One Drop Seventeen
Cause I'm a hero/Like Robert de Niro...
Back after a break for Christmas, New Year and Sensi Free January (nearly!) with a poem from our very own Stephen Watt inspired by 90s reggae innovator and singular voice Finley Quaye. Quaye’s career hovered in the margins between reggae, soul and a bit of trip-hop, and was a reminder that there were still unexplored regions in the world of reggae music. We also feature a few tracks from Finley Quaye plus an appreciation of his contribution to the hybrid sound he created.
The second part of this posting features an interview with the late British poet Benjamin Zephaniah, a writer steeped in Jamaican culture and one of the best-loved poets of the 21st century. He talks about blues parties and Dub Poetry, poems created to be spoken over reggae beats. We also feature an elegy for the much-loved and much-missed poet. Check out his work!
Quaye Days
During the nineties optimum strut,
shark’s tooth triangles on beads round necks,
when our youth club
was deemed a toy-strewn nursery,
I first heard that voice, those lyrics.
Green-skyed, with intersecting lemon jet-streams,
Finley Quaye skipped
on the petals of yellow discs and white rays –
a reggae daisy
in the champagne sunbeams.
And aged seventeen, still in school,
I plagued DJ’s
to play his sweet melodies.
Appreciate true rebel music
and barricade the hullabaloo:
the poor exam results,
the Gallagher brothers,
PM Tony waving his little Union flag
behind a brick wall
of nettle stings.
Stephen Watt
Hear Finley Quaye’s take on a 90s reggae sound
Ride on and Turn the People On
Ultra Stimulation
Maverick a Strike
An interview and short appreciation of Finley Quaye from BBC’s Top of the Pops
Benjamin Zephaniah
Interview for the Poetry Archive via Apples & Snakes
Elegy for Benjamin Zephaniah
Words are a dread affair; colours
of language are never just white/
black. To read is to understand,
to understand is to change. Culture
breathed you in, breathed light
out; you were the pen in its hand.
Andy Jackson