I have a great weekend planned. Sorting, archiving , collecting is a labor of love for me. Being a serious collector of Wailers material, I have amassed many LP's, tapes, Videos and Jamaican Singles.Where can my collection turn to now ?
I recently have made a contact in Germany for non USA and non Jamaican Wailers related singles. The trades were pretty much as follows: I would send Melody Makers shows and money, and he would send UK/Holland/Spain/German /etc. Pressings.
So over the last 2 months I have obtained about 75 Wailers singles. ( 7" and 12 ").The first thing I have done was look at all the singles I obtained and separate the ones I had from the new ones I have recently obtained. Then I separated the Tosh from Marley singles. (Please note I will obtain Bunny singles in the future)
Then I took out my Distant Drum Magazine collection. (Issue 9 . page 33-35 in particular)Now I have to go through the matrixes, covers, and countries of origin, and compare what I obtained with the published list.First I will photocopy the pages of interest and check off, what I have. I guess the above process will take a few hours. (I now have roughly 50 Marley singles and 25 Tosh singles.
I will have to see what doubles I have obtained and pass them off to trading partners, if they want them. Fortunately the people of DD mag have also added pictures. I'll have to continue this article later, Just got a package from Bruno Blum.TuesdayI received 2 45's from Bruno Blum in France, briefly, they were his versions of War, in a few words, they blew me away. The first time I heard this version (with " Selassie is the Chapel" intermixed), it brought me to tears. These versions are equally as good.My Tosh "outernational " 45's collating is coming along well.
Now I realize how much I lack, such as all the Spanish and Brazilian pressings. (oh well, soon come). I'm looking forward to the next issue of Distant Drums where they will document the "outernational" Tosh 12" pressings.I have been spending the last few days pressing CD's. I recently purchased a Phillips CD presser. this "toy" allows me to make Cd's directly from the Stereo receiver.To make matters more complicated, I have plugged in my Mono VCR player and have been making Ziggy Marley Cd's. As I mentioned in my last chapter, I am trading with Julian in Germany , my Ziggy Marley items for Non United States Marley and Tosh singles.
I ran out of concerts, so now I am moving on to my video collection. I knew this would be a lot of work when I started, but it had to be done. I would say I have roughly 100 videos with a reference to Ziggy on them. The only problem is that I had to find the segment, and only copy the music, not the interviews.
I am doing this for myself, and to have new trading material.Some interesting segments I have found are Ziggy on Sesame street, Ziggy on Rockers TV, Peter Tosh riding his unicycle for MTV. (I am using Ziggy as a generic term for The Melody Makers.) MM's singing in a Muppets movie, MM on Arts and Entertainment TV station singing "Good time " acapella.Intermixed in going thru my reggae videos, I have found interesting sound bytes of important things in my life (my TV appearance, My wedding, My wife's Wedding shower, my kids singing. etc), and digitalized them. In other words I pressed a cd of important videos , which I will be giving to my wife for a mothers day present.
WednesdayJust got finished watching the South Park episode where one of the kids is drinking too much coffee and see Gnomes stealing underpants. Great episode.Anyway, back to collecting. One of the great things about having an extensive collection is searching and finding things that are in your possession that one doesn't know that one owns. recently I was talking to Tradder X about this regarding "Lemon Tree" on the back of a Judy Mowatt single.
In going through the list of Tosh singles in DD # 9, I noticed on the bottom of page 34 that on the back of Stick Up is Little Green Apples. LGA is a record that I have trying to obtain for a long time, unsuccessfully. (I asked Clive Chin if he would sell me one, 2 years ago) Anyway getting back to the point, I remember that I have a since called Stick Up credited to the Wailers.
(I obtained this about 2 years ago in a trade for about 20 +Lee Perry singles and others from John Righland) First I had to locate this single in my collection, which is no easy task. After going through some boxes I found it. The record is unique in the fact it has a somewhat official stamp stating "Wailers." (note that going through my records is like an adventure for me, because I find things that I have not seen in years, and as my knowledge grows, I see the records threw new eyes)
I nervously put on side A, which was warfare, and I play it through, hoping that it was Little Green Apples. No success, I flip the record over, and the other side is "Stick up" Oh well, I guess my quest for Little Green Apples will continue. (If anybody out there in Internet land has this or Alligator man on tape or vinyl, please contact me.)In conclusion 3 Marley Gold Records were for sale on E bay for $15,000. There were no bidders.
ThursdayNot much to say today. A day never goes by with me thinking of Marley. (I wonder if that is normal)? I wonder how I am going to collate my Non US and Non Jamaican. Marley singles? My plan is to wait for a probable upcoming Distant Drums, and use that as a guide. In going thru DD # 9, I see that there is a 1996 single by Bob Clark with credit given to Peter Tosh.
I'm going to look through my Johnnie Clarke box and see if I have a copy misplaced.FridayOne of the great things about trading is waiting to see what the mail will bring. I used to collect autographs as a child and used to get the same feeling. Today was a good day, I got a white label promotional album of Countryman.
I have to give thanks to Roger S. I have been collecting Marley for about 20 years now, but only after I met Roger, did I realize that people trade. The beauty of the Internet is as James wrote in "an idiots guide to tape trading" is the speed of transactions. I used to go to NYC, spend an entire day, hitting every record shop, and if I was lucky, I would pick up an item. Now I can shop and trade at home..My next chapter will be on trading vinyl for tapes, or in other words, a 2 dollar tape that could be copied, for a piece of vinyl.
SaturdayI would like to say that collecting has taught me much:LEXACOLOGYI have learned the difference between a demo and a composing tape. The difference between a test pressing and a promo. etc....There are also different levels of rare tapes, such as No copies, No copies Ever or "For Your ears only". There are also no copies in Red ink. Some tapes cannot be copied because of copyright infringements. Some tapes cannot be copied because of personal requests by the owner of the tape.
Getting back to the previous chapter, regarding trading vinyl for tapes, I have been on both sides of the trade. I have traded away some very rare singles and have gotten tapes in return. The issue here is that one can make as many copies of the tape, as you want and keep trading them, but once you trade away a record, it's gone.
What normally happens is that, a few months later, one is able to obtain the tape from another source, but it's too late, the record is gone.As I said earlier, I have also traded my tapes for vinyl from someone else.
So I guess what goes around comes around.OCD Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.This is a behavior pattern that includes ritualistic behavior. Do collectors suffer from this? no. True, many like myself like to own as many tapes and records as possible, but that is because of the music.
SUPRISE!!!!! The County man, White label promo that I bought was actually a different record. It was actually "Reggae Sunsplash 81, A Tribute to Bob Marley", which brings me to my next topic. What happens when you are not happy with the deal?I could return the record and say I am not a satisfied customer, but that would take me over an hour in time plus going to the post office.(and Time is money.)
I guess I'll have to eat the loss, and chalk it up to experience.I'm sure people have not always been happy with my trades either. Some times the quality is not what one would expect, one person mentioned that side A was actually side B on tape. Sometimes one gets a record in G condition, instead of Very Good. Oh well "Don't sweat the small stuff". It's nice when a deal works out and both parties are happy.
Sometimes the first thing I do when I wake up is check the front door to see if UPS, or Federal Express have left a package for me early in the AM. I read that 1 out of 20 delivered boxes, is from someone who bought something from an online auction.This possibly translates to good stocks to buy. If people order by mail, then the postal delivery sevice stocks should go up.
Today's issue that I want to raise is the time involved in preparing a trade. If it takes 2 hours to located a particular tape in one's collection and 4 hours of work to copy the video tape to a cassette or a cd rom, and another hour to wait at the post office with forms , is this worth anything?
Is the time put into a trade factored into the equation for a trade? Usually not.SundayI've been involved in a few bad trades/deals. I have traded with the biggest and the best. Many times I've been nonspecific, or kept my fingers crossed hoping for a rare gem, but was disappointed when the package arrived. Other times I hit the jackpot.Most likely. these trading partners thought that I would have enjoyed the items they sent.
It wasn't that I didn't, but there is so much out there that I lack. This is just part of the learning curve that goes with trading.God forbid if I complained, maybe I'd be cut off, or I would not be able to be involved in a trade for another couple of years. Oh well, I guess I'll have to take my own advice and "go with the flow".
I think the Melody Makers have a song about that.MondayGoing back to Chapter 4, I mentioned that I had a Johnnie Cladrk collection, Well I traded it away. About 3 months ago , I traded a 1000 Ja. singles in G and VG collection from the 70's, for a copy of Lemon Tree. The trade was successful for both parties, but I let a lot of great stuff go.
The following is an article that is a short story about some of the Lemon Tree singles floating around.There are 3 known Reggae versions of Lemon Tree, one by the Wailers and Gaylads, one by the Soul brothers and one by Johnnie Clarke. This in-depth review of some of the known copies of the Lemon Tree will only deal with the one by the Wailers.One of the copies had an unreadable matrix. Only the Dir is legible, pressed on a blank.
The flip side is by Peter Austin and Hortenses version of Money. The matrix is DIR CS 2002 A 1H. It was found in a box of 25 blanks found in 1976 in Deptford Broadway, SE London.The second copy was found at a bookfair around 1994. It was also a blank, there is a matrix, which goes across the label but is legible. The other side has a standard Muzik City stamp and is "Feel like Jumping" by Marcia Griffiths.
This suggests that Mr. Dodd was repressing the single in 1968. This copy has since been traded to myself in United States for 1000 singles from the 70's.A third copy is another blank. The matrix is readable The DIR starts on the raised edge and goes to where the label was supposed to be.
The flip side is Hot Rod by the Soul Brothers, with the matrix cs0600.A forth copy, I believe was recently sold to somebody in the Far East for $1250.There has been a number of "name checks" for Marley on TV this past year. Most recently on a United States Detective show called "Silk Stockings" Apparently 2 detectives were talking and one said "That's not Marley"The Bob Marley name has popped up several times on mainstream TV.
On the sitcom Family Matters seen on the Warner Brothers network, Ziggy Marley made an appearance with the Melody Makers singing "Power to Move You" Steve (Erkle's brother is with a female and they are going back to there room, acting happy, singing Tomorrow People, His father is waiting in the room.
A Melody Makers song was performed by a marching band in the NY Thanksgiving Parade. Of course we are well aware of the Beer commercials using a Marley tune. The Melody makers were one of the featured artists in Cover Girl commercials. This stirred up much controversy on the Internet, especially in the Reggae usegroup.The number of Reggae/Marley Internet sites is well over a thousand, and growing larger every day.
There are now 2 Marley rings and one Reggae Ring.In an episode of Murphy Brown, who is suffering from Probable Breast cancer, is suffering from adverse reactions of Chemotherapy. Traditional and holistic medical treatment has failed. Murphy is suffering from anorexia and nausea, and another newscaster goes out and buys her some Pot. She mentions Bob Marley....On Teen Angel a hot show for kids on Nickelodeon, Marty was going to a Costume party dressed as the Scare Crow. Steve asks "Who are you going as?, Bob Marley?"
On the TV show "Muppets Tonight" there was an episode where there are rats dressed in Red Gold and Green clothing, wearing dreads are singing "No woman no cry" at a fast and humorous pace. Ther Rats close out the segment by singing the song the correct way.
I would like to publicly thank Paul Johnson for his recent trades.
I reached a dead end in obtaining good items for over a year. I sent things out, gave things to people, and either got nothing in return or items that I already had. Paul also known as the Mighty Dread, recharged my collection. He trade me some items hassle free, that I could not get from any source.Before Paul, I hit a brick wall.
Everything was a "no copy" or just another excuse. I was recently discussing collecting with Roger, His take on this was " that to get new stuff, some of the serious collectors have to die off." (for example nobody is going to trade their UK pressing of "One Cup of Coffee"), so I guess it's up to the heirs.
PRAISE JAH!!!!!! Just found something new, but I'll get to that in a second. One of the things of collecting, is that one does not know what is out there. (what exists, or what is available) Years ago, I would scour the back of the Beat magazine, when they published their play lists, and look for interesting tracks.I must confess that I don't have a real list of shows that I own. But let's not get side tracked. (Any body know anything about A.D.D.?)
Anyway, recently I traded about 40 Midnight Ravers NY radio shows for about 40 "Reggae Beat" radio shows. Now it's rare when I hear something I haven't heard before, but this AM while taking a shower I noticed something different. Peter was composing "Jah is my Kingdom" on a twangy electric guitar, and tuning it on RB tape #96, tape one of three, Aug 23rd 1981. I don't know where Trader X obtained this one, and why I never heard it anywhere else? Anyway, I'll talk more about this later.
TuesdayThe correct name for that demo or composing tape that I mentioned above, is Creation. It is from the Record "Bush Doctor". The copy I played was an Intel Diplo labeled one, in a Promotional copy sleeve. (By the way Hechicero means Bush Doctor in Spanish)
The picture sleeve of the single in Spain has that printed on it. (which I need)By the way I was peripherally involved in Toshs' Honorary Citizen. One of the greatest experiences of my life was being in the studio in NYC when the tracks were being chosen. I mentioned to Pauline Morris that in my opinion, Creation was equivalent to "Redemption Song". (I felt that this was Tosh's swan song) By the way, I contributed about 15 singles to the Tosh M
useum in Bluefield.Just received the single 12" by Kymani Marley in the mail from CDnow.com. This Internet stuff is great. I only ordered it abut 3 days ago.I love the Kymani song "Rude Boy" It has a mandolin in the back ground, nice touch.
Another version has a salsa feel. I think Kymani's mother is Yvette Chrigton, but I might be wrong. I think she also has a daughter. Anyway, she was one of the founders of the Internet Marley pages, but might have dropped out due to financial reasons. I have spoken with her several times on the phone and Internet and met her once. She is one of the nicest people. She sent me a pamphlet/book of her poetry.
WednesdayThe Kaymani single "Rude Boy" is really enjoyable. There is about 25 seconds at the end of the Acapella version which is very cool. Basically the song was over, but he was just doing some scat or improvising, with the mic. on. I love that type of stuff. The million dollar question is will and how long will my enjoyment of the song last?
The greatness of a song is partially, how long it lasts, or remains fresh. I was discussing this with my children's guitar teacher, Lisa Itts. She has an up and coming "Grove Rock" style. She mentioned that a song has to "have some type of quality which gives it the ability to last".I was thinking about the Tosh song Creation and was wondering if it was the original Track without all the overdubs?If I had time I would love to find the Bob Marley and the Wailers superspecial moments (yodels) of each concert and make list.
I used to be known as an archivist but the RAW membership cost an extra 10 dollars.
In my last column I mentioned what a wonderful person Yvette Crighton is. Another artist that comes to mind is Glen Adams. Glen, one of the original Upsetters, is easy going and helpful. At is CAPO studio, he produces many up and coming Reggae groups.ThursdayI received my first critique of my column. I quote, "Great columns by the way, immensely informative, I love the one on the bad trades and the vinyl to tape and vice versa.
I have only been trading for 3 months and so I am still learning as I go along, so it is great to hear what traders of many years have to say."A pat on the back always feels good. ;-)
FridayMy Jamaican record connection, Paul Henry, can be reached in Georgia for 6 months, at 912-635-2531 extension 763. Paul is a great person and came to America, on a short term visa, to make some extra money in the Hotel business, to send home to his family. I have been working with Paul now for about 8 years.'
Pretty much he can find anything, except the super rare. Briefly, I give him about 300 Dollars , and he sends or brings me singles. It depends on my mood, but usually I ask for singles form the 60's and 70's, condition is of not particular importance. I take what I get usually. It's sort of like the lottery, sometimes I loose, sometimes I win. Sometimes I get a broken or chipped record, but that's the way we work it.Let me say, let the buyer beware.
Paul is totally honest, and he is not cheap!!! Figure to pay about 3 dollars a record, and sight unseen, this is pretty steep. If you feel like gambling, give him a try. Once again you might get a bunch of old scratched, almost unplayable records. If you want mint records, he can do that also.I guess one would have to wire him $ Western Union.
I have tons of stories about Paul and our record hunting together, but the best one was when I received in the mail an unplayed "Selasssi is the Chapel ". BTW ( By the way ), Paul has to pay about 2 dollars a record, and hours of time goes into his searching. Which brings me back to the time factor involved in collecting. He has spent entire days tracking down records for me. One cannot get the records we are looking for in any store in Jamaica.
What Paul does, is that he goes deep into the hills, and buys old sound systems. If anybody gets anything really unusual, I want a percentage. ;-) Also, Paul has a wife and 2 sweet girls in Jamaica, and we sort of have adopted him, so we do not look at our transactions in totally dollars and cents.SaturdayI just remembered that I made a trade with someone about 4 months ago, but never received the tapes. (roughly , 7 of my Marley shows for 7 of his Tosh shows) I forgot who the person I traded with was, so I had to track him down. First I asked some people on the Internet, but they didn't know him personally or have his e mail address.
Then I checked mail sent and mail read, to no avail. Then I went to Personal Filing Cabinet, under my files in the computer. No luck. Then I dug out a lot of email correspondence that I printed out in the past, and VWALA, I found his e mail address.I promptly contacted him and he quickly e- mailed me, that he didn't forget to send me the tapes, but he was out of town. Bla bla bla, He mentioned that he had a to go to California, Time will tell.......
SundayMy daughter brought to my attention a children's book called Animorphs, that has a name check for Marley. I just read that Bob was unable to play in Seattle, USA, on 7/15/78, due to his illness, but I can't confirm that.
The Tosh solo "Creation" electric guitar version, that I mentioned a few chapters back, was from a backstage tuning session, probably the Beacon Theater, in NY.I wonder if anybody out there in cyberspace could find something interesting to say in comparing Toshs' "Coming in Hot, Hot, Hot," Vs Marleys' "Coming in from the cold"
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I heard that Peters was written when he was ill with fever, and I believe that Bob's might have been about Death.Many times I get the same tape from different sources. But frequently there are minor variations, or I hear it ona different sterio. Specifically this happened to me recently with the Sims Demos, first of all I really never noticed the uniqueness of the song "Ask Myself" I wonder who is singing lead vocal? (probably Bunny).
This particular tape has a few extra seconds of "Hurts to be alone." Hammer has an extra 30 seconds, which I have not noticed, and there is an electric lead guitar on "Touch me" .Check out this interesting slide show of Wailers singles, with emphasis on Peter Tosh. http://web.archive.org/web/20010711002815/http://petertosh.freehosting.net/index.html, in case that doesn't work try
http://web.archive.org/web/20010711002815/http://nav.webring.com/cgi-bin/navcgi?ring=bobmarley;id=4;go
I hope you know how to copy and paste. I'm not sure this column takes hyper links, I'll have to ask James.Some items that come to mind that I need are, the cd sampler from Songs of Freedom, the special Midem 97' promotional sampler from the Complete Wailers CD, and "A Place called Africa" by Junior Byles and Peter Tosh, on vinyl. I will go on record of saying that I really like Dreams of Freedom, Ambient Translations of Bob Marley in Dub.
