The Atlantic - Latest Comments in When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

bkharmony — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:36:55 -0000

I understand the many commenters who feel a group of fools shouldn't ruin something you love, but fans are an integral part of music. They shape the scene and influence the experience. Frat Boys ruined Bob Marley for me not because they changed the music, but because they influenced my associations with the music. It happens to practically every "scene": punks ruined 90s ska; uneducated imitators killed the swing and lounge revival; wanna-bes killed grunge; etc., etc...

But as far as reggae goes, there's gobs of music left unspoiled: Maytals, Desmond Dekker, Ethiopians, Upsetters, Jimmy Cliff, et. al.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

FOARP — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:52:35 -0000

Some thoughts:

1) No, no, no, don't ever, ever, ever go re-naming British tunes to make them more appealing to the US public. Brixton is very much different to Brooklyn, as you might know if you ever went there. We don't go renaming West Coast hip-hop tracks "Cornwall love" or "Straight outta Glasgow", don't do it to our tracks.

2) Saw Arcade Fire at Alexandra Palace when they were in London last year, best band I've ever seen live, did a great cover of a Smiths song. This cover's not bad either, it's good to hear a different spin on things.

3) As someone born in 1980, I find the whole post-punk thing a bit confusing - it was great music (Morissey, Smiths, Joseph K, Joy Division/New Order, etc.) but why did it suddenly go fashionable now (or rather, in the last few years - I think it may be over by now)? Especially the hero worship of Ian Curtis that was sparked by the films, it all seems a bit bizarre.

Anyway - here's my favourite band, Radiohead, with Ceremony by Joy Division - my favourite 80's cover of the last year or so:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=08_2eTj3wsA

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Mark — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:30:48 -0000

Lahdidah- Not seeing one of his shows is one of my great regrets. I had been a big fan of his for about a decade (I listened to his stuff more than I listened to Marley during that period), but I did a bad job keeping on top of his touring schedule. A few weeks before he was killed, I looked it up and saw that he had recently finished a US tour, much to my chagrin, and promised myself to check his schedule more often. I couldn't have known what was going to happen shortly thereafter.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

lahdidah — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:55:01 -0000

Mark -- so right about the demise of Lucky. His shows were something else, more like the shows of African performers rather than reggae acts. Always loved his back up singers, with their choreographed moves and wearing their kente cloth outfits.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Mark — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:56:50 -0000

Well, I was a white-boy Frat Guy(TM) who loved him some Marley. Of course, when I got turned on to Bob, it was years before I became a Frat Guy (and had never seen a joint), and at a time when I hated Frat Guys (a hatred which continued until literally weeks before I became a Frat Guy sophomore year). Oddly enough, Marley was not something I regularly heard other people play, and when I did, it was limited to Legend (I, on the other hand, owned the entire Marley catalog, plus about 15-25 Bob concert bootlegs, most of which I have since lost, much to my everlasting regret....although I still have one from a concert in Gabon).

Anyways, there were always two reasons to listen to Bob - the right reasons and the wrong reasons. If it was the former, you never expanded your horizon much beyond Legend. If it was the latter, you eventually discovered that as brilliant as Bob was, he had some competition from the more-militant Peter Tosh...and early Jimmy Cliff is unbelievable (I'm not as big a fan of Bunny Wailer), as is anything from The Harder They Come soundtrack. And while I'm here, I might as well throw a shout-out to the late, great South African Lucky Dube, whose murder still saddens me more than a year later.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

lahdidah — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:53:42 -0000

Oooh, now we're talking about something I'm happy to delurk and chime in on.

I'm an old white girl hippy chick, and I've been a reggae-phile since about 1977 - 78, when I first heard Bob's Exodus lp. I was fortunate enough to be living in Austin, Tx during what I consider the heyday of reggae music, when some of the best reggae acts used to tour through here on a fairly regular basis. I saw some amazing, transcendent performances by Burning Spear, the Mighty Diamonds, the Itals, Meditations, Skatalites, among others. Talk about having a near religious experience! So many of those shows were just incredible. The college and post college contingency, the hippies, immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa, a handful of African-Americans, all mingling, rocking out, smoking up lots of the herb, grooving to a mighty reggaefarian vibe. And yeah, some of the college guys and gals could be obnoxious, especially when drunk, but as a low-rent, southern white gal getting my reggae groove on, who am I to criticize?

