From what I gather, this is one of the rarer albums in this living legend’s catalogue. CD copies fetch up from anywhere between twenty four to a hundred odd dollars.
Personally, I never paid such an obscene amount of moolah, as I just so happened to stumble across a used copy on vinyl in Glebe, Sydney, for about $25.00. Yeah, that may be a bit steep also, but that’s usually the price of a record nowadays, used or otherwise. Anyways, after ripping it to my harddisk I found myself extremely addicted to it for months on end. Here’s my little run down of each track:
Roots radics rockers reggae: Bunny begins this album by reminding us all once again that reggae music was originally made by rebels and Rastas who were in fact the true creators of popular Jamaican music. A lot of the time, the fellas were both of those things at the same time. Another thing that Mr Livingstone points out to us all is the fact that without reggae, there is no music and that its conscious message uplifts everybody in the universe. Couldn’t have said it better myself……although I’m not too sure about “reggae” as we know it today, being one of the first ever styles of music.
Cease fire: Those of you who are full on reggae heads would know very well that reggae is about – among many other things – unity, peace, love and generally looking on the positive side of things. This particular song hits the nail on the head on all of those themes – especially peace, love & unity. Bunny is urging all of those soldiers out there fighting wars to lay down their weapons and embrace one another, and to light up a challice while they’re at it. In other words, chill out, love one another and smoke yourself some cheeba cheeba. No thanks, Bunny, I’ll chill out without da ‘erb.
Let him go: Back in the days when Bunny was a Wailing Wailer alongside one Robert Nesta Marley, this was one of the songs that he was crooning along to, with the help of Peter Tosh of course. At that point in time, it sounded much different to what wound up being released on the “Roots Radics” album – much slower and full of richer harmonies. Also some of the lyrics were re-written. “Rudie come from jail” became “Natty come from jail.” Essentially it’s a song about how a certain fella with natty dread locks was arrested for possession of Ganja. Bunny is just telling the cops to leave the poor fella alone and to generally stop hassling him, ’cause most of the time, a Rastaman without da ‘erb is like Superman to Kriptonite. One of the many tunes from this album that I keep going back to. “Let him go. I say Y-O.” Classic.
The conqueror: Seems like Bunny is singing from the perspective of one of those rebels that I was talking about earlier in the review. Dubbing himself “the conqueror” and threatening somebody with “a flogging” if they keep running their mouths & acting like “a gargon” or even “a dragon,” this is a really great slice of pure Rastafari music. Although I still don’t fully understand what he means by “the da master.” Maybe he just meant master? “The Conqueror” ended Side One.
Rockers: There’s not much to this song, really. Just a laidback reggae riddim with a hypnotic bassline from Robbie Shakespear of Sly & Robbie fame, and Bunny’s repeated spelling of the word “Rockers.” As in, “R.O.C.K.E.R.S. It’s rockers!!!” Seen? This is more proof dat simplicity is da key to a great reggae riddim…..or any other song for that matter. Plus, Bunny was quite ahead of his time if I do say so myself – this was years before John Cougar Mellencamp came out with “R.O.C.K in the USA.” Guess who had the upperhand? Tsk, tsk. By the way, speaking of basslines, Robbie throws in a few funky popped bass licks a couple of times during the song. All the more reason to appreciate the song.
Wirly girly: Bunny probably got the inspiration for this song just by looking at the world around him. In this case, could’ve been the dancehall parties in Kingston that made him want to sit down and write this one, which, according to its lyrics, featured quite a few good looking, young flirty girls who had just graduated from high school and had “nothing better to do than to cool out at the disco. And if she come home late, her mommy’s gonna screw….” I think that just means her mother’s going to throw a tantrum….nothing else! It’s a pretty cool song actually. A nice little snapshot of life in the so-called ghettos of Jamaica.
Rockin time: There seems to be a lot of talk about “rock” on this album, doesn’t there? Fear not! For it is not a plethora of references to heavy mental muze sick. In the case of this particular jam, “rockin” is another word for “dancing,” as a matter of fact, he’s more or less used it as a play on words: rockin time is actually sung like “rock-in-time,” as in, he wants to dance in time to the music. Even when his feet start to ache. In which case, he continues to boogie on down to da reggae riddims. What more can I say other than it’s perfectly placed after “Wirly Girly”?
Love fire: One final laidback reggae riddim for the road. This one just expresses Bunny’s strong love for Jah Rastafari and how he can feel His Majesty’s fire burning ever so brightly, to the point where it will not be extinguished….or sumthin like dat!!! Simply Red did a remake of this song on their album “Men & Women” back in 1987.
Verdict: At this point in time, the “Roots Radics” album is 25 years old. Normally a lot of albums which were released around the same time would sound incredibly dated and obviously eighties, but this album definitely doesn’t sound like that at all. It sounds like it was made back in the ’70s, which it may as well have, albeit released in 1983. Regardless of its original release date, this album is a really great piece of work from beginning to end and that’s the bottom line.