I am really going out on a limb for saying this. I don't know why it gets such bad press. Distant Drum's panned it, the Reggae Use group tore it to shreds and Roger hates it. I have found that it still sounds fresh and is good music to exercise to.
By the way, I play this CD all day in examination room one, an edited version of the "Reggae Philamonic plays Marley " in examination room 2 and "A tribute to Bob Marley" an acoustic portrait on guitar performed by Bub Roberts. I also made an edited CD of Dean Frasers' "Dean plays Bob" removing the interview, Crisis and Zimbabwe. (The beat does not have a calming effect) and the 96 year old ladies do not like loud noise.
MondayI had The Simpsons on TV before but wasn't watching. According to Paul Johnson, they had another reference to Reggae. Paraphrasing the episode: Homer was dressed with a tam and one love necklace. They were all stated they wanted to go on vacation Homer said "I and I want to go to Jamaica man. I-man been in Babylon too long , seen."
But then when they find out they can only go to Japan homer says "not Japan, Jamaica. Doh, I wanted to pass the cutchie pon the left hand side!" Previously I mentioned, that my 10 year old daughter pointed out to me, that on page 65, of chapter 12 in The Animorphs' book "The Escape" by K.A. Appelgate there is a referance to Marley.
I quote "I hit play on th CD. Reggae. Some good old classic. I'd bought the CD at a point when I was considering growing dreadlocks. Never mind why, Okay, it had to do with a girl at school. Bob Marley, Mon I said, Help me out, mon Bob didn't help. Bob was singing "No women no cry". And that translated way too easily in my head into "No Mother No Cry"........
TuesdayAbout 3 years ago, I was made aware of the Dennis Thompson tapes. The tapes obviously were "no copies." Despite my upping the ante, and practically offering my first born, the answer was "I COULD NOT get a copy of the tape? My contact was kind enough to work with me and gave me Dennis Thompons' home phone number. I was able to reach him and asked him if I could obtain a copy of the tape, out of my love for Bob. As his wife listened on the phone, I pleaded my case.
I stated that Yvette Crighton and Mrs. Booker had trusted me. I have never broken my word and obviously had no commercial interest. The answer was still no.Marley probably would have laughed at all this no copy stuff going around.
I did pester my original contact after that for a copy of the tape until I pissed him off. He said that if he said something once, then that would stand.Me, being the persistant person I am, tried to reach Dennis Thompson again last year, but misplaced his phone #. I looked in the phone book and found many Dennis Thompsons, called a few, but they were the wrong numbers, and subsquently gave up.Oh yes, by the way, I got the tape from another source.
Wednesday"The computer is just a modernized drum" was recently quoted in a newspaper. Before e mail, this was the drumbeat, forwarding messages....."I obtained an interesting CD, about 3 years ago, by Michael Livingston called "Bob Marley in Espanol."
It includes No llore mujer,( No women no cry) , Son Locos,(Crazy Bald head), Esperar en Vano (Wait in Vain) and Cartas Malas (Bad Card). On Keyboards was Agustus Pablo, who I understand passed away recently. I had the good fortune of seeing him in concert about 10 years ago in a small club in NYC.The "Columns" page of this Home Page plays the midi version of Natural Mystic.
This page is great to Jam to, if you play any instruments.I'm playing "The Harder they Come" now, which is really one of the greatest all time records, probably as good as anything that was around in 73.' And it really held up over time. This record probably got a whole generation into reggae.I have to thank my wife for getitng me into the band "The Offspring".
Check out the 4 CD box set by siblime, with tons of Wailers Cover versions.
First of all punk is ok, but I wouldn't have missed a Wailers concert to see some. The songs grew on me, and familiarity is something very important in getting to like something. ("there is a powerful message hidden here somwhere , but I don't know what it is.")I hope readers know to hit the reload button once in a while, to see the updated page.I would like to thank John Parmeton for his friendship and Internet assistance.
I just got an interesting program that makes a 360 degree panorama screen saver. You are in one point in l room and take 16 pictures in a circle with a digital camera. Then you use the program called PhotoVista, which splices the 16 pictures together.
One sample of this technology can be viewed at. http://web.archive.org/web/20010711002815/http://www.pointvillage.com/ >Negril, Jamaica - Point Village Resort - Home Page. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Virtual Reality,I was thinking of another tragic loss to the Reggae Music world, Delroy Wilson. Delroy had a drinking problem and apparently developed Cirrhosis.
One of the complications of drinking is that your liver does not work well, and one looses the ability to stop bleeding. Sometimes one gets Esophageal varices, (varicose veins in the Esophagus) and they pop, due to portal hypertension. Alcoholics get a bleeding problem called a coagulopathy, where one cannot stop bleeding. Unfortunately, this happened to Delroy, and he wound up in a Kingston Hospital.
There is a medication called Vasopressin, which is used to stop the Gastrointesstinal bleeding.One night at midnight, I got a call from Glen Adams that Delroy was in trouble and that the Hospial in Kingston needed Vasopressin. I made a few phone calls to my local Hospital and explained the situation, to the Hospital Pharmacy, and the Nursing Supervisor. (note, that this medication is expensive, I said I would cover the cost ,and take full responsibility.) Supprisingly there was little resistance, everybody did there part.
Maureen Kane, a hospital friend and I met Glen Adams at the midway point between us. We met in at a designated parking lot, about 2:00 AM, and I gave him the bag of medications. (Good thing the Police didn't get involved)
Glen brought the Vasopressin bottles to the Airport, and I believe, he pulled some strings, and they were off to Jamaica on the 6:00 flight. Apparently the medication was administered to Delroy, but unfortunately he passed away. ThursdayJust bought the new Jimmy Cliff CD. To quote Bob Marley, with his usual diplomacy "I don't have anything good to say about it, but I don't have anything bad to say abut it either" I have a strong place in my heart for Jimmy Cliff, and he has provided the world with some of it's best music. One critical thing that I could say is that the CD is only about 32 minutes long. Now that I am pressing my own CD's, I am aware that at the minimum, there is enough room for 74 minutes of music. So essentially I spent 17 dollars for a single. I would always support Jimmy, which is why I bought the CD. The CD has remakes of 3 songs with African Rhythms.
I have been fortunate enough to go to Africa and do appreciate the instrumentation and the rhythms.FridayThe following is an extended version about one of the most memorable experiences in my life. I am also partially writting this version of the story because when I am old and forgetful, I would be able to read this to jog my memory.
In a future chapter, I will discuss meeting Bunny Waile.
I saw the Wailers in 76 at the Orphium in Boston. I went with a very beautiful girl of color, (our first date, I'm white) We had seats about 20 rows back, As you could imagine the show in progress was incredible. We didn't hit it off very well, I wanted to move up, she didn't. We moved up to the 17th row. It was too far away for me.
I wanted to move up further, I don't think she was enjoying the music and she said she wanted to go home, I said if that's what she wanted, it was OK, but I wasn't leaving, She left, I moved up to the 10th row, then 4th, row, but it still wasn't close enough. I moved up to the 2nd row, since it wasn't hard since everybody was standing, and I was alone. Then I was at the press area, in the pit, stage left, but I still wanted to get closer. I finally wou
nd up effortlessly at Bob's feet. Ziggy joined him on stage that night. When Bob sang Get up Stand up, I yelled back, "what ya gonna do" and Bob made eye contact with me.After the show, I went backstage to his dressing room. I had a little resistance from the Hall's security, but when they turned their backs I walked past the bouncer.
I walked past several Rastas and lots of kids with boom boxes, It seemed every body was playing his concerts on self recorded tapes. The hallway and dressing room were full of thick white smoke. I got a few dirty looks, but I could have been a bit paranoid, since I .....Finally I'm getting closer to Bobs' dressing room, I hear a lot of loud talking/bickering/Jamaican Patwa. The yelling immediately lowed down when they all saw me, ( I wonder if they thought I was a narc or somtething .
(I have no idea what the argument was over, maybe somebody missed a note). Apparently I did not catch Bob in a great mood. (Retrospectively I am surpissed at this, since I thought he would be in a great mood, since he just shared the stage with his son.) I slowly walked to the doorway of the dressing room, (there must have been 10 men in there. I believe I said something to the effect that I was a big fan and I believe I introduced myself. Now this was back in 76 so I really didn't have a good understanding of Bob or his intelligence.
(To quote another writer, in those days, people thought that the Wailers were from another planet"). I did not know how much English he even spoke, I had only a basic understanding of his culture, (remember that some of the words on the natty Dread cover were " Dreadlock, Congo bongo, I")I pulled the first piece of paper out of pocket, which turned out to be a crumpled up napkin I asked Bob to autograph a picture I drew of him. At first he had it upsde down, but then I told him it was a picture/sketch of him .I obviously did not have a clear head that night, but Bob went easy on me and he did not make me feel uncomfortable, I was foolishly talking a bit of Patwa to him and told him I was Jewish, and made some other small talk.
I thanked him, said goodbye and left the dressing room, walked back past the people in the hallway. (A few of them quickly put their spliffs out of sight). (I was the only white person there and I happened to have short hair at that time). I left the dressing room, turned right walked back past about 25 members of his enterage (I was the only white person there). I made a little eye contact, Got a few nods, and walked up the stairs, and I wound up back on the side of the stage of the concert hall, any way some how I went oustside, got to the back of the Theatre and decided to walk onto his tour bus.
Familyman was standing there, and I got his autograph on the only other piece of paper I had, which was my Organic Chemistry graph paper. Fortunatly, a fellow African American student, who was with me at Bob 's feet during the concert had a camera and doccumented evertyhing. BTW I forgot who the student was with the camera, but a few weeks after the show he gave me a few of his prints, which I still own are published somewhere on the internet. (I gave one of the originals to Roger about 6 years ago)
As I was saying, I then went on The Wailers tour bus and asked Bob if he could speak at my College., which he declined, because he said "he had a tour to do". I wrote my phone # of my dormatory room, on some type of buiseness card and gave it to another person on the bus (of course I had no power or authority to invite Bob to speak, but it seemed like a good idea at the time). It must have been about 2:00 AM, and I went home alone, practically walking on air.SaturdayJust returned from a walk to the beach.
I was replaying one of Roger's radio shows from Quebec Canada. "Falling In and out of Love" from the "Living Room Tape " which is basically the raw track without the overdubs was on. I guess it is called the Living room tape because it was recorded in Kingston in 67 in Johnny Nash's living room. It's not all that rare. It's found on the interactive JAD CD ROM. (one day I'll write something about meeting Danny Sims). Anyway the words are interesting. He's singing about how he can't help falling in love.
This reminds me of a quote, where Bob talks about his only weakness is women. There is a lot to say here, but can't be bothered. BTW, Tosh background harmonies are excellent. If I had time I would make a dub version tape of the songs form "The Harder they come"SundayI made a house call on a 102 y/o lady this AM and saw Star Wars in the afternoon, which was just OK. Actually I didn't get a lot of it.
I'll help who ever is reading this by telling you that the kid is Darth Vador. Just about the entire audience knew this but me.This column reminds me of Rogers old column called Ras Rogers Ramblings.Ziggy Marley's name was mentioned in the new Sports Illustrated Magazine, This might not be accurate but they might have asked him what's more important to him, kicking the winning goal in the World cup or Having a top song, and I think his reply was "kicking the goal."The movie "The Harder They Come" was mentioned in the May 28th issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine on The 100 greatest Moments in Rock........." THTC paved the way for the likes of Bob Marley.
"The music was new-it was expressing the things of the time," says Jimmy cliff. "It had the same effect that rap is having people todayI started work on making a dub/version tape from singles of the THTC for myself, I'm up to 5 songs. While watching a 1984 video of Jimmy Cliff live from Dusseldorf, Germany. In the middle of Bongoman, he leaves the stage for about 10 minutes and the band (with Earl China Smith) does a 10 minute instrumental called Spiderman. (I wonder what that was all about)
Trader X E mailed me today stating that he was reading this column, and gave it a postive response.MondayMy wife and I went to see Bunny Wailer at the Beacon Theater in NYC 12//97. The first time we saw him was at the NYC, MSG show in 86, which was the first time my wife felt my son kick In utero,Anyway we sat about 15 rows back, with the Midnight Ravers, who have an incredible NY radio show. There was a moderate turnout, and I didn't think the audience was that enthusiastic.
Unfortunately, there were some union rules that Bunny had to be off the stage by 11:00, and they practically had to carry him off the stage. The house lights were turned off, and the power was cut. We ran into Glen Adams who asked my wife and myself if we would like to meet Bunny. The theater was essentially vacant by this time, except for about 25 people who were trying to get backstage. Security to get backstage was super tight, but Glen knew the right people, and they waved us in. It's a weird feeling being on the other side of the backstage doors. It's like you are a special member of a club, anyway, there were signs like "this way to the stage," and some graffiti on the walls.
I thought of the stars who have played there, that could have written on the walls. Anyway, my wife and I started climbing the spiral staircase. The second floor was probably for the opening bands' musicians, and the back up singers, the 3rd floor for the horn section, the 4th for the Solomonic band, and so forth. Each floor had its own dressing rooms and bathroomsOn the 5th floor things started to happen, I started to recognize a few faces I knew, such as Clive Chin.
My wife started to get cold feet, and she said that's far enough, anyway I asked someone where Bunny was, and they pointed upstairs, We went up another flight, the air was getting thicker with the smell of herb, There were throngs of people, a few that I recognized from other concerts.Glen introduced us to Bobby Ellis, and we spoke about his music a bit. He was a charming man, We spoke about a few of his singles I have on vinyl, I got his autograph on a CD cover. We passed into the hallway, I said hello to Earl (Rootsman) Chin. ( I think I gave him about 25 mint reissues years ago outside a Steel Pulse concert at the Pier, in NY,Anyway there were about another 25 people in this small room, the back door opened and I saw some bright lights and noticed that Bunny was having his interview videotaped.
There were wall to wall people. The atmosphere was quite exciting. I asked my wife to get some pictures if she could.Glen said come on, I noticed an interesting pipe on a table made out of Bic pen, inserted into a walnut shell. We worked our way to the door outside where the interview was being filmed, We waited for the interview to be over, the door opened, Bunny seemed friendly to Glen. Basically Bunny seemed regal, in a good mood, with a big happy/friendly/warm smile on his face, greeting everybody like they were old friends.
He had a major entourage behind him when he came out of his inner private room. He was extremely friendly and patient, taking time to greet everybody. I asked for his autograph for my daughter on one of his CD covers. I mentioned to him that the world would like to hear a Bunny Unplugged album.
We shook hands good-bye, and his entourage walked past. Bunny is not a tall man, and his dreads were practically down to the back of his knees. I noticed a gray hair or 2, Puff, he was gone, starting his 6 floor descent down the spiral staircase. As quickly as it started it was over, everybody cleared out, I asked my wife if she took pictures, to which she replied that there was not enough time and he was too close, I walked into his vacated dressing room, since I knew that I would not be back in a Main stars' dressing room anytime soon, I made a 360, surveyed the place and borrowed the pipe, as a momento.
There was also a torn promo flyer for Toshs' Honary citizen. Well, it was over, we made our decent, I savored every second. We went back out the stage door that we entered and went home with the experience in my memory bank.TuesdayI had a short conversation with Augustus Pablo, after his concert at "The Kitchen " in NYC around 89.' I told him how much I respected his style music and had one of his 12" singles autographed. Delroy Williams opened for him. (I believe I have these shows on tape somewhere)
They were both selling their records in the lobby, and I purchased a few, which I have since traded to Allen (Alon) Katz. Alon is an east coast collector, radio show DJ, musician, composer and Band teacher.Regarding my earlier post about Delroy Wilson, the Nursing supervisor who did not put up any roadblocks was Lucy Rosato RN. The Pharmacy department also underwrote the cost of the medication and wrote it into their budget.
I have recently performed a good deed which will surely reserve me a spot in Zion.I have donated about 125 Wailers singles to Distant Drums Magazine to be used for a auction/raffel to support the Bob Marley Foundation and Peter Tosh Memorial Park. The money might also be used for an orphanage in Kingston.WednesdayUnfortunately there is some truth to the saying that it's not what you know, but who you know.
I luckily hooked up with Trader X . at Sob's in NYC on his second lecture on Bob Marley, about 10 years ago. Apparently I had some items that he could use, and we developed a trading and friendship relationship over the years.Anyway, There was a press release party for the JAD interactive Marley CDROM at the Sounds of Brazil Club In NYC, and I was invited. My wife could not attend, so I invited my receptionist and friend Maureen Kane.
Well, we arrived and my name was left at the door. I said hello to Roger, made a quick few trades with him, and was introduced to several people, such as Danny Simms, Jimmy Norman and Marcus Gravy's granddaughter. I got my 12 "test pressing of 'What goes around, comes around 'autographed by all. Maureen and I took pictures and I believe Arthur Jenkins was there as well.This was very exciting since this was my first (and last CD release party).
I was discussing some of my Wailers singles with Danny Simms and he wrote out his home and Cell phone number on a napkin for me. I spoke with Jimmy Norman and told him that I have his TV appearance on a video tape. He mentioned to me that he missed it, so I told him I would mail him a copy. I spoke with some other people a bit and hung out with the man who was working the CD ROM computer set up. (I have obtained the test pressing of that CD ROM since that time.) There were many journalists there form different magazines. There was a buffet of Caribbean food and cocktails were on the house.
The Promo video on the interactive CDROM was shown on a giant screenBeautiful T Shirts were given out at the end in large Black paper Bags that said Bob Marley and press kits were given to everybody.Maureen mentioned how extremely warm and friendly everybody was. Danny Simms and others gave Maureen and hug and a kiss, although they never met her before.This was an interesting introductory course into the world of publicity for me.I wonder when I will get tired or writing this column? I have a habit of delving into something, mastering it, and then moving on. Reggae and the Wailers are different although,
To quote Roger "once it gets into your blood it never leaves" Years ago, somebody asked me what type of Reggae I collect and I mentioned the Wailers, His reply was "that sort of is impossible because of the amount of material that is out there." I explained that this was not by choice, but a passion."http://web.archive.org/web/20010711004018/http://wailers.freeservers.com/" is an excellent web site. (It takes about 15 minutes to view it completely on a slow computer, and one needs Java script to see the slide show.
I have been searching days for a misplaced tape in my Reggae videos of Steel Pulse on the Connan O 'Brian late night TV show from a few years ago singing "Let Freedom Ring/ Martin Luther King" acoustically, and successfully found it last night. ( I wonder if that was the reason I couldn't fall asleep)
My cheap philosophy for today is that everything is crap, as long as you have your health. My grandfather did me one better and told me "cancer , smancher, at least you have your health."
