by Carter Van Pelt

When reggae standard-bearer Burning Spear (Winston Rodney) came to Omaha in 1997, he was referring to his (then) current set of backing musicians as his "retirement band." That particular amalgamation of the Burning Band, anchored by the drumming of 20-year veteran Nelson Miller, was earning Spear superlative reviews for powerful live performances in North America, Europe, and elsewhere.

Instead of retiring from his rigorous touring schedule at the close of 1998, Spear entered his 30th year in the music business by retiring almost all of his band and starting over. Many who follow his career were more than somewhat surprised, particularly by the exit of Miller, who had co-production credit on every Burning Spear studio album from the mid-80s and a trusted role in the Spear camp.

This seemingly unpredictable maneuver actually falls into a strange pattern for Burning Spear. From his early association with the Jamaican backing band The Black Disciples in the mid-70s, Burning Spear has formed and reformed his touring group several times. Each time, the shake-ups have taken place when the group reaches a certain apex of accomplishment. Spear has explained his propensity to change musicians as a matter of keeping the music fresh. "There's a lot of musicians who have a lot of ideas [and] never get a chance to exercise those ideas. I always like to find those musicians and give them the space and the access . . . linking their ideas with my ideas becomes a great thing."

Spear says assuredly that the departure of Miller and the other players isn't of great significance to his overall sound. "Regardless [of] changing musicians, the 'burning sound' will always be there. I will always come out with a strong album." About Nelson Miller's departure, he says that the drummer "wasn't really doing such outstanding work. . . It's not like if Nelson wasn't there, whatsoever I have to do wouldn't be taking place and taking place the right way."

Spear acknowledges his intentions to ease out of touring, but in indefinite terms. "I think that sometime I'm looking forward to retirement, [when] I wouldn't be touring so often. I can't tell the people if it's going to be in the next three or four years, but there's a possibility . . . but I will be in the studio [after retirement from touring] regardless, still making music."

Reggae journalists and deejays in the US, Europe, and Jamaica have been wildly enthusiastic about the artist's latest recording, Calling Rastafari, claiming it to be his strongest of the 1990s. That may put to rest some doubts about the release of his old band members, but the proof is the quality of the stage show, and his recent concerts have been reaching career-record lengths at two-and a half hours. "Sometimes everything leave up to the people," he says about the trend towards marathon performances. "The people vibes me up, I vibes up the people."


A fortuitous meeting in the rural hills of St. Ann's Parish, Jamaica in 1969 launched the fruitful career of Burning Spear. The young Winston Rodney one day came upon a youthful talent named Robert Nesta Marley, who referred Rodney to the gate of stalwart Jamaican producer Coxson Dodd of Studio One Records in Kingston.

"I went to the hills and met the mon [Marley], and we were there, arguing and reasoning," recalls Spear. "From reasoning I fill it out by asking him how I could get started [in music], and he told me about Studio One, and the time when I could go there, and I went there and [auditioned] my song ['Door Peep Shall Not Enter'] and they did like my song . . . I went right back the following week and start my recording. From there on it's going."

Burning Spear recorded about two dozen tracks for Dodd, later collected as Studio One Presents Burning Spear (1973), and Rocking Time (1974). In 1973, Spear took a brief sabbatical from music before linking with sound system operator gone producer Jack Ruby in 1975. Jack Ruby recorded Spear's searing Marcus Garvey album and the follow-up, Man In The Hills. This relationship led to international exposure via Island Records, but Spear realized that in order to have a fruitful career, he needed to be in firm legal control of his recordings. In 1976, he began recording and producing himself. His first self-produced album was Dry & Heavy. He followed with the landmark works Social Living and Hail H.I.M., the latter backed by Bob Marley's band, The Wailers.

The self-production approach has helped separate Burning Spear from most of his musical peers of the classic reggae era, many of whom have failed to turn initially promising success into substantial careers. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Burning Spear has never made anything even remotely resembling a Jamaican dancehall record. Spear usually reacts strongly when asked about either current trends in dancehall music or his long standing distance from it. "If you're listening to a song dealing with violence or outrageousness, then technically you're going to become violent; you're going to become vile; you're going to become outrageous. You're going to lose the respect for yourself and everyone. I couldn't afford to do those things. People wouldn't accept Spear in that manner, . . . so I don't think I would get so weak or so careless, thinking that I want to be part of this dancehall thing. We need to dominate back the whole scene [with our] kind of music -- the original music."

Drummer Nelson Miller, when asked several years ago about Spear's seemingly retrofitted approach to making music, explained that "roots music is the heartbeat. The rhythm is the roots. You have to have some people who hold on to certain tradition. You can't have everybody see a [new] thing going and everybody run [and] gone."

While many reggae artists tend to saturate the market with too many albums in a short span of time, Burning Spear has been a model artist in terms of consistency and reliability. He has maintained a nearly annual schedule of recording, touring, and releasing albums since 1992 when he rejoined the roster at Heartbeat Records. The result is five studio albums, two dub albums, a live album, regular Grammy nominations (Appointment With His Majesty in 1997 was his seventh album nominated overall), and status atop Heartbeat's all-time best seller list with Rasta Business, released in 1995. The association with Heartbeat has also yielded CD reissue of the essential album Hail H.I.M., as well as remixed versions of the Living Dub Volume I & II albums.

