Jamaican Grounded Metaphor Bob Marleys Lyrical Style

Rasta views Africa as a sacred and significant place, therefore reference to it frequently occur in their speech. Third is a pun or play on words. The manipulation of language is one of the primary elements in Rasta talk. Playing on sound and words’ structure is viewed as an attempt to make them more logical or more consistent with progressive thinking. While the fourth is I-words as what has been discussed before. The examples of first category are the concepts of Babylon and Zion as can be seen in Bob Marley’s Babylon System and Jammin. The examples of second category are Rastafari, the original name of Ethiopian Emperror, Haile Selassie. The term Jah is a shortened name of Jehovah which comes from the Hebrew word for God, Yahweh. The examples of the third and fourth category are downpress and I and I which have been discussed previously. Bob Marley lyrics are purposefully composed based on the concept Rasta and reggae philosophy. The careful and conscious words choice facilitates Bob Marley’s poetics and rhetorics in giving his commentary upon social and political injustice.

1.2.2. Jamaican Grounded Metaphor

Bob Marley’s lyrics are always quite literary than just spontaneous and impressionistic. They are filled with careful literary style mainly metaphor and personification. Through this literariness the lyrics talk about daily life and the forces of political life. Bob Marley tends to sing and explore more in Jamaican dialect than official Standard English. This might because of the idea that the richness of the wisdom dwells in the center of the peasants where the oral tradition is embraced. This thesis focuses on the songs that contain the Jamaican grounded metaphors patois or street language and local wisdom and spiritual grounded metaphors Rastafarianism, Bible, and mysticism. Jamaican grounded metaphors deals with a number of Bob Marley’s songs which are built around metaphors that are derived from Jamaican social life. Among others that the writer assumes to be firmly grounded are: Stir It Up,I Shot The Sheriff, Duppy Conqueror, Them Belly Full But We Hungry, Who The Cap Fit, The Heathen, Kaya, Ride Natty Ride, and Bad Card. Stir It Up is a seductive song which richly contains metaphorical reverences to love making, like in the second verse, “I’ll push the wood stir it, stir it, stir it together then I bless ya fire.” The wood is often referred as man’s genital in Jamaica. While the pot as in the second verse “When you show and stir your pot” is referred as woman’s genital. The action verb of love making is to stir it together. Its equality to cooking makes the sexual dimensions quite appetizing, “Your recipe is, darlin,’ is so tasty.” Here Bob Marley makes a daily reference to cooking activities. In I shot the sheriff Bob Marley sings a line which is quite unfamiliar to average non-Jamaican audience, “Everyday the bucket a go a well One day the bottom a go drop out.” This is a Jamaican metaphoric expression means that every time you mess up with me, one day you are going to get it. Here he warns those who are attacking the underprivileged that at some point they will not take it anymore and will just explode. He is not commanding for arm physical violence but instead giving a prophesy of doom to the evildoers. In “Duppy Conqueror” Bob Marley is singing about Jamaican mystic lore. Duppy in a simple translation is a ghost. It is a restless spirit that haunts the living to do harm. Duppy is also used by Jamaican to refer to the whites because of their light-skinned complexion. It implies the whites as a colonial authority. In its metaphorical sense it refers to everything that constitutes evil forces like corrupt government, politicians, and policemen. Bob Marley proclaims himself as the duppy conqueror that will bring down this kind of oppressive manifestation. Another song Them Belly Full But We Hungry draws our attention to the contrasting experiences between the rich and the poor. Here Bob Marley sings lines that rely on Jamaican proverb, “A rain a-fall but the dutty tuff a pot to cook but d’ yood no’nough.” It means that despite of the rain is falling, the dirt remains hard and unresponsive. And the second line goes “a pot to cook but the food not enough.” The rain and dirt refer to farming metaphor as Bob Marley would expose to this when he grew up in the hills side back in the St. Ann. 16 A pot on the fire constitutes the communal pot of the ghetto in the government yard of Trench town as he would also sing in “No Woman No Cry.” “I remember when we used to sit in the government yard in Trench town”...log woods burning through the night and we would cook corn meal porridge.” The message is obvious that despite of the positive observation, i.e. them belly full, rain a-fall, and a pot to cook, the negativity still happens in reality, i.e. hungry, dutty tuff, and food no-nough. From these hardship, Bob Marley then calls the audience to response with dance, as he