ThursdayI bought a new book called "The Beatles Files" where the author makes an interesting point pertaining to the column comparing the Beatles and the Wailers. "The Beatles were the last black-and-white group, the stark early silhouette, the dapper suits, narrow pants, and straight skinny neck ties, before Woodstock and the hippies smudged all the sharp edges with psychedelic colors. The early 60's were monochromatic: the newspapers were black-and-white, the TV was black-and-white"This reminds me of the Wailing Wailers' first album, and the later video from the Capital studios.
I found this article interesting, regarding music in general:``I am a rock, I am an island. ... I have no need for friendship, friendship causes pain,'' sang the recorded voices of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel at an American Psychiatric Association workshop
Thursday, as Henry B. Nelson III discussed schizoid diseases that make people want to be loners. Today, based in Utah, he finds the music handy in training technicians and others to recognize diseases set forth in the psychiatrists' DSM-IV, a book listing mental disorders and their symptoms. While some psychiatrists ask patients to look at inkblots and describe them, the traditional Rorschach test, Nelson's thoughts turn to music. Relationship problems? ``You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling,'' sing the Righteous Brothers. Smokey Robinson's ``Tracks of My Tears'' tells the tale for the depressed while those rebounding from the winter blues might relate to ``Here Comes the Sun'' by the Beatles or Johnny Nash's ``I Can See Clearly Now.'' Jimmy Buffet's ``Margaritaville'' provides a crash course in alcoholism and therapy, Nelson reports. While the first verse claims ``it's nobody's fault,''
Nelson notes that by the end, Buffet is singing, ``It's my own damn fault.'' Simon and Garfunkel's ``Sounds of Silence'' may reflect selective mutism, a disease of children in which they refuse to speak except in certain circumstances. Suddenly the Beatles are singing, ``You say yes, I say no,'' as Nelson discusses children who oppose parental direction. Indeed, the Fab Four appear regularly in his presentation, including the optimistic ``We Can Work It Out'' in the section on partner relationships. ``Goin' Out of My Head'' by Little Anthony and the Imperials is a logical selection in the delirium category, while the same group provided ``Hurt so Bad'' for the discussion of pain. ``Light My Fire'' is logical for pyromania, and Neil Diamond's ``Solitary Man'' for discussions of schizoid disease that cause people to be loners. ``Come a Little Bit Closer'' by Jay and the Americans gives a glimpse into the world of those with the histrionic disorder that causes them to become seductive. For the narcissistic, on the other hand, there's ``You're So Vain'' by Carly Simon.
I received another nice review of my site:"Wow, the chapter you wrote about the Boston 76 show and meeting Bob was just outstanding, I read about 8 times, one after the other just to take it all in. Some excellent stuff. That must be a real highlight, meeting Bob. I also loved the bit where you asked him to visit your College. "It allows one to see where they live from a satellite .I am trying to remember if I saw the Wailers at MSG, NY in 78. As crazy as it seems, I can't remember specially if I was at that concert. I was looking thru an old "little black book" recently and noticed the phone # for an old girlfriend, Aurelie, pronounced Orally.
I vaguely remember seeing Bob Marley and the Wailers at MSG with her, but can't seem to remember any specifics, except that I tried to tape the concert on one of those 1" hand held tape recorders. I can''t seem to remember many specifics of our relationship either, except that she was cute, sweet and had a nice figure. Maybe my head was "fogged " those days.
I called her work # today, from 22 years ago, but there was no answer.That's pretty sad, that I only recently remembered, that I was at that concert. I think I also remember that the acoustics were terrible, and that my recording was unlistenable (lots of echo). We probably had really poor seats, and Bob probably looked like an ant. I would track her down on the Internet if I could, to see what I forgot, but she probably got married and changed her last name.
I was in town, when Bob played at the Apollo, but couldn't find anybody to go with, and I didn't feel safe going to Harlem alone, so I missed that timeless tour.I do remember the 80 MSG show although, where Bob opened for the Commodores. Once again I had bad seats and went with 2 friends. Unfortunately we spent most of the concert moving up. My friend Robert got separated from Jay and myself. The concert was not a very pleasant experience, since the tempo was rapid and the acoustics were awful. Once again, the stage was very far away, and we were always trying to move up. We got as far as the floor, stage left, about 100 rows back.
I remember hearing the songs and wondering what was the rush? When Bob was over, we were part of the masses that did not stay for the Commodores.Surprisingly, the 3 of us were reunited after the show. We were not aware that history was being made. All I remember after the show is buying a black and white poster of Bob, from somebody selling them in the street (which I still posses), and that someone was selling a giant Color Oil painting of Bob for a few hundred dollars.ThursdayI have to admit that I do not read the Bible often.
I would like to, but I guess I wasn't raised that way. I've tried a few times, after getting inspired, but I just didn't "get it." I've tried various chapters such as Jeremiah, and I've asked some friends and Preachers for guidance.What I do read for inspiration are books with one line per page such as "The Feel Good Book," "Life's Little Instruction Book" or "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff." Last night I was in a Rasta chat room and Donna needed inspiration for words to a song. I thought of what I read the day before which was "Reverse Roles with your spouse."
I quoted from one of trustily little books, "It's sad, yet the easiest person to take for granted is probably the person you love most in the world, your spouse.The key to prevention is to put yourself in your spouse's shoes," that didn't inspire her, but we came up with a metaphor that the world is like an out of tune drum.
Just to get off on a tangent a bit, I also "want" to be a vegetarian like my 10 y/o daughter. But I guess it's the same kind of thing as above, I guess I don't want it bad enough. I call my self a vegetarian want-to-be.FridayAs I mentioned previously, I do not have a list of my Bob Marley tapes, and I still do not, but I'm getting closer. With the help of several Internet buddies,
I am at least getting the tapes in chronological order and numbering them. One has to be pretty compulsive with collecting, so I do not know where I stand, (It's taken me 25 years to make a list) I still do not have my list on a floppy disc or have one in print, but at least I am starting to know what I have, and what I need. I have been using others' lists as a basis. BTW, there are many that have much better tape collections than me.
SaturdayI was fortunate enough to have been to Rogers house twice and see his collection. Talk about being compulsive, he has specially built tape draws (earthquake proof) and knows where everything is. If one takes a tape out of a draw, one is not supposed to replace it. Sometimes my house looks like Trader X's, but on a smaller scale. Piles of tapes everywhere, stacks of CD's and vinyl. Every so often I take time out and try to organize items, (such as non Marley Reggae, test pressings, Radio shows, or Marley related singles).
Just when I think I have all bases covered, I find a new category to collect, such as Press Passes, special format MTV Reggae Videos, or promotional Press Kits. Fortunately I do not go overboard such as collecting buttons or posters. Trader X once asked me how I find the time to do all the things that I do. I 'm not really sure, but one thing I am good at, is delegating. My wife recently stated that if I could, I would have someone take naps for me. I read a book a while ago called "Working Smart, How to Accomplish More in half the Time."
I quote Do you find yourself doing routine jobs others could do or be trained to do? There is enough time to get everything done if you use that of others. Such is the nature of delegation-assigning to others tasks that you wand or need to get done.....We allow ourselves the liberty of performing many tasks whose completion is of little or no importance. Worse yet, we spend our time on jobs on jobs that cold be more effectively done by others.
As a result less time is spent on the high-priority items that on we can do. Our effectiveness is severely diluted." The above vignette is dedicated to Grace Palamigiano.
Speaking of delegating, I asked a internet friend to write 2 articles for me. 1. Songs that the Wailers sang backup on, for Lenonard Dillon of the Ethiopians, ( ie." Beggers have no choice")
2. Was Marley a hopeless Romantic? (listend to his early Ska songs)If I had more time I would love to find out what's the real story with the song "Train to Skaville." Rumor has it that the Wailers somehow were involved in the record, possibly the introduction to the song was by Tosh. This might be the same record as "Train to Skaville" by the Ethiopians. Roger and Leroy are supposed to be putting out a Wailers discography book one day, and I hope it addresses these type of songs. I saw the completed manuscript, but was denied a copy of it.
It was roughly 150 type written pages, with the complete listing of the musicians. Each song took up about 4 lines of print.I would also like to hear what people have to say about the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ethiopia has stated that they killed 865 enemy troops and wounded 1600 in a 2 day battle near the Mereb River. Eritrea blamed Ethiopian troops for the starting the new battle and said 785 Ethiopian troops were killed in 5 days of fighting on the Badme front and that 1800 were wounded.
"This war seems almost sacrilegious, due it's historical location. There has been no mention of this war in any Reggae Usegroups or Rasta chats.As I mentioned earlier, I like to take on a challenge, mastered conquer it, and then move one. I tend to recycle my conquests periodically, and then get back to them at a future date.Like many, Close up and Stage magic was a childhood interest of mine.
Over the last few yeas, I have been associated with POPAJO, MOKO the Clown and the Amazing Juan (Wand). This was my interest before I was heavily getting into computers.I did several educational shows for the local schools, cub scouts, a few family birthday parties and appearance at the Library and one large stage show at the local Synagogue.
Anyway getting back to Reggae there was an interesting quote by Marley pertaining to magic, from the Richard Cromelin "Rolling Stone Magazine" Interview, (An edited version was published in the Beat Magazine. Taking this statement out of context: RC "I want to talk to you about Haile Selassie a little We want to understand your reaction to whatever the political situation in Ethiopia of the last year. He no loner rules Ethiopia politically, right?"BM "Politically. You see when you talk abut-Him is not a man, you know. Him not a natural man like me. He's God! You can see Him. You have a thing named magic. Magic, I mean real magic! I'm not talking about, like tricks. I'm talking about. ......real..... magic! And me no talk about learned magic, I talk about real magic. Him is a magician (laughs) - He is the real Magician.
Once I wrote an article that I submitted to a Magic magazine that was not published comparing the power of suggestion of a Physician and that of a Magician. I'll edit a version for this page at a future date.Next Page
ThursdayI have to admit that I do not read the Bible often. I would like to, but I guess I wasn't raised that way. I've tried a few times, after getting inspired, but I just didn't "get it." I've tried various chapters such as Jeremiah, and I've asked some friends and Preachers for guidance.What I do read for inspiration are books with one line per page such as "The Feel Good Book," "Life's Little Instruction Book" or "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff."
Last night I was in a Rasta chat room and Donna needed inspiration for words to a song. I thought of what I read the day before which was "Reverse Roles with your spouse." I quoted from one of trustily little books, "It's sad, yet the easiest person to take for granted is probably the person you love most in the world, your spouse.The key to prevention is to put yourself in your spouse's shoes," that didn't inspire her, but we came up with a metaphor that the world is like an out of tune drum.
Just to get off on a tangent a bit, I also "want" to be a vegetarian like my 10 y/o daughter. But I guess it's the same kind of thing as above, I guess I don't want it bad enough. I call my self a vegetarian want-to-be.FridayAs I mentioned previously, I do not have a list of my Bob Marley tapes, and I still do not, but I'm getting closer. With the help of several Internet buddies, I am at least getting the tapes in chronological order and numbering them.
One has to be pretty compulsive with collecting, so I do not know where I stand, (It's taken me 25 years to make a list) I still do not have my list on a floppy disc or have one in print, but at least I am starting to know what I have, and what I need. I have been using others' lists as a basis. BTW, there are many that have much better tape collections than me. SaturdayI was fortunate enough to have been to Rogers house twice and see his collection.
Talk about being compulsive, he has specially built tape draws (earthquake proof) and knows where everything is. If one takes a tape out of a draw, one is not supposed to replace it. Sometimes my house looks like Rogers, but on a smaller scale. Piles of tapes everywhere, stacks of CD's and vinyl. Every so often I take time out and try to organize items, (such as non Marley Reggae, test pressings, Radio shows, or Marley related singles).
Just when I think I have all bases covered, I find a new category to collect, such as Press Passes, special format MTV Reggae Videos, or promotional Press Kits. Fortunately I do not go overboard such as collecting buttons or posters.Roger once asked me "how do I the find the time to do all the things that I do." I'm not really sure, but one thing I am good at, is delegating. My wife recently stated that if I could, I would have someone take naps for me. A while ago, I read a book called "Working Smart, How to Accomplish More in Half the Time." I quote, "Do you find yourself doing routine jobs others could do or be trained to do? There is enough time to get everything done, if you use others' time.
Such is the nature of delegation-assigning to others tasks that you want or need to get done.....We allow ourselves the liberty of performing many tasks whose completion is of little or no importance. Worse yet, we spend our time on jobs that could be done by others, more effectively. As a result, less time is spent on high-priority items. Our effectiveness is severely diluted."
The above vignette is dedicated to Grace Palamigiano.
.Speaking of delegating, I asked a internet friend to write 2 articles for me. 1. Songs that the Wailers sang backup on, for Lenonard Dillon of the Ethiopians, ( ie." Beggers have no choice") 2. Was Marley a hopeless Romantic? (listend to his early Ska songs)If I had more time I would love to find out what's the real story with the song "Train to Skaville."
Rumor has it that the Wailers somehow were involved in the record, possibly the introduction to the song was by Tosh. This might be the same record as "Train to Skaville" by the Ethiopians. Roger and Leroy are supposed to be putting out a Wailers discography book one day, and I hope it addresses these type of songs. I saw the completed manuscript, but was denied a copy of it. It was roughly 150 type written pages, with the complete listing of the musicians. Each song took up about 4 lines of print.I would also like to hear what people have to say about the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ethiopia has stated that they killed 865 enemy troops and wounded 1600 in a 2 day battle near the Mereb River. Eritrea blamed Ethiopian troops for the starting the new battle and said 785 Ethiopian troops were killed in 5 days of fighting on the Badme front and that 1800 were wounded."This war seems almost sacrilegious, due it's historical location. There has been no mention of this war in any Reggae Usegroups or Rasta chats.As I mentioned earlier, I like to take on a challenge, mastered conquer it, and then move one. I tend to recycle my conquests periodically, and then get back to them at a future date.Like many, Close up and Stage magic was a childhood interest of mine.
Over the last few yeas, I have been associated with POPAJO, MOKO the Clown and the Amazing Juan (Wand). This was my interest before I was heavily getting into computers.I did several educational shows for the local schools, cub scouts, a few family birthday parties and appearance at the Library and one large stage show at the local Synagogue.
Anyway getting back to Reggae there was an interesting quote by Marley pertaining to magic, from the Richard Cromelin "Rolling Stone Magazine" Interview, (An edited version was published in the Beat Magazine. Taking this statement out of context: RC "I want to talk to you about Haile Selassie a little We want to understand your reaction to whatever the political situation in Ethiopia of the last year. He no loner rules Ethiopia politically, right?"BM "Politically. You see when you talk abut-Him is not a man, you know. Him not a natural man like me. He's God! You can see Him. You have a thing named magic. Magic, I mean real magic! I'm not talking about, like tricks. I'm talking about. ......real..... magic! And me no talk about learned magic, I talk about real magic. Him is a magician (laughs) - He is the real Magician.
Once I wrote an article that I submitted to a Magic magazine that was not published comparing the power of suggestion of a Physician and that of a Magician. I'll edit a version for this page at a future date.My son Jeremy, is into Magic Cards. I would trade anybody out there, 10 tapes for a Black Lotus.My 81 y/o mother in Law, Minerva Altchuler just helped me with editing, grammer and punctuation for this Journal.Mother in Law?, What type of word is that?,
Is there is a Lawyer in her Mother?SundayMy wife and had a great time last night. We went out for Italian food with Abe and Bonnie Dorfman. After dinner, we went to an acquaintance of Abe's house where a real live professional Baseball player from the Arizona Diamond Backs was there, by the name of John Frascalu #80. He is a relief pitcher (known as a closer, according to his sister) and I believe he was on the St. Louis Cardinals last year. I got his autograph on a prescription pad and he mentioned whether he should write out a Rx. for Sanism . (I guess that means to be sane
) Since I was a bit intimated and shy, I chose not to continue the conversation (I do not have the gift of gab, like Abe). Under his name, he signed Isazah 4127-31. I 'll have to ask for some help in finding this chapter in the Bible. All I know is that it's from the Old Testament.About 3 years ago, I obtained the 18 page Master Catalog from Cayman Music of Wailers songs.
I do no know if these songs exist and some of them are mistitled:Be your friend (High Tide, Low Tide)Band Played onBailando toda la nocheAll the girls are readyA toast to the peopleBody SlangBlue GrassBeautiful Baby I'm only up to the B's. ........In one of my Life's Little Instruction Books, one of the quotes was "Take a vacation at home," which is what I did this long weekend.I dedicate this page to Virginia Nestler, who passed away yesterday morning. I am really going to miss her. ;'-(I have been trying to learn Hawaiian guitar unsuccessfully. My father in Law gave me one about 6 months ago and it's a bit more difficult than I expected.
I purchased a video on how to play Dobro. I had my FIL give me a lesson yesterday, which I video tapped and have since partially transcribed.Musical theory is not one of my strong points. My 84 y/o FIL has perfect pitch and used to be a band teacher, School Principal and played with the likes of the Benny Goodman Orchestra.A C cord is made up of C, E, G and C. I always learned better by writing things out.
TuesdayOne should not cut, damage or mutilate any thing, thinking it will display better, As I mentioned earlier, I met A. Pablo, obtained a 12" single autographed on a blank white record sleeve. I obtained a great picture of A. Pablo and was trying to frame it myself. The white record cover was too large, so I cut it so it would fit in the frame.
Of course now, I wish I had the entire sleeve intact. Other similar mistakes that I have made along those lines is that when I was young, I received a hand written letter from the late Joe Dimaggio, for some reason I cut off the top of the stationary.
A further example of my stupidity also occurred when I was young. I received a letter from President Harry Truman. On the envelope was a reproduction of his signature , I thought the envelope was too large to save, so I just cut his signature out.So the moral of the story is, count to 10 , or sleep on it a night, before doing anything to alter a one of a kind item.
PS. I have recently trimmed a Marley poster to fit into a picture Frame. I hope I don't kick myself in the future.WednesdayAn interesting experience I had, was on 5-30-86, when I heard that there was going to be a free Reggae show at the United Nations in N.Y.C .(I forgot what the occasion was.) The concert was at an odd hour like Friday at 1:00PM. A Fellow in Geriatric Medicine, like myself, said he was also interested in going. We drove into the City, probably paid a fortune for parking by the UN, and basically hardly anybody was there except for the UN employees. There were a few instruments in the lobby, so we figured we were in the correct place.
