A Whirlwind Trip To New York City!

More pictures still coming ....

At the Freedom Tower

Whew! That was quite a whirlwind trip to New York! Janet and I arrived from Toronto at 9 am Friday. I was rather bleary eyed and cranky but still feeling up for it. We were pretty much just go go go from then til we got back last night. It was bitterly cold, except for yesterday when we could finally walk around. Otherwise we had to take cabs. Too bad! I like walking about just exploring. No matter, we still had a fine time!

We dropped our bags off at the Roosevelt Hotel at 45 + 5th Streets about 10 am. It's a reno from the mid 1920's. Quite grand in a period piece fashion. Our 16th floor room was typically New York sized; small but quite adequate, and the price was right: 2 nights for about $800 [Cdn] each, including round trip air flight. We enjoyed the better part of 3 days in NYC, so it worked out well.

The Empire State Building

Our first stop was the Empire State Building. It was built shorty after the hotel. Janet has always wanted to go up to the top but there's been a huge crowd, with maybe even a two or three hour wait. I can't stand that. It would give me a big anxiety attack. This time since it was very, very cold and windy we walked in and went straight up.

It was a crisp sunny day. Peer over the rail at the top and you will see it is quite a long way down. There's a forest of sky scrappers on every side. The river. The boroughs. All stretching out to the horizon for as far as one can see. Yup. This is New York all right. It should be renamed Skyscraper National Park. I think so.

Empire State Building view of Manhattan

Next we took a cab over the Williamsburg bridge to the first music store on my list; Rough Trade NYC. It just opened here recently. I've been to both London England locations. Rough Trade usually has a pretty esoteric collection. I found a whack of reggae and dub cds I've been looking for. Shopping in New York was not exactly cheap, even discounting the drop in the Canadian dollar compared to the last visit in Summer 2011. It's too bad that the Rough Trade Cafe wasn't open. However, they have free in store internet so Janet surfed the net while I did my music thing.

We caught another a cab to Deadly Dragon Sound. It's in Chinatown back on Manhattan island. The shop is really just a hole in the wall, with lots of vintage 45's, mostly reggae, soul and funk. The owner was friendly and helpful in between busily working on the computer listing his inventory onto the store website. It might do well to visit the store online. Otherwise there's just dusty boxes of records stacked everywhere, and a couple of racks of music books to see. I bought a very hard to find used copy of "Dub: Soundscapes + Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae" by Michael E Veal [like in the sandwich!], an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at Yale. Nice score!

From the Empire State Building looking towards the 9/11 site

It was dark by now as we cabbed over to the World Trade Centre 9/11 Memorial Site. The new brightly lit Freedom Tower loomed far overhead in the dark, quite the site to behold. It's open for business during working hours, but sightseers won't be allowed in until next June or July. I ate a huge pretzel I bought from a street vendor. Munched on it while I yapped with a conspiracy theorist who had his placards spread out on the ground, was eager to explain all. Quite intriguing. Pleasant. Logically consistent whether one believes his theory or not. I left with some of his pamphlets to look over later. Tossed the pretzel in a garbage can. Way too much salt!

We took another cab back to the Roosevelt hotel, then walked over to Grand Central Station looking for the Record Mart, the next music store on my list. Regretfully, it was inside the subway station, so one needs to pay to go in. If I lived in NYC I'd probably drop by from time to time as I was travelling about on the subway. It's fairly small, but stacked with used dvd's, cds and records all along, up and down the crowded walls. Quite busy. Kind of grimy. I'd suspect that's no fault of the shop owner. Let's just say the store had a subway sort of ambiance about it. It mostly stocked Latin music, salsa, and some reggae. 

Janet and I had planned to go out and do some fine dining. However, we usually just ate on the run. There are lots of good pubs and neighbourhood diners close to the hotel. Our regular haunt blasted rock music way too loud. I do enjoy my rock, so that was okay, all things considered. Janet was just too tuckered out to say much I'd guess. Knows my idiosyncrasies only too well. There was football on the big t.v. screens. The food was strictly pub fare with a touch of greasy spoon but good and hearty. We both liked the club sandwiches, steak burgers and fish n' chips. 

Officer! Please arrest the mad man in that car .... that one too!

That night the heat was cranked up high in our hotel room. There was little we could do about it. I sweat it out on top of the sheets. Quite ironic. There wasn't much time for sleep anyway because Saturday morning we were up and at it early again. Janet wanted to go to Macy's. It's billed as the world's biggest department store. 