I hope ya'll don't mind if I plug my favorite new reggae artist, Taj Weekes and Adowa, out of St. Lucia. Skillful roots reggae paired with a memorable husky voice and incite-ful, socially conscious lyrics. Their new, release, Deidem, is very good, and I recommend it to anyone who loves (or is interested in) reggae music. Check 'em out at: http://www.tajandadowa.com.

PROPAGANDA WAR

It’s a propaganda war

they tell us lies like years before

the truth they hide from we

oh how frail reality

freedom for some, captivity for the rest

my brethren killing brethren

the chase is now obsession

....

It’s a propaganda war

tailored lies untutored scores

a truth a hiding spree

oh how frail reality

...

freedom for some, woe for the rest

my brethren killing brethren

the chase is now obsession

On a poplar tree they hanged me

strangest fruit to ever grow

they gnaw at us, they claw at us

they hate the fate, they help create

freedom for some, captive are the rest

and I said freedom for some, captive are the rest

my brethren killing brethren

the chase is now obsession

with no printing press

the lies we can’t address

they steal away our joy and steal our happiness

Now, right there is some good reggae.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Xenos — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:26:53 -0000

I think the word you are looking for is "trustifarian". Not all frat boys who like the rub-a-dub style are trustifarians, who turn adolescent liminality into a (heavily subsidized) lifestyle.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

thatgirl — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:50:24 -0000

I miss the bassline in that cover. I know that's not the band's style but for me that makes the song.

I avoided Bob for similar reasons when I was in college, and realized afterward, thanks to some amazing reggae program on the Cleveland college stations, how much I was missing with that sound in general.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Josh E. — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:36:06 -0000

Cypress Hill sampled Guns of Brixton on a song called "What's Your Number". One of my law school friends was playing it and I asked "Have you heard the original by the Clash?" He said "Who's The Clash?"

Sad.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Mahadev Shinde — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:01:33 -0000

Clash, Clash, Clash, Clash, Clash! Thank you, T N-C, mention much appreciated.

As for Bob Marley, the enthusiasm of frat-boys, bohemian bourgeoisie, and sundry nerd fans have truly transformed and sunk the 'Legend'. Or maybe it was the 'Legend' album collection. Lee Scratch Perry, and Peter Tosh and a host of others, though, fill the gap more that adequately. I started listening to Reggae seriously while living in the Windies in 1978, and I pity those for whom the road to reggaedom led solely through Bob Marley. He was only one master among many.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

brandanomousse — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:08:45 -0000

Bob will always hold a special place in music, but, yes, the general frat scene may hold license to BM - Legend. If in need of a classic quality island vibe I recommend Gregory Isaacs, Linton Kwesi Johnson (LKJ is a master poet), and Lee "Scratch" Perry (produced loads of early BMW recordings and tracks the creation of dub).

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

adamnvillani — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:26:53 -0000

We actually had fraternities at my high school, and they were led by the rich guys who would hold big keggers at their houses with 300 attendees and live bands playing. The most popular band to have play was Sublime... yep, this was Long Beach, California, and all the rich white guys were listening to Bob Marley and supporting the local Third Wave Ska scene.

Anyway, yeah, I was the nerd who never actually went to those parties.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

trevor tb — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:20:26 -0000

Arcade Fire sucks. It's bad emo for the mature set. I'd rather listen to My Chemical Romance, for real.

Also, seconded whoever recommended early Bob. Chris Blackwell absolutely ruined all those later albums. "Small Axe"? "Mister Brown"? "Simmer Down"? Can't go wrong with the early stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnGBJAnYA9E

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Kolohe — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:53:40 -0000

You shouldn't let frat boys hold such power over you. Why give up something you like just because it's become popular among people you don't like?

Very much this. It's like the Office Space Michael Bolton Rule: "Why should I change? He's the one who sucks!"

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Johnny — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:38:12 -0000

Frat boy listeners don't make anything a frat-boy thing. The Grateful Dead? Back when my hair was down to my chest, if you saw me dancing in the hall at a GD show, you knew my ticket sat me next to a crowd of frat guys. Drunken loudmouths talking over the music, asking my friends for drugs and shouting out requests for songs the band hadn't played in twenty years. Wish I had the guts of a six-foot-something biker guy I saw at an Allman Bros. show once. His shirt read "Frat boys Ain't Got No Genitals"

Hey, Phoebe! Where were you 20 years ago when I was wondering what reggae was out there beside Marley and Tosh?