sings, “we’re gonna dance to Jah music dance forget your troubles and dance.” Dance here is not an escape instead it is a way to deal with it. It is not a secular act, but a deeply spiritual one, as the dance 16 Dawes, Kwame. Bob Marley Lyrical Genius, p. 125. is to Jah music. The dancer is worshiping Jah as he or she faces the hardships of life. It is through the worship that one can redirect pain and anger. It gives the poor or the underprivileged hope. In Who the Cap Fit Bob Marley employs rural Jamaican proverb that is incomprehensible to most non-Jamaican listener. Here he sings lines like, “I throw me corn me no call no fowl I saying cook-cook-cook cluk-cluk-cluk.” Literally the lines mean: I throw my corn, but I will not call the fowls to eat the corn. 17 The onomatopoeia cook-cook-cook, cluk-cluk-cluk is an attempt to simulate the calling of chickens. In other words it can be translated as “Don’t call yourself a chicken just because you eat my feed; I never said I was endeavoring to feed chickens.” That is, “You are who you show yourself to be, not who you might say you are.” 18 Basically it is a sinical song to the hypocrites and parasites as he would sing in the second verse, “hypocrites and parasites will come up and take the bite.” Bob Marley wants to educate the people that duplicacy always happens in politic which cynically refers to as politrics. Hypocrite politicians will do so much good for the poor only to win election. They live on false pretense and would likely exploit friendships and relationships to achieve their own goals. 19 In the second verse Bob Marley applies another Jamaican expression su-su in lines “some will eat and drink with you then behind them su-su ‘pon you.” The sound su-su is meant to mimic sound of whispering. So it means whispering behind someone’s back, gossiping or speaking ill. 20 Here Marley makes a Biblical 17 Dawes, Kwame. Bob Marley Lyrical Genius, p. 167. 18 Moskowitz, David. The Words and Music of Bob Marley, p. 67. 19 Dawes, Kwame. Bob Marley Lyrical Genius, p. 168. 20 Moskowitz, David. The Words and Music of Bob Marley, p. 68. reference where Jesus was betrayed by Judas on the table when he calmly stated someone would betray him. Basically it is in this manner that Bob Marley intended to address his witty sarcasm”Who the cap fit, let them wear it” which simply means that who feels it knows it. He does not specifically mention anyone but there is an implication to be about specific people. In The Heathen Jamaican creole shows in the chorus “de heathen back dey ‘pon the wall.” Heatens are those who do not know the truth or who will not accept the truth. All people who seek to do ill to the righteous are the heathens. 21 So when translated it goes “Jah put the heathen’s back against the wall.” It is a statement of faith that despite the bad things happened to him Jah still guides and protects him. 22 This song is pointing to the gun men who fired him at his home in Hope road. It is the resurrection of Bob Marley to rise again from his wounded situation and live to fight another day as he sings in the first verse “Rise up fallen fighters rise and take your stance again This he who fight and run away Live to fight another day.” InKaya, Bob Marley is singing about marijuana. Kaya in Jamaican patois means ganja. It is used for spiritual purposes for the Rasta. It is a sacrament and part of Bob Marley’s and most Rasta’s daily routine. During Rasta gathering they usually sing, dance, read and discuss Bible while sharing chalice or ganja pipe. For Rastas, smoking weed or marijuana will make them feel closer to Jah God. It is used as a sacrament. However, in this particular song he is talking about smoking ganja as relaxation as he would describe it in patois “feelin irie,” which means feeling good and peace. There seem to be no significance in the song 21 Dawes, Kwame. Bob Marley Lyrical Genius, p. 201. 22 Moskowitz, David. The Words and Music of Bob Marley, p. 79. but here Marley is glorifying one of the basic tenets in Rasta teaching about marijuana as Gods creation to be enjoyed in the motion of freedom. In Ride Natty Ride Bob Marley opens the verse with a line, “dready got a job to do.” Dread and natty are words that have taken a new meaning in Jamaican creole which refer to the Rasta. The song is about the task of the Rasta to fulfill Jah mission in destroying evil system as well as a faithful affirmation of Jahs guidance. Riding natty may not be a cowboy, instead a righteous force of apocalypse to destroy the wickedness. 23 Here he would infuse some biblical references. One of them is final judgment day with apocalypse source of power fire. Another Jamaican expression is “go deh” which literally means to go there, and to do the punishment. Bad Cards is a song specifically aims at and to condemn Bob Marley’s ex-manager, Don Taylor, who cheated and betrayed him. 24 Taylor had to show his bad card which is his true self.

1.2.3. Spiritual Grounded Metaphor Rasta and Biblical Reference