This is Black Friday Week, as it's now called. There's supposed to be all sorts of bargoons at Macy's though we didn't see many. Everything was pretty much just expensive but there are all sorts of discounts if you sign up for a Macy's card. They wanted photo i.d and to ask all sorts of personal questions. We don't walk around the streets of New York with our passports. No way. However, I had my Ontario driver's licence. It took a long time to verify. Then they wanted to know how much I earn at work. By now I was getting pretty p.o'd and wrote down "0" which did not go over well even though It's true. I'm retired. I don't work anymore. I was definitely getting into a snit.

We only qualified for a 10% discount as Canucks, not 20% like a registered visitor with a Macy's card and so on. I left Janet to do the shopping while I went down the street to chill out at Starbucks. Surfed the internet over another wake up coffee or two. To make a long story short, Janet found a very nice pair of Rayban sunglasses for the beach. Okay price, but nothing to dance in the street about. Suffice to say neither of us was overly impressed with Macey's. 

Mid afternoon we went back to the hotel to rest up a bit. Grab dinner at the pub again. Then we headed to Times Square for the evening. It's extremely glitzy and commercial. The lights very overpowering. No doubt there's a certain hypnotic "wow" factor to it all. The very heart of the modern day American Babylon.

Times Square was jam packed with folks walking up and down the strip, just hanging out, even in the bitter cold. Most of the trashy souvenir stores are gone. It's now jam packed tight with big box stores, open to all hours in the city that never sleeps. The hustlers were trying to sell show tickets. Who knows if they are real? Other then that they were posing in goofy costumes to try to get our attention. And of course if you should want to take a picture you pay. Very overdone by a factor of at least 10. Rather dull and irritating.
Time for a new act!

There was a lot of construction. For reasons unknown they are digging up the centre of both the street and square, packing everyone very tightly onto the crowded sidewalks. Meanwhile the cars where trying to drive through and getting absolutely nowhere. Backed up for god knows how long. Honking like crazy. Lots of hotheads and street rage. It all seemed totally pointless if not fascinating. They weren't going to be going anywhere anytime soon. The end result is total gridlock. It reminded me of downtown Toronto. Or vice versa. Very much so.

Time Square

Our highlight Sunday was a visit by cab to the 9/11 site again. We tried to use the subway maps, token machines, Iphone apps etc. etc. etc. Found it too overwhelming. We've used the New York subway during the summer and it was okay. But not when we are all bundled up in the freezing cold. No. No way. It's not for us. 

The World Trade Centre 9/11 Memorial site is quite peaceful and pleasant. I am quite fond of it. Many of the surrounding buildings have been torn down and rebuilt in a late post modern style, I'd think. Lots of reflective glass and different shaped buildings. The nearly finished Freedom Tower resembles a sheet of mirrored glass stretching up, pointing to the sky. I saw a fairly low flying jet arc overhead, leaving behind a ghostly smoke plume silhouetted against the tower in it's wake. It's odd when things like that just happen eh? It took on a whole other significance that made me wince. Anyway, the new tower is a few stories short of the old Twin Towers, but the rooftop antennae cone makes it taller. It's now the tallest building in New York. 

I really like how the Twin Tower foundations remain as just 2 gaping holes, surrounded by sidewalks and open green space. There are waterfalls pouring down all four sides. The outer edges have the names of the dead stretching the whole length of the walls. One just mentioned a mother's name and "her unborn child". Thinking about it still chokes me up.The names are carved deep into the metal ledges and people stick little flowers in them. I saw a small Canadian flag flapping over one in the stiff breeze. 

Janet wanted to go shopping at Century 21. Like a souped up Macey's it is pricey and vastly overrated. She didn't buy much. There is a record bar downstairs. It's called J+R Express. The old J+R was a really excellent block long discount electronic, camera, dvd and music store, not far away. A sales clerk told me Century 21 bought them out and this is all that remains. Too bad. Like in most of the music stores, the record albums are now quite decidedly pushing the CD's aside and taking over. I bought a stack of classic rock titles. Not exactly cheap nor unique, but there are lots all in one place. I think I do better in Toronto to be quite frank. Especially down in the new record ghetto down by Queen St West, Bathurst and Spadina. Still I did okay.

On our way back to the Roosevelt we asked the taxi driver if he knew anybody who had died on 9/11. He said he'd had a contract to drive business folk back and forth from the Twin Towers. Lots of them, every day for many years. Then he never saw any of them again. Wow. 

Janet wanted to take pictures of an architecturally unique skyscraper, the former 1904 Breslin Hotel which is being incorporating into the design of a building in Toronto. She wanted to see what it looks like with people using it and so on. I walked around inside a bit too then went across the street to a retail/ wholesaler at the corner of Broadway and West 29th who specializes in E-vapourizers and other groovy related medical paraphernalia to cool the nerves or whatever ails you. Nice stuff. The prices are about the same in Toronto although there was more variety than in most stores. 

