Richard 'Shams' Browne By Balford Henry, Senior Staff Reporter
THE MARRIAGE between music and politics is a shaky alliance, probably dating back to the days of Marcus Garvey and Edelweiss Park, where his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) gave many unknown Jamaican acts their first stab at stardom through talent shows.
But, things have changed radically over the years, especially since the volatile 1970s when association with one party or the other could be deadly. Instead of looking to political parties as prospective talent hunters, the artistes started looking in other directions.
"I agree that it is ignorance why people associate the artistes with the party, but it is a fact of life we've to live with and we want people to continue thinking that TOK is for everybody," says Richard 'Shams' Browne manager of TOK, whose Chi Chi Man single is eye of the current political thrumming.
But, popular music will remain a factor in political campaigns despite the ambivalence, because of the ability of the music to both attract people and raise their spirits.
For, even while the JLP were playing TOK's Chi Chi Man to arouse their supporters in Ocho Rios during the recent by-election in North east St. Ann, DJ Beenie Man was performing at a PNPYO political rally in St. Ann's Bay.
Explaining Beenie Man's appearance at the function, his manager/producer Patrick Roberts said: "We are not playing a campaign role, but different people will look at things differently."
Roberts explained that Beenie Man was honoured at the PNPYO rally at the Marcus Garvey Technical High School, St. Ann's Bay and performed afterwards.
But, JLP's spokeswoman on culture, Olivia "Babsy" Grange, felt that he could have made his performance seem more impartial by also offering to perform at a JLP function as well.
However, she pointed out that Beenie Man had a good rapport with the JLP, its leader, Edward Seaga and has performed at community-oriented functions in Tivoli Gardens over the years.
Seaga's links with music as a former record producer and owner of West Indies Records Limited (WIRL) led him to use his former political base, Chocomo Lawn in West Kingston, as a nursery for young musical talents like Dennis Brown, Slim Smith and the Techniques in the 1960s. And the JLP was the first to successfully use a popular song as a campaign anthem when Clancy Eccles' Freedom featured in the pro-Independence campaign in the 1961 Referendum.
In 1971, Eccles re-emerged on the side of the PNP with the tunes Rod Of Correction and Power For The People. This encouraged the late PNP leader Michael Manley to recruit him to put together a 'bandwagon', to tour all 60 constituencies prior to the 1972 general elections. Eccles got the Wailers, Delroy Wilson, Ken Boothe, B.B. Seaton, Max Romeo, Junior Byles and Judy Mowatt to be part of the group.
In 1976 Eccles produced the song The Message, written and sung by Neville Martin for the PNP from which the famous line, "my leader born yah" comes.
"Neville Martin came to me with this song about his mother and his father born yah and I re-wrote it saying 'my leader born yah," he told Showtime. He paid for the production, but the PNP bought 5,000 copies of the record.
Eccles feels in such situations the party should pay well for the composition.
Things have changed dramatically since that time. With many more opportunities for shows and recordings available to artistes, most prefer to remain non-partisan because of political violence.
This has left the political parties unable to recruit top acts to record songs for their political campaigns or perform at their rallies. Instead they have to use the most popular songs of the day and those which make the most impact on the public as a means of whipping up support and morale.
