Word: jamaican
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...Wailers. You should see these guys so you'll know where Page and Plant copped "D'yer Maker" from. The real stuff, honest Jamaican reggae, which, just like Jamaican weed, pulls no punches. In Jamaica, you write a song, you get maybe 20 bucks. If it dies, okay; but if it sells a million, too bad. But how the music thrives; it is said that Jamaicans believe nothing that doesn't come through the transistor. That is probably true. In fact, do this: take three nights and: see The Wailers, see The Harder They Come, read an article on Rude...
...sound is virtually continuous; it ranges from rock to revivalist hymns to the background whine of transistor radios to the economical singsong (and sometimes subtitled) Jamaican English of its principal characters. And the sound is uniformly good. Jimmy Cliff's rock is strong and vibrant. The title song is a top 40 hit whose tune may stay with you for a few days, and the church music is professional, loud and compelling. All of it buoys up the film with movement and vigor...
...Harder they Come is a Jamaican film. Henzell, a rich white native of the island (producer, director and author) has made a film that sparkles with an understated, bitter native irony. For example, after waiting hours for the monopolist who controls the island's record business to emerge from the gates of his mansion, a group of six bedraggled hopefuls gathers around the hood of his gleaming white Mercedes and performs a carefully orchestrated song. The boss leans back for a moment, his sunglasses sharp stars in the sun, and suddenly interrupts them. "Too slow...
Jimmy Cliff, a Jamaican rock singer, plays Ivan, the country boy who comes to the city determined to become a top singer of "reggae" [what polite Jamaicans used to call ragamuffin music; it is a sort of synthesis of American rock and Jamaican native sounds]. Cliff found his way to shantytown from a little village in the country. He came to Kingston to go to technical school, quit after a very short while, and then hustled himself into the music business. For him, The Harder they Come is really part of the hustle...
...audience will accept it at face value; the movie demands not attention but acquiesence. There is not a spontaneous moment to be found; every act, down to each chase and tribal Caribbean voodoo ritual is choreographed. In fact, the real star is dancer Geoffrey Holder, whose grace and rich Jamaican voice lend spirit to the voodoo scenes, and authenticity elsewhere...