Busin' in der Bronx
Horace Andy recorded in the Bronx
and I was riding through the Bronx on a Greyhound bus
with an elderly Jamaican woman
verbalizing behind my head
into a cellphone.
She was letting everybody know, from Jimmy to Leon to Rita,
that she was okay despite accidentally roaming the New England highway system
for twenty-four hours
because she got on the wrong bus.
"I'm on my way Leon. De bus is rollin'. Ear it? Ear it rollin'? Me alright. Me don't go hungry. Me got plenty money."
Anyway, Horace Andy has the most unique falsetto in Dance Hall music outside of Musical Youth.
His first two albums were recorded in Jamaica then in the early 70's he wound up in the Bronx and recorded my favorite album, Dance Hall Style.
Dance Hall Style was recorded for Lloyd Bullwackie's Wackies label with the house band, not surprisingly called the Wackies. He recorded several reggae standards including some great takes of Money Money Money and Cuss Cuss.
My favorite track is the original song Spying Glass, a sly rant against rasta-harrassment.
Massive Attack adopted Horace Andy and recorded a good version of Spying Glass with him.
That's all well and good but you must go back to Dance Hall Style and hear the artist's original work with the competent Wackies house band.
Song
Spying Glass
Alright me breddahs.
Give thanks.
It's been a pleasure.
Keep it up same way like me do.
And 'ere is Horace Andy doing the dance hall thing in the early 80's.
The other thing on my mind while riding through the Bronx was my cousin John who quit a 250K salary job on Wall Street to form a friary in the second saddest borough of New York. A German film crew made a documentary about his personal mission. The documentary is still shown on German TV.
That was several years ago and John is now a priest in the Order of the Franciscans of Primitive Observance.
Tricia and I drove Father John to a wedding on Saturday where he performed the ceremony. In the car we spoke of the value of a simple life, the satisfaction derived from building your own house;
we discussed moles, and child abuse.
In church he spoke of true love and how it requires sacrifice. Makes some sense.
and I was riding through the Bronx on a Greyhound bus
with an elderly Jamaican woman
verbalizing behind my head
into a cellphone.
She was letting everybody know, from Jimmy to Leon to Rita,
that she was okay despite accidentally roaming the New England highway system
for twenty-four hours
because she got on the wrong bus.
"I'm on my way Leon. De bus is rollin'. Ear it? Ear it rollin'? Me alright. Me don't go hungry. Me got plenty money."
Anyway, Horace Andy has the most unique falsetto in Dance Hall music outside of Musical Youth.
His first two albums were recorded in Jamaica then in the early 70's he wound up in the Bronx and recorded my favorite album, Dance Hall Style.
Dance Hall Style was recorded for Lloyd Bullwackie's Wackies label with the house band, not surprisingly called the Wackies. He recorded several reggae standards including some great takes of Money Money Money and Cuss Cuss.
My favorite track is the original song Spying Glass, a sly rant against rasta-harrassment.
Massive Attack adopted Horace Andy and recorded a good version of Spying Glass with him.
That's all well and good but you must go back to Dance Hall Style and hear the artist's original work with the competent Wackies house band.
Song
Spying Glass
Alright me breddahs.
Give thanks.
It's been a pleasure.
Keep it up same way like me do.
And 'ere is Horace Andy doing the dance hall thing in the early 80's.
The other thing on my mind while riding through the Bronx was my cousin John who quit a 250K salary job on Wall Street to form a friary in the second saddest borough of New York. A German film crew made a documentary about his personal mission. The documentary is still shown on German TV.
That was several years ago and John is now a priest in the Order of the Franciscans of Primitive Observance.
Tricia and I drove Father John to a wedding on Saturday where he performed the ceremony. In the car we spoke of the value of a simple life, the satisfaction derived from building your own house;
we discussed moles, and child abuse.
In church he spoke of true love and how it requires sacrifice. Makes some sense.
7 Comments:
Glad you dug this up Kilian. This reminds me of an old timer DJ from Bristol who has a vast collection of 60s Jamaican Reggae: DJ Derek (scroll down to 'The legendary DJ Derek'). I would bet pounds sterling Massive Attack knows DJ Derek well since they're from the same part of the world.
Bluebird - In a draft of this post, I went off on how the Jamaicans may have beautified the English language more than any other former subject of the British Crown. The English having done the most damage to the language followed by the Aussies. I took this whole bit out because it was rambling (even for me) but anyway that was before your post.
Strange how these things work.
the ethiopians are good too
Hey Kilian, Interesting post. But I wanted to add that the reason why god allowed the Irish to make whiskey was to keep them on their island. pot. kettle. etc.
I'm sensing a little hibernia-harrassment.
HS - what's keeping you on that island? =)
Being a good Aussie doesn't mean I need a therapist.
Wow, had no idea that Massive Attack track (which totally rules, and is on the exclusive tape version of the latest ConorMix; I regret its omission from the CD version) was a cover...
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