Wednesday 6th December
The recording took place on December 3rd. I enlisted the help of my mum to discuss and rediscover the songs of the late Bob Marley and The Wailers. We had listened to a few songs from across their discography with a focus on songs about conflict. Not all the song discussions made it into the Final Cut due to time constraints but I will discuss them here.
Who the cap fit was a song my mum remembered vividly. She sang it practically word for word and was eager to say her piece on it. I really wanted to include this one, but perhaps I will create a secondary audio paper in my own time.
“It’s a personal conflict. Personal. It’s talking about him. Man to man is so unjust, You don’t know who to trust. Your worst enemy could be your best friend. This is a deeper personal conflict. Do you see? they will eat and drink with you and behind, they ‘su su pon you’. This is deep”.
I was focused on the music being about people in power and people fighting. The song spreads a message of close friends being untrustworthy, which my mum ensured was still worth explaining. When you think about it, conflict is conflict regardless, whether it’s between 2 people or 2 nations. Both can be resolved. Both can escalate.
Natural Mystic was another song we discussed. I associate this song with religion and the end of days. Natural mystic being some sort of aura around him. Im not sure if it has a link but after he was shot, he had an interview where he discussed something telling him not to run. Perhaps this is the same natural mystic?
The song may also have ties to the Rastafari religion, who have a strong belief in ‘Jah’, who is their God. Jah is believed to exist within all. The Rastafarians believe society is oppressed by ‘Babylon’. Lovers Rock, the BBC film I discussed in my previous blog, had a scene where the crowd praised Jah.
Burnin’ and Lootin’ was one of the last songs we looked at. From the name alone a tied it to riots. the ‘Uniforms of Brutality’ metaphor really stuck with me. The song seems to tackle peoples rights and how much they have to go through to get them. I don’t want to say too much about it. It should just be listened to. All of the songs should be.
I wanted to include some DJing within my work, so I used one of my mixes. Conveniently, I had a transition from Girls, Girls, Girls part 2 by JAY-Z into NY state of mind by NAS. This is notable as both JAY-Z and NAS have worked with the son of Bob Marley, Damian Marley. NAS collaborated with Damian on Distant Relatives back in 2010. 7 years later JAY-Z released 4:44, which gave us Bam, funnily enough the 7th song on the album. Damian was featured on the track which sampled another Jamaican legend, Sister Nancy.
I broke down my script and began reading and recording adding some audio effects where needed. I didn’t follow the structure I set out to use, but I’m ok with how it turned out. I bring up a topic, then add some context with a song, discussion or VO.
On Tuesday the 5th, I headed to LCC to play back my project on the speakers. It sounded good for one of my few times mixing a track. Minor tweaks were made.