1977
SPEAK OF THY WISDOM * JAH LLOYD * EJI 001 * UK
The late great Jah Lloyd a.k.a. Jah Lion, a.k.a. Pat Francis. At the age of ten Patrick Lloyd Francis left his incredibly poor family home in the country and went to live in Kingston. Like many Jamaican artists from impoverished backgrounds (we're talking about no money) he settled in Trenchtown, where his elder brother was already living. Pat Francis talks of the rich talent that was to be found every day on the streets of Trenchtown, and how people with an abundance of creativity would freely share their musical skills with others, artists like Theo Beckford, and Toot's (Hibbert), could, and were, regularly called upon for advice, assistance and inspiration. He also talks of how difficult it was for many, simply because of all this abundance of talent, energy and desire to succeed, to even get themselves on the first rung of a recording career - the situation was as close as possible to a real meritocracy - that with few exceptions, allowed only the best to make it. It's a sobering thought that this rich legacy of beautiful music we have is possibly only because of others suffering and the desire to express their pain and frustration, and by doing so hopefully find themselves (and others) a better life, at which point the hunger, passion and desire have left them; and when all this poverty and sufferation is eradicated along comes a new generation and the music is replaced by a bourgeois and complacent middle class intellectualism. The above is Jah Lloyd toasting, over a well known rhythm, some quotations from the bible along with some of his prognosis on the fate of mankind.
Thanks to Oliver / 354skank, from Germany for the titles of this
and the next side.
See also: World Class Version * Soldier And Police *