Winston 'Burning Spear'Rodney
Germaine Smith, Staff Reporter
WINSTON RODNEY, the man known to the world as the Burning Spear, has been nominated for a Grammy Award - again - this time with Freeman. This is Rodney's ninth nomination and for his eight other nominations he has only won once, with Calling Rastafari in 2000.
How does this man from the hills of St. Ann maintain such a commanding presence in Europe and the United States, despite not being based in large part in reggae's birthplace? The answer lies in Spear's music, which has traditionally and consistently reflected heavy Marcus Garvey sentiments. Listening to his over 30 albums to date the philosophy of Garvey resounds timelessly. To an entire generation, Spear is a legend who is still living and, according to him, he is very comfortable with people seeing him in that way.
"In any form the people see me I know they will see me in a good form. I don't mind about that I feel comfortable with it," he recently told The Sunday Gleaner. "It's what the people say, and what they see and what they feel." This, as he explains, is in striking contrast to how other artistes see themselves as super stars even before they actually are.
"Many of the younger people in the business, they just get started for six months and they think that they are in the business for 20 years. They think they are this big super duper major star. Every man is a star, because if you think like a star then you can feel like a star. But a star is much more than feel and think, a star is a lot of work."
He should know what hard work is. Presently, Burning Spear tours for six or more months each year. These tours take him from the distant continent of Australia to Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France and across several states in North America. Packing in this amount of work would leave other artistes drained both physically and mentally, but after 30 successful years, Spear says he has the formula for staying afloat.
"I just try to keep myself fit as possible, don't burn out myself," he nonchalantly states."
I don't go on the stage and try to do two or three shows at once. If its two hours I do two hours and I walk away feeling good, with a lot of energy to continue. I eat the right food and exercise and keep doing what I have to do."
Spear's journey was not easy. He started life oddly enough in St Ann, the same parish which gave birth to National Hero Marcus Garvey and another hero in his own right, Robert Nesta Marley.
Spear made his first recording in 1969 and since that there has been no turning back for this prolific songwriter.
That first recording was Door Peep for Clement 'Sir Coxsone' Dodd, whose Studio One he was directed to by Bob Marley. That first venture into 'town', as well as his musical commitment and 'trod' are recorded in the autobiographical As It Is, which opens the Calling Rastafari album.
It was when he hooked up with Lawrence 'Jack Ruby' Lindo in 1975 that Spear made the Marcus Garvey album, which was an instant classic and somewhat the bedrock of his career. A deal with Island Records followed and Spear began his touring in earnest, with an October 1977 trip to the UK being his first performance in that country.
He seems to have not stopped touring since then. Or recording, with Man In The Hills, Social Living, Mek We Dweet and Jah Kingdom among the many.
The Burning Spear has been with Heartbeat Records for some years and while he lives in the US, his albums are made in Jamaica. Of note is the fact that his stage name is taken from Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of Kenya.
Spear comfortably fielded questions from The Sunday Gleaner recently, telling about his absence from Jamaica, his perspective on reggae and dancehall and even retirement.
Sunday Gleaner: You have been nominated several times before for the Grammy Award, how do you feel about this particular one?
Burning Spear: I have no unusual feelings at this time. Sometimes Grammy can be a funny thing, you know. Sometimes an individual might think that he or she may be the winner but sometimes it just don't go like that. I have never ever thought that I might be the winner, but then again I know that I have been winning differently since 1969. I am not the type of person who will be saying that that person should win and this person shouldn't win; you never know what can happen.
SG: Jamaican audiences rarely see you perform here and your last show was a few years ago (Reggae Sumfest 2002). Have you stopped coming to Jamaica?
B.S.: Burning Spear never stop coming to Jamaica. Even while living in New York all this time my recordings are done here in Jamaica. I still go back and forth, sometimes three or four times for the year. based upon my work. I am still spending a portion of money with Jamaica's government (laughs). I never walked away from Jamaica, because any place that I go to I go with Jamaica, When I go on the stage in Europe I go on the stage for Jamaica as an African Jamaican. It's like the man who does sports for Jamaica and lives in another country. When he runs it's for Jamaica, or when he does boxing, it's for Jamaica.
SG: Why then do we hardly see you on local shows?
B.S.: I don't mind doing shows anywhere, but it's got to be right and it's got to be the right people doing it and taking care of the artistes... I don't think the people who plan to do the real concert are ready to do it the way it should be done. I don't need to tell somebody that I will be there to perform and when I get there it's a lot of new stories that's never been told to Burning Spear before. Sometimes it can be very scary, based on the things we been through before, but I am not here to use a next man's fat to fry another. I am here to do what I have to do.
SG: You do hundreds of shows each year How do you manage to keep your presence felt in the reggae market, despite not doing many shows in Jamaica or having tunes in rotation here?
B.S.: The presence is maintained by how I think and by the people who have been supporting me over the years. Without the people there would be no presence, you understand. Whatsoever we do, we do it for the people and they can identify it and know whether we are doing the wrong or the right thing. The presence is maintained really by my mind and how I think about the music, on what level. I know of course that today the music is not like in the 70s or 80s, but regardless it is my duty to keep doing what I had to do in the way I just started.
SG. The music has changed significantly, as you said, from the 70s to now. What do you think of the changes and in particular dancehall music?
B.S.: Changes is part of life and regardless not only the music - a lot of things to date, changes will come within. I am not really here to say that dancehall music is not a good music, because I think it has a wide support in its own way. What I am more concerned about is having more people interested in maintaining the original standard of the music. In the 60s or 70s the music would be speaking about the roots and the history and the culture, the struggle and the every day lifestyle of the people. Today the music don't speak about these things. The music just speak about things which maybe have no substance, no education within it, or no form of upliftment where people from live from or feed from. The music is totally different.
SG: Coming through the ranks of Studio One Music you have developed a distinct style of repetition. Where did that come from?
B.S.: This style is an ingrown style and if you notice nobody has that style, you know. Maybe I don't even know when the style was coming, until I began to feel the style and identify the style. I never know it was going to be like this. It's the works, it's how you do what you do.
SG: What are your thoughts on the current crop of Rastas, like Sizzla, Capleton and Luciano among others who have a growing presence on the international scene?
B.S.: Mi brethren, I feel everything good for all of our singers and musicians, regardless of the nature of the music they present. I am not really responsible for that. I feel everything that is good. I don't care who is doing it or what he is doing, that's the respect we should have for singers and musicians and I will always have that. Singers go and singers come. For a singer to stay, he has to be doing something that the people feel and can accept to stay in the business.
SG..What is your secret for staying in the biz so long?
B.S.: It's simple. Patience, respect, discipline, self-control. A lot of new singers today don't have much of what I just talked about. Those are the things that help me.
SG: After being in the business for over 30 years, where do you see yourself in say the next 10 to 15 years?
B.S.: Relaxing, eating food, just wanting to be in the music. All when I retire I still want to be in the music. That music I always want to be and that music I will always be.
SG: How then does retirement seem to you at this point?
B.S.: Everybody have to retire mi brethren, even you have to retire (laughs). So what, you just take time because we can't all retire at the same time. Retirement is a must though, no joke about that.
SG: Are you putting a time on yours?
B.S.: When the time come I can't resist it man, I have to just do it and go with it. But maybe the time not right yet, so that's why I can't say it.