Roosevelt Hotel Lobby

We relaxed in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel just enjoying the splendour for a bit. Watching folk come and go. Then we took a cab back early to LaGuardia, just in case it was busy, so as to try avoid the rush. We were quite pooped from our whirlwind adventure and ready to go home. There weren't any crowds in Terminal D. We sat and used the free internet.

I was surprised at how relatively good the airport food was at the take out counters. Seriously, I don't expect much if anything at an airport when it comes to food. I had a nice fried chicken dinner; a meaty leg with two sides; potatoes and corn. Nothing fancy but well prepared and quite cheap. Our airplane arrived on time, but was then late getting out onto the runway where we got stuck in a long queue of jets. I watched as they took off, one after another outside my window. Saw the lights of New York stretched out as far as I could see as we took off up into the night sky. 

The flight between New York and Toronto is only an hour or so. I slept. We were still home in time for Walking Dead, quite tuckered out but happy with our trip. I'm always quite glad to be back home in our old familiar setting and routine. Now I can relax, space out, just listen to my new records and read my dub book for the next few days. Our trip was lots and lots of fun, though we don't plan to return during winter again. Still, I'd definitely give our New York City adventure a big two thumbs up!

There's no place like home!

PS: I didn't include any addresses. If interested you can easily Google them. Everyone's got a website these days it seems. 

RELATED BLOGS:

Some thoughts @ Remembering 9/11

A review of our 2011 NYC trip @ Canuck's Guide

Bob Marley + The Wailers: Catching Fire! [1973]

More Bob Marley + The Wailer Reviews! Part 1 @ Here Part 2 @ Here! Part 3 @ Here! 

Catch a Fire: The Iconic Reefer Album Cover! OR Ummm ..... Excuse me, but do you a medical prescription for that joint?!? Eh? Only in Canada you say???

Bob Marley and the Wailers were stuck penniless in London England without a tour, a record deal or any revenue from their earlier releases, when they met Chris Blackwell, the Anglo Jamaican president of Island Records. Chris was well known and regarded for the roster of “Progressive” or as we’d say today “Alternative” groups he had bulleted into the then popular rock music charts, including such big name artists as Traffic, Cat Stevens, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, ELP, Uriah Heep, Free, Mott The Hoople, Mountain, War, etc. Later on U2 as well.

It was with some surprise and in trepidation that Bob, Peter + Bunny accepted an advance of 4000 British Pounds to return and record their next album in Kingston Jamaica, with a further 4000 to follow when they returned the completed tapes to Chris. As an added bonus, Bob Marley's independent Tuff Gong label also got the distribution rights to sell their own records in Jamaica. The Wailers had been burnt by musical producers before. Most recently, Lee “Scratch” Perry had reneged on their royalty payments for the “Soul Rebels” and “Soul Revolutionaries” tracks when they were released in the UK on Trojan records. [Here] Nor had they been happy with the polished “uptown” sound of Leslie Kong’s production of the “Best of the Wailers” album. [Here] They had felt uncomfortable with Coxsonne Dodd's lack of artistic vision for the band while he produced their string of early ska dance band hits before that. [Here] Moreover, after nearly a decade of superstar status in hometown Kingston Jamaica, they still remained largely unnoticed in the larger international record market beyond their own shores.

Island "A" Side Record Label

Chis Blackwell decided that the Wailer's rebel sound could be well suited, with exposure, to the best-selling rock album charts abroad, most notably in the US and UK. He felt the Wailer's “sufferah” themes had international appeal with the social justice themes of suffering and redemption. In addition he needed a modern day Jamaican "Rhyging" [1] to capitalize on the production of the hit underground movie “Harder They Come” after lead star and singer Jamaican singer Jimmy Cliff left his label. Blackwell felt the theme of the bad boy with a heart of gold falling on principal in a hail of bullets would resonate just like the big shoot out spaghetti western movies of Clint Eastwood so popular at the time. In short Chris saw the Wailers as the first break through band of third world superstars. In so doing he produced what many still consider one of the top music albums of the 20^th century with “Catch a Fire” since it was first released in 1973. [Hear Album]

Chris, working with Bob and to a lesser degree Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer decided to overdub rock guitar and keyboards over 3 of the album tracks he was given, including  “Stir It Up” , “Baby We’ve Got A Date” and the opening number “Concrete Jungle”. Wayne Perkins was the 20 year old Alabama born guitar session player. Keyboardist John “Rabbit” Bundrick’s had played with international hit UK rockers Free [“All Right Now”]. 

In “Concrete Jungle” we are greeted with a short playful guitar intro overtop a set of bubbly keyboards. We seem headed for classic rock heaven but suddenly and unexpectedly they give way to the full blown modern Wailers roots reggae sound that we are so familiar with today! [Hear]

Original Concrete Jungle 45 Before it was "Redone" for the "Catch a Fire" album!

