Adisababa. Delroy Wilson. 1973. Iron Fist.

 A paper insert included with the 1976 Patti Smith LP Radio Ethiopia lists a dedication to the Queen of Sheba, and a photograph of Smith wearing a Rastafari T-shirt bearing a depiction of the Lion of Judah. It’s a striking image, suggesting a cultural connection between the recently murdered Emperor of Ethiopia—who claimed lineage to King Solomon—and Rimbaud, who famously fled to Ethiopia after abandoning poetry, and to whom Radio Ethiopia is also dedicated, and on whose behalf Smith claims a lineage to rock and roll. Looking back, what at first glance appears to be a trite conceit actually bears some idiosyncratic logic; bringing together the poet who advocated the “derangement of the senses” and a god who counted marijuana among his earthly, religious sacraments. Backed by the Soul Syndicate for producer Keith Hudson, Delroy Wilson embarks inward for a journey east to Africa, to Zion, capital city, existential home of reggae. Earl Smith’s guitar and the rhythm section of George Fullwood and Carlton Davis  create an exemplary slow-burn roots reggae, as vital in its way to the story of rock and roll as Music From Big Pink and Liege and Leaf were in their respective countries. What gives roots reggae added dimension is its explicit political awareness, the dictate for social and economic justice. Throughout the 1970s, reggae was heard with resonant clarity as the cool, diasporic voice of enforced Western exile. Patti Smith, Joe Strummer, and John Lydon all absorbed the confrontational rage inherent in that voice and transformed it into the incendiary, performative attitude for which punk is still known today. Reggae, like the blues and country music, settles basic questions about life in crises, under fire and in the absence of safety. It is chaos control. From the 1999 Trojan Roots Box Set


June 08 021


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