Thursday , April 25 2024

“Culture” Honored

Classic reggae group Culture honored by NYC:

    A proclamation from the great city of New York was presented to reggae legend Joseph Hill and his band Culture recently by New York City Council member Yvette Clarke. During a touching ceremony before an SRO audience at SOB’s nightclub, Councilwoman Clarke honored the band in celebration of their lengthy and historic career, their 30th release “World Peace” (Heartbeat), and for uplifting Jamaican culture, a generous contribution to their community. A recognition which goes down in the annals of New York City history, it has also been given to artists like legend Freddie McGregor, dancehall superstar Sean Paul, Wyclef Jean and Boyz II Men. Born in the 70’s golden age of reggae, the ever-viable Culture has garnered continual US and international acclaim for its long series of classic “roots” albums. The band has just wound up their first leg of their US tour and will take a break before heading to Europe.

I recently reviewed the World Peace CD here:

    Culture is one of Jamaican reggae’s most respected names, beginning in the ’70s as a vocal trio and continuing to this day as Joseph “Culture” Hill, lead singer and songwriter of the original trio, and a revolving cast of musicians, still brings the militant consciousness, Rastafarian perspective, and deep roots reggae grooves.

    Classic albums such as Two Sevens Clash and Baldhead Bridge, recorded in the mid-’70s with producer Joe Gibbs, and singles “This Train” and “Never Get Weary” recorded in the late-’70s with Sonia Pottinger, established Culture as international stars.

    Hill is still at it in fine form after 25 years, working with the Firehouse Crew (Melbourne Miller, Donald Dennis, Paul Crossdale) and Shaggie’s band on World Peace, an album whose sentiment is as fundamental and uncompromising as its title.

    Hill has a bathed-in-ganja soul rasp somewhat similar to Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals, and he puts it to best use on the loping, “Sweet Freedom,” in which he speaks for the downtrodden and disadvantaged and their eternal search for “equal rights and justice” (great line: “Santa Claus come to town he never come around my way”). While Hill’s stance is uncompromising, the cheeryness of the melody and his delivery tell us there is joy in righteous expression and at this point in a lifelong career, he may be satisfied with incremental gains for “his people.”

    Horns give “Time Is Getting Harder” a special punch; the title track insists on “World Peace,” somehow making a very broad and generic demand urgent and specific with lines like:

    “Every man a run a front
    Want to be the leader
    But I will stay in the back
    To lead the blind”

    The album is a tuneful, musically bright primer on Ratafarian concerns, keying on the slackness of Jamaican non-believers; the evil of guns, the tool of exploiters big and small; the redeeming light of Jah, which makes righteous “sufferation” tolerable and noble; train imagery symbolizing salvation; Biblical borrowings including Babylon as a corrupt materialistic and warlike culture doomed to fall, and Mount Zion as paradise on earth.

    The “culture” of Joseph Hill is still uncompromising, uplifting, and deeply satisfying.

About Eric Olsen

Career media professional and serial entrepreneur Eric Olsen flung himself into the paranormal world in 2012, creating the America's Most Haunted brand and co-authoring the award-winning America's Most Haunted book, published by Berkley/Penguin in Sept, 2014. Olsen is co-host of the nationally syndicated broadcast and Internet radio talk show After Hours AM; his entertaining and informative America's Most Haunted website and social media outlets are must-reads: Twitter@amhaunted, Facebook.com/amhaunted, Pinterest America's Most Haunted. Olsen is also guitarist/singer for popular and wildly eclectic Cleveland cover band The Props.

Check Also

Music Review: Various Artists – Let Freedom Sing: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement

Not just a collection of great music; it’s an audio history book.