It’s debatable whether it was either Peter or Bob who came up with their new signature” chika chicka chicka” sounding reggae rhythm guitars. Regardless, with Bunny now on congas and bongos, all three Wailers are playing with the band. We also hear their rich, sweet, delicious three part harmonies and haunting, breathtaking calls and response wrapping themselves around the song lyrics. The powerhouse Upsetter bass and drum duo of Carlie and Family Man Barrett held down the steady dreamlike reggae beat. It is a true musical epiphany: the Wailers have arrived!

“Concrete Jungle” is an excellent example of the Wailers redoing and building upon a song that they had already previously recorded. It was a big hit in Jamaica when first released on 45 during 1971. “No sun will shine in my day to day … “ sings Bob Marley, in a direct reference to the desperate plight of the poor “sufferahs” in Kingston’s ghetto housing projects, firmly establishing the Wailers within their own milieu. Its poverty stricken imagery nonetheless focuses on the redeeming dignity and hope of the everyday people, who like the Wailers grew up crushed under the burden of social injustice through no fault of their own.

Distinctly Jamaican in its reggae sounds and warm harmonies, “Concrete Jungle” has a spirit that is truly international in respect to anyone who has suffered or is concerned about the injustices throughout much of the developing world. Perhaps even in our own squalid first world ghettos. When Perkins reached the guitar solo, he was told to play on the drop beat, creating a perfect mix of rock guitar over top a reggae beat. It delivered a knockout punch, catching music lovers around the world with surprise, with its cool new hybrid sound. However, the musical action doesn’t stop there. To top it off, Marley then drives the message squarely back home to the Kingston ghetto as he wails, “No chains around my feet, but I’m not free, I know I am bound here in captivity”.

Jamaican Tuff Gong Album "B" Side

The next track, “Slave Driver” [Hear] provides the album with its name. Marley digs deep into his peoples troubled past, evoking the crack of a slave drivers whip in an overcrowded slave ship on its trip from Africa to the Americas. As he hears the crack of the whip he warns in no uncertain terms, “Slave Driver, now the tables are turned.”

It is a militant cry of hope, change and redemption driven home by his warning that now the tables are turned. The slave driver is the one who will “Catch a Fire” from the slash of the whip with the defiant warning that, “Now you are going to get burned.”

However, all is still not well. Marley realizes that slavery is now outlawed but it still exists in that his people are instead chained down by poverty. They are also too illiterate to even realize what is being done to them in the corporate quest for profits, for as Marley adds; “Today they say that we are free, only to be chained in poverty, Good God I think it’s all illiteracy , It’s only a machine that makes money”.

The Wailers trademark Rastafari faith makes its appearance on the Wailers world stage, in the most basic of spiritual terms as he lament’s, “Oh God have mercy on our souls.” 

It is a spiritual theme Peter Tosh takes over and builds upon in his next two songs that follow, “400 years” [Hear] and “Stop that Train” [Hear]. Like “Concrete Jungle” both are also “redo’s”, from the “Soul Rebels” and the “Best of the Wailers” albums respectively.

In "400 Years" we are given a history lesson about how after 400 years as slaves of one type or another the “sufferahs” only hope lies in the promise of its youth, to whom he calls out; “Come on, let’s make a move, I can see time…[the] time has come”.

Tosh’s militancy is nailed down even harder in “Stop that Train”, where his frustration that “All my life I been a lonely man, teaching people who don’t understand”, echoes “Slave Driver's” reference to “illiteracy”. Tosh realizes that the youth lack education. They don't have much understanding and appreciation of how they got to where they are today. In the face of exploitation by a “machine” that’s “only concerned with making money”, judgment day has finally come. The bad rude boy with the heart of gold will go down fighting for his principles to claim the redemption inherent in Tosh’s militant call to arms as he announces, “It won’t be long, whether I am wrong or right.” Or as a Wild West gunman might say “Go ahead and make my day!”

Pretty intense! Bob Marley then ends side one of “Catch a Fire’s” heavy reggae rhythms and beats with a more tender love song, “Baby, We’ve got a date (Rock it Baby).” Here he finds his redemption in love, but it is not sufficient without the songs sexual overture. Quite simply, he is just pleading for a date. However the redemptive power of love is a very human and accessible antidote to whatever ails indeed, as he ends the song with an urgent cry to, “please don’t forget” to satisfy the urgency of his request. [Hear]

The Wailers Tuff Gong Label had Jamaican Distribution Rights for all their Island Recordings!

