Roots Archives Forum

Hi bredrens,

Clearly Rastafari is a christian influenced movement although the white "Jesus" religion is often rejected. But some singers have directly made allusion to their faith refering to Christ himself and I'd love to gather the roots tunes that have such allusions. Here are a few ones to start the list. It would be great if you can enlarge it, I know there are much more but I don't have them all in my head. Thanks, have a blessed day
Ben

Willy Williams : various allusions to the Christ in his Messenger Man album
Gayladds : INRI
Twinkle Brothers : Barabas
Jewells : Slave trade
IjahMan : Jesus Selassie I
Yabby you and Trintiy: Jesus Dread

Prince Far I "At The Cross"

Not really roots tunes.. but still very Christian...

http://www.downbeat-special.co.uk/gospel.html

http://www.dancecrasher.co.uk/coxsoneja17.html

Barry Brown: 30 Pieces of Silver
Congos: La La Bam Bam
Israel Vibration: Mighty Negus
Garnett Silk: Kingly Character

Ras Michael "Jesus Christus Is The King"
Max Romeo "2000 years ago"

thanks for the ideas, some of the tunes I don't know like the max romeo one or the israel vibration one. I'll check it.
Other song :
Christ was a black man - Jah Lloyd

"Look 'pon Jesus, Jesus Christ, all right/ Them sell him out fe thirty pieces/ Them just a belly lick, belly lick."

Not roots, but "Belly Lick" by Michael Palmer is a pretty solid tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ9ZIRq5Wag

DB

>Not roots, but "Belly Lick" by Michael Palmer is a >pretty solid tune.

If the lyrical content doesn't make a "roots tune", what are the elements that do comprise it?

Dave K. wrote:If the lyrical content doesn't make a "roots tune", what are the elements that do comprise it?

Yeah, mostly conscious lyrical content, but I felt that if I didn't say that I would have gotten, "Hey that's not from '77, and the syndrums and digital effects should disqualify it as a roots tune." There are many songs from the "golden era" of reggae that are widely considered roots despite completely secular lyrics. Either way "Belly Lick" is still a great song with a direct Christ reference.

DB

DonBanyan wrote:Dave K. wrote :If the lyrical content doesn't make a "roots tune", what are the elements that do comprise it?

Yeah, mostly conscious lyrical content, but I felt that if I didn't say that I would have gotten, "Hey that's not from '77, and the syndrums and digital effects should disqualify it as a roots tune." There are many songs from the "golden era" of reggae that are widely considered roots despite completely secular lyrics. Either way "Belly Lick" is still a great song with a direct Christ reference.

DB

@DB

Thanks for explaining. You hear the term "roots" here often, and it seems to have different meanings, depending on the context. I'm not sure I would call the Palmer song "completely secular" with a reference to Christ in it though, as secular generally means non-religious to most people. Again, terms are used "differently" by people, hence the question.

When rasta themed lyrics started becoming prominent in Jmaican pop music, Winston "Merritone" Blake tried to put forth the notion publicly that these songs should be segmented from "regular" radio programmimg, and be called "religious", the same way gospel music was. His point was that the music was secular by nature, and that the rasta-themed music appealed to a specific religious segment.