There wasn't even a stage, only a rope. David Hinds and Michael "Ibo" Cooper of Third World were walking up the plaza and were walking past me. I introduced myself to David and asked for his autograph, (I feel that I might have hurt Ibo's feelings because I said hello to David first and addressed him by his first name. I could not remember Ibo's name at the time. A little later Third World (by the way, I had my trusty little tape recorder) played a few numbers with Third World backing up David Hinds for about 2 songs. (The rest of Pulse was not there.)
The concert was video taped, by someone from the second floor with a tripod. Unfortunately I was unable to hook up with the taper, I would imagine that the UN has the tape. Anyway the show could not have been any better, due to it's informality. This historic show at the United Nations seems to have been overlooked. After the show I spoke with Bunny Rugs Clarke, Cat and Willie. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.Which reminds me of the proverb, that luck happens to the prepared.
ThursdayIndirectly, I was responsible for getting, the Acoustic "Get Up Stand Up " on the Honorary Citizen Box set. I hooked up with Lynn Cason of Minneapolis via the Internet. In one of our tape trades she mentioned that she had a Chicago WXFM Peter Tosh radio interview show, I knew it was pretty rare, but as I mentioned earlier, one really does not know what people have in their no copies collection.
The trade with Lynn was successfully completed. A few weeks later, Roger S. was in NY, and I was hoping we could hook up for one of our quick trades. Anyway I reached him at the River Sound Studio on the upper east side of Manhattan and mentioned on the phone that I had obtained this Tosh acoustic radio show, and he invited me to visit the studio. It's pretty difficult to find tapes Roger needs, but I've managed a few times, and will do it again. I got the address and I knew I was embarking on an interesting adventure, since he mentioned Pauline Morris and others were there, I packed up my trusty video camera, a stack of Tosh singles to donate to the Tosh Museum and headed for an hour drive to the city. I found parking, not to far away from the studio, which was basically a Brownstone Building.
I was buzzed in, and entered a redone Town House, I was buzzed in another door and was warmly greeted by Roger and was introduced to others including the Producer. Everybody was sitting around listening to live cuts and trying to decide what order and what selection should be used on the CD. Roger asked for the tape, and he put it on a 200,000+ dollar stereo system. I knew what I had was great, but just didn't realize the magnitude, and the need for it. Every body was elated. This is just what we need exclaimed Roger. " Peters voice came out of these speakers, sounding as if he was in the room singing.
I had already turned on the video camera to get this once in a lifetime experience on tape. We were all sitting on the consul side of the studio, (a few instruments were on the other side of the glass window, the engineer was making DAT copies of each song, and I could see the expressions on Rogers and Pauline's face. We played the whole tape, and discussed each song.
My favorite was the "Fools Die" and "I am that I. Am."I threw my 2 cents in, with regard to the track list order. (The preliminary set list was posted the following week at Seth and Daniel Nelsons Wailer 's News page.)I twice pleaded my case why they must include Lemon tree on the box set. Roger commented on Peters words between songs.
There was also a box of Rogers' already played Tosh cassettes in a cardboard box. The tracts for the live cuts were selected, then digitalized, and the finished tapes were placed in the "finished " box.We were discussing which songs were crucial and also what should be the order of the songs. I mentioned that I felt that "Creation" was Tosh's swan song, like Redemption song was for Bob's, and it's place on the box set was essential.
Over all, I was not happy the way the box set turned out for a lot of reasons but that is another story, Columbia only used one track from my tape, but I'm sure the rest of the tape will eventually resurface on a Tosh unplugged CD. I did play the complete tape when I was a guest host on the NY Midnight Ravers Radio Program.Basically I feel that the box set could have been 100% better. At least this tape has been widely ci
rculated, so most can enjoy it. Peter might have felt that the Babylon system was working against him on his Box Set, and I feel he would have been correct.FridayMarley/Wailers are not the only Reggae I collect.
A sample of my Jimmy cliff LP collection besides the more traditional records include:Can't Get Enough of ItUnlimited (on Trojan)Wonderful World, Beautiful PeopleHouse of exileGive the people what they want Prerelease Sun Power productions on SolomonicMusic MakerUnlimited (my favorite)Another CycleImagesPop ChronikMy sympathies go out to the family of Junior BraithwaiteSaturday
My life seems glamorous, but actually it's not. Basically I work very hard and have an amazing amount of responsibility. ( I used to work 120 hrs a week as an Intern, then I slowed down to 100, now I just work 7 days a week. But this Job has it 's advantages, I get to meet many great and interesting people/patients. As I mentioned previously, In this world, it's not what you know but whom you know.
One of my patients is General Counsel for the Grammys and he obtained tickets for my wife and my self for the 39th Annual Grammy Awards held in Madison Square Garden.It was very exciting being there in my tuxedo. Of course the seats weren't the greatest, but the experience of being there and seeing how these Award shows are taped, behind the scenes is a great learning experience.
The Awards were hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, who was extremely boring. Tons of people performed such as Celine Dion, Beck, No Doubt, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, Jewel and plenty more. Which brings me to the Marely angle?The Fugees were extremely "hot" that year.
As I reported in Distant Drums magazine Issue 9, October 1997 page 7, the Fugees were feature on the bill at the Grammy awards ceremony, and included a lively rendition of "No women no Cry" (which is my Wedding song, by the way) Wyclef started the song off, with a Haitian Flag draped on his shoulders, from his position on center stage, and Lauren Hill emerged slowly from the audience to join him for the first chorus. Then, Stephen Marley appeared on stage with a Jamaican Flag, draped around his shoulders. closely followed by the I threes, decked out in complementary red, yellow, and green ornate hats. Julian and Damien were also present supplying backing vocals and bongo percussion.
I believe Al Anderson was present on guitar, but got second billing because Carlos Santana played lead.What the audience didn't see was that, over the stage was a large circular screen showing slow motion images of Bob Marley overhead.Of course the parties afterwards with private music shows were incredible. The guests of the Grammys like my self had special subway cars to take us uptown to the various hotels, I got one of those ID/VIP badges to wear around my neck. Musicians were playing in the subways.
I believe there were red carpets on the subway steps to help one get to the various Hotels uptown where the partes were held. There is a pecking order as well, on who gets to what party, (i.e.. The different record companies)Just got back from making a housecall on Doris Hallan, the widow of my first Computer Guru, Ira Hallan. Ira started me off years ago with a 386, the game Leisure suit Larry, a medication database for my patients, and AOL 2.5 and kept upgrading me and fixed the computer after I deleted essential files.
I wish he was around to see how computers and the Internet have evolved.SundayMy patient Ruby Coltrane made me a pan of Southern Fried Chicken with hot sauce on it. I found her to be anemic recently. I hope she doesn't have Colon Cancer.MondayHaving a friend like Glen Adams has provided me quite a few exceptional situations.1. Going to Studio One record shop with Glen and meeting Sir Coxsone Dodd.2. Going record hunting with Glen in Brooklyn and being introduced to several Reggae artists such as Glen Brown, Jimmy London and Philip Fraser.3. Playing guitar in Glen's studio, and then having him mention that he might sample A bit of my playing for his next CD.4.
Writing the liner notes for the Upsetters a GoGo CD.5. Hanging out at Glen Adams studio with Noel Alphonso, (Rolandos' son)TuesdayThe date of the night I met Bunny Wailer at his "Tribute to Bob Marley" show at the Beacon Theater was Dec. 14th, 1997. Bunny also sang "Legalize it."About 20 years ago my father took me to see a Breakaway show called Reggae. I still have the Playbill filed in the attack but never found anybody else who saw it or had the sound track. I know that the score was never officially released, but someone must have rehearsal tapes.
I asked Roger a while ago, and he does not. I believe the lead was played by Ras Karbi, but when I find the playbill, I will confirm that. If anybody has the tape, please contact me. I thoroughly enjoyed the show as well. Thanks Dad!!!!!Glen Adams take on the killing of Junior, was that people should just play music.There was an article about Star Wars in the Wall Street Journal and they referred to Jar Jar Binx as a Rastafarian Stephen Fetchit. (Stephen Fetchit was a stereotypic turn of the century black person)I just finished taping a preschool kids TV show called Arthur.
The theme was sung by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers..Last year, I was at a Hotel in Negril, and there was this 20ish year old Jamaican by the name of Estick, playing Classical Reggae Piano by the bar. If anybody is looking for some undiscovered talent, try to locate this gentleman. I believe, he was playing an original composition by the name of "Surrender," and then he played "No Women No Cry" for my wife and myself. His style was sort of like John Lennon's at the piano from the Lost Lennon tapes
.WednesdayI am not a skilled interviewer, and like most things in life, it requires repetition and practice. I once asked Roger for some advise on interviewing and he mentioned that one should always ask the interviewee if they have any pictures or tapes, which seems like good advise.I recently reinterviewed Sonya Archer (718-479-0947 ) who works as a nurse at a local Nursing home. She lived on Greenwich Park Road, in Kingston near Bob Marley and knew him for about 10 years (She was about 15) .
Her take on Bob was that he was very friendly, not shy and was a down to earth person. "He was always thinking about the neighborhood, like, what can he do, to better it. He wanted to motivate others. He was starting to knot up around that time and he was an all around guy. He sang about life's side and the Yard. His songs were meaningful"Sonya also did not have any old pictures or tapesI just got home from making another housecall on my 102y/o patient. I neglected to mention in a previous post that the patient's daughters dog bit me about 2 years ago, and broke the skin.
The power to heal, incorporates the power of suggestion. People get better frequently after they are told that "this will help." For a professional to have a healing relationship, there must be trust and faith. The patient has to believe.Patients are too frequently looking for a little magic pill or a rare herb to cure them. Much of Alternative care is based on the power of believing. Often a patient believes that the Chiropractor is helping, when in reality, it is just a tincture of time which is doing the healing.I am segueing into this topic from a Bob Marley quote:"Politically. You see, when you talk about-HIM, he is not a man, you know. HIM not a natural man like me. He's God! You can see Him. You have a thing named magic.
Magic, I mean real magic! I'm not talking about, like tricks. I'm talking about. ......real..... magic! And me no talk about learned magic, I talk about real magic. HIM is a magician (laughs) - He is the real Magician.Throughout history, Magic and healing have always been entwined. Magic in ancient Egypt, Voodoo in Haiti, and mass hypnosis to sway the thinking of a country's people, has been going on since the beginning of time.Another overlap between Medicine and magic is the impression that one's mind is playing tricks on them.
Occasionally patients can experience symptoms due to Psychosomatic origin or a Medical phenomena called a Conversion Reaction.So, when a patient is suffering from an illness, the physician frequently looks into his bag of tricks. To quote Steel Pulse, "Open sesame, here comes Rastaman, Abracadabra, catch HIM if you can""Whether it's life or a hoarse that throws you, get right back on"Continuing the dialogue on connections, I have had the good fortune of having Cy Leslie's' mother as a patient a few years ago. Cy has blessed me with tickets to a small private concert with Tony Bennett and Liza Minelli.
He also obtained 10th row tickets to see Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden, NY, about and 20th row seats to see Barbara Streisand at MSG, about 5 years ago. I apologize for my grammer and spelling in the above chapters. I am not a professional writer, nor was English my favorite subject. Spell check is not the all panacea that I thought I was, and time prohibits me from proofreading these vignettes several times.About 10 paragraphs back, I was discussing seeing the Broadway Show "Reggae" about 20 years ago. Spell check inadvertently changed Broadway to Breakaway.
ThursdaySometimes I feel like I spend half of my life looking for something. I am still unable to find the Playbill from the show "Reggae."I am something of a Marley addict, and I am not alone. If it has the name Bob Marley on it, I usually have to buy it. Although I am not a Jazz lover, I picked up a new Bob Marley cover CD by Monty Alexander.
So far it sounds like good waiting/reception room music.I wore my Ralph Marlin Marley tie to work today, which guarantees me interesting comments, especially on the colorful marijuana leaves.I have seen the Adrian Boot Marley photography exhibition twice, once in NYC, (where I clandestinely videotaped it), and once at Expo in Seville, Spain.
I have the 20 page summary of each picture. I wish I still had my yellow Marley coffee cup, that I purchased.I hope everybody knows that Hechicero means Bush Doctor in Spanish, and that occasionally one should hit the reload button on the page, too see if there were any updates.Thought that this site was interesting.
It converts ones' name to Jananese "http://web.archive.org/web/20010711002508/http://www.urban75.com/Mag/jap.html"I finally found the playbill to the Broadway Show called Reggae which I saw March 1980. I think it played in previews for a few months. Once again, I am still looking for the soundtrack and if you have it, please contact me. It played at the Biltmore Theater and starred Philip Michael Thomas (Miami Vice) and Ruth Cook. Ras Karbi was also in it.
The concept and production was by Michael Butler (Hair) The story was by Michael Lascelles and some of the music was by Max Romeo and Jackie Mittoo and Ras Karbi. Jackie Mitoo was also a member of the band, which provided the live music.
I could provide more details if anybody is interested.Thanks for taking me Dad, and also thanks for the Guitar. I had better thank my Mother a well, so she does not feel unappreciated.Neville Garrick will be autographing his book "Rasta's Pilgrimage - Ethiopian Faces and Places," nearby tomorrow, but I will probably miss him since I will be going into Brooklyn to discuss music with Glen Adams.I would like to post a poem my son wrtoe when he was in 2nd grade.
If anybody want s to make a song out of it, be my guest. It's called "Love Is" Love is something that you can't buy It's to cheer someone up if they cry. Love is kisses, hearts, and hugs Love is not pushing and tugs. Love is something in your heart Love makes you feel whole--not part. Love keeps you from falling down Love is smiles, not frowns.
Friday"Soon Come" is a term analogous to the Mexican term Arrohita.
It means una ratitio in Spanish and it loosely translates to "don't hold your breath." The thumb almost touches the index finger. The smaller they put there fingers together, the longer the wait. Just kidding, actually it means "in a little bit." One of the biggest culture shocks is arriving in Jamaica, and experiencing "soon come"/waiting.
Everything is a wait, and it takes some seriously chilling out.I was supposed to see Glen Adams today, but it fell through. On Dec 13th I waited about 4 hrs at a record shop on NYC for Bunny Wailer to show up. (He didn't)I once knocked myself out going to see Rita Marley at the Ritz, but she was a "no show." Third World also didn't show up at the last minute at a club in NY , due to either snow or visa problems. I waited sucessfully to see the Marley Brothers perform at a local record store for a couple of hours.I'm listening to a tape of Tosh 's Versions. Too bad they didn't put that on the Box set.Just got back from meeting Neville Garrick.
So much things to say, but I'll leave it for another time. He will be at a book store in Washington, June 22nd, don't miss him.SaturdayOne quick story that Neville told me that the finger prints on Tosh's record "Dread or Alive" were Neville's' and not Peters. Peter did not want his finger prints taken.Neville had a minute of silence for Junior Braithwaite.
I video tapped most of Neville's 20 minute talk on his trip to Ethiopia. It's gonna be a while before I transcribe it. I met two young gentleman, who live locally, and are in their final phases of a book on Reggae Album Covers. Neville wrote the "forward" to their book.SundayI just wanted to reiterate what an excellent speaker Neville Garrick is. Not only was he witty, well spoken, but extremely objective and well researched. He stated that he wanted the real truth to Ethiopia, and not what his Rasta Brethren had taught him.
I was getting Ice Cream 2 nights ago, wearing a Marley T shirt, and the vendor said "was that the guy who had 28 new species of head lice when he died"? I was taken aback, but politely explained that his statement was untrue, why it was untrue, and that it was a rumor.TuesdayI think I'm slowing down about stuff to write about. I just picked up "Destiny" and was very pleased. I thought it was at the same standards as the JAD set, which I mentioned to Bruno Blum.Just 2 quick "filler" stories. I have been searching for an authentic Wailers Dub plate for 20 years unsuccessfully. When I was in Jamaica a few years ago, I asked Paul if he could take 2 Wailers singles and have a dub plate pressed out of them for me.
He did at a cost of $40 each. They actually came out better than I had expected, since the speed was a bit slow, so they sounded different from the originals.Subsequently, I flew out to Rogers' house and used them as part of the "kitty'" in a trade. I would never lie to Roger or anybody else, but was milking the trade just to se what would happen. I finally told him the truth that they were counterfeit, before we finalized the trade.
He mentioned that he suspected it was a fake, due the paring of the songs. (Something like 3 'O'clock Roadblock with Burial version)WednesdayWhen I met Neville Garrick last week, his hair was short. I privately asked him if he was still a Rasta. He smiled and said of course he was. I thought it was a reasonable question and didn't mean to overly personal about his religious beliefs.
Neville subsequently inadvertently insulted me, in his talk to the audience. When Neville was talking to a crowd of 20 people about Ethiopia, he stated "People say, So, are you still a Rasta? I say are you still an idiot? People are really stupid.
I didn't cut them off. They left me. That's god's work" "They knew me with long locks. "He" said you don't need them any more. It's not a hair doctrine, it's not a fools (?) doctrine. No Rastaman with hair down to the ground could challenge my conviction. See my testimony (pointing to his book) Where is yours?
This is my love for Ethiopia, Where is yours?"Then Neville was talking about how the Rastas have a subjective view of Ethiopia, and when he came to America, to educate himself about Africa, by reading and taking courses.
ThursdayIt seems like it was only yesterday that I couldn't wait for my new "Reggae Beat" magazine. The Marley issue was basically the only source for information about the Wailers. It amazes me to see how far Reggae Journalism has come.Now everywhere one looks, there is another Marley page on the Internet. Now we have the Wailers devoted Distant Drums magazine, informative web sites and even real video on demand.
I wonder when we will have Marley holographic concerts?
If anybody is interested, in the R &R enterprises Autograph Auction catalogue (800-937-3880) which is over June 23rd, there is a Haile Selassie autograph for sale (Minimum bid $300) There are also Marley and Tosh autographs for sale.I wonder who has all the signed Marley contracts from all of his concerts?People wonder how I find time to listen to all my tapes and CDs.
I'll reveal some trade secrets even, that Roger doesn''t know about.Of course there is the CD ROM player in the computer, which is good for listening, when I'm on line. The CD and tape deck in my car also allows me to catch up. One of my secrets is that I have a CD/cassette player in the bathroom, so concerts can be listened to, during showers.
Interviews require much more concentration, so the Bathroom won't do for those.Of course there is a record player in the bedroom and living room. I also have one downstairs, that I exercise to twice a week.
I also have one of those toy record players for 45's in the downstairs.One of the things that inspires me to jog/exercise on the treadmill, is to watch a video at the same time.Roger Steffans mentioned in the new Marely Beat Magazine, there are only so many hours in a day one can listen to music. He mentioned that he plays music softly in the background when he is working and only occasionally, does something jump out and make him stop and listen more carefully.
