Pure Punk Picks
Get Up, Stand Up – Bob Marley
“Most people think, great God will come from the skies. Take away everything, and make everybody feel high. But if you know what life is worth. You will look for yours on earth. (And these lyrics are from a religious mon.) And now, you see the light. You stand up for your rights.”
Later he roughly quotes Abraham Lincoln- “You can fool people sometimes, but you can’t fool the people all the time.”
And the majority of the young in America are not being fooled. They see the old people, old politicians and their old racist, sexist, homophobic ideas sucking away at their life and lives, like a venomous leach.
Prohibiting their lifestyles, holding back the future, their futures that they envision but for now are put out of reach.
But I have no doubt how it will turn out. The youth will grab the future out of these old hands and strangle those tired, evil beliefs into an inch of their lives, then watch them wither and die.
“Preacher man don’t tell me, heaven is under the earth. I know, you don’t know, what life is really worth. It’s not all that glitters is gold. Half the story has been told. So, now you see the light- Eh! Stand up for your rights. Come on!”
The music is tight and precise, almost as tight as a James Brown song. With one of the best rhythm sections of all time, in my opinion, with Sly Dunbar on drums and Robbie Shakespeare on bass- this does not surprise me. This is no white, hippie, stoned groove but one that is solid, hard and effective. The groove of this song is formidable, it is unbreakable. You could even call it righteous.
Bob Marley during his time was probably the best known musician on the planet, and perhaps, he still is. In the third world, many of those folks who might not know who The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson or U2 might be- they still were and are aware of Bob Marley.
He had a huge global influence and produced music and especially, lyrics that were potent, powerful and significant.
I’m not a reggae fan but I am definitely a Bob Marley fan. And I remember hearing a live broadcast from The Paradise of Bob Marley & The Wailers in the eighties, and I remember that they kicked ass.
I’m even less a fan of John Lennon, though I do love the early Beatles. Both him and Marley had so much influence and revolutionary lyrics that they made the powers that be, knees shake and bowels quiver.
In Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” he states, accurately but cruelly- “And you think you’re so clever and classless and free. But you’re still fuckin’ peasants as far as I can see.” He was investigated by the F.B.I. and Marley was under watch by the Jamaican government.
In England in 1976, Don Letts was a black DJ at English punk clubs. He later became a member of Mick Jones of The Clash second band, Big Audio Dynamite. He had the job, first, of playing music in between sets at early punk shows in London.
No way could he get away with playing any classic or mainstream rock- bottles would have been thrown. So he played reggae music, it certainly wasn’t mainstream. And lots of the early British punk rockers loved reggae as well, including Johnny Rotten and Paul Simonon from The Clash amongst many others.
Now, it seems we might be in some sort of upheaval and I certainly hope we are. All I know is that truths shine best when their time has come and I see a few truths arriving to shore for, hopefully permanency.
I can’t believe or disbelieve in an afterlife. I haven’t a fucking clue. But I feel that if Bob, John Lennon and Joe Strummer are aware of the youth in America and around the world now. I believe that they’re very interested and pleased.
Let’s add to their legacy, let’s make them proud!
“Punks not Rasta but them fight down Babylon system and love black people.”- Bob Marley.
(Slimedog)
