AND THIS HAPPENED: Before we went on National TV, Red Rose asked me who I had sent ‘Free Your Mind’ to, because the biggest radio station in Jamaica played the song.
A friend of our publicist Susan Smith was sent a voice note of our song playing on the station. We had previewed the song on KLAS and Sun City, but this is something different.
This might just mean that the biggest and most influential radio station in the Caribbean believes this song is a hit and doesn’t want to be the last one to the reggae party.
He replied, “It’s great, man,” beaming with pride at his American protege.
A hit. A real hit. We’ll see where this goes, but walking out within that hour on live national television show TVJ daytime LIVE, with a national dancehall hero was a high water mark I shall never forget.
Now if I can hustle that footage for the documentary about how the heck this unlikely turn of events befell me. It all seems like a miracle to me. Or maybe it’s just Jamaica.
I am dancing with this island and culture, and for brief moments, I almost feel like I am leading. Fleeting moments. This island sure can move.
This is West Indian Rock.
UNHAPPY HUNTING – If you are a bad guy, America has a weapon for you
1956 a killing machine was designed to allow US infantryman to fire a low caliber high velocity bullet that would bounce around the guts of our enemy like a pinball. The smaller bullet allowed our soldiers to carry more ammunition and maintain a steady and accurate rate of fire, whether on fully auto, automatic, or in a vicious three shot burst.
After some initial bugs were worked out during Vietnam, which prevented jamming, the M-16 became the American trademark for killing ‘bad guys’.
What did you think was going to happen when you flood the American populace with the same killing machine as our military?
An AR-15 is an M-16. An M-16 is an AR-15. It is for hunting people. It is not for home protection.
In all of the terrorists attacks, White Supremacist or otherwise, the AR-15 was doing exactly what it was designed to do:
Allow an unexeceptional and relatively untrained human the opportunity to execute 45 human beings every minute. Those bullets bounced around those bodies because they were designed to kill with the most excruciating pain the Geneva conventions will allow.
Take what you will from this but these are facts. A killing machine is a gonna be a killing machine is gonna be a killing machine.
Jamaicans are staring at the news horrified. Blood clot. Not even the worst news from Montego Bay can touch the news coming from American schools this week.
This is us. That kid sure loved his Red Hat and Donald Trump. And his M-16.
A Jelly a day
On the road to Port Antonio, we stopped for a Jelly. The woman selling them on the road in front of her house was living on this beach front property. I asked her how long she has been living here.
She said, “since I was a little girl.”
I told her, “don’t ever move.”
After hustling with the hustlers in Kingston, I got away to Port Antonio and picked up my guitar to pull a few ideas out of the atmosphere.
This is where melodies jump ahead of definite words. I love the idea of ‘Freak Flag’, and the guitar following the soaring turn around.
Last trip I wrote a song or three a day. At home I often come up with a couple song ideas a day. But this trip was a different sort of animal. I had to play Chess with my life hiding the fact i was a couple pieces down.
But if don’t know how to come from behind, are you really even a hustler?
Play to win, today and tomorrow. Turn in uplifting songs that were once rooted in sorrow.
Out and about in Port Antonio with Lenni I-Music. After 2 + weeks in the city of Kingston, Port Antonio is so chill. This is where singers slide away to get away from the bustle.
It was once the playground of Errol Flynn and Ian Fleming. This is the Parish of Portland.
AND THIS HAPPENED: Before we went on National TV, Red Rose asked me who I had sent ‘Free Your Mind’ to, because the biggest radio station in Jamaica played the song.
1956 a killing machine was designed to allow US infantryman to fire a low caliber high velocity bullet that would bounce around the guts of our enemy like a pinball. The smaller bullet allowed our soldiers to carry more ammunition and maintain a steady and accurate rate of fire, whether on fully auto, automatic, or in a vicious three shot burst.