SaturdayOccasionally I work for free under the name of Doctor Magic, but I thought I was finished with magic. I have volunteered to do a magic show at a Halloween party at a firehouse the last 2 years for hundreds of kids. They begged me back for this year and unfortunately, they would not take no for an answer. The following is a fantasy: Maybe I'll changed my name to DocJah Magic and do a Rasta show.
I've been thinking about this for a while (BTW, I'm not serious) I have an illusion, where I pull red, gold and green silks out of red gold and green CDs. Then I could do the color changing water trick with the same colors. I could then put a red, gold and green balls sequentially, into a cylinder tube, and pull out the balls in a different order then they went in.This reminds of some Rasta clowns/acrobats I saw twice at the Point Village Hotel in Negril, (one's name was Stinky).
Basically they acted goofy for kids, and would every so often preach some Rasta philosophy, and say something about Babylon etc. Very few tourists understood what they were saying, except me. I have the show on video somewhere. Anyway they were great.Trading tapes has been around almost since recording was invented. Whether it was trading Reel to Reel Frank Sinatra, Al Jolson radio shows or underground Stones or Beatles bootlegs on vinyl. Now with the Internet and CD "burning" machines, it is easier than ever.There are also different levels of rare tapes, such as No copies, No copies Ever or "for Your ears only."
There are also no copies in Red ink. Some tapes cannot be copied because of copyright impingement's. Some tapes cannot be copied because of personal requests by the owner or the tape. But as in Baseball cards, there are "commons," meaning that everybody can have that copy. An example of a Marley "commons " might mean the Dortmond, Germany show. One can then move on to the length of the show.
The complete unedited version is approximately 3 hrs. But most traders only have the 90 minute version. This happened probably because only 90 minutes fits on a regular cassette. Compulsive collectors seek out the complete show, and now with the Internet, one can easily search the world collectors. Another aspect of trading is, what generation is the copy? Is it a first,second,or third generation copy.
Was it from recorded from the board or audience. Was it recorded on a mono table tape recorder, such as the Wailers at the Matrix club, or was it recorded from the audience on a DAT recorder.A similar analogy can be videos. Dortmond exists in at least 2 versions. One called RockPlast and then the complete show.
Of course there is the version that has the I 3's as the opening act, which is the most sought after. One then gets into quality of the tapes, is it a Dolby a, b or c. Is there hiss? Is someone yelling out their kids name as a "voice signature"? Etc.Another aspect of trading is the from the mixing board or from an audio, that was taken from a video.
Obviously mixing board tapes are more desirable, due to the enhanced sound quality. Probably a board tape exits of all of Marleys' shows from 70-80. There are variations of the length of Wailers videos. The Rockplast video of Dortmund is not the complete show.
There is also a longer version of Dortmond, one with the I three's and another without.Every once and a while a Marley radio show will be broadcast and something incredibly rare sneaks through, such as 1 minute of the "Bedroom tapes." Occasionally 3 seconds of a previously unaired version will be played, since the Radio host did not hit the stop button in time.Where does all leave us? There are, have and have nots, in the tape traders world.
There is even a chat room in Yahoo which meets 3 times a week called the Tape trader club.The question is why are some tapes not to be shared? In my opinion, many composing tapes are personal diary's and were not meant to be heard by the general public. Others were rough mix tapes, warts and all, and were not meant to released.
Still there are experimental mix tapes, such as the one by the Congos.Since these tapes are not sold, the bootlegging business is really not an issue. No money is being made from sharing and trading tapes. It is done for the love of the music.Which leaves us with the question, What would Bob have wanted? Would he have wanted his tapes hoarded in a cardboard box in someone's closet, or having his music shared, for those who want to hear it?
Several years ago, some very rare/unheard Louis Armstong music was commercially released. Unfortunately may have his fans have since passed away, before it was released, and never got to hear that music. When Bob passed, apparently many composing tapes were taken from his Mothers house, and never have been heard from. Now is the time for those thieves to clear their conscious and share those tapes. My 102 y/o patient died peacefully yesterday. She actually made me laugh, last week.
She said "her Nurses Aide was a pain in her toe" (she didn't want to say the word Ass). At first, I thought she was complaining of pain in her big toe, then I realized that she was trying to be ladylike.My oldest patient now is Poly Flieg, 105 years old. That means she was born in 1895.
SundayI have a few test pressings, and I have been trying to obtain information about them, such as how many are made and howthey are obtained.
Test pressings are the very first records pressed from a "mother"disc, therefore they have the highest sound quality. Companies usually use one mother disc for entire run of vinyl. Quality would then obviously suffer down the line.I tried writing a mother in law joke back a few chapters ago, My friend Nelson Vinikor Esq., Lawyer and a standup-comedian-want-to-be, did me one better. "If they made marriage illegal, would my in Laws be Outlaws?"One of the most honest stories I ever heard was by Lynn Cason. Lynn is another reggae Lover, and has wanted the "Bedroom Tapes" for years.
Trader X was over her house visiting, and I guess let her listen to them. He left, and was in his car about to drive away, and she noticed that the Bedroom tape was still in her tape deck. She ran out to Roger and returned the tape. (Obviously without copying it.) I believe she received 2 "do -wop" cassettes as a reward,Sometimes I feel that this is a column about Trader X.
A trader X story I love, involves a Mutabaurka quote (BTW I met Muta at a Steel Pulse Concert at Pier 84 years If Marley fart, Roger has it on tape."I was listening again to the Marley/Jacob Miller interview at the St. Martin Airport, and the reporter asked Bob if Ganja affects his throat and makes him hoarse. Bob replied "that he liked having a hoarse/ruff voice, and didn't like that high clean neat voice he had sometimes" (paraphrasing)
MondayThere is a lot I could write today, but don't feel like it.The Hospital gave the patients Father's Day napkins with a nice poem on it, and the NY times (Arts and Entrainment section) had an article on the Beatles, and discussed obsessive collectors.TuesdayHere is a excerpt from the NY Times, which sounds familiar to us Wailers collectors:... "the Australian 45 r.p.m. reissue of "I Want to Hold Your Hand," has a stereo mix with centered vocals (the British and American mixes put the vocals to one side), or the latest rarity, a British trix number XEX 606-1 printed into the runout groove of side two.
That disk includes an otherwise unavailable mix of "Tomorrow Never Knows," which was replaced with the common version only a few hours into the press run."The Times then makes a comparion to Beethoven collectors to Beatles collecotrs:"If you visit the Beethoven Geburtshaus (house), in Bonn, you can peer into glass display cases at ear trumpets, eyeglasses and personal effects preserved with fetishistic care. You can also examine manuscript pages, full of ink blots and crossed-out sections. In these and in Beethoven's sketchbooks, one can follow surprisingly mundane themes as they are reworked and transformed into the "Eroica" and other titanic works.
For the Beatles, alternative mixes and unreleased recordings - concerts, BBC radio performances and raw session tape, traded clandestinely or sold on bootlegs-are the sketches that fill out their creative history. Granted, some mixing oddities are interesting merely because they have an extra "woo" before the fadeout of the stereo mix if "Slow Down".
Mostly, though, the attraction of these outtake Beatle recordings are that they let us in , on the choices that went into creating some of the greates pop recordings ever made"The Times article then states"Bootleggers have been muddying the historical waters by using such components to make new alternative "Versions." In this they are taking a cure from Anthology "sets, in which several outtakes were combined to create a new version in a triumph of cosmetics, over histroricity.
These concoctions, are called "outfakes."Neville Garrick told me that the original cover for Uprising was something like 5 circles, with different pictures in each circle. Neville doesn't remember what happened to the original artwork. He either gave it away or sold it. Neville also mentioned that someone incorrectly said they were responsible (I can't remember whom) for the concept of Bob and his locks arising from earth.
This segues to the idea of "keepers of things" Vs "non keepers of things." (Holder on's Vs. NonHolder ons) For the Freudian bunch among us this is known as Anal retentive. Some people like to save things. My wife has a collection of different waters from around the world. Roger Steffans wife collects Pez dispensers. I still have all my old report cards, and my wife still has locks of my kids here, I mention this because of Neville's comment that he does not keep any of his old artwork.I just saw the most extraordinary TV show on the educational channel about a new album by Robbie Robertson of the Band,
He recorded a CD with Native American Indians. All I can say is that the music was wonderful. I have a pretty short attention span, but this program and music held my interest. I can't wait to buy this CD, which is very atypical for me, since I am pretty fixed in my musical tastes.About 20 years ago, I worked as a Physician for the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe in Eagle Butte South Dakota. This experience obviously was unforgettable. I went to real a POW Wow, took a drive to Mount Rushmore and prevented an Indian from dying of a Suicide Attempt.A few years ago my family and myself went to Montazumas's Castle in Arizona, and Chaco in New Mexico. If you ever have a chance to travel, don't miss these places. They are almost as good as Luxor or the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.Anyway getting to the point of the article, if you are into World Music, I think you would enjoy this CD.WednesdayOne of the founders of Reggae Recording was Chin Randy of Jamaica, He started the record label Randys and recorded Peter Tosh as well. About a year ago, I hooked up with Clive Chin, One of Chin Randy's sons and he invited Alon Katz and me to his house to visit and see his records. He allowed us to go thru his stacks of records (LP's and 45's ) downstairs in the basement. We didn't find anything increadable like Little Green Apples, or any super Tosh rare stuff from his father, but we did have fun going thru the stacks of records.I found U Roys' album where he DJ's over Chalawa's Exodus Rhythms album. I also obtained a Pecker and the Wailers album among others. We paid a nominal fee to purchase the records. He had one of those Marley burlap bags from Rastaman Vibration framed on the wall, but the price was over my head.ThursdayI want to apoligize for any spelling mistakes or errors in grammer. I'm not sure how James edits or posts this page.FridayI know that I am running out of cool stuff to write about. I'm starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel.About 3 years ago I went to Glen Adams apartment and he had a few canisters of undeveloped home movies. He mentioned that one of them had a home movie of the Wailers at Max's Kansas City in NY. He gave me the film canisters, and I brought them to the local photography store. I asked them to if the could develop them and transfer them to a VHS format. They said that the chemicals were no longer available. The were very reluctant to try, but I sort of asked them to try anyway, they weren't too optimist, but they would give it a shot.I returned a week later and they said that there was nothing on one of the rolls (blank),I brought the film rolls to another store and asked when if they could help. They transferred one to VHS, and the other they said was blank.I nervously took the developed one home and played it on the VCR. It started off with an incredibly grainy blurry home movie of a building on fire, then a few men of African descent in a store.
I was a bit excited that maybe these were home movies of the Wailers in NY. If I used my imagination, one of the men looked like Marley and another looked like Tosh, the quality of the film was terrible, barely visible, but any barely visible movies from 73 is better than no movies of the Wailers, I tried all types of editing the video, used my snappy contraption to make some jpgs.I though I might have gotten a few frames of the Wailers faces, I tried lightening them, darkening them, cutting them, cropping them to enhancing the pictures.
I finally I had a few shots of the guys in the home movies that at least looked like people. I got a copy of the movie back to glen and he said they were they guys in the film store in Manhattan who were demonstrating to Glen how to use the camera, Boy, was that a disappointment.As far as the movies of the Wailers at Max's was concerned, Glen Adams was filming them and Chris Blackwell asked Glen to turn off his camera.
Anyway the developing chemicals are no longer available, I asked my Children's baby sitters, sister, Nancy, who works for Nikon, if she had an any connections. She said that her company four times a year makes special solutions for this type of film and will see what she could do, A few months later she heard they were unsuccessful, It's been a year now, so I have essentially given up.
Oh well, it was a good trry.
SaturdayI've been growing a beard now for 5 days. Everybody hates it, but I want to see how it looks. It used to be red in College, and I want to see how gray it is now. I've also been working like a dog, so by not shaving, I am saving my energy nad time for my patients. Mucho expenses coming up like 3 new computers for my office, malpractice insurance and my sons' Bar Mitzvah. I figure that I spend 15 minutes every day shaving, and that I could devote that time to patient care. It's also summer here, so maybe I will think I'm on vacation, if I don't shave.
Did anybody see Queen Noor of Jordan on Larry King this week? I do not think I have ever heard a more articulate, compassionate and intelligent women in my life.
Sunday: Trader X told me that I "won the prize for traveling the longest distance for the shortest amount of time."I thought I would mention what it was like to visit Rogers house in '98. One enters a lovely Califnoria house, with 1970ish mirrors on the left.
Roger's prized piece is an autographed poster of essentially everybody who ever was involved with Bob. The upstairs is basically a normal nice house, with very no obvious relics pertaining to Bob around. Then one goes downstairs and walks into a den. Well, basically everywhere one looks, there is a reference to reggae. One walks down the steps where the entire walls are filled with reggae posters and framed reggae paper items. (No Gold records.)
I think we should forget the walls for this article. When one looks to the left, there is table with hundreds of scattered tapes and paper material, in various stages of being catalogued and organized. By the left wall is a table of lots scattered reggae related items. You can tell that these items are actively being worked on (such as sorting, being listend to, or being filed). Straight ahead is Roger's computer, a three-year-old model with few frills, on which he helped create the CD-ROM part of "Soul Almighty") that includes one of those Marley mouse pads, On the floor are about a dozen thick padded manilla envelopes, obviously trades in progress. His waste paper basket is filled with red cellophane wrappers of tapes that have been copied........... To be continued....Roger's respsonse to the above chapter:WE HAVE DONE EXTENSIVE WORK UPSTAIRS, AND ALL OF THE BUILDER'S ORIGINAL CATHOUSE GOLD FLECKED MIRRORS ARE GONE. THE STEPS DOWNSTAIRS ARE LINED WITH FRAMED REGGAE ART REACHING ONLY TO THE LEVEL OF THE FIRST FLOOR. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO MARLEY PRESENCE UPSTAIRS EXCEPT FOR THE SIGNED POSTER IN THE PHONE ALCOVE, HIDDEN FROM DIRECT SIGHT. IT IS THE COMPROMISE THAT MY PATIENT WIFE MARY AGREED UPON, SINCE MY OCCUPATION OF NEARLY ALL OF DOWNSTAIRS PROCEEDS UNABATED.Thanks, roger
MondaySlightly edited and approved by Ras RoJah :-)On the left wall hangs a large Marley cloth sarong from Bali, Indonesia, with amusing misspellings (Concr Jungle and Tatch A Fire).When walking downstairs, and looking right, one recognizes the hanging piece of fabric on the wall with Bob's picture on it that was used as the background of the Danny Sims interview from JAD's enhanced CD-ROM.
In the far left corner are two custom-made wood cabinets specifically designed to hold 5000 tapes, separated by two shelves holding another thousand tapes. In its top four drawers of the Wailers cabinet are Marley shows and other Marley tapes, one or two of which I recognized as being obtained from me. (Good feeling.)Basically everywhere you look are Marley/Tosh/Bunny or reggae posters. One could easily spend hours transcribing the collectable paper items mounted on the walls, such as the poster from the One Love Concert, a hand-drawn cartoon by Matt Groening of the Simpsons TV show, an original "Hammer" Tosh poster, etc.
There is a multi-colored paper crown Roger's wife Mary made for Tosh, inscribed with all the lyrics to "Legalize It," a towel sold by Rita Marley and so forth and so on. (There is a story behind everything)Let's leave the den, because one could literally write days on the acquisitions in this room. Adjoining it is a small room with a refrigerator filled with refreshments for the various visitors who constantly stream through. This chamber contains the bulk of Roger's cd collection of several thousand albums, as well as about a thousand hours of video tapes, including most of the episodes of his long-running cable tv show, "L.A. Reggae."
This part of Roger's house was more interesting on my previous visit there, before it was organized. It used to be a small storage room. I remember that Roger pulled out a box of magazines with Marley's picture on the cover. Now I have been around and saving Marley stuff for a while, and have seen a lot of publications, but a whole box of magazines with Marley on the cover that I haven't seen? (Many were from Europe.)
There used to be lots of newspaper items and other miscellaneous Reggae items in this room, now it's neat and tidy.One does an about face and crosses back to the side of the stair case facing the sliding doors of a closet, which holds tens of thousands of slides in sheets, and boxes of prints. Push Bob's elbow on a towel decorated with Marley's wedding picture, and a secret door gives way to the Reggae Decompression Chamber, lined with hundreds of buttons and photographs and posters.
A door on the left leads to a very interesting room, the Reggae Cave. Roger's house is built on a steep hill, so the ground/boulders are on a 45 degree angle. Here Roger has very interesting items such as a huge canvas banner advertising a Jimmy Cliff concert in Negril, and a stack of Marley posters and artwork. I guess people have been sending Roger lithographs for years. These chapters of my Journal have been read and annotated by Roger. (THE CAPITALIZED REMARKS.) You're a might keen observer, my friend. One Love, RogerWe are in a short hallway heading to the "Mother Load" storage room. We have only reached the half way mark in Roger's Reggae Archives.
We already passed the Marley tapes, and lots of miscellaneous reggae items. We passed the cave on the left (I'm sure this area will be upgraded in the future) UNFORTUNATELY IT CAN'T BECAUSE IT'S GOT CREOSOTE ON THE WALLS, A KNOWN CARCINOGEN, AND WE CANNOT BY LAW TURN IT IN TO ANOTHER ROOM. SHUCKS. BUT IT'S GOTTEN MORE FILLED THAN EVER IN THE PAST MONTHS, AS I'VE ADDED ANOTHER TWO HUNDRED T-SHIRTS IN BOXES TO THE STASH IN THEREWe push the door and enter what Roger calls the Reggae Decompression Chamber.
I remember that he asked my family to "please step to the rear of the chamber!" We joked around like it was one of those rides in Disneyland where the room doesn't move, but you think it is.Anyway in this area is an unbelievable amount of Reggae Buttons, I would guess about 1000.
The opposite wall is loaded with a smaller collection of memorabilia, such as snapshots. There is a picture of Lord Buckley, a picture of Roger's father etc. We pass a collection of interviews which have been alphabetized, an unsorted box of Ziggy related items from Japan, and a box of Bob Marley clippings.I THINK YOU'RE FORGETTING THE ROOM TO THE RIGHT, THE REGGAE LIBRARY, WHERE THE TEN FOUR DRAWER FILE CABINETS AND THE BOXES AND BOXES OF UNSORTED CLIPPINGS ARE FOUND.
I have this tour on video so to refresh my memory I have watched and transcribed it. At this time my son asked Roger about his collecting and he responded that he collects "anything to do with Reggae." We finally enter the best room. Roger mentioned that four Lithuanian refugees lived in that room before he bought the house.