Part of Spear's consistency in the studio is due to his work with Grove Studios' producer/engineer Barry O'Hare in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. This relationship has resulted in six of the Heartbeat-released albums. "I see Barry as a very humble engineer, and he knows what he's doing," says Spear. "When I go in the studio and I sit with Barry, I feel pretty relaxed and sure. We don't rush anything. We take our time, and we do what we have to do."

Burning Spear's success with the Living Dub album series is another interesting aspect of his career. Volume 4 was released earlier this year after the success of Volume 3 in 1997. The first two volumes were released on Spear's own label in the late 70s and early 80s. Both became cult classics when dub was at a peak of popularity. Each Living Dub album is essentially an instrumental remix of an associated vocal album, with an emphasis on the rhythmic relationship of the drum and bass guitar, and the crowning melodies provided by the horn section. Spear's own voice drifts in and out of the mix, becoming a secondary feature of the psychedelic musical texture. "I think it's very important when you can do some dub," explains Spear. "[We] separate the vocal from the rhythm, so people can get to hear what the rhythm actually sounds like. Sometimes in the studio [when] we're working, we lock away the vocal and just listen to pure instrument going down. You get such a strong, nice sound." Spear has already mixed Living Dub Volume 5 from the tapes of Calling Rastafari and plans to delve into his back catalog for further volumes after retirement.

While Burning Spear's musical accomplishments have earned him great acclaim, the lyrical content of his songs has had an incalculable impact throughout the world. Many people would never have heard of Jamaican national hero and Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey had it not been through Spear's work directly, or through the many reggae artists who picked up on Spear's messages. Before Rastafarian reggae musicians began to proliferate an awareness of Marcus Garvey in the 1970s, Garvey was a largely marginalized figure who had even been somewhat forgotten in his home country of Jamaica (see sidebar).

David Hinds of veteran UK reggae group Steel Pulse cites Burning Spear as a formative influence on his own career and on the whole of reggae music in England. "Burning Spear was the one who did the most damage as far as the system was concerned, because he introduced us to the whole philosophy of Marcus Garvey," Hinds said in 1994. "Burning Spear was like an outlet and a vehicle. He used his philosophy through the reggae music where we learned of Marcus Garvey. When Burning Spear came with that, it was like a God-send." Hinds also claims that "Burning Spear was responsible for the birth of Rastafari [belief in the divinity of Haile Selassie] in England . . . even more than Bob Marley."

Burning Spear expresses a humble awareness of his influence. "In a sense . . . people see what you do, and they start to give you such credit or honor you on certain levels," he says. "Somebody has to make the first move and then other people follow through. So I set the pace on that level, based upon the whole philosophy of Marcus Garvey, musically. And other people take it up and bring it to another distance in their way."

While Spear has spread the seeds of Garveyism throughout his career, he specifically addressed the need for a black history curriculum in the song "Subject in School" on Rasta Business. "'Subject in School' is very important," he explains. "[But] it's not like just a subject in school on Marcus Garvey. You have so many great black leaders who were there doing constructive things not only for themselves but for people . . . I think everybody should talk about the history of the greats . . . Marcus Garvey, Paul Bogle, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King. People like these should be taught in school to all the children, so you would get an international understanding."

Burning Spear's country roots and his coming of age amid the socialist movement in Jamaica in the 70s have made him the ultimate sort of populist. "No force is stronger than music with the people," he says often. "That's the two strongest forces you have upon creation. The system know that, but many people don't study it."

That point of view was poignantly illustrated in 1991 as Burning Spear made an appearance on the estimable New York City radio program "Midnight Ravers" on WBAI. During a listener call-in section, Spear tolerantly answered a variety of inane questions, until a Caribbean caller drew out the essence of the value of Spear's work. "I want to tell Burning Spear that [there] is enough youths in the Caribbean apart from Jamaica that him had a big impact on," the man began. "And sometimes I wonder if a man like Burning Spear really realize the impact that him really had. . . I remember when I was about 12 years old . . . and Burning Spear in I-man head everyday. And right now, I-man educationally, intellectually speaking have reached certain heights due to Burning Spear. I-man know enough [people] who couldn't read and write. Burning Spear gave them hope."

Spear responded to the caller in a sober and direct tone. "I-man know that I mobilize a lotta youths in different countries, . . . seeing that the message is within the music and the music is within the message. And I know that I have a wide variety of listeners, conscious listeners. And I appreciate [your] argument and respect it 100 percent . . . The works will always go on . . . The Spear will always burn."

Examining his career and the legacy of his roots reggae tradition, Spear seems to have no real regrets. "First I have to give thanks to know that I'm still around from that time until this time and still doing what I start to do. I never really change my course . . . And I see many people change their course, and today them is not around. So it's a form of growing experience, and growing maturity, business experience, patience, and time."


Copyright 1999 Carter Van Pelt

Originally published in The (Omaha) Reader




Burning Spear info on this website includes:


Burning Spear interview, August 22, 1997

Burning Spear interview, July 27, 1996

Burning Spear interview, August 30, 1995

Nelson Miller interview, August 30, 1995

Burning Spear Album Discography

Review of 1997 Sokol Hall Concert