Roots Archives Forum

Reggae music is rich in riddims and musical accomplishment - but it is also wealthy with words - some profound, some just strange!

I love the words to WAR (Bob Marley and H.I.M.)

"Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war?

I think EVERY child in the world should chant these words EVERY day. And EVERY adult should listen to the children when they speak these words that are the truth of truths.

But I am also tickled by Mickey Dread when he says (I think) on Master Showcase (something like) "Make you Merry Like a Secretary" (are secretarys really merry????)

So what are the lines that you like, love, laugh at, or even wonder at?

"They Say That Fyah... Fyah Will Burn You... They Say That Water... Water Will Drown You... They Say The Love... Love Will Hurt You... For It's A Sinister Thing... To Play... With Fyah..." -- The Jolly Brothers (Play Play)

"You going to church, on Sunday... There's no love in your heart, on Monday... You trying to tell me that, you know yourself... ... Purify your heart, then you'll know yourself" -- Johnny Osbourne (Purify Your Heart)

"To late will be your pride... Mercy gone... And judgement come... Prophecy must reveal... It must come to end" -- Justin Hines [Hinds] (Prophecy)

Leggo,

To continue the first quote:

"Until that ignoble and unhappy regime that holds our brothers in South Africa...

• ...has been toppled and abandoned, utterly down-stroyed, I got to say War. Is a War."
  
  Some friends I used to play music with mis-heard the very last part and named their band "Isa Wah." Even after this was pointed out to them, the name stuck. They played around Northern California in the early '80s.

One of the things that i find really funny and somewhat creative is if you have the Dancehall/Foundation tapes of the 70's and 80's and heard Brigadier Jerry sing "Pass the Chalice" and then he does a Tongue twisting thing with the words

I'll try to upload an snippet if possible to illustrate this

Got one Listen to the section starting from

23:22 to 23:36 (gret toungue twist)

http://greenupsound.podOmatic.com/entry ... 0_33-07_00

Not sure whether I am 100% correct on this (as it is off the top of my head), but I am pretty sure the lyrics to "Fire Down Below" by Burning Spear (the version on "Respect To Studio 1") are actually the lyrics to "I'm A Little Teapot".

As in "I am a little tea pot short and stout, here is my handle and here is my spout etc..."

These always makes me smile

"By the look on your face girl your my enemy,
remember that Friday night when you stole my pants off the line, so please tell me how you wanna make love to me"
Dennis Brown - "Cheater"

"...playin' with guns like they come from Toys 'R' Us" .....gone are the days when they use cutlass the youth dem bad like bees & wasps"
Josey Wales & Jah Thomas - "Devil Control Them"

'She was between 19 and 21...'
Gregory Isaacs

'Jogging on the sand ina babylon land, some a dem wear a-di-das, some a dem wear de puma.'
Freddie McGregor