Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

Kurt Cobain,
"Nevermind",
The "Greatest" Rock Records of all time, The class of '91
&
"Battle for Seattle"

It's the picture not the frame. For me the genius of Kurt Cobain wasn't his bringing US garage grunge to the world with Nirvana. His genius resides solely in the humanist simplicity and everyday poetry of his lyrics. The US rock cliché laden music of Nirvana was lesser for me. What Cobain had on his mind was major. To take the intensely personal and make it universal is not an easy craft to acquire. You either have it or you don't. And Cobain had it in spades. Dark introspection, splendour in the mundane, personal and spiritual communion, this is where any songwriter worth his salt should be. Songs like "Polly" and "Silver" resonate with all these qualities - stark naked bearing of the human soul - the listener can ask for no more. Since his death Cobain has become the possession of the rock cliché of young fast (drug?) death, the conspiracy theorists and myth maker. He should be remembered simply as a truly great humanist lyricist, full stop.

So with the 20th Anniversary edition "Nevermind" by Nirvana back in the charts it seems the release of "Battle for Seattle" by Little Roy (find out for yourself) and Ark Recordings could not have been gauged better. It is a slight pisser however that today the only viable format for reggae is as a rock conduit. The world has been turned on its head. Thirty years ago the musical boot was well and truly on the other foot. In the late seventies early eighties punk rockers and new wavers just couldn't wait to try their hand at reggae. If it wasn't straight covers like The Clash's version of Junior Murvin's "Police & Thieves" then there were a myriad of other bands just itching to try some punky reggae. The Stranglers with "Peaches", Elvis Costello "Watching the Detectives", The Ruts "Jah War", The Pretenders "Private Lives", The Members "Off Shore Banking Business" blah blah blah…..

The rockafication of reggae is the past; the reggaefication of rock is the present. All-Stars Easy Star have been the main combatants in this format with their three sublime reggaefications of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" - "Dub Side of the Moon", Radiohead's "OK Computer" -"Radiodread" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" - "Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band". The Jolly Boys also chipped in with their "Great Expectation" LP in 2010 - I still haven't quite got over their version of New Order's "Blue Monday". Back to "Battle for Seattle" though. Strangely enough after All-Star Easy Star's release of Radiodread there was talk of them turning their hand to "Nevermind" by Nirvana next. It never happened. And it's good that Little Roy didn't go down that path too because the strength of "Battle for Seattle" is in the careful selection of Kurt Cobain songs (+1 another). I mean do you really want to hear "Teen Spirit" in a rub a dub style? Perhaps not.

Do you need to have listening to the original recordings to get "Battle for Seattle"? I think unlike the reworkings of stuff by Radiohead & Pink Floyd, no you don't. The words & songs are what hold you. The understated musical framing, and sympathetic phrasing of Little Roy simply unearths and brings Cobain's lyrical genius to the fore. In the same way Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York" performance for MTV did, without the combat of ROCK, Cobain's spirituality wins the day.

The touch employed throughout "Battle for Seattle" is a light touch. Subtle blue beat organ sounds weave like golden natty threads through each track knitting the individual moments into a whole. The main guitar riff of "Come as you Are" gets reworked by a Hammond, the backing singers drift in to emphasise, the brass underline here & there and Junior Marvin's & Marley's sponji reggae guitars are invariably somewhere in the mix. The record is a master class in the understatement. Turn on, Tune In - Who knows it Feels it.

And finally……

Twenty years on, is "Nevermind" by Nirvana a great album? Well actually that isn't even a question. "GREAT" what the fuck does that mean? "Great" albums - what a crock of shit, there's no such thing. What makes a so called "great" album? How many it sells? How many music journo's (spit) think it's "great". Bollo! There are only two sorts of album, the ones you like and the ones you don't like. Subjectivity is just knackers. To say Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is "great" album when your personal taste dictates that you would do anything in your power never listen to it, is nothing but intellectual dwarfism.

And how much of an ego do you need to dictate to people what is a "Great" album and what isn't. Very much like this......[My kid came home from school the other day with a drawing of four hot air balloons with A, B, C & D marked on, each at different heights in the sky. I said "What subject is this drawing for?" She said "P.R." "What's PR ?" I asked. "Philosophy & religion" she replied. "Oh right R.E. with all the Christianity taken out. I get it. Wet liberals in action. But what are the balloons for?" "Oh" she replied. "We have four balloons at different heights marked ABC&D and four people. Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, St Francis of Assisi and Óscar Romero. And we have to say who is in the balloon closest to heaven". The teacher had the answer to this question - apparently a close friend of the big guy, or egotistic beyond measure).

There is no such thing as a "GREAT" album. Music is personal thing. Never subjective. Believe.

Back in 1991, off the top of my head (yeah I don't believe it either), along with "Nevermind" by Nirvana I bought several albums "Queer" by the Wolfgang Press, "Electronic" by Electronic, "Shiftwork" by The Fall, "Screamadelica" by Primal Scream, "Out of Time" by R.E.M., "Kill Uncle" by Morrissey, "Unreal World" by The Godfathers, "Mall" by Gang of Four and "Trompe Le Monde" by the Pixies to name a few. All of the above with the exception of the Wolfgang Press & The Fall, were, at best, lesser works by these bands. 1991 was not a "great" time for music. Not as far as I was concerned anyway. (Oh shit just remembered "Seamonsters" by The Wedding Present, that was 1991, wasn't it/) If the only way to determine how "great" an album is, is by counting how many times an individual chooses to take out an LP and listened to it from intro to outro. Then from my personal school of '91, "Nevermind" by Nirvana wins that battle hands down.