Peterson 1 David J. Peterson Prof. Peterson English 100 15 Oct. 2008 Get Up, Stand Up Bob Marley was a revolutionary musically, socially and politically, the three elements often being blended together in his musical compositions. Marley used his songs not only to entertain, but to teach. His multi-layered attack gives listeners something to look for—to puzzle out—and continues to excite fans both old and new. Non-Jamaican listeners often interpret Marley’s lyrics simplistically (e.g., “This song’s about pot, heh, heh… Legalize it!”) because the social background that influenced his songs remains opaque. To fully appreciate what Marley was doing, and what his message was, one has to do a little digging. Bob Marley’s story is well-known to many, both fans and non-fans alike, and was probably captured best by Tim White in his biography Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley. For the uninitiated, a brief refresher will do. Bob Marley was born in Jamaica to an eighteen year-old native Jamaican woman and a fifty year-old British naval officer— a man Bob Marley would see infrequently throughout the course of his life. Despite his small size, he was a good fighter, earning him the nickname Tuff Gong, and the respect of his peers growing up in the Jamaican slums around Kingston. It was here where he was introduced to two lifelong passions: music and the Rastafarian religion. Marley soon formed a band with Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh—first known as the Wailing Wailers, and later Bob Marley and the Wailers—and before long, they became an international sensation. Peterson 2 As Marley progressed musically, he became increasingly socially conscious, and his lyrics began to reflect that. His songs would preach the virtues of the Rastafarian religion, the evils of industrialized Western society, and the strength of Jamaicans and Africans. The culmination of his political involvement was probably the free concert he played in Kingston’s National Heroes Park on December 5, 1976. Despite being shot the day prior to the concert, Marley still got up on stage and played a few songs for the crowd, so important were his ideals to him. If we accept that Marley’s principles were of paramount importance to him, and that he used his music as a vehicle to spread his ideas, the next step is to analyze his music. While Marley wrote quite a few songs that had nothing to do with politics or religion (e.g., “Rock Sweet Rock” and “Soul Shakedown Party”), I want to take a look at two songs in particular and the message behind them: “Duppy Conqueror” and “Who Is Mr. Brown?” or “Mr. Brown”1. Though one, of course, can’t be certain, since the author is deceased, there is a significant amount of evidence which suggests that these two songs are thematically linked: both, for example, involve tales of supernatural phenomena common to Jamaican folklore; both also employ a good deal of Jamaican Patois not always included in Marley’s recordings; and, of course, most obviously, both originally appeared on the same album. More interesting, though, is the musical structure of each song. Both songs contain the exact same chords in the exact same order—and both are in the key of C# major. Each song is broken into two sections: a verse/chorus section (chords: C# F# 1 Different sources give the song a different title, as do different studio releases. I’ll use the title “Mr. Brown” throughout this essay. Peterson 3 G# F#), and a bridge (chords: F# A#m F# A#m F# A#m G#)2. Schematically, the progression of the verse/chorus is I IV V IV, and the progression of the bridge is IV VIx3 V. Structurally, the two songs are identical, the only difference being the lyrics (and a few elements of the instrumentation and vocal melody). While it may have been a coincidence that these two songs appeared on the same album, the evidence points to these songs being paired for a purpose. Operating on that assumption, it’s the listener’s job to discover Marley’s purpose behind the pairing. Jamaica has a long history of superstition tied to early African religions and the crippling poverty rampant in the nation since its earliest days (cf. Williams for an early account). It’s not my intent to delve into the history of superstition and African religions in Jamaica over the past few centuries, but the presence of superstition in the minds of Jamaicans at the time Bob Marley was writing music is of critical importance to the interpretation of these two songs in particular. Whether Jamaicans believed in the various superstitions alive at the time or not, they were aware of them, the way Americans today are aware of the various reality shows on television whether they watch them or not. Crucially, they must have been aware, or songs like “Duppy Conqueror” and “Mr. Brown”3 wouldn’t have made a lot of sense. So, what are these songs about? Determining the basic plot of each story (for both songs, in a way, are narratives) involves a bit more work than merely reading the lyrics. Take “Duppy Conqueror”, for starters. The title itself is meaningless if one 2 The actual chords may differ, as the recordings are old and poorly mastered, but the chord progression is the same. 3 For the complete lyrics to each song, see the Appendix. Peterson 4 doesn’t know the meaning of “duppy”, a colloquial Jamaican word. So let’s start with a short list of Jamaican terms present in the two songs4: • Duppy (n.) ghost (in particular, a malevolent ghost that tries to do harm to the living) • Bull Bucka (n.) bully • Mt. Zion (n.) heaven (or Ethiopia) • Skank (v.) to pretend Armed with our new vocabulary, we can, at the very least, sketch out the narrative of “Duppy Conqueror.” The story of “Duppy Conqueror” involves a man who’d been wrongly imprisoned (the narrator), but who has recently been released. On his journey from prison (perhaps a metaphorical journey, considering he’s on his way to Mt. Zion), the narrator encounters a duppy blocking his path. The narrator, then, warns the duppy that he should let him pass, for he, the narrator, is a duppy conqueror. The story of “Mr. Brown” is a bit more perplexing, on the face of things, without the true (albeit apocryphal) story behind the events described in the song. As with all apocryphal stories, this one is hard to locate. I’ve combed the internet and books of Jamaican folklore time and time again in search of sources that will confirm something about this story, but my searches turn up little more than scraps of information. Here’s what I’ve learned from the scraps I’ve turned up. Some time in the 60’s, a duppy story turned into a kind of mass hallucination. It started in central Jamaica, in the town of Mandeville, and spread to neighboring towns 4 I’m indebted to a couple sources for these definitions: the Jamaican Gleaner, and Jamaican Folklore. When it comes to folklore, it’s hard to find an authoritative source, since, by its very nature, folklore is ephemeral and varies from region to region (or person to person), so, as always, these definitions are to be taken with a grain of salt. Peterson 5 (e.g., Slygoville), then later the entire island. The story was this: a three-wheeled coffin with three crows on top had started roaming through town (at high-speed, apparently) and going door to door asking for Mr. Brown on its way to the cemetery. That was the story. The real event is that a crowd of people began following this coffin, whether or not it existed, and following it through the town. Pretty soon others started following the crowd, and the crowd became a mob. No one knew exactly what was going on, but little bits and pieces of a story trickled through the crowd, the fire fueled by people who claimed they saw something off in the distance. Those at the back, of course, couldn’t see anything, but the idea that there was something out there got everyone frightened. The result was a terrified mass of humanity wandering all around the town chasing something they claimed to be able to see. Once the authorities caught wind of what was going on, they came to try to disperse the crowd. Apparently the police were rather brutal in the way they dealt with the crowd (who knows if this is accurate). Eventually the rumor died, but while it was alive, it captured the attention and imagination of the entire nation. “Mr. Brown” is a kind of re-telling of the event. The main elements are there: the coffin, the three crows, Mr. Brown, the panic, the police raid, and the regions involved. As the event is being recast in song form, though, it highlights certain elements, and hides others. So what purpose do these ghost stories serve? Are they mere entertainment? The story surrounding the events described in “Mr. Brown” was certainly popular all over Jamaica—even major newspapers covered the story (“Lyrics Mr. Brown”)5. But is that it? Are these merely entertaining tales set to song? 5 In the interest of full disclosure, The Jamaica Gleaner thrives off ghost stories such as this one. Peterson 6 The first clue we have that, perhaps, these stories are more than what they appear to be is the common theme of police oppression seen in both songs and throughout Marley’s work (cf.