I haven’t had time to do an edible or any of that in a while I’ve been so busy. And I work in a Shop. So this was nice. A day off.
I sat down and instead of writing a song, I wrote the first page of a book. My apprehension with a novel is that at this point in my life there is no way not to blend fact with fiction. And Jamaica is too Wild, too real, too much to be able to stay on the page as Fiction. It’s not just Fiction.
But Fiction is necessary. Fiction is everything. In a World that has become Pro Wrestling, Fiction is Fact.
☆ PAGE ONE ☆
W E S T I N D I A N ROCKIt takes a certain kind of Seattle Rockstar to dress like a greasy hobo and make the cover of a Corporate magazine, but I am not him.
I have to shave a little closer. I have to sing where I can. Most of the time now that’s overseas. Nah who am I kidding, I’m singing up the road. But I’ll get back there.
I just had to come back to Seattle to refuel. Nah who am I kidding, I live in Everett. I came back here to cash in on the Gold I was given in the Caribbean. Historically there isn’t much Gold in Jamaica per say, but Gold was brought to Jamaica. I saw it with my own eyes. I went down to Port Royal and I took some of it.
But the story really starts in Puerto Rico. That was the first time I had ever been to The Caribbean, some 60 years after my Grandparents left, and landed in The Bronx.
W E S T I N D I A N R O C K
Lost in Northwest Arkansas
Page 69I met this singer in Arkansas. She had a little bit of Sophie Tucker in her. But nobody around her knew no Sophie Tucker. She heard of Sophie Tucker in some Beatles song. But I knew who Sophie Tucker was. To say the least, she had what you call Charisma.
You don’t see Charisma as much anymore. Everyone is too peeled to their cell phones. Who am I kidding? Charisma is everywhere, it’s just nobody is lookin’ for it. These phones have really wrecked our brains. Do hipsters even sit around a record and listen? Really?
But Sophie Tucker had something Special. She could Hustler. She could work a stage. There was something in this Sophie Tucker from Hot Springs that was more like the characters she embodied, most tragically. She was still so young, still 23. Her voice was in its prime. Her mind was taught as a rope that would never snap. She had this thing where she would lean in as she pounded that piano that just made you want to drink. She leaned into notes. She leaned into everything.
She just stood up after she covered this Nina Simone song, and she kissed some drunk insurance Salesman. She wasn’t drunk, but after she pushed him away breathlessly into the arms of his laughing friends, this sister handed her a shot.
That was George’s Magestic. I snapped out of it as the tap on my shoulder was the Anchorman. He also did some Sports. He was a Top 40 DJ in College.
I saw him, “Go Cougs” we had a beer, talked about The President, and I never saw that girl again.
If I am going to write a book and an album called West Indian Rock, I better have good sources. I have turn some of this novel into fiction to protect the innocent and the guilty and make sure no one knows the difference. I am going to see how Hemingway did it.
The true story I am living is extraordinary I promise you that. Those supporting my Patreon are making it possible for me to not just tell them the true story, but capture a world of Kingston that is changing, and will be both lost and venerated for what Man foolishly calls forever. I watched as that hurricane brushed the North side of the island of Jamaica and wiped out my people’s homeland of Puerto Rico like the Death Star.
Lenni I-Music assured me when I arrived months later with Puerto Rico in ruins that the mighty Blue Mountains would protect them.
Follow me. This hit song ‘Free Your Mind’ is just a gateway, or some of us, that choose to follow me, a skeleton key that will unlocks rooms with riches and world rich with danger.
“Harry Morgan was hard – the classic Hemingway hero – rum running and man running from Cuba to the Florida Keys during the dismal days of the Depression. He ran risks, too, stray coastguard bullets and sudden double crosses, but it was the way he could keep his boat, keep his independence and keep his belly full…”
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. Davin’s new song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube: Tuff Gong Television. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
