{"id":86,"date":"2007-02-06T12:09:06","date_gmt":"2007-02-06T17:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?p=86"},"modified":"2015-01-07T14:13:55","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T18:13:55","slug":"appy-earthday-bob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?p=86","title":{"rendered":"Uppy Earthday, Bob"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

As you may know, today is Bob Marley’s birthday (or “earthday” in Rasta parlance). <\/p>\n

As you may have noticed, I write very rarely about Bob Marley for a guy who writes about reggae. Not because I don’t find him worthy of consideration, celebration, and critique, but b\/c he so thoroughly dominates the reggae literature (perhaps for good reason), at the expense of other important narratives. <\/p>\n

At any rate, given this auspicious day and the resonance of one of my favorites from Bob’s oeuvre with my New Wine, Old Bottles<\/a> post of a couple days ago, I couldn’t resist sharing this powerful chantdown of, as he calls it, “Babylon System” —<\/p>\n

Bob Marley & the Wailers, “Babylon System” (from Survival<\/a>)
\nBob_BabylonSystem.mp3<\/s><\/p>\n

On top of that binghi bounce & bright band backative, Bob brings the fire, full of vivid images:<\/p>\n

\nWe refuse to be
\nWhat you wanted us to be —
\nWe are what we are
\nThat’s the way (that’s the way) it’s going to be, if you don’t know…
\nYou can’t educate I
\nFor no equal opportunity —
\n(Talkin bout my freedom) Talk-in bout my freedom,
\nPeople freedom (freedom) and liberty!<\/p>\n

Yeah, we been troddin on the winepress much too long —
\nRebel, rebel!
\nYes, we been troddin on the winepress much too long —
\nRebel, rebel!<\/p>\n

Babylon system is the vampire, yeah (vampire)
\nSuckin the children day by day, yeah
\nMe say, the Babylon system is the vampire, falling empire,
\nSuckin the blood of the sufferahs, yea-ea-ea-ea-e-ah!
\nBuilding church and university, wo-o-ooh, yeah! —
\nDeceiving the people continually, yea-ea!
\nMe say them graduatin thieves and murderers
\nLook out now: they suckin the blood of the sufferahs (sufferahs)
\nYea-ea-ea! (sufferahs)<\/p>\n

Tell the children the truth
\nTell the children the truth
\nTell the children the truth right now!
\nCome on and tell the children the truth
\nTell the children the truth
\nTell the children the truth
\nTell the children the truth
\nYou got to tell the children the truth<\/p>\n

‘Cause we been troddin on your winepress much too long:
\nRebel, rebel!
\nAnd we been taken for granted much too long:
\nRebel, rebel now!<\/p>\n

etc.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So much to love\/say about this song and its (musical) poetics: the way the I-Threes anticipate him on “talkin’ bout my freedom” (allowing him to stretch it out, syncopated stylee), the fingering of “church and university” in the vicious system (which I take to heart), the glorious gospel turn to “Tell the children,” the sincere strain of his voice, and of course, that pregnant metaphor of “troddin on the winepress” — i.e., laboring for the luxury of the vampire-class — despite that wine (save for ginger wine and Red Label wine [and Dutty Wine<\/a>!!]) is not really something Jamaica is known for. <\/p>\n

You’re still very much with us, Bob. I&I appreciate the vibes, every time. <\/p>\n

Bless up —<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you may know, today is Bob Marley’s birthday (or “earthday” in Rasta parlance). As you may have noticed, I write very rarely about Bob Marley for a guy who writes about reggae. Not because I don’t find him worthy of consideration, celebration, and critique, but b\/c he so thoroughly dominates the reggae literature (perhaps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5,19,18],"tags":[110,402,409,408],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-jamaica","category-politricks","category-reggae","tag-babylonia","tag-jamaica","tag-politricks","tag-reggae"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8756,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/8756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}