Big Shot magazine #3 put forward an article about reggae and socialism that was received quite well. Now, only two and a half years later, I’m glad to be able to extend my old work and present you soundfiles of some tunes mentioned in the article (and some that had not been mentioned). Enjoy!

Derrick Morgan: People’s Decision
“East, West, North and South, Socialists knocked them out…” Brilliant!

Ethiopians: Socialism Train
Everybody jump on socialism train!

Big Youth: Fight Against Capitalist
If you go to hospital at the age of 17 because of malnutrition, this may lead to some deep insights about society - though first of all being religious, Yabby Youth not only dreamed of a better world (”undivided world”), he knew too well that dreaming was not enough (”Big Youth fight against capitalist”).

Delroy Wilson: Better Must Come
I guess everyone knows the story that this actually wasn’t intended to be a socialist / PNP anthem - yet, that’s what it became!

Heptones: Message From A Black Man
Very, very deep black power / antiracist stuff.

I Roy: Black Man Time
I Roy was definetly among those Reggae artists who really had to say something. It’s an incredible shame he ended living on the streets and died in poverty and desperation.

Max Romeo: Revelation Time (Hammer & Sickle) and Max Romeo: Socialism is love
Max Romeo’s tunes are somewhat schizophrenic - on the one hand, he was always singing about love, peace and unity (”Socialism is love”), on the other hand, he realized that militant action actually is an option when living in oppression (”Fire fe the vatican”, “Hammer and Sickle”, …). As if that was not enough contradiction, though being very religious, he still laughs about “We Dream” like an adolescent!

Junior Reid: One blood
Junior Reid comments on the fact that there is no such thing as human races, there is only one human race. Good one!

Gregory Isaacs: Poor and clean
“A rich man’s heaven is a poor man’s hell […] ” very much reminds me of this little poem by german socialist Bert Brecht: “Reicher Mann und armer Mann / standen da und sah’n sich an, / und der Arme sagte bleich: / Wär’ ich nicht arm, wär’st du nicht reich” - sorry for not being able to translate that (if I could, I maybe wouldn’t have to write for a lower class loo lecture magazine like Big Shot!)

Mr Bojangles: Election Derby
“Freedom”, “Socialism”, “Capitalism”, “Democrats” and others have a race, poor old capitalism completely fucks it up and reaches goal last.

This entry was posted on Dienstag, Dezember 8th, 2009 at 22:44 and is filed under Webtipps, In eigener Sache. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.