Side 2 of “Catch a Fire” opens with “Stir It Up’,[Hear] another “redo”. It was also an earlier hit in the US and UK for singer Johnny Nash, an instantly recognizable song, except this time it sizzles. The song’s lyrics are a seductive play on words again embodying Marley’s longing and hope for love and sexual satisfaction as he sings; “Oh will you quench me when I’m thirsty? Come and cool me down when I’m hot, your recipe darling is so tasty, and you sure can stir the pot”. 

“Kinky Reggae” [Hear] is rumoured to be a song about Bob trying to buy some marijuana in Trafalger Square, London. Then again, there is the sexual imagery of a “chocolate bar”, as well as a certain “Mrs. Brown” who “had brown sugar, all over her bugga-wugga”. 

I leave the “chocolate bar” reference for you to figure out. However, “Brown Sugar” might be a risqué reference to his black female lover. Then again all might still not be as it seems. Bob Marley’s songs often work on a number of levels.

Unlike Peter or Bunny, Bob still sang and talked in his native Jamaican patois even when abroad. As such Mrs. Brown’s “bugga wugga” could also be a pair of canvas slippers worn by the poor hardworking woman during the sugarcane harvest. Tut tut! I bet you were thinking something dirty eh? Perhaps it’s a sly joke on the uninitiated and curious outsider as they catch a first taste of Jamaican reggae music. When “Catch a Fire” was released, reggae was still very new, novel or even “kinky”. Otherwise, Bob’s “kinky” sexual inclinations, besides being quite prodigious [he had 11 children with 7 women at least. Bassist "Family Man" Barrett had over 50!] would by most reports seem rather parochial by today’s sexual standards in the media.

Bob’s courting songs, if you will provide the lighter, satisfying and hopeful possibility of love, sex and escape for both the sufferah and the Wailer’s new target audience. He might also simply be more cautious and willing to bide his time than Tosh, as he was with the Wailer’s politically tinged 1965 hit “Simmer Down”. However, they don’t seem to aim to negate the strong and more militant urgency and stance of Peter Tosh’s “400 Years” and, “Stop That Train”. Nor will they provide complete relief from the otherwise heavy messaging over the course of albums still to come. They instead provide at least some relief. Having safely “caught fire” with their new audience, the Wailers will return to develop Tosh’s brand of black militancy more head on in their next album, the quite aptly titled “Burnin’”. Maybe Bob understood best that love and sex can sell more records by making the Wailers radicalism more palatable to the new mainstream and predominantly white and mixed music buying public.

“No More Troubles” [Hear] again rings with a “make love not war” sentiment, for indeed as Marley notes, love can “guide and protect us”. However, he is not going to just “hope God [will] come down from above”. 

The radical change the world needs, as we shall later see, must come from within oneself. It will not come strictly in the form of an external savior for as Bob notes, “God helps those who help themselves” 

We grasp that it must also be a shared responsibility in which we help the other less fortunate as well,  as he urges his reinvigorated audience to, “help the weak if you are strong now.”

Wailers look worried they are about to get ripped off again on the Reefer back cover!

"Midnight Ravers", [Hear] the final track on side 2 of Catch a Fire might be about a midnight sexual encounter with a female stranger. Be that as it may [BTAIM] Bob Marley also uses it to lament the human condition. He describes how we are all dressed in the same “pollution” such that “the mind is filled with confusion” and “problems” since we think there is “no solution”. There is a doubtful side to his idyllic escape. Perhaps also a sense of shame in light of his recent conversion to the Rastafari religion. Bob quotes Old Testament biblical references from the Book of Revelations, as he sings that; “I see ten thousand chariots, coming without horses …. The riders they cover their faces”.

Bob Marley will not abandon hiding or seeking escape through his earthly pleasures in the great blockbuster albums that follow “Catch a Fire”. He knows that a good love song always goes over well. However, he will grow in his Rastafari spiritual belief in a greater, deeper redemption through Jah [Yaweh or God]. In retrospect, it will make “Midnight Ravers” sheer joy in purely sexual delights increasingly unique within his musical canon. 

Unfortunately, in my opinion, he will also become more didactic and pedantic with his use of words, themes and imagery. With “Catch a Fire” we are left on a happy uplifting note with all concerns duly noted. It is a worldlier album that balances the joy of love and sex with a need for revolutionary change to a reggae beat. It remains a very potent first introduction to the Wailers opening the door for them to now take their “sufferah’s” message to an eager and receptive world audience.

Chris Blackwell fittingly packaged the initial release of “Catch a Fire” in a zippo lighter shaped record jacket that opened to reveal the disc and a flame, further nailing home the imagery of “Catch A Fire” for the Wailers new record buying public. Unfortunately, it tended to tear and fall apart easily, so these covers are quite rare today. Further releases instead feature the now iconic image of Bob smoking a big, fat marijuana spliff which also proved useful in affirming the Wailers great rebel, outlaw appeal to his new rockers audience.