TuesdayWell, we made it to the main room. The heart of the Archives is a moderately sized room (I'm not good at dimensions), with wall to wall Reggae.As one walks into the room on the left is a Marley/Reggae Library. I'll guess there were over a hundred books, in all languages. Most I have seen, but there were some new ones. I saw one I traded to Roger, and song book by the Wailers, in Japanese. On the walls are Marley clocks, posters, bumper stickers, decals, and autographed items.
I saw the Jamaican Barbie Doll that I traded to Roger, (with a picture of Bob on the back) Roger mentioned that, that item was one of the most talked about items in the archive.On the floor is a framed newspaper story autographed by Bob, when Roger met him. ( By this time my family was getting edgy, we still had to see all of California in 3 days, and my purpose of visiting Roger was to trade.)Retracting our steps, as one enters the room, straight ahead are the non Wailers singles collection. Dozens and dozens of A. Ellis singles, and so on. If the other room would take days to document the items in it, this room would take months.
On a shelf, over the singles are an uncut sheet of Marley trading cards.My wife asked Roger if he arranged his albums alphabetically, and his response was that he did it chronologically, by dates of release.On the same wall as the singles, is Rogers mother load of Regae tapes, another 6000!!!!!! The tapes are arranged as follows. Drawers of Demos, Drawers of all the Sunsplash shows starting from 78, and draws of The 400 Reggae Beat Radio shows.Each tape has a similar label, for easier filing.If one does a 360 in this room, one sees thousands of Reggae artifacts. Believe it or not, I never even had time to look in any of the special draws that hold the Wailers singles. Roger showed me old snap shots of Bob taken in Georgia, by Ives.
(He was the man, Bob told that he would die at age 36, I failed to mention that in the Reggae Decompression Chamber that there was an original Lee Perry ripped torn cassette that I believe held the song "Babylon feel this one." In the main reggae room, there is an autographed Lee Perry single with incoherent writing, (Brack... ?) as well as Russian Flexi discs. Roger pointed out to me his face in the audience, from the cover of a Reggae Sunsplash album. (The guy with his mouth open)
On the right hand wall, when one enters the "mother load" room are the LP's and 12 inch singles. Roger has them arranged by Bunny, Tosh and Bob, each in chronological order. He has a section of albums he wrote the liner notes on as well and then there is all the rest of the albums.And so ends the nonvirtual tour of the Archives.WednesdayI was thinking of working on a floor plan of Rogers Archives, but do not know if I can post it to this site.
If one looks on page 6 of the 17th Annual Bob Marley and the Wailers collector's Edition of the Beat Magazine, (the newest), one can see a small picture of the Decompression area. If one looks on page 8 of the 16th Annual Collector's edition of the Beat Magazine on page 8, there is a picture of the main Archive room.
While I'm at it, I was thinking of describing what it's like to go into my attic, where I have built about at least a dozen small rooms to help me get organized. But without a floor plan it would be impossible to describe, with all the little nooks and crannies. I once made a video of a tour through my attic, and sent it to Lynne Cason, who said that the video made her nauseated, due to all the motion, rooms and turning.ThursdayI thought I would write again about an interesting time I had with Glen Adams. We went to a few record shops in Brooklyn looking for some rare singles. This next vignette occurs within about a 5 minute time period. Glen points to a guy standing on the corner, and says, want to meet Jimmy London? Of course I said sure.
Then we went into the corner record store, and Glen says hello to U. Brown, who was also shopping in the store. I purchased a few of his singles and ask him to sign them. We leave the store and Glen waves to Philip Fraser, and we cross the street and talk with him a bit.I felt that if I stayed on that corner, this could go on all day. Unfortunately we had other things to do, so we moved on.I wonder if Peter Tosh might call Roger's "quasi museum" the Ark Hives?FridayI 'd like to write a bit about meeting Sir Coxsone Dodd. (AKA Coxsone)I knew I was going to visit the Muzik City record shop, about 2 years ago, below the J train, so I packed up some singles to get autographed, just in case Mr. Dodd was there. Glen Adams and I were going to Coxsone's store so I brought about 20 white label repressing and doubles to get signed for various acquaintances.
We walked into a typically looking Reggae record store, with albums everywhere. There were the usual stacks of Boxes of repressings behind the counter, And there is Sir Coxsone AKA Clement Seymour Dodd, sitting, looking just the way I imagined he would. (Even with his cap on) I made some small talk, asked him to sign about 1/2 dozen Wailers singles, then gave him a break. In a "close out box" of singles, there were loose white labels, with version printed on it, from 45's. I asked him if I could have some, and he agreed.
One thing I learned years ago, was always spend some money in Reggae stores, just to support business. I found a few repressings, that interested me. I believe that there were not any Wailers singles in the store.I was hoping, as every collector wishes, that I would find reels of old tapes, and boxes of old singles.
That didn't happen. Thanks to Glen, I was able to go behind the counter, and behind a wall, to check out the boxes of singles. I still did not find any "One Cup of Coffees' 'or "Judge Nots." ;-)I asked Mr. Dodd, AKA Sir Coxsone Down Beat, to autograph a few more of his singles, and he kindly agreed, (I figured this was a once in a life time opportunity for me). I asked if they had any annual wall Calendars left, which they did not. I can't remember if I caught this episode of my life on video or not. I was allowed to go to the back of the shop, where the recording studio was. I met Mr. Dodd, his wife and daughter. I was wondering what it would like to record there.----------------------------------------- I am very sorry to hear about Dennis Brown's death. He never lost his roots.------------------------------------------
My family and I just returned from the South Park Movie, it was great!!!!!!!!!!! Society really is decaying.SaturdayThis site allows one to find out which musical group will be on TV.When one visted the top of the World Trade Towers in NY, there is a mural on the wall pointing out some sites in NY. One of the sites was the Apollo Theater where it was written on the wall "... where Musician's such as Bob Marley played."I spent my day today printing out this journal, which is turning into a book. It is up to 51 type written pages now.I hate the fact that when a musician passes away, one starts playing their records more.
I always enjoyed Dennis Brown, and I believe I saw him once, at a Reggae Sunsplash in NY City. I have an audio tape of him from Paris, and a video from the Apollo in NY.Once again I am running out of things to write about. I was thinking of jotting down for this column, my Wailers LP collectionMondayThere is a Wierd Al Reggae son called " Gonna buy me a Condo" which mentions Bob Marley's name.
It is found found on the box set and probably "Off the Deep End"
TuesdayOn page A3 of the July 7th, NY Times Newspaper, is an article about Democracy sprouting in Ghana. They show the artwork of a street Artist, and in the background is a painting of Bob. Most people know that on the Eric Clapton Crossroads Box set, CD #3 is Peter and Clapton doing an interesting version of "I wrote earlier about my oldest patient, Poly Fleig, she was born in 1893, not 1895, as previously mentioned.IWednesdayMost people know that on the Eric Clapton box set, CD #4 is Peter and Clapton doing an interesting version of "Till your well runs dry."
ThursdayMy AtticKey:-A. Elana's room and Internet stuff roomB. Marley articlesC. Robins RoomD. Death RoomE. WalkwayF. Reggae booksG. Magic Illusion room Misc. Marley Paper items.H. Marley stuff and Large Magic Illusion roomI. Jeremy's roomJ. Walkway K. Hess Truck and Old trains roomL. Grandpa Irving RoomM. SwampN. Frobidden BridgeFridayAnother interesting, slightly unusual Marley recommendation I have can be found on "Black Progress, the Formative years, Vol. 2 ," where a UB40 version of "Bend Down Low " can be found.I bought a new Marley photograhy book yesterday called "Bob Marley, A Rebel Life" by Dennis Morris
The book has a few interesting observations such as: " ..It is a unique situation in that one man's name can become synonymous with a musical style."...Another interesting observation was that " Bob had a very similar smile to Elvis. It's the kind of smile a superstar just got to have, that naturally disarming smile."SaturdayI have been following the threads in the Reggae Usegroup regarding "Why Reggae is not more popular?" Personally I do not have any real desire to hear Marley on AM radio stations or have Reggae go mainstream.
Recently though, every time I pick up a magazine, (Time, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Pulse from Tower records), and so on, Reggae is always mentioned. This is probably do to all the new releases from Tosh, Ziggy, and so on and to the multiple deaths in the Reggae world.As it is, the Disney TV station essentially uses Ska for all of it's kids shows.
I thought I finally figured out why Rap is popular and Reggae is not. In my opinion this is because the proceeds of Rap trickles down to Americans. (If a Rap star is from Brooklyn, then the money would trickle down to his friends and family) If the artist was from Jamaica, then Jamaicans would benefit, and so on down the pipe line. (Trickle down phenomenon) therefore, the American record companies would like to keep the money at home.Others do not agree. They feel Reggae is not "hot" because it is not what people want to hear, or in other words, it is not the music that sells.
I feel, what is popular, is what MTV and VH1 push. My wife feels that's it's "just not the music that people like. Reggae is not the music that is capturing the general public. "She does not play Reggae any more, simply because, that is not what she wants to hear.I think it's more complicated than that and it all has to do with Marketing, money and advertising.I believe Bob Marley said that the time to get people into a certain type of music is when they are young, before they really develop a musical preference.
(I imagine that means before High School)I wish I new more about music marketing, payola, and how the system works, but one cannot be an authority in everything. Dennis Morris briefly addresses this in his new book " A Rebel life." I quote "Island pulled out all the stops for The Wailers. It didn't matter to Island if the Wailers played to 50 people ore 5,000. That's what a big record company does: pushes you into the system. All that was important was that the press was there to review it.
The same ways they would work a rock band, just keep pushing. If the Wailers played to the usual Reggae circuit, they would have been preaching to the converted. If you wanted to take it any further than that, you had to put up enough money to get them into the rock venues."SundayI noticed that I wrote twice above, about a rare version by Tosh on the Clapton Crossroads box set. The back cover has the song as being called "Whatcha Gonna Do."One reason I am stressing this rare version is due to the paucity of super rare/increadable Tosh tapes.
There are several Tosh sessions floating around such as the CBS vaults, and various demos. Most of these tapes are not particularly different from the original versions. I hate to put this in writing, but it is well known that Peter was not as prolific as Bob. The radio station acoustic shows are incredible and there are a few unreleased songs which have turned up, but not even a 100th of what is available for Bob.Unfortunately the fact remains that Peter super rare stuff is not available. (Who knows what Roger S., P. Morris.
The Rolling Stones are sitting on though?) Oh well, I guess the general public will have to settle for recycled songs/albums.MondayI went to Yankee stadium last night and they played a few seconds of a Roots Reggae song, to get the crowd psyched, but I could only make out the base line. It might have been (and I hope it was, by Dennis Brown)This reminds me of an earlier post about Marley being played at Yankee Stadium.On 12/8/98 at a Yankee/Indian game, during one of the breaks, they showed a video on the monitor of Nelson Mandela at Yankee Stadium from about 95.' As background music, they used Marleys' " EXODUS."
I have seen this on more than one occasion, so it might be a standard practiceI posted earlier that I feel that each Marley show was somewhat different, and that each show had it's particularly special moments. Another recommendation I have relating to this is the second half of "No Women No Cry" and the extended Base intro. on War, at the Bingley Hill Stafford, 78,' England show.I was pleasantly surprised how good the new Jimmy Cliff "Humanitarian" CD is.I wish I was one of those people who get these CD's for free.I also purchased the Sound tract from the South Park movie, which I love. The movie starts of as a take of "Beauty and the Beast", then goes into a take off on "Le Mis"
I also purchased Weird Al's new CD "Running with Scissors," for his Offspring parody, Pretty Fly for a Rabbi. ( I will be seeing the Offspring live in 8 days). but the entire CD is fun. He does a great polka of the Spice Girls ..etc.I also purchased the new Melody Makers CD, but am not sure what to make of it. It is not bad, just different.I t sort is like the Melody Makers Unplugged. It is gonna take a few listening, before I learn the specific songs.
The music has taken a lot of flack in the Internet usegroups, which just shows how relevant the MM's sound is. True it's more Dylanesque or Bluesy than Reggae, but I have no problem with that. Actually the songs are great and melodic. If the CD was Dance Hall the Masses would not be happy. If it was like their fathers, people would yell rip-off. If it was disco/pop it would be too trendy. So the MM's march to their own drummer. More Power to them!BTW, the lay press has given it great reviews. Overall, it was a pretty expensive outing.TuesdayQuote from the great Bob Marley: Jah put the Heathen back There upon the wall Jah Jah put the Heathen back There 'pon the wall As a man sow, shall he reap And I know that talk is cheap. So the hotter the battle Is the sweeter the victory.
My patient, GN is doing great, and should be going back to Nursing Home soon.I highly recommend that the July 17th Billboard magazine be bought. It has a very large Reggae section and gives great insight into the world of Marketing of Reggae Music.
It reminds me of the Marley Issue from years back.WednesdayI have never seen an article on the "Wit and Humor of Bob Marley" Maybe I''ll be the first to write one. Everybody knows that Bob had a great smile, and seemed to laugh a lot. Peter was well known for his sense of humor and his play on words.I wrote my first Reggae joke:Why is Peter Tosh all over the Internet? Because when one goes to a web page with a broken image, one sees a red X.I have heard many anecdotal stories about misunderstanding Reggae lyrics. On more than one occasion, I have heard Dreadlock Lobster sung, instead of Dreadlock Rasta. The lyric from "Waiting in vain" , "Tears in my eyes burn" has been misheard as Tears in my sperm. Another one is from "The Heathen" "They even got me, on the wall"
I think Roger has a collection of these types of misquoted Lyrics. Another one is "With the Roof Rack over our head, we'll share our shelter..." I thought the words to "Rocking steady" was Rockstead he said.Most people know the story that when the Dylan heard the Beatles song "I want to Hold your Hand", they heard "I get high..." rather than, I can't hide." Dylan subsequently approached the Beatles and told them that he "smoked "also.ThursdayOne of the top Reggae Experiences in my Life was being asked to write the Liner notes for the CD "Upsetters a Go Go" It was an honor and a privilege to be associated with such a fine and talented person like Glen Adams. You can read about the CD here: http://web.archive.org/web/20010711003507/http://www.rounder.com/rounder/catalog/bylabel/hbea/136/136notes.html I have also been asked to write the Liner notes for an up coming Glen Adams 40th Anniversary CD.
This is the second draft of the liner notes:This superb CD, a continuation of it's internationally acclaimed processor, "Upsetters A. Go Go" release in 1995, contuse to showcase Glen Adams. Digging deeper into the vaults, reworking unfinished tracks and with a bit of overdubbing, but maintaining the original feel of the rhythms, new life has been breathed into these classic rhythms.
Glen Adams who worked with Lee Perry on roughly 10 albums worth of material again shows his immeasurable gift. Along with the Barrett brothers et al., these songs sound as fresh as ever.Major record companies and smaller independent labels have been interested in acquiring these once in a life time classics for years. So as not to loose creative control, or give into computer rhythms, Glen Adams has again arranged and self produced this remarkable CD at his CAPO studio, so he could take control of it's artistic content. The above is just a rough draft, so there still some inaccuracies.FridayA few chapters ago, I was writing about visiting Rogers Archives. A map probably would have made the tour easier.
The following link shows a rough floor plan of my attic. It is not as big as it looks, and I built most of the rooms essentially by myself.
The walls are made of superthin plywood, and it is a major fire hazard. "One might use this signature as a reference for some of the fake autographs being sold on e bay. The following link is one of the more interesting European singles,.
SaturdayA previous post regarding Dylan and the Beatles segues to a dissertation on discussing the relationship between Dylan and the Wailers.Bob Marley was like a beacon of light to millions of people for a variety of reasons. The same can be said for Bob Dylan as well. Both artists were pathfinders. Both artists were originals.
I know this article is somewhat superficial, but it's meant to be a starting point for some Dylan authorities.The Wailers covered "Like a Rolling Stone." According to Stephen Davis, the song was credited to Bunny and Coxsone. After a spooky blues piano into, the Soul Brothers slip into a groove that's a mixture of 1965 American Folk rock and early Jamaican rock-steady. Although the chorus is the same as Dylan's the verse and melody are different: Nobody told you he was on the street/but that's what happens when you lie down and cheat/You have no nights and you have no morning/Cos time like a scorpion just sting without warning/How does it feel/To be on your own/With no direction home Like a complete unknown/ Like a rolling stone".I also own the UK Ska Beat label for Sinner Man labeled "Zimmerman," I wrote Dylan a letter about 2 years asking him if he was aware of the Wailers' label called Zimmerman, and some other questions on Marley but he never responded.It has been reported that Bob was a big fan of Dylan. I quote from Ian McCann's Book, "Bob Marley in his own words,"
I used to hear about Bob Dylan plenty. Me hear Dylan's music over the radio. I might go to somebody's house and they have Bob Dylan, and play it. But me never seriously listen to Bob Dylan until the other day, me start, like listening...."I guess in the same interview in January 76, Bob stated "Bob Dylan? He really say it clear." Both Bob's lives were heavily influenced by Religion. Since this column is mostly about Marley, his devotion is known.
Dylan was born Jewish and became a born again Christian, Opage 24 of the CBS booklet accompanying the Dylan-Box Set Biograph:I quote from the Stephen Davis/BobMarley interview found in Vol 11,1992 of The Beat magazine: "We're talking about Music and Africa and Jamaican Politics when the subject of Dylan came up. "There's a new Bob Dylan album" I begin. (Stephen Davis September 1980 Bob Marley interview recorded at a hotel suite near the Boston airport:"Saved" says Marley. For some reason. I'm surprised the Reggae King knows about Dylan's album I quote Jeremiah 31:31, which was used on Saved's jacket: Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. Marley sits up, removes his cap and shakes out his knotty mane so it unfurls in all its glory.
"Yes, mon. he explains , "I am interested in Bob Dylan. And that is a good verse too, a revelation, a link up with Rasta, as Haile Selassie is the conquering lion of the house of Judah. And me like him song "You Got to Serve Somebody" as well'.I point out that many of Dylan's old fans are resentful that he has issued two albums of religious music. His audience is skeptical, I tell Marley. They want the old Dylan of incendiary poetics and blood on the tracks.Marley takes a draw of his cone-sized spliff and considers this. "Well," he says after a moment, "
Me glad him do it, too, y'know because there comes a time when an artist just cannot follow the crowd. If you are an artist like Bob Dylan, you got to make the crowd follow you. I can tell you that it doesn't mean anything to him that people might not like what he is doing. Him still do it. And that is the most important thing, Him still do it."The Rolling Stone Magazine printed an interview that when Dylan was asked in an interview, who the one person was that he most regretted never meeting, Dylan said Bob Marley.