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

That Fuzzy Bastard — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:37:42 -0000

I can totally understand not liking a band because you associate it with assholes---it took me years to like any heavy metal simply because everyone I knew who was into metal was a complete prick.

And I can even understand getting turned off of Marley because you've ended up associating it with the part of the quad where dickheads congregate---I love The Clash, but if you smeared poo in my mouth every time I heard The Clash, I'd probably end up not liking them, too.

But as regards Bob Marley: It's true that fratboys love him. So do Ethiopians. So do Russians (really---I saw as many pictures of Marley in Moscow as anywhere else). So do Hatians. So do Dutch. So do Chinese.

The thing is---EVERYONE loves Bob Marley. I really can't think of another musician---hell, another artist---who is so universally, completely, totally loved everywhere by everyone. So when you listen to Bob Marley, you are in fact reminding yourself of what we all have in common, wherever we are, and can perhaps find it in yourself to forgive even fratboys for being such complete dipshits. It's a beautiful thing.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Jake — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:29:59 -0000

Don't worry, Ta-Nehisi, if you're black you can listen to Marley without the taint of frat boys. Fight stereotypes with stereotypes!

For a different take on Guns of Brixton, I like the Nouvelle Vague cover.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Phoebe — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:36:50 -0000

I love the Clash, and I hate that version, and I hate Arcade Fire.

Reggae has been ruined for me not by frat boys, but by Deadheads. The fact that they have no love for old ska/rocksteady/Channel One stuff cinches it. Frat boys have better taste. This is not high praise.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Bruce — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:20:05 -0000

I remember as a child, maybe 8 years old sneeking into my fathers room and putting on his Legends LP and listening to it! Now i own 2 box-sets and 4 dvds on his work and life....along with 20 other reggae-cds i have in my somewhat bloated cd-collection...

I cannot for the life of me understand why someone wouldn't listen to Marley just because of someone else listening to it? Would you stop regarding Malcolm X as a force of good in the black community just because he's quoted by Al-Qaida?

She love to party, have a good time

She looks so hearty, feeling fine

She loves to smoke, sometime shifting coke

She'll be laughing when there ain't no joke

fun-fact....bob marley was...just like obama...half-white....but he is...just like obama, a hero to many black youths all around the world...as he should be!

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Daphne — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 04:57:12 -0000

I hear you, Line.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

JC — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:43:09 -0000

I remember listening to Bob with a friend of mine at the end of my first year of medical school at Indiana University - Bloomington. We lived in a dorm for grad students. There was a knock on the door and it was a student from somewhere in Africa. He was thrilled to see two white guys listening to Bob. He smiled and blessed us as he waved.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

anonymous — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:25:27 -0000

Yeah, I'm with Aaron-- I started listening to Bob when I was living in the Caribbean. He is omnipresent there, on stereos, bumper stickers, T-shirts, etc. Sure, lame white people like him too, but, lame white people like lots of stuff.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Line — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:36:58 -0000

BTW, isn't the essential genius of Ta-Nehisi that he makes nerdy, middle class men - black and white - feel waaaaaay hipper than they have any right to?

C'mon, Alan. Let us bitches have some too.

I dig the video, but the Arcade Fire cover I really love is the one of "This Must Be the Place" by the Talking Heads, where they go nuts replicating all these loopy synth sounds from the original with analog instruments. It's a lot of fun, and I thought it was a neat play on all the acoustic covers of 80's songs people kept doing a few years ago.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

va — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:51:06 -0000

I love The Clash, love Guns of Brixton, like Arcade Fire pretty well, but lord I don't get that cover. Good call on the idea that AF made it a folk song, but still, it took all the bite out of the song for me.

Re: When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come...

Shan — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:55:14 -0000

If I was going to stop listening to Bob because frat boys/white guys were pumping it , then I would have toturn off Mos def, Talib kweli, Common, Wu tang, Rakim.....you get the point.

By the way , I also wouldn't have been in PG county reading X-men , Thor, Iron man , Quasar, and New Warriors.