Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Reggae's future worries pioneer
Burning Spear: ‘the music needs direction’
Burning Spear is fired up about the direction of reggae.
The 61-year-old Jamaican, born Winston Rodney, is a pioneer of the genre. He was a contemporary of Bob Marley, recorded for the famed Studio One label and influenced the entire island with his political and spiritual music.
Related Items
He is still writing and recording as he always has, but is disturbed about where reggae is heading. Young performers are changing its vibe from an organic music of the people to something more artificial, he says.
"The music has changed," Rodney says. "There's a different flavour, taste and type of arrangement. There's less musicians playing their instruments; it's a programming thing now. The kids are singing off key. The music needs direction."
The dreadlocked Rastafarian believes the government should be doing more to support and nurture the music so strongly associated with the country of 2.8 million people. Rodney would like to see the minister of culture and heritage establish a national recording studio to teach people the history of the music and allow them to record in the traditional way with live musicians.
"I think it needs protection, a voice to protect the music and musicians," Rodney says over the phone from his Long Island home, where he spends half the year. "We need more traditional reggae -- the youth of today are not looking in that direction and not going with that. We need a stronger voice. I think a lot of people in Jamaica don't know the strength of this music and what the music has done for people all over the world."
He's doing his part.
Since his first recordings in 1966 to his latest Grammy-winning release, last year's Jah is Real, Rodney has been spreading his personal and political message all over the world. He and his eight-piece band make their first visit to Winnipeg tonight when he performs a mainstage set at the Winnipeg Folk Festival.
"I'm still going better than a Duracell battery," he says with a laugh.
Rodney got his start in 1966 when Marley, who was from the same home town of St. Ann's Bay, told the budding musician and his partner Rupert Willington to try their luck in Kingston at Studio One where many of the island's most notable reggae musicians, including Marley and the Wailers, got their start.
Rodney took the advice and the pair was signed to the label as Burning Spear. Over the next decade Burning Spear -- who expanded to a trio with the addition of Delroy Hinds -- recorded for Studio One before hooking up with producer Jack Ruby, who helped the group achieve their greatest success up to that point with the 1975 album, Marcus Garvey. The record made the group stars in their home country and established their political and spiritual credentials.
He never got a chance to record with Marley before his friend died in 1981, something Rodney believes would have happened naturally had the legend lived.
"I know if Bob was around at this point we would have done something together," he says. "Bob and I were good buddies. We used to smoke and eat lunch by the studio. We'd talk and reason. Bob was a good man, a people person. There was a lot of inspiration coming off Bob."
Like Marley, Rodney considers himself an artist of the people, for the people.
"If the artist isn't seeing himself that way then you're doing something wrong," he says. "My outspoken beliefs have been embraced, but I don't consider myself an activist. Maybe people consider me as that, but it's not anything outrageous or bad I can't live with."
These days Rodney is continuing to spread his own inspiring words, which he records whenever the mood strikes. He is getting ready to release a 40th anniversary DVD with old footage and interviews.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 11, 2009 C3
- Rate this

-
-
We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high. If you thought it was well written, do the same. If it doesn’t meet your standards, mark it accordingly.
You can also register and/or login to the site and join the conversation by leaving a comment.
Rate it yourself by rolling over the stars and clicking when you reach your desired rating. We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high.
The comment period for this story has ended.
Ads by Google
- Back to Top
- Return to Music
-
CON >< CUSSIONS
Examining hockey head injuries
-
Random Acts of Kindness
Your encounters with goodness
-
Open Secrets
Red River students mine government data banks
-
Ski with WFP
Register here to ski Asessippi with the Winnipeg Free Press
-
Miss Lonelyhearts
Maureen Scurfield offers life advice
Poll
Most Popular
- New cutting machine breaks through ice near Selkirk
- Off-duty officer stops assault on Transit driver
- Crusader up for Nobel Prize
- Alta. killer also struck here
- Charges considered in machete attack
- Ice-cutting machine to stay submerged until spring
- Mr. Matas a worthy nominee
- Are you affected by the Daylight Savings Time change?