He added that they'd come close once, when they were both in the same town in Texas, but there had been some confusion and they missed each other. " Bunny was supposed to have recorded "Blowing in the Wind," but the single or tape has never been located. (I do have a version by Burt Waters although)Both Bob's recorded version of "People Get Ready" by Curtis Mayfield. (Dylan's can be found on a movie sound tract)An earlier comparison between the 2 Bobs was written by Stephen Davis in the 1992 Bob Marley collectors Edition of "The Beat" magazine. An illustration of the 2 Bobs done by Birendra Shakya is also reprinted in Distant Drums magazine, Issue 8 , Dec. 96,' p25.
Marley was drawn in the style of Dylan from the cover of Dylan's' first greatest hits record.Bob Dylan saw Bob Marley and the Wailers at the Roxy Theater/Nightclub, on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood Calif., USA, in May 1976. This performance was broadcast by Los Angeles KMET-FM.SaturdayI thought I would write about a difficult case. Her name is GN a 84 y/o white female. I have been her doctor for 13 years. She has always been upbeat, fun happy, sexually active up to a few years ago, and easy going.
Over the last 4 years she suffered a stroke, had uncontrolled Sugar and Hypertension and several other problems. She has been on a downhill course over the last few months and recently developed Gangrene of her toes, in addition to other problems.I have tried to treat her conservatively, but to make a long story short, she requires amputation. If I leave her alone and do not have her toes and foot removed, it will be painful, smell and she will suffer. If we amputate, she will not heal, will probably get infections and will suffer.
If I leave her alone, stop blood tests, and allow her to die with dignity, I'm sure she will not die for a while and will suffer, Unfortunately, she is not going to close her eyes and pass away in her sleepThis case would not be that difficult, if I wasn't so close to her. (and didn't care about her so much) We are going to operate, since no matter what we do, it will be difficult, unpleasant and there is no correct answer.
I came to this conclusion, that we will remove the foot, based on previous cases of Osteomyelitis and Gangrene, that I have taken care of. I don't think there is a correct answer. She told my Medical Student, Barry Pinto to go Fuck himself. I don't want to get into the issue of her previous wishes. Her daughter agrees with the decision to operate.By the way, I am her Medical Physician, and coordinate everything.
There are other issues such as living wills, agitation and her pulling out her Intravenous, and her Penicillin Allergy.
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HechiceroMondayI'm back from my vacation in California. I was inspired to return to this column by an episode which occurred. We went to the Wine Vineyards in Calistoga, Napa Valley to attend my cousins wedding. We went to a few Vineyards to learn about wine, and the first one we went to was playing "No Woman, No Cry," as background music, which was my Wedding song. I thought that was a good omen.P
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HechiceroMonday
I'm back from my vacation in California. I was inspired to return to this column by an episode which occurred. We went to the Wine Vineyards in Calistoga, Napa Valley to attend my cousins wedding. We went to a few Vineyards to learn about wine, and the first one we went to was playing "No Woman, No Cry," as background music, which was my Wedding song. I thought that was a good omen.Previous Chapters
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HechiceroMondayI'm back from my vacation in California. I was inspired to return to this column by an episode which occurred. We went to the Wine Vineyards in Calistoga, Napa Valley to attend my cousins wedding. We went to a few Vineyards to learn about wine, and the first one we went to was playing "No Woman, No Cry," as background music, which was my Wedding song. I thought that was a good omen.Previous Chapters
MondayI'm back from my vacation in California. I was inspired to return to this column by an episode which occurred. We went to the Wine Vineyards in Calistoga, Napa Valley to attend my cousins wedding. We went to a few Vineyards to learn about wine, and the first one we went to was playing "No Woman, No Cry," as background music, which was my Wedding song. I thought that was a good omen.TuesdayI was much more into Reggae than my wife when we first met, but she owned a copy of Natty Dread and that impressed me.
After a few dates, she bought Earth Crisis by Steel Pulse and she gave the record to me. After that, I knew she was the girl for me. I tried to get rid of a UB40 album by giving it to her. We picked "No Women No Cry" as our first dance song. and we must have had one of the first Reggae Weddings. On October 8th, 1984, we got married.We had a White typical professional Wedding band with a black singer. The band really did not know how to play Reggae and nor did they know Wailers' music. I obtained the sheet music and a few Marley singles for the band.The Ceremony was a typical Reform Jewish one, except for the Reggae themes throughout the Rabbi's speech. He referred frequently to the chorus "One Love, and One Heart" and that this type of togetherness representing our union.
I cannot find the video of my Wedding at the present time, but will have a lot more to say about the ceremony at a later time. The band played about 4 Wailers songs,including "No Women No Cry", Jamming, and an excellent extended version of " I Shot the Sheriff".WednesdayI hope my Wedding video turns up. Several years ago, I tape-recorded my brothers wedding, and subsequently erased it by accident, The cassette tape was not labeled and I recorded "Babylon by Bus " over it. Maybe this was a premonition since they got divorced several years later.I was unable to hookup with Roger Steffans in Los Angeles, since he was at the Bunny Wailer concert in Colorado.The flight back from California reminded me, that in December 1992 we were flying somewhere around the time when "Songs of Freedom" was released.
Much to my surprise, it was one of the types of music that was featured on the audio channels. 19 of the tracks could be heard with the in-flight headphones. The following are jpgs from the in flight magazine, Marley might not have not heard of the Grateful Dead, but years ago I'm surethe Grateful Dead heard of Marley. I believe some of them went to see him at the Roxy show. Jerry Garcia and Merle Sauders r
ecorded an album in the mid 70's and can be heard playing Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come" on their live album, recorded at Paul's Mall in Boston.The Jerry Garcia Band played "Stir it up" at the Keystone Club in Berkley, California on July 10th 1976. I heard from a Deadhead that they played "Stir it up" at least during 2 other shows. One could look up the particulars in a book that lists the set list to every Grateful Dead show. (We need one of those books for Bob Marley, but good sites are available on other areas of James Wilson's' page. "http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.bobmarley.freeserve.co.uk/setlist.htm"Recently while in California, I drove by the Grateful Dead house in Haight Ashbery, San Francisco California, and took this picture. "http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Wailers6/images/Greatfuldeadhouse.jpg"There are many overlaps between Reggae lovers and Deadheads, which must have been written about, but if it hasn't, I'm not about to, The great Reggae cover version CD of the Dead, "Dedicated" is also available.My next post will be on Marley Mural Paintings in the Haight.FridayIn Haight Ashbury, I captured these 2 wall murals of Bob Marley on video,and digitally transferred them to jpg format via a device called Snappy:"http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Wailers2/images/BobMural.jpg"This one was taken at the corner of Central and Haight. I hooked up with Lynne Cason, an artist, who is Reggae Ambassadors Worldwide #777. Lynne and I spent most of the night driving around looking for these paintings, which was not easy, since we both have a poor sense of direction.This one was at the corner of Washburn and Haight "http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Wailers4/images/bob3.jpg"Haight was loaded with references to Bob Marley, whether it by stickers, tee shirts, flags, calendars, incense, or posters. There was also a white guy, with dreadlocks panhandling, playing Marley songs on his acoustic guitar on the street corner. (was that a run on sentence?)SaturdayThe above merchandising of Marley is whole other area which should be explored, but not by me.In Los Angeles, I recently took this picture of a mural of Bob outside Tower Record Store at the heart of Sunset Boulevard. "http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Wailers8/images/MarleyoutsideTower.jpg"SundayA few years ago when I visited Rogers' archives for the first time, he introduced me to his friend Jim Marshall, who has an enormous collection of Reggae Photographs and videos. His Archives and walls are covered with pictures of Reggae Artists. The primary thrust of his collection is anything having to do with Haeli Selassie. He has hundreds of books on HIM. He also has coins, stamps, medals, but most important is his knowledge. I was happy I was able to contribute a book that he needed. As well as being an archivist and an authority on The History of Ethiopia, Jim apparently has been trusted by many artists to capture their shows by him on video and by photography.MondayLast week, there was some commotion at the local corner Pizza store. I asked one of the people outside what was going on? They responded that Hillary Clinton was there. Me being the roving eyewitness reporter,that I am, went home and came back with my handy camera."http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Wailers9/images/HilbyDoc.jpg""http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/wailers11/images/best.jpg"TuesdayLast night, my wife and I went to a wedding. During the break (eating time), the music was an elevator version of "No Women, No Cry." The point that I am making and have been making repeatedly in this journal, is how much Marley in slowly infiltrating life's' mainstream. I sure the wedding couple did not request this music to be used as "down time," so the band must have felt it was appropriate on their own.Today myself and my family went to a Mets game. It was one of those special days when the kids are allowed to run around on the bases, and get close to the dugout. I will post boring pictures at a later time.May you be entered and sealed in the Book of Life.My family went to Olympics in Atlanta Georgia, USA, back in 1996. Between events (Track and Grecko Roman Wrestling) We went to a an area where there were booths selling stuff. I was suprised that one of them was selling exclusive Ziggy Marley items, such as soccer balls. I bought this tee shirt. front : "http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Wailers12/images/Ziggyshirrt.jpg"back: "http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/wailers13/images/MMback.jpg"Today is my Birthday. So far I have received a CD of Yellow Submarine and a Life Magazine from the week I was born, My parents are getting me 2 suitcases with wheels and my wife is getting me a Marley record from an online auction site.WednesdayMy Son gave me some type of butter that lowers Cholesterol, and my Daughter gave me an artsy metal CD holder. My staff gave $50, my In-laws gave $45.A 90 year old couple (the Cohen's) sang Happy Birthday to me. Grace baked me some cookies and Maureen sang Happy Birthday over the Telephone.My wife also gave me the Rolling Stone Book of Love. There was no mention of Marley in the book though.I'm not sure of Marley's "true" take on Love. He did say that Rita was his Queen, but he has lots of "Baby Mothers." To me that does not sound very Romantic or intimate, but I cannot inflict my Culture on his. Bob said that his only vice was "Plenty Women." Bob was obviously very desirable by the opposite sex, as many celebrities are. But with Bob there probably was a spiritual, immortal angle as well. (As Ziggy said "from the Line of King Marley")The Book "Bob Marley, In his Own words " does not have a chapter on Love, but there is a section on Women. His response to the question "Did you ever fall in love?" was "Well, see, you mustn't give your strength to the women. A women is to be loved and appreciated. Women is an earth, the mother of creation. Must love women, but don't fall in love. Me stand in love. Love so much, me look hungry. Pure love, dat. When you see me look vexed, dat' cause me pucked up with Love." (1976)ThursdayFridayI previously posted about meeting Bob Marely at The Music Hall in Boston Massachusetts. On Sunday, April 25th, 1976. I was leaving for Medical School in a few days so I had my hair cut short and looked like a geek.After I met Bob (the Band was also in dressing room at the time, but in those days I hardly knew the members), I thanked him, left the backstage area, and left the Theater via the stage entrance to go outside. There was The Wailers Tour Bus right in front of me. I wasn''t about to let this opportunity pass me by. The people I went to the concert with, already left. I started off by meeting Family Man, here is a picture of me getting a signature on the only scrap of paper I had, which was laboratory Organic Chemistry paper. http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Wailers14/images/meandfamilyman.jpg"http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Wailers18/images/FamilyMan.jpg"I was quite fortunate that a fellow student was also a photographer, and he documented everything I saw. Unfortunately I do not remember the his name, but I do have about 8 unpublished photos of Bob.After I spoke with Family Man, I asked Bob if he could speak at my College, Boston University. His pleasant reply was that he "had a Tour to do." I will post tomorrow what Bob looked like at that moment. I gave someone on his Tour bus my Dormitory room phone number and they passed it down to him. I asked him to call me if he ever wanted to speak at my University.Of course I had no authority to invite Bob, nor was I involved in any type of Guest Lecture series, but I thought they would be interested in having him speak, if he agreed.About 4 years ago I gave one of my personal concert Photographs to Roger Steffens. I'll post the rest in a few days.SundayMy wife and I went to Egypt about 7 years ago. While we were in Cairo looking for Reggae in local record shops. I came across an interesting Cassette by Ziggy. One of the songs was mislabeled "Wake up Yah Yah People." I passed the tape on to Roger who showed it to Ziggy who according to Roger had a good laugh.It was great being with Ziggy in the Melody Makers Yahoo chat room a few nights back. I invited Roger and told him about it twice, but he didn't show. I posted some personal Concert pictures of Ziggy and his Father singing "Lively Up Yourself" from the Boston 76 show, during the chat, that have never seen the light of day, for Ziggy to see."http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Wailers17/images/BobZigbylowell.jpg""http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/wailers15/images/ZigBobbyDoc.jpg"Some excerpts from the chat room which were not posted in the ZMMM yahoo group:I asked Ziggy if he looked at the pictures of him and his father yet, and he said "not yet."I asked him if he uses the Internet, and his reply was "No," I then mentioned that it is a good way to keep in touch with family members.I asked what his plans were for New Year's Eve, and his reply was that "it is just another sunrise."Someone asked Ziggy "if there is some way they could work for him?", His response was "Work for Jah, he has better benefits."Ziggy said "Spirituality is our own experience of the life force, which is JAH"Ziggy mentioned that the song "Won't let you down," was something that his father told him in Miami."Ziggy mentioned that "Waters change from time to time"I also mentioned that "One good spliff" was one of the greatest songs ever written, and someone seconded it.MondayThe following are a couple of interesting passages from a prayer book I read recently:"In the face of many, to stand for the one; in the presence of fragments, to make them a whole.To hold fast to our vision of truth, to retain our faith in tomorrowMay we lie down this night in peace, and rise up to life renewed? May night spread over us a shelter o peace, of quiet and calm, the blessing of rest.There will come a time when morning will bring no word of war or famine or anguish; there will come a day of happiness, of contentment and peace.Praised be the source of joy within us, for the night and its rest, for the promise of peace.TuesdayU2-Redemption Songhttp://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Stage/8542/redemption.htmlWednesdaysding P tosh and not linkingit the guy ai went with agfter smoking th got hte workst ha of his :ife. Peter wohad a ways of pucshing up his glassed b=wuith his midddle fgindgler, like he wa given the audiancethe findger. Lots of killing terrorists in Israle, and perter ws wearing a Atrab cufter,, He ckept calling Ny Boo yuour.This is the way my vignettes start. Sometimes I get a bit of memory flash about something Reggae related. Then I jot my ideas down as quickly as I can type, then I have to decipher at a later time, what I wrote.The above story is about the time I saw Peter Tosh at the Pier in NYC. I went to the concert with a relative from the other side of the family. This guy (who didn't love Reggae) smoked too much and told me that he had the worst headache of his life.Overall, my recollection was that I didn't enjoy the concert all that much for a lot of reasons. First of all, I was with this dipshit, second, Peter had a way of pushing up his glasses with his middle finger, like he was giving the audience the finger.Another thing that bothered me that there were many Terrorist killings in Israel that week, and Peter was wearing an Arab quaff (an Arab headdress), which rubbed me the wrong way. The last thing that turned me off, was that Peter kept referring to New York as Boo York.Here is another bit of inspiring pieces from the Holiday Prayer Book,Master of all living, your ways are ways of love. You remember the faithfulness of our ancestors, and in love, bring redemption to their children's children, for the sake of Your name.Your love sustains the living, your great compassion is the source of life. Your power is in the help that comes to the falling, in the healing that comes to the sick, in the freedom You bring to the captive, in the faith, You keep the those who sleep in the dust.Who is like You, Source of mercy? In compassion you sustain the life of your children. We trust in You to restore our life. Blessed is the Lord, source of all life.Here is another unpublished photograph of Bob and Ziggy, (This picture might have taken by Davud Melhado)"http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Wailers15/images/ZiggyandFather.jpg"ThursdayAnother passage from the Holiday Prayer book:We gratefully acknowledge that You are the Lord our God and God of our people, the God of all generations. You are the Rock of our life, the Power that shields us in every age. We thank you and sing Your praises: for our lives, which are in Your hand: for our souls, which are in Your keeping: for the miracles which are daily with us: and for Your wondrous gifts at all times, morning, noon, and night. You are Goodness: your mercies never end: You are Compassion: Your love never fails. You have always been our hopeHere is another picture from my personal collection of Ziggy and Bob taken in Boston, 1976. "Some more Prayers:I lift up my eyes to the mountains; what is the source of my help? My help will come from the Lord. Maker of heaven and earth. God will not allow your foot to slip, your Guardian will not slumber. The Eternal is your Keeper, the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not harm you by day, not the moon by night. The Lord will guard you from all evil, and protect your being. The Lord will guard you, coming and going, from this time forth, and for ever.Our Souls are stirred by the memory of joy, as the new year begins.We were sustained by love and kindness: comforted in time of sorrow: found happiness in our homes, and gladness with our friends. We lift up our hearts in thanksgiving, as the new year begins.Here is another unpublished Photograph that one of my old best friends, Dr. Kevin Stone kindly returned to me."http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/BushDr/images/armsoutstretched.gif"A story Popajo told me.Jesus and the Devil were working on their computers, on a complicated program. The Devil was way ahead of Jesus, when an electrical surge occurred. The Devil said "now we have to start all over." And Jesus answered, "Not I." The devil said "Why?" And Jesus answered "Haven't you heard, Jesus Saves."SaturdaySeveral years ago, I had the fortunate experience to revisit the Tosh Mausoleum in Bluefields, Ja. A museum is presently being built at a snails paceand I donated a dozen rare Peter singles, to be included. The following pictures were taken by John Himm. My pictures were posted in Distant Drum Magazine a few years back.http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/yt/him/PeterTosh.html or "http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/yt/him/PeterTosh.html"Peter Tosh's Mausoleum in Bluefields, Westmoreland, Jamaica. June 16, 1997SundayReggae has been mentioned a couple of times on TV recently. I was watching Jeopardy for Music, recently, and the answer was "Catch a Fire" The panelists had to guess Bob Marley, which they did not. On the Saturday Night Live TV special, they showed a bit of Peter Tosh and Mick Jaggger singing "Walk and Don't Look Back."And now to a more serious note. Some more Excerpts from Holiday Prayers.Our Father, our King, we have sinned against You.Our Father, our King, have compassion on us and our children.Our Father, our King, make and end to sickness, war and famine,Our Father, our King make an end to all oppression.Our Father, our King inscribe us for blessing in the Book of Life.Our Father, our King let the new year be a good year for us.Our Father, our King, be gracious and answer us, for we have little merit.Treat us generously and with kindness, and be our helpAnother unpublished picture of Bob"http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Hechiero1/images/Bobplaying.gif"MondayMy Column/Journal/Book might take a Hiatus again. My method by which I digitally transfer video or pictures has crashed, (Snappy) and is unable to be resuscitated. I will have to resort to using a scanner, which is much more time consuming.About 2 years ago, at Roger Steffens Video Presentation at "Sounds of Brazil" Resturant/Club in NYC, Al Anderson was in the crowd. We chatted a bit and then I showed him a sheet of Bob Marley Stamps that I happened to have in my pocket. I asked him if he would like any, and he said yes. I also had him sign the rest of the sheet for my collection, I added that to my Rita, Judy, Marcia, Peter, Bob, Bunny, Joe Higgs, Glen Adams, Neville, Coxsone and Jr. autographs.Among the Ghetto Youth Crew I have Ziggy, Stevie, Jr. Gong, and Damien.Some miscellaneous ones I have are Michael Manley, Cedella Booker, Danny Simms, Arthur Jenkins, Yvette Crighton, Alton Ellis, Jimmy Cliff, Third World and Steel Pulse.Below is a great Photograph of Bob and Ziggy."http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Doc/images/ZB.jpg"TuesdayThis is a very cool Home Page with great graphics:http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.stoned.com/Another great picture of Bobhttp://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/BobMarley/images/Bobplaying.gifBelow is some information from the book "Plants of The Gods" on the History of Cannabis."http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_culture2.shtml"Tradition in India maintains that the gods sent man the Hemp plant so that he might attain delight, courage, and have heightened sexual desires.When nectar or Amrita dropped down from heaven, Cannabis sprouted from it.Another story tells how, when the gods, helped by demons, churned the milk ocean to obtain Amrita, one of the resulting nectars was Cannabis. It was consecrated to Shiva and was Indra's favorite drink. After the churning of the ocean, demons attempted to gain control of Amrita, but the gods were able to prevent this seizure, giving Cannabis the name Vijaya ("victory") to commemorate their success. Ever since, this plant of the gods has been held in India to bestow supernatural powers on its users.The partnership of Cannabis and man has existed now probably for ten thousand years -- since the discovery of agriculture in the Old World.A picture of the I threes from the Boston 76 show:"http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/Ithree/images/I3.gif"To be continuedWednesdayA few months ago I posted a bit about meeting Neville Garrick, during his "publicity" tour for his recent book. Here is the homepage for his book: This weekend my family is going to Boca Raton, Florida, for my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary. After that, we will be heading off to Disney World and Universal Studios. Of course we will be checking out the Bob Marley Tribute of Freedom Restaurant at the Universal Studios City Walk. I'll have more to say about this after the trip.I understand that it is designed as a replica of Bob's home. with a kitchen, cupboard, ceiling fans, tile floors, wooden tables, wicker chairs and a courtyard with a gazebo.There are supposed to be hundreds of photographs and portraits of Bob and his family. The menu has Jerk chicken and plantains. There is supposed to be a reggae performance each night on the open-air courtyard stage."http://web.archive.org/web/20020628143338/http://www.usfinfo.com/parkinfo/citywalk/marleys-menu.htm"PS. I obtained tickets for the Yankee Playoffs against the Texas Rangers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!PPS. I am starting to like the new Disco mix of "Sun is Shinning " a little more.ThursdayI got another cool Birthday present. My sister and her family had a Star named after me and my family. The whole thing is probably a fake, but anyway according to the International Star Registry: Star number Cygnus RA 19h 53m 28s D53' 36' now has our name.FridayThere was an article in today NY Times which triggered the next short article.I wonder if any analogy could be made between the Nixon tapes (Watergate) and Bob Marleys' unreleased tapes. Nixon clearly had problems, and was probably unable to destroy his tapes, since that would be an admission of guilt. The tapes were incriminating, and revealed his evil side. A Physician cannot destroy or alter his records either. That would be destroying evidence, which is considered tampering and can lead to a bigger crime.
