on Bob Marley, but if his “peace, love n ganja” Rastafarianism birthed generations of dorm-room stoners, Burning Spear’s biting melancholy deserves credit (along with Black Uhuru) for nearly every interesting pre-Ragga alternative. No commercially-minded mixing could blunt the ghostly chanting, slave-dirge rhythm and minor key piano behind tracks like “Invasion,” “River Jordan” and “Red Black and Gold” and Rodney’s lyrics are indicting in their simplicity: You take us away from Africa, with the intention to steal our culture…Not exactly the kind of stuff that’ll get the Rolling Stones to come over for a smoke out.
Garvey’s Ghost, the subsequent dub version on the other hand, is a bit more of a mixed bag. Praised for expanding dub’s reach but more often railed against for being overly clean and mechanical, the truth is somewhere in between. We’re miles from the stoned reverb and experimental genius of Lee Perry and King Tubby and compared to true dub classics, Garvey’s Ghost feels stiff and unadventurous. There just isn’t enough thought and effort put into each remix and given the incredibly bleak performances given by Burning Spear, it’s a shame the vocals aren’t manipulated to better effect. That said, these backing tracks are so incredible that most of the revamps succeed despite themselves.
See…
“Black Wadada,” “Dread River,”and “Workshop,” up the gloom factor to levels approximating the original vision, while “John Burns Skank” and Brain Food trudge along at a pleasantly stoned pace. Though flawed, Garvey’s Ghost’s shinier take on dub also pointed the way towards the cleaner digital innovations that would change the face of Jamaican music in the following decade and is easier to take in light of subsequent dub innovations.
Though arguments over the album’s altered state persist, it’s good to step back for a second and listen to what we have: a fantastic roots album and an early innovative dub release that started the process of spreading the music to England, a process that’s still bearing fruit. Certainly, Burning Spear’s career hasn’t been hurt, having gone on to become an icon of Jamaican music and one of its premier elder statesmen. And justly so, anyone who’s made a statement as powerful as Marcus Garvey deserves all the accolades in the world.
Author’s Note: All the reissues I’ve seen in stores and online feature the international mix. If anyone’s got a link to the original Jamaican version, pass it on in the comment section. Props and good karma will be awarded.
Download:
MP3: Burning Spear-“Marcus Garvey”
MP3: Burning Spear-“Red, Gold, and Green”
