1963
TEN COMMANDMENTS * PRINCE BUSTER * BLUE BEAT 167 * UK
In this, the original, version of Ten Commandments (God Son) by Prince Buster he interprets the ten commandments in a very different way than in his latter more well known recording Ten Commandments Of Man. The propa commandments, or "Decalogue" (literally 'statements') given here are from the the book of Exodus in the bible (they also appear in a slightly different form in The Book of Deuteronomy 5:6-21) beginning with the vaunting and menacing "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me." And goes on, in a similar vein, through a long and officious list (there are actually 21) of religious and moral imperatives some of which are just common sense - brought in I would guess to normalise the otherwise ridiculous nature of commandment 1 which and are dependent of an unquestioning acceptance of the myth and its hierarchy that openly threaten the superstitious reader to, first and foremost, obey. Sound familiar? Tis, it's called Neo-Liberalism. The 'Commandments' end on a particularly enlightening imperative in that (Neither) shall you desire your neighbour’s house, or field, or male or female slave!!! Oh so it's alright to have a slave, and, presumably desire them yourself, but not one somebody else 'owns'. Err aren't we all supposed to be equal in the eyes of the Lord. Don't worry this is all made clear elsewhere in Exodus:
“When you buy a Hebrew slave, six years shall he serve; and in the seventh shall he go out free, for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and the children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the slave shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: then his master shall bring him unto God, and he shall bring him to the door or unto the door-post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.”
Clearer now? No? Then how about this piece of compassionate humanity in Ephesians:
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” And for 'God's will' read: the will of power [then, the church]
Gods words, apparently:
I wonder what made God change his mind, and when?. Did he say one day "Oh gawd blimmy I think I've made a balls up . . . I'd better get someone down there to sort this out .. . . of course I'll have to keep my name out of it, you know spin it a bit, damage limitation and all that . . . perhaps if I got the very people who were the slaves to convert from their tribal beliefs and believe in me there won't be much of a back lash, no pun intended".
It's all a big mystery to me, how can God and all those really good people have got it so wrong? Maybe the christian fundamentalists will explain all in their new blockbuster about William Wilberforce that's being hyped at the moment.
See also:
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| King, Duke, And The Sir | Black Headed Chinaman |