I guess the point I am making is would Bob have wanted his private conversations, and composing secrete tapes revealed and released? Would he have wanted his out of tune demos and on occasion, use the word "fuckery" to be released to the general public?I wonder if Bob ever wondered or cared if his unreleased out takes by Danny Simms would be floating around? I would surmise that he was secure enough that he wouldn't really care either way, since his conscious was clean.Any way I have no answers.SaturdayThere is something going on outside that I wanted to share with my readers. Maybe you have heard about the Western Nile Encephalitis outbreaks due to Mosquitos, being carried by birds, that is going on in my neck of the woods? (Last week, the Health Department incorrectly thought that the illness was due to St. Louis Encephalitis.)Between 5 and 10 tonight, my part of the country is being sprayed with Insecticide, by helicopters. Obviously this is causing a controversy due to the side effects of the insecticide. 38 people and hundreds of birds and some horses have been infected with encephalitis. As a matter of fact I just saw an ill looking Pigeon on the corner.Schools have been closed, Soccer games have been canceled, and notices have been posted. The whole thing seems like a Science Fiction Movie, but is really going on. Maybe Germ Warfare is really going on.I'm not sure where I stand on the issue. I tend to be a somewhat conservative, Natural Physician. If the spray was not used and hundreds of people became ill and died, and millions of birds died, and if the insecticide spray was not used, the wrong decision would then have been made. If the Insecticide spray is too toxic, and our kids get Leukemia, then the wrong decision was made.We forget that in this Millennium, Millions have died from the Plague, TB and Dysentery. (lets not even get into HIV. I think more people have died from Infectious disease than Wars. Anyway it is the next day and they did not spray. Maybe tomorrow.SundayI'm back from my trip to Florida, but the flight home was very bumpy. The Marley Restaurant was great, except for the food. Unfortunately my video camera broke, but I'll write more and post pictures at a future time.
Melanomaby Lowell B. Taubman MDThe following is the unedited conversation with Peter Grimes of UPN FOX TV.Q: What is your knowledge about Cancer?A: I do not claim to be an expert in Dermatology or Cancer, but I am a Board Certified Internist which is a specialist in Internal Medicine, and I also completed an extra 2 years of training in Geriatric Medicine.Q: You are also a big Reggae fan. Did you follow the Bob Marlet Story? Please tell me about your knowledge.A: I first heard Bob Marley in college, and I was asked to write an article about Bob Marley's Cancer/Malignant Melanoma. Some of the issues I addressed were genetic transmission, black vs. white incidence , could the CIA have given or transmitted the Cancer, could the Melanoma have been injected into Bob, and finally could trauma (hurting your toe) cause Melanoma. Q: How common is Melanoma in a black person?A: There are different types of Melanoma. Bob had a form which was exceedingly rare. 7% of Melanomas are the Lentigenous type,. Bob had the classical type of Melanoma that is found in black people. Bob's father was white and that was an issue with many people. Bob's Melanoma was the type that is found in people of African descent. His Melanoma presented as a macule or spot on his great toenail. This spot can look like a black and blue spot and frequently they are neglected. An individual might think that they might have inadvertently stubed their toe. Bob Marley's nail partially came off while playing soccer in France, and was treated by a physician there.Q: What is the treatment for this sort of thing, and did he follow the treatment?A: I should say that I have not seen the medical records, nor have spoken to the physician. Bob's Melanoma was seen and treated by a physician who probably used Lidocaine for pain control. The nail was removed. I cannot say whether the Melanoma was diagnosed or misdiagnosed appropriately, because there are some flat Melanomas. If the Melanoma was under the fingernail, it can grow down much worse than originally anticipated. The hard nail acts as a barrier, so the skin cancer grows downwards. I cannot tell what advise the physician gave Bob Marley at that time.Q: So you cannot speak with any authority on what the treatment was or how he should have been treated.A: Well, in the later stages I could. Most likely I cannot say when the exact diagnosis was made in 1977, but from what I have read amputation was sugested and was refused by Bob. Once again, speculation, based on Bob's beliefs, and Bob's following of the Bible, amputation was not in agreement with Rastafarian doctrine.Q: Well, you know it has been suggested by his manager, Don Taylor, who has published a book, that the French physician injected Bob with Melanoma, and 30 days after he received the injection the diagnosis was confirmed as malignancy. How long after this did he die?A: Approximately 3 years, Melanoma sometimes is a slow progressive disease, and can have a 50 %mortality rate despite adequate treatment. Q: What do you think about this? Can someone inject Melanoma into someone? A: Well, to the best of my knowledge, it is not possible. I will try to simplify this. If I give you a piece of my tissue to you, your body will reject it. So you cannot take Cancer from one person and inject it into another person. Let me clarify that. It's sort of like a heart transplant. For immunological reasons, the body would reject the implanted tissue/heart. Science has now figured out a way to block the tissue rejection with strong medications.In 1977 when Bob developed his Melanoma, tissue rejection and transplantation was a new field of science. If Bob was injected with Melanoma his body would not have recognized it, thereby it would be walled off so it would not spread.Q: It is known that Joseph Issles had Nazi connections. What is your scientific opinion about Nazi medical research.A: That is another issue, and not pertinent to Bob's Melanoma. Bob's disease was rapidly progressing, and it was not treated in regular 20th century fashion. Let me just state for the record, I am not opposed to alternative medicine. Bob was treated with a holistic, conservative treatment, and Bob paid the price. First of all, it is not possible to give cancer through a shot. Holistic care probably did not help Bob. This "natural treatment" did not prevent his death. I feel it was Bob's choice to treat Melanoma as it was treated. It was based on his religious beliefs. I feel Bob's clinical course or his demise was due to Bob's choice and the natural course of his illness. In other words most likely the several physicians who saw him both in Jamaica and in the USA recommended amputation of his toe, if not his foot. I cannot say what was going through Bob's mind, nor was I present, nor did I see the physician's progress notes, but I feel that, he felt that, through the power of the Most High, he would persevere and survive this illness, based on the beliefs, i.e., the Bible, that by not cutting off his foot. He was in compliance with his religious beliefs and Jah's mission. The Hasidic Jewish people also believe in having the body being buried whole. this probably has the same Biblical interpretation.Q: How plausible is it that someone injected Bob Marley with Melanoma to cause his death?A: I do not know everything about all the underground private, sector, private funding and clandestine research, but it is highly implausible that Bob Marley was injected with Melanoma which caused his death. This is the type of material that science fiction books are written about.Of Course, I was not present, so there is always a one in a billion possibility that this scenario occurred. Besides the Medical implausibility, the reason I feel so strongly against the theory that the CIA injected Bob with Malignant Melanoma cells is that Bob's cells would have fought them off and rejected the melanoma. To the best of my knowledge Cancer can not be transmitted by an injection, as opposed to AIDS or other Viral Syndromes which can be. Based on my knowledge of Immunology, the body would wall off the offending Antigen and reject it. there are ways to overcome the rejection process such as Radiation, Steroids, and other immunotherapy, but this did not occur in Bob's case. With 1999 DNA knowledge and current immunological knowledge many medical miracles are possible, but in 1977, this was highly unlikely.Q: Did Bob Marley have to die?A: There are a few different ways to look at that. The is a spiritual way, and Medical way. Did Jesus have to die? That's just the way the scenario played out. It was probably Bob Marley's decision and the Rastafarian elders belief that Chemotherapy, amputation, or surgery was not the path to proceed.In the later stages of his illness, when Bob went to the larger city Hospitals, it was too late. Bob received radiation and his dreadlocks fell out. I'm sure the Doctors prepared Bob for this, as best as they knew how. After this Bob, choose not to stick with Taditional/Babylon Medicine and that is why he choose not to stick with traditional Medicine. Bob Went to Germany where he received coffee enemas and painful injections to no avail. Bob choose unfortunately (and I cannot legitimately speak for Bob) to continue living his life. He probably felt significant pain, physical and emotional, in the later stages of his illness but it was too late to reverse the Mastastasis.I do not want to come off as a person who is gaining notoriety about Bob, but I was approached about my expertise on Bob Marley. In my professional opinion, early aggressive intervention probably would have saved his life. If a cancerous Melanoma is caught in the very early stages, a combination of chemotherapy and Surgery could be curative. It was Bob's decision not to follow this path.Q: To summarize what was said, I was highly unlikely that Bob was injected with Melanoma that caused his Cancer, and if it was treated with traditional Medicine, he possibly might still be alive, but unfortunately, in people of African descent, and Bobs' particular type of Melanoma the acro (foot) lentiginous type grows downwards, and it spreads out. (and rapid) One can not really say how well, Bob would have done if he had an early amputation. The nail is had so the Cancer cannot grow through it.Q: To reiterate the question regarding the conspiracy theories of Bob Marley, i.e., the CIA, bob chose not to treat the Melanoma traditionally and that probably cost him his life.A: Unfortunately, the melanoma did cause bob Marley his life, but he did have his work cut out for him, and he consciously chose that course, to complete his family and his albums and actively bring Reggae Music and the teaching of Rastafari to the world, which was actually his mission.Q: You are a scientist and a hard core Bob Marley fan. How do you see this entire matter? Isn't it a waste of talent, anddidn't he make these choices on his own? Indirectly, Bob had a killer in his in his body and he choose not to get rid of it. Here is a guy who had something wrong with him and did not take steps to clear it up,A. The Melanoma probably was diagnosed a bit late. I do not know whether the Physician sent off the nail or of the surrounding tissues for a biopsy. The odds are he did not. If someone saw me as a Physician, who had a dislodged nail or a toe injury sustained while playing soccer, and it did not appear normal, a pathological specimen would be sent to a local pathologist at a laboratory. Bob was seen in a French Hotel probably by a local Physician. If the correct treatment and correct diagnosis was institute immediately, Bob would probably be alive, Unfortunately for a lot of reasons, such as Religion, Bob's choices, and maybe professional advise, he is not. I cannot state what was going through Bob's head, but he probably felt his work, his message, his culture, his Religious beliefs, took precedence over dealing with his illness in a traditional fashion.Q: do you think the CIA killed Bob Marley?A: No, I do not, but they were closely monitoring his activities, as many others, and saw his potential. The CIA has file on Bob Marley as previously published but it is essentially impossible to transmit Melanoma via an injection.Q: Is there anything out there that you want the public to know about getting check ups or anything about Melanoma?A: I actually addressed this issue twice in the Beat magazine to Bob's family, and anybody with a suspicious brownish/blackish lesion should see their Internist, and then be referred to a Dermatologist if necessary. Another issue I addressed is that marijuana does not cause Melanoma. Trauma also does not cause Melanoma.Q: to sum it up, Bob Marley did not seek Medical help and died at the age of 36. He was a loved person and people look for answers, but the truth is he did not seek Medical help?A: Bob had his own beliefs, and in the Bible there are some passages that indirectly say that a knife should not cut a piece of the body of, and I believe that that was going through his mind.Q: Did Bob make his own choices?A: Bob had advise from friends and loved ones, but did make his own choices. I cannot say if Bob realized how serious his illness was. I also cannot say of he believed he was going to die. He believed in Jah. (And if he did foresee the future, which he probably did, He knew it was Jah's way)Q: As a fan, does it bother you that this is the way it is?A: He knew he had to get his message across, and if he didn't choose this way, we might not have received his last 3 albums. He perused his work instead of his treatments and thereby spread Jah's message.
The Wailers vs The BeatlesThe analagies, similarities, and significances between the Beatles and The Wailers has not been written about.The Wailers music arose from social, religious, and political beliefs with a message. The message of the early Beatles music started out simplistic, such as singing about holding hands. etc,The Beatles picked up on the intensity of American rythmn and blues and their early music did not portray a religious message. Their appearance did have a rebellious look although. Rock and Roll was American music that was novel in the late 1950's in England. In the late Elvis Presley era, the music style drifted across the ocean to the United kingdom. American groups began to tour England, and began to influence the younger generation. The new concept that white men could sing like black men was introduced.Both the Beatles and the Wailers were major trendsetters. I feel that the Beatles contributions probably were not as great as the Wailers on a world wide level. Both the Wailers and Beatles audience continue to widen, but the Wailers lyrics are more inspiring to a wider diversity of ethnic groups and culture. Diverse groups such as the Freedom fighters of South Africa and Zimbabwe, the Hopi Indians of New Mexico and the Maoris of New Zealand understood the significance of Bob Marley's music. The Beatles influence upon the continent of Africa and the East do not even come close to Marley's icon like status.ROOTS:Skiffle music began to influence British teenagers. The instruments included a guitar, washboard, and the tea-chest bass. Skiffle combos, and its incorporation of American rock and rolltook off.Liverpool was still recuperating from its World War II attacks. The navy shipyards and docks provided the environment from which the Beatles blossomed. The Quarry men arose from this type of setting. The clothes consisted of velvet/trimmed jackets, tight trousers, partially inspired by Edwardian fashion, thus obtaining the nickname Teddy boy. This was the means by which British youth's portrayed their messages.The Wailers began from more humble, natural roots. They basically came from farming backgrounds, and lived off the land. The basic instruments of Reggae music were drums, and homemade guitars, from tin cans with sticks and wires.Religious music, and African songs and rhythms, were the basic of the Wailers early musical experiences. As Bob, Bunny, and Peter continued to mature, the hills of Jamaica could not hold them. They subsequently moved to the yards of Trenchtown. Kingston exposed the young Wailers to all types of American music, including soul. The harmonies, and songs of Curtis Mayfield, were incorporated into their emerging style of music.Both the Wailers's and the Beatles grew in creativity, and musical knowledge, and, as expected, there was too much talent for one musical unit to hold. Marley wanted to and was chosen to become the world messenger for his type of Reggae music, Peter wanted to bring his type of political, and social message music to the world, and Bunny wanted to have his music grow and stay in Jamaica.With both bands, there was obvious power struggles, jealousy, and personality clashes. There was just too much creativity to be limited to an eight song vinyl LP.It has been said that Marley did not like harmonizing, and thus, pushing Peter to a level to "decorate" Marley's vocal, and stage presence.There was too much creativity for both, and not enough room to expand. Since John and Paul were doing most of the song writing, Ringo and George were each allowed one song per album. It is well known that Marley would attempt to compose at least one song per day. Just as John and Paul had to go their own ways to develop their own type of style and music, Bunny, Bob, and Peter had to march to their own drummer.Post breakup of the Beatles, the separate entities were as never as strong as the whole, but with the Wailer's, Bob Marley thrived, and brought Reggae to the world. John and Paul never achieved the heights that they acquired with their foundation group. Marley continued to grow, and was celebrated at the United Nations, played at the independence of Zimbawae, and outdrew the Pope in Milan. Marley also assembled the largest outdoor concert in Europe at the time. He died before he might have conquered America.The Beatles affected all aspects of Western Culture in the 60's an 70's such as hairstyle, drug usage, clothing style, and consciousness, in their own way. The Beatles also had a profound effect on inventiveness of the Music Recording Industry.The Wailer's also affected style, haircuts, but their significance had a religious and missionary idealogy which appealed to a different audience. Both goups had " Big Brother" behind them. For example, smart promoters and record companies. Strategic career moves brought both groups music to the four corners of the world.Both Reggae and the Beatles developed at the same time around 1960 and continue to affect the world. Images of both groups are ubiquious . Both groups have taken on a life of ther own, being discovered generation after generation.
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