Burning Spear | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Winston Godfrey Rodney |
Born | 1 March 1945 |
Genres | Reggae |
Years active | 1969–present |
Labels | Studio One, Island, EMI, Heartbeat, Slash |
Website | www.burningspear.net |
Winston Rodney, OD (born 1 March 1945[1][2]), also known as Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer and musician. Burning Spear is known for his Rastafari movement messages.
Contents |
Rodney was born in Saint Ann's Bay, Saint Ann, Jamaica, as were reggae singer Bob Marley and political activist Marcus Garvey who both had a great influence on Rodney's life: Garvey in his philosophy, which Burning Spear greatly took to, and Marley in directly helping Burning Spear get started in the music industry (by some accounts) by introducing him to Clement Dodd.[3] Rodney met Marley at the latter's farm in 1969, and having told him that he wanted to get into the music business, Marley advised him to start at Dodd's Studio One label.[3][4] Reggae singer Larry Marshall claimed that it was he, while visiting St. Ann's Bay with Jackie Mittoo, who was approached by Rodney, and gave him this advice, and arranged the introduction.[5]
Burning Spear was originally Rodney's group, named after a military award given by Jomo Kenyatta, the first Prime Minister and President of an independent Kenya,[6] and including bass singer Rupert Willington. This duo auditioned for Dodd in 1969, and recorded the debut single "Door Peep".[3] They were joined by tenor Delroy Hinds (brother of Justin Hinds).[3] The trio recorded several more singles for Dodd, and two albums, before they moved on to work with Jack Ruby in 1975.[3] Their first recording with Ruby, "Marcus Garvey", was intended as an exclusive track for Ruby's Ocho Rios-based Hi-Power sound system, but was released as a single, giving them an immediate hit, and was followed by "Slavery Days".[3] These recordings featured the backing band The Black Disciples, which included Earl "Chinna" Smith, Valentine Chin, Robbie Shakespeare and Leroy Wallace.[3] The group worked with Ruby on their third album, Marcus Garvey (1976), which was immediately successful and led to a deal with Island Records to give the album a wider release.[3] Island remixed and altered the speed of some of the tracks, much to the annoyance of fans and the group,[7] leading Rodney to set up his own Spear label for future releases where he would have full control, although further releases followed on Island including a dub album (Garvey's Ghost) and the Man in the Hills album.[3] In late 1976, Rodney split from both Ruby and group members Willington and Hinds, and from that point on used the name Burning Spear for himself alone. Dry and Heavy followed in 1977, self-produced but still on Island, and with a sizeable following by now in the United Kingdom,[7] he performed in London that year with members of Aswad acting as his backing band for a sold-out show at the Rainbow Theatre, which was recorded and released as Live!.[3] Aswad also provided backing on his next studio album, Social Living (1978), which also featured Sly Dunbar and Rico Rodriguez.[3] A dub version of the album, Living Dub (1979), was mixed by Sylvan Morris.[3] His profile was raised further by an appearance in the film Rockers, performing "Jah no Dead".[7]
In 1980, Rodney left Island Records, and set up the Burning Spear label, which he signed to EMI,[7] debuting on the label with Hail H.I.M., recorded at Marley's Tuff Gong studio and co-produced by Aston Barrett.[3] A Sylvan Morris dub version followed in the form of Living Dub Volume Two.[3] In 1982, Rodney signed with Heartbeat Records with a series of well-received albums following, including the 1985 Grammy-nominated Resistance.[3] He returned to Island in the early 1990s, releasing two albums before rejoining Heartbeat.
Burning Spear tours extensively, and several live albums have been issued. His 1999 album, Calling Rastafari brought his first Grammy Award in 2000,[6] a feat which he repeated with Jah Is Real in 2009.[8]
In the mid 1990s, he set up the Burning Music Production company, handling his own bookings, and in 2002, he and his wife, Sonia Rodney who has produced a number of his albums, restarted Burning Spear Records, giving him a greater degree of artistic control.[4][9][10] Since the mid-1990s, he has been based in Queens, New York.[11]
Burning Spear was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer on 15 October 2007.[12]
The Track "We Are Going" was featured in cycling documentary "Roam" by The Collective.
Burning Spear has won two Grammy Awards for Best Reggae Album; one at the 42nd Grammy Awards in 2000 for Calling Rastafari, and one for 2009's Jah Is Real. He has been nominated for a total of 12 Grammy Awards.[10][13]
Nominations for Best Reggae Album:
"Fly Me to the Moon", originally titled "In Other Words", is a popular song written in 1954 by Bart Howard. Kaye Ballard made the first recording of the song in 1954. Since then it has become a frequently recorded jazz standard often featured in popular culture. Frank Sinatra's 1964 version was closely associated with the Apollo missions to the Moon.
In 1999, the US-based Songwriters Hall of Fame recognized the importance of "Fly Me to the Moon" by inducting it as a "Towering Song" which is an award "...presented each year to the creators of an individual song that has influenced our culture in a unique way over many years.”
In 1954, when writing the song which would become famous as "Fly Me to the Moon", Bart Howard had been pursuing a career in music for more than 20 years. He played piano to accompany cabaret singers but also wrote songs with Cole Porter, his idol, in mind. In response to a publisher's request for a simpler song, Bart Howard wrote a cabaret ballad in waltz time which he titled "In Other Words". A publisher tried to make him change some lyrics from "fly me to the moon" to "take me to the moon" but Howard refused to do this. Many years later Howard commented that “... it took me 20 years to find out how to write a song in 20 minutes".
This is a list of episodes of the Japanese animated TV series Planetes (プラネテス Puranetesu, Ancient Greek: πλάνητες "Wanderers") It began airing its 26 episode run on NHK BS-2 on October 4, 2003 and ended on February 23, 2004. Produced and animated by Sunrise, it was directed by Gorō Taniguchi and scripted by Ichirō Ōkouchi (both of whom would later reunite in 2006 to work on the Sunrise original production Code Geass). The anime began development and production before the end of the manga serialization. In the beginning and middle of the series, the writing and production staff only had the first three volumes of the manga as source. In order to fill the entire 26 episode run of the anime, new characters, new settings and new relationships between characters were made in order to increase dramatic tension, reinforce themes introduced in the manga, and introduce new themes that were compatible with the manga. While the manga deals more with existential themes, and humanity's relationship with space, the anime further expands the political elements of the story.
Fly Me to the Moon is the debut studio album by American musician Bobby Womack. The album was released in January 1969, by Minit Records.
Marcus Garvey's words come to pass,
Marcus Garvey's words come to pass,
Can't get no food to eat,
Can't get no money to spend, Wo-oo-oo
Can't get no food to eat,
Can't get no money to spend, Woo-oo-oo
Come, little one and let me do what I can do for you
And you and you alone
Come, little one, wo-oo-oo
Let me do what I can do for you and you alone, woo-oo-
He who knows the right thing
And do it not
Shall be spanked with many stripes,
Weeping and wailing and moaning,
You've got yourself to blame, I tell you.
Do right do right do right do right do right,
Tell you to do right, Woo-oo-oo
Beg you to do right, Woo -oo- oo
Where is Bagawire, he's nowhere to be found
He can't be found
First betrayer who gave away Marcus Garvey
Son of St. Ann, First prophesy,
Catch them, Garvey old
Catch them Garvey, catch them Woo-oo-oo
Hold them Marcus, hold them Woo-oo-oo