Roots Archives Forum

good day

can anyone help me with the lyrics and meaning of this lovely rocksteady track... ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zn2CPabmPs

Hi there. This song is about young women in Jamaica who are poor, starving and in need of shelter.

Massi Massa means "Lord have mercy'

'If you just come into town, you can see how young girls come down(living poor), some with bundle, some with tin case, up and down they can't get no place. One young gal come from portland and she took up a gad? man and he treated her like a brute until a tooth was ??.


Massi massa ah see me bwoy, I wonder why the is so hard.

If you want to see young gal starve, just take a walk up the jack 'o' sal, you can see them all in a bunch. Six and five and the middle one ?

mourdub wrote:Massi Massa means "Lord have mercy'

'If you just come into town, you can see how young girls come down(living poor), some with bundle, some with tin case, up and down they can't get no place. One young gal come from portland and she took up a gad? man and he treated her like a brute until a tooth was ??.

Massi massa ah see me bwoy, I wonder why the is so hard.

If you want to see young gal starve, just take a walk up the jack 'o' sal, you can see them all in a bunch. Six and five and the middle one ?

jack o sal...?

i didn't realise the lyrics were so poignant. thanks for the insight. much respect.

p.s. - maybe the last line is "six and five of dem in one ranch" ? it rhymes (sort of)

What's jack o Sal some alternative name for Back o wall?

xounds like "Hall" - like Jack something's Hall. Jacko's Hall or Jackal's Hall? Jack House Hall? i don't know.

there are a lot of Halls around JA .... Rose Hall, Pembroke Hall, etc but i have no idea where this is. guaranteed it's somewhere in Kingston or maybe Spanish Town.

edit: more i listen, it sounds like Jackass Hall. i don't know of anyplace called that, it makes sense though.


"six and five a dem inna one ranks" is what is probably meant, they are all in a group, or in a line... Clive says "ranch" but that makes no sense.

first line is "when the country trucks come into town"

"one young gal come from Portland, and so she took up (with) handcart man"
"and he treated her like a brute, until her two foot were like jackfruit"

(jackfruit is a large, tough green fruit with a leathery skin and relatively difficult to eat)


the song is a commentary about how country folks flocked into Kingston, (particularly in the 50's and 60's) in this case naive young women looking for work and the excitement of "town".... but work was scarce, and living quarters even more so.

Kingston's population grew significantly back then; it was already old, crumbling and overcrowded - and affordable housing and associated infrastructure was a real problem for many years and probably still is.

Ranch makes sense as i've heard that term in a few songs , one that springs to mind is Ranking Trevors toast to Pat Kelly's 'It's A Good Day' titled "One Man Ranch".

j j

ah, maybe so..... have no idea what the context of "6 and 5 a dem inna one ranch" would mean.

someone needs to ask Clive!

Blakbeltjonez
Yor are right on the button after listening again.
Them being in a ranch is probably that they were treated like cattle.