Autographed Back Cover of the Zippo Lighter Album!

Blackwell's marketing plan for the Wailers included introducing them to the hip underground college scene. Also the US + UK music industry movers, and shakers. The Wailers were booked for a grueling tour schedule of club and concert hall dates. [Live Leeds 73 Audio] [Live London 73 Video] By introducing Bob, Peter and Bunny as a very cool, integral part of a new music scene, he helped light the spark allowing the group to finally catch everyone’s attention with their very unique Jamaican sound and universal suffrage message. [Concrete Jungle: Live BBC!] [Ditto: Stir It Up!]

In focusing his attention on Bob as the charismatic, light skinned front man who could best help popularize the Wailers, Blackwell would also unfortunately push the highly prolific Peter Tosh into the background. Indeed, Peter was only allowed two songs on “Catch a Fire”, while Bunny had none. Bunny for his part was more worried about the increasing contradictions between the corrupt and abusive outside world of the commercial music industry “Babylon” they were entering and the devout principles of his growing Rastafari faith. To Blackwell’s credit, the album was originally accredited to just the Wailers, ostensibly with a long range goal of developing the band as a group force. Unfortunately the seeds for the group’s dissolution were also spread by placing so much emphasis on Bob Marley at a cost to the others, as we shall see in our next review, of the Wailers “Burnin’” album

Conclusion:

Give this album a two thumbs up, or A+++ for finally introducing the Wailers and indeed reggae music to the world. Its themes would continue to be developed throughout the rest of the Wailers musical careers. The political ones would grow stronger, as would the religious overtones, to create a much, more holistic, Rastafari vision of redemption. However, nowhere are they as simple and earthly as here on "Catch a Fire". The Wailer’s musically and lyrically flow in unison without the heavier concerns that would remain to be addressed in greater detail later. However incomplete it might be, "Catch a Fire" remains a thoroughly enjoyable album in every respect.

Buyer's Guide:

The Zippo Lighter Cover: Rarer than Eye Brows on Eggs!

Good luck finding an original record release of “Catch a Fire” in the zippo lighter jacket, at least at a reasonable cost. It has become a collector’s item supreme. Island UM recently reissued the album on 180 gram vinyl. It now only comes in the 12 inch reefer cover. It is big, sturdy and really cool to behold. There are distinct A and B sides over which the mood and themes of the album are developed as noted, the songs each placed just so. Moreover it sounds warm and inviting. The reggae guitars and overdubs float effortlessly back and forth between your stereo speakers as the Wailers wrap their luscious vocal harmonies around them. Absolutely breathtaking!

Numerous CD reissues with the same reefer artwork but in a smaller jewel case are usually readily available for quite cheap online at Amazon or at the big name music stores. The sound is good even though they are a rather glossy digital remaster of the original analog recording. Most listeners today probably won’t notice or miss the difference. 

UM Island has released a deluxe 2 cd version of "Catch a Fire" with a reproduction of the zippo lighter cover, but it does not open like the original. Still, disc 1 contains the original Jamaican recordings of the album without overdubs, but possibly with some edits in their length. Disc 2 contains the finished album. It is very insightful and pleasurable to listen to and compare both. Grab a copy if you see it!

Japan Zippo Mini Lp CD Cover!

 A similar 2 cd Japanese SHM CD release also come with a lighter cover. It opens like the original. The mini LP cover format is made of stock cardboard and carefully replicates in great detail the albums original artwork and layout. SHM is supposed to be a new softer and warmer sounding digital technology. The discs can sound relatively good compared to the regular cods marketed elsewhere, but a cd is still a cd, so perhaps we are grasping for straws. 

Bonus Japan Mini Lp CD Reefer Cover!

A reefer cover is also included with the set. You can find a copy online at EBay but it won’t be cheap. Also beware of counterfeits! A nice complete set of all 11 Island Marley discs is available in either a “Catch a Fire” or “Burnin’” pull out drawer box. They can be purchased or won by auction from between $550 to $850 US each depending on the condition and demand. If you can afford it, this is definitely the way to go for CDs, but make sure you get the record rerelease too: vinyl rules!

Japan Mini Lp Cd Wailers Drawer Box Set!

Footnotes:

[1] Rhyging was a legendary Jamaican outlaw and |Rude Boy" style folk hero who was gunned down by police. Jimmy Cliff's character is based on Rhyging in the popular underground Jamaican police + thieves film "Harder They Come".

More Reading:

Smile Jamaica: my visit to Bob Marley's birth + burial place in the mountain town of 9 Miles @ Hi! Hi! Hi!

