Point of clarification: Jonah, thanks for the kind words! Love that you enjoy it. But I’m not a critic (and not just cuz OakTree says fuck em! 😉
The critic discerns, exercises judgement. I know nothing about music.
Not in like a self-deprecating aw-shucks kinda way
I literally couldn’t tell you if a tune is in B or F.
This ain’t criticism. It’s therapy.
Which is to say, just another form of hearing yourself talk.
But like therapy, it works best when there’s a
Sam, what did Freud call it? An evenly suspended attention screen to bounce off of?
So, onto the therapy
Again, not speaking metaphorically here. I can’t go to therapy right now cuz of the Rona so this is literally one of the things I’m doing to stave off depression
Cigna regrets to inform you it won’t be covering your services
Side note: official Daily Dose anthem for those with anxiety and depression…
https://youtu.be/LMOUWnQBsF0
Today’s dose comes with a little shot of history
Jacob Miller from 1976
Label and video say 1978
But it was originally pressed on Arab records in 1976
This records had a bunch of Arabic writing on them
I have no idea why
Title of Healing of the Nation references 19th century spiritualist bible by American Charles Linton
Lyrics cut into hypocrisy of church and government repression of weed
But “you no fight against the rum, the wine”
“you no fight against the cigarette smoking”
Not sure if next line is “yet you know dese tings cause cancer”
I prefer to hear it as “dese sticks (squares) cause cancer”
Jacob Miller was another who started in music young
He was actually born to a middle class family in Mandeville (biography points out this made him something of an anomaly in reggae- he wasn’t from Kingston slums or the rural vestiges of plantations)
He started, like so many, with Coxsone Dodd
His vocal song is the original of the most famous dub of them all
King Tubby meets the Rockers Uptown
https://youtu.be/oxAl3Jijs20
His mom moved to NY and he was later signed to Island, was back and forth between Jamaica and US
He was known as a great vocalist but also played drums
Mostly, however, his fame was as a showman
Miller was always described as reggae’s most charismatic and captivating performer
You might be surprised to know who he said was his stage inspiration
Elvis!
Miller starred in the reggae movie Rockers
But not too long after its release, he was tragically killed in a car accident
Well, we’re used to calling them car “accidents”
When Trump first had to start facing his negligence around covid, he pointed out
That some deaths are just part and parcel of our world
We can’t shut down the county (and doom my reelection chances), just cuz some people will die!
Look at cars, he pointed out
Tons of people die in car accidents, but no one would suggest we stop driving!
He was trying to point out the absurdity
But this is historical ignorance
In fact, there were raging debates about the lethality of cars at the beginning of the 20th century
Many groups forcefully argued that they were simply too dangerous to be tolerated
Eventually, the industry won out
With lots of marketing
Big changes in regulations and manufacturing
(part of the marketing was branding crashes as “accidents”)
And often moving responsibility for deaths from human drivers to intention-less machines
Peter Norton’s “Fighting traffic” recovers this history
https://www.semcoop.com/fighting-trafficthe-dawn-motor-age-american-city
Nowadays, the daily carnage on the roads is just accepted
But that’s the product of a long battle, and its own erasure
The tobacco companies of course ran the same playbook
Another side note
Also around the production of ignorance
We always learn that the link between cigarettes and cancer was established by the pioneering studies by the American Cancer society
In the 50s
But shockingly enough, the link was discovered before then
It was actual Nazi scientists who did the first research
Robert proctor, who wrote about the Nazi’s “murderous science” in service of the Reich’s program, discovered this in “The Nazi War on Cancer”
https://www.semcoop.com/ingram-0?isbn=9780691070513
It’s some eye opening shit
Anyway, I seem to have strayed a bit
Jacob Miller wasn’t having the bullshit
He knew the sticks cause cancer
Rasta Man know the truth
So you can’t fool the youth
Sometimes association doesn’t need to be so free
In summary
Fuck Trump