- Huge death toll averted in BC avalanche, but 'stupidity' blamed for two killed
- Russell, Man., bursts with people, pride as Olympic champion returns
- Crusader up for Nobel Prize
- From poster couple to problem couple
- Manitoban wheelchair-user badly beaten in Australia
- Six-year-old leads RCMP to attacker
- Woman injured after being struck by train
- Musician's mother dies
- Gang showdown 'imminent'
- New cutting machine breaks through ice near Selkirk
- Looters target family's home
- Off-duty officer stops assault on Transit driver
- Olympic-sized hypocrisy
- Crusader up for Nobel Prize
- Not wrong, just illegal
- Teacher's lapdance caught on tape, watched by world
- Students could be punished
- Is this the worst Olympics ever?
- Second video of lap dance uncovered
- Missing Stonewall man found dead
- What should happen to two teachers who performed a sexually suggestive dance routine in front of students?
- Two winners for $50 million Lotto Max jackpot
- New cutting machine breaks through ice near Selkirk
- Charges considered in machete attack
- Ice-cutting machine to stay submerged until spring
- If you don't feel like sharing, get your own candy bar miss lonelyhearts
- Readers reject race card in shooting
- Off-duty officer stops assault on Transit driver
- Demise of Canadian climate research would impact global initiatives: scientists
- Other provinces leery about withholding public services due to religious garb
- British couple convicted for public smooch seeks appeal in Dubai
- Lady Gaga video premiere clogs web pipes
- Wielding a weapon costs a life
- Greyhound apologizes for stranding passengers
- You can't keep grandpa from seeing baby despite childish family dynamics
- Aboriginal elders removed from court on Hydro hearing
- Gang showdown 'imminent'
- Explore drug aids before giving up sex
- Lesbian teen faces classmates after school cancels dance over her request to bring girlfriend
- Police shoot and kill suspect
- Looters target family's home
- No more quick fixes: mayor
- Teacher's lapdance caught on tape, watched by world
- MP may regret taking aim at Christian youth centre: Mayor Katz
- Students could be punished
- Police shoot and kill suspect
- Second video of lap dance uncovered
- More ominous issue underlies Youth for Christ flap
- Wielding a weapon costs a life
- Mounties hook ice-fishers for open beer
- Youth centre sparks dispute
- Canadian women's hockey team stunned by reaction to post-gold party
- Former prosecutor ambushed on CBC
- New cutting machine breaks through ice near Selkirk
- Ice-cutting machine to stay submerged until spring
- You can't keep grandpa from seeing baby despite childish family dynamics
- Not wrong, just illegal
- Snowbirds flocking to 'south Winnipeg'
- Egg board embraces chicken emancipation
- British couple convicted for public smooch seeks appeal in Dubai
- 7-time Tour de France champion Armstrong arrives in South Africa for Cape Argus
- Schooling future soccer stars
- Manitoban wheelchair-user badly beaten in Australia
- Indian Act changing to treat descendants equitably
- Socialism for the rich is Tory way
- Cabela's to open across Canada
- New cutting machine breaks through ice near Selkirk
- Iceland airline bullish about Winnipeg
- Gang showdown 'imminent'
- Older women invading Facebook
- Schooling future soccer stars
- It’s The Sounds of Silence, unless you have big bucks
- Text of Shane Koyczan's opening ceremonies poem, "We Are More"
- Teacher's lapdance caught on tape, watched by world
- Olympic-sized hypocrisy
- Cabela's to open across Canada
- Not wrong, just illegal
- Oprah's on, and so is our Jon!
- Online drug pioneer tumbles
- Mounties hook ice-fishers for open beer
- Goodbye Facebook. Hello World!
- No listings for buyers flooding the housing market
PREVIOUS

0 Comments