On The Beach: Everyone knows the rastaman's got the best ganga @ Yah/ Jah!

NEXT: The Wailer's "Burnin'" album!

Smile Jamaica: Bob Marley!

It was a hard trip to resist as a Reggae fan. It also appealed to the adventurer in me: A ride on an old battered red, green and yellow Jamaican “Zion bus” with music blasting. Riding high, high, high up Mount Diablo [aka Mystic Mountain]. Off to visit Reggae legend Bob Marley’s birthplace in the small St. Anne’s parish town of “Nine Miles”. Afterwards, it was promised, we would fly all the way home. Hmmm. Let’s go…

Early morning found us loosely ensconced in the Zion bus. Seemed very Jamaican! Our DJ got the party started by playing his favourite Marley tunes and telling us the story behind each song. The bass was waaay too loud as it pumped full blast out of the bus speakers. Our guide laughed loudly at his own jokes, mostly about getting stoned. Janet, my cousin and I watched wondering; was it an act, for real, or a little bit of both? Quite crazy but fun!

Look down ... waaaaaaaay down!

Our bus winded its way up the mountains along a very narrow hillside road. I use the term “narrow” lightly. I stared out my window way down to the steep valleys and tiny villages below. The hillside was covered with thick green jungle; towering palm trees, sprawling ferns, and God knows what else. Simple wood, stone and sheet metal shacks peeked out from here, there and everywhere they could be possibly built. Yes! We were getting pretty high!

I was fascinated more than horrified, as our driver continued to pump the gas and air brakes while leaning on his horn, warning everyone on the road to get out of the way. He looked like he knew what he was doing. Still,  I gazed outside my window again, at the sheer drop to certain death. What a way to go! Yup, one wrong turn, bad bump or someone who doesn’t pull and we go flying off into oblivion. I sat awestruck glued to my seat. What else could you do as we climbed higher and higher up the mountain side for a good hour or so on the Zion bus?

The view of Nine Miles from Bob's place.

As we passed through the villages children raced outside the bus windows pointing their index finger in the air. It wasn’t for “One Love”, as the Bob Marley song goes. They wanted a dollar. We later bought a Bob Marley fund raising Cd instead, the money to be used at the local school. It seemed like a good idea to me.

Bob Marley is long gone. He died from cancer in 1981 at age 36. The family owned Marley Foundation now controls his estate. Bob often quietly helped those in financial need without asking for anything in return. The school CD was in the same humanitarian spirit. A sad footnote: only the handful of teachers on our bus made any contribution, for a cd or handout, let alone a tip throughout our trip. Very unkind considering the extreme gulf between the two worlds, ours and theirs as was quite obvious throughout the trip.

Our bus pulled up outside the gate at Bob’s house. The tiny mountainside town of Nine Miles is really just a few shacks surrounded by jungle. A crowd swarmed the Zion bus holding up handfuls of Ganga outside our windows, for sale by the bag or by the spliff. Our guide explained that smoking weed is common inside the Marley grounds, but you can’t buy any there.

He held the gate open, keeping the crowd at bay while we walked back outside into an alley way bazaar. A wide variety of herbs and herbal concoctions were spread out on display. Thick buds of golden green sensimilla cost $40 US for a quarter ounce, rolling papers included. Big grass cookies and huge thick hash brownies were $20 each if you preferred not to smoke. There were also small black turds of hashish for sale, but I didn’t catch the price. Apparently there were cups of grass tea too but I didn’t see it myself.

Jamaica is famous for it's herbal remedies to cure whatever ails you.

It’s pretty common for a lot of baby boomers to still smoke marijuana. I am no stranger to it. I also grew up in the sixties and seventies when marijuana seemed to be everywhere even though it was illegal; a federal offence. I didn’t liked how that attracted a criminal element. Still, I also recall that whenever there was a fight or any bad vibes, be it at a party or a concert, it invariably involved the drinkers, and not the pot heads. As the saying went, “Make love not war!” After a few tokes the tunes sounded great. The conversation quite hilarious. We’d get the munchies because everything tasted so great. Marijuana certainly had its moments!

I haven’t in bided in either vice for a very long time. As a teacher I made a life choice not to smoke or drink.  I never missed booze or cigarettes, still don’t. Bleech! However, I felt nostalgic at the novelty of seeing some weed again.

To paraphrase an old Bob Dylan sixties song, "the times certainly are a changin’". Marijuana is now gradually being legalized in  the US. Also, federal party leader Justin Trudeau is promising to legalize it if he is elected as our Canadian Prime Minister next year. My guess would be it’s only a fairly short matter of time now.

