By Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
AKIN TO the two extremes 'Madonna and the whore' is Marion Hall and Lady Saw respectively. Lady Saw is raunchy and risqué while Marion Hall is much more sedate. However, they work hand in hand. Lady Saw makes the money so that Marion can pay the bills.
One thing for sure, Lady Saw is either loved or hated to the bone there is no equilibrium. Those who despise her thinks she is too bawdy. Those that love her thinks she is assertive. Therefore, the debate on the appropriateness of her lyrics and her actions on stage rages on. What many do not know is that unlike many entertainers, it is not Marion Hall, a.k.a. Lady Saw, but rather Marion Hall and Lady Saw two awfully 'til it hurts, different personas.
According to Marion, the basic difference between Lady Saw and Marion Hall is that the former is an adopted character while the latter is the innate character. "Lady Saw is a stage name; when she is on stage is a whole heap a craziness; however, Marion is a loving and homely girl that loves cooking, baking, gardening and taking care of the kids," reasoned Ms Hall.
She added that the acquired character, Lady Saw, is the 'money-making machine', and as such, has to be aggressive. The irony in her schizophrenic personality intensifies when one examines Marion Hall's humble beginnings.
She was raised in Galina, St. Mary. Her father did farming and fishing and her mother did domestic work. Growing up in a poor family, Marion Hall and her siblings had to try their hands at many things to boost the family's income.
They used to pick ackees, guineps, almonds, coconuts and just about anything they could get to sell and then go down to the Ocho Rios Craft Market or stand up on the street side and sell them. Apart from the picking of fruits, she used to visit some older friends and help them clean up their houses, wash for a lady that had six children and in return she would get food and clothes. At one point Marion joined her brothers in the broom-making industry.
However, the factors from Marion's past that offers the most contradictory evidence against the risqué Lady Saw is the fact that she sang on her church choir and was a 'tomboy'. She recalled that there was not a tree in sight that she did not climb while growing up. In addition, she pointed out that on countless occasions she was mistaken for a boy, as her physical features and fashion statement back then were not as well defined and feminine as they are today. Reason being, she had short hair and wore a tam.
That mistake cannot and will not be made today, as Lady Saw and Marion Hall are both 'all woman'. Marion Hall gets a lot of bashing for being Lady Saw on stage. However, she shrugs off these criticisms. "I don't care bout nothing weh dem waan chat seh," noted Lady Saw confidently. She continued: "When people talk, Lady Saw gets stronger, because I know I don't live like that and the more them talk is the more money I make. It's my work; when I am off-stage Marion is back again."
The infamous attitude of the persona known as Lady Saw was adopted because Marion thought she was not receiving the recognition she deserved in the premature stages of her career. "I think it is easier for a male to receive recognition. I never got much recognition when I went about it the proper way, so I had to put down my foot and kick it like a man," reasoned Saw, whose name was heavily influenced by old school male deejay, the late Tenor Saw.
Read the remainder of this story in today's Star.
