( L - R ) Damion Marley, Tanya Stephens and Sizzla - FILE PHOTOS
IT HAS OCCURRED to me that Jr. Gong's 'Welcome To Jamrock' is the third album in as many years that I have really got a chance to sink my teeth into.
I am really into lyrics and, when combined with good music, delivered consistently over the course of a full-length effort, it is a joy to listen and listen again.
Which is what happened in 2003 with Sizzla's Da Real Thing, a year later with Tanya Stephens' Gangsta Blues and most recently with Welcome to Jamrock. And all three broke out of the established, tried and overworked formulae of their times.
Da Real Thing came when the dancing fever was really working up a fine head of 'Elephantine' steam. It was roots reggae in a time when the rthythms were speeding along like they were on the toll road and lyrics were comfortably into the two line phase (not all, of course, but that was what was getting the crowds railing). Then along came Sizzla, chanting "they can't keep a good man down", mourning "even my heart cries, but who cares" and making the traditional 'mama song' meaningful with that line "even when the system keep pressuring my Dad ..."
And we loved it.
A year later, it was Tanya Stephens with a mixture of ballads, hardcore songs, poetic lines and ladies issues who took our breath away. Who could not love off the Boom Wuk and relate It's a Pity to real life events? I winced as she saddled up as Spragga Benz's warrior girl and celebrated as she said the same feet that fit so comfortably on your shoulders will stand their ground. And it is still not yet "... a day when war, becomes a thing of the past".
THROWBACK
The title track and early single Welcome to Jamrock was an unlikely throwback to early 1980s rockers and a real look at Jamaica ("... education's basic/but most of the youths them waste it/and when dem waste it/that's when dem tek de gun replace it..."). When the album came, though, it was a treat, with tributes to Daddigon ("may you rise on the morning when his Kingdom come"); a searing look at cocaine use ("seen more hotels than my tour suitcases"); a wonderful take on love ("one nine to five, one five to 12 o'clock") and that combination with Bounty Killer and Eek-A-Mouse ("a me name Jr. Gong look how me natty long...").
I will be sorely disappointed if we do not get an album next year which maintains the standard. I really like Buju Banton's Magic City single and look forward to Rasta Got Soul. I am sorely disappointed in the disc jocks, though, as the Sizzla and Tanya Stephens tracks have been largely abandoned and I am sure that by this time next year they will have sent the tracks from Welcome To Jamrock into the oldies bin.
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