What’s the story in Jamaica?  Our tour guide explained its being decriminalized. It’s hoped it will provide a good cash crop to help create jobs and stimulate the economy. What else have they got? Well, there’s bauxite and tourism. All is not well. It hasn’t been for a very long time. Bob Marley and the Wailers’ protest anthems and spiritual pleas make that perfectly clear. We’ll examine their music more closely in my next Jamaica blog. For now, suffice to say that back inside the Marley gate I munched on a brownie and shared a thick doobie with my cousin, which neither of us could finish. As far as safe, friendly service with a smile goes, the Jamaican sensimilla scene at Nine Miles definitely earns two big thumbs up! I wish them well!

The mausoleum + house.

Looking about the Bob Marley homestead one only sees a few small buildings. Basically, there are just two rather simple mausoleums and a small house. At first brush the grounds might seem like an unspectacular shrine for such a great man. However, everything has been painted over in bright Jamaican colours. Also decorated with flags, handmade Rastafari murals and signs. Gold records, concert posters, and photographs hang on the walls of a one room museum of sorts. Stalls offer crafts, and Bob Marley memorabilia including t-shirts, coffee cups, pipes, papers and cds for sale. Nice but very pricey. There’s also a small open air drink and snack bar.

Bob Marley left behind at least 11 children, from wife Rita Marley and his various girlfriends. Since a deal was struck with Island Records in 1992, they are all a part of the Bob Marley Foundational which owns, controls and profits from his estate. Rita has enjoyed a successful musical career. A few of his children have followed in their father musical footsteps. Ziggy and Damien Marley come immediately to mind. I’m glad the proceeds from our trip are being kept within the family, rather than being exploited by Babylon. You can spend your money here confident it isn’t going to a big impersonal corporation!

By high noon, Nine Miles was as hot as a blast furnace. There was hardly a breeze. The yard was tightly packed. We had to wait a bit just looking around, as each group of visitors took turns moving among the crowded buildings and rooms. I was pretty kazooed and felt like I was just floating along through Bob’s home with the crowd, feeling no pain. It was easy to become totally immersed in the experience. I haven’t any complaints, far from it, everything seemed fitting and in tune. In the courtyard, we were also entertained by a ragtag band of dread locked reggae musicians playing Bob Marley songs, spreading good vibrations and getting us into the spirit of things.

We were escorted around the grounds by our dread locked guide who explained the site in detail. We saw the stone mausoleum were Bob’s mother is buried. Then we visited Bob’s bedroom in the house. It pretty much looked like I’d expect; a Tough Gong poster and a small bed. Not much else. Finally we ended up in the mausoleum that is Bob’s burial place.

According to his mother’s wishes Bob Marley is buried in the mausoleum with his half brother. Apparently Bob’s guitar was also buried with him though nobody seems quite sure which one. I lit a candle and walked around the tomb past the personal mementos that others had left behind on their visit; plants, joints, rolling papers, lighters, photos, flags and the like. Then after coming full circle, as is the tradition, I respectfully placed my candle on the front pedestal where I left it to burn.  I felt very calm and peaceful. Also quite honoured to be in the presence of such greatness here among the most simplest and humble of places.

Bob's bed!

No, there really isn’t much to see. But Nine Miles is a very spiritual experience. Mr. Bob Marley has returned from the heights of greatness in our often big, bad world. He has come back to his humble beginnings having delivered a timeless message of love, peace and hope in the struggle for political and social justice. It only seems right to me that his final resting place is here, in his very simple village birthplace, now reunited with his people, family and friends.

 As promised we truly did fly back down the mountains on our breathtaking trip home aboard the Zion bus. I was still flying high a good 12 hours later, caught up in the magic of our visit. I can’t say that smoking weed again was any big deal in and of itself. It was fun but I suppose I could take it or leave it. Maybe it will be more enjoyable after it is legalized in Canada? Hmmm. Half the time I’d forget what I was going to say, leaving me quiet, listening and watching more. Maybe that’s not an altogether bad thing? Other times, I’d be jabbering away a mile a minute! Still it was quite part and parcel of the greater overall trip to pay homage to Bob. As such I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

Lots to think about!

I’m retired and feeling pretty de-stressed these days. I’m quite high on life as it is. I find myself listening to Bob Marley and the Wailers again almost nonstop since my trip. It will forever continue to be a part of the soundtrack to my life. Bob Marley, his music and message always make me feel high in the natural sense. You don’t need to smoke the herb to appreciate that, though one might also argue it doesn’t hurt much either!

More Reading:

In my next Jamaica blogs we will examine Bob’s musical legacy through his albums, singles and cds:

Bob Marley + The Wailer Album + Singles Reviews! Part 1 @ Here Part 2 @ Here! Part 3 @ Here! Part 4 @ There!

On The Beach: Everyone knows the rastaman's got the best ganga @ Yah/ Jah!