nick manho

by Glenn Cripes

nick doesn't miss a thing when it comes to history. To celebrate what would have Bob Marley's 60th birthday this month our record of the week is:



Natty Dread opens with the suggestion to Lively Up Yourself. How am I supposed to 'lively up' myself with this slow, inertia inducing cartoon cereal commercial music?

Next up we have No Woman No Cry which is another puzzler. It's a nice enough tune (for once)....I used to think it just meant 'no girlfriend=no hassles'. Then I read up on Jamaican culture and found out that Rastamen lock women up in separate huts during their menstrual cycle--the worst thing you can call a guy in Jamaica is 'blood clot'. Is No Woman No Cry about not having to worry about women on their period taking your spiritual power away? I googled the lyrics and found the verses were about eating cornmeal porridge in a government yard in Trenchtown. So this song has nothing to do with complexity of relationships at all. It's another cereal commercial.

So what's this stuff good for anyway? Every song sounds like a nursery rhyme in pigeon English. Louie Louie marries Banana Boat and they have a bunch of kids who can't talk right. There are some good reggae songs out there....Israelites by Desmond Dekker and the Aces for instance--that I consider lively. Bob Marley's music sounds like what constipation feels like. You want something to happen, but nothing does.

Marley's tragic early demise from cancer unfortunately stilled his talent. Had he lived, his message of peace and unification would resound now more than ever. He could do a River of Peace tour with Carlos Santana.

My belly full of this. See you next week.