Lopez Walker - Send Another Moses
Artist : Lopez Walker
Album : Send Another Moses
Year : 197X
Genre : Reggae
Source : Vinyl
Label : PHASE ONE
CatNr : n/a
URL : n/a
Date : 15-04-2007
Quality : VBR
Size : 10,8 MB
Time : 06:45 min
01 lopez walker-send another moses 03:09
02 phase one all-stars-send another moses vers 03:36
Lopez Walker is a reggae singer who recorded four tracks for the
producer Roy FrancisÆ Phase One label in the late 1970s and then
"vanished from the scene" (Barrow, liner notes). In an interview with
journalist David Katz, Roy Francis explained the cicumstances in which
some of these songs were recorded: "I was at Channel One doing sessions
and saw [Walker] standing outside û he say he want to do something for
me, start sing a song by the name of "Jah Jah New Garden." I take him
right in the studio and recorded the rhythm, voice him a week after and
put it out" (Katz, 258).
The tracks gathered by reggae archivist Steve Barrow in 1999 for
Children of Jah, The Chantells and Friends 1977-79 (Blood and Fire,
1999) included works by harmony trio The Chantells - who had hits with
"Waiting in the Park" and "Children of Jah," Errol Davis, the Terrors
and Steve Boswell, but the collectionÆs star prizes were the four tracks
by Lopez Walker - "Jah Jah New Garden," "Send Another Moses," "Trial
Days" and "Fly Away."
Bearing the influence of Rastafarianism, which ruled the studios and
dancehalls in the mid- to late-1970's, and which produced many great
records by Burning Spear, Culture, the Gladiators and Israel Vibrations,
WalkerÆs tracks were recorded at Channel One and Joe Gibbs studios with
the cream of the era (Sly Dunbar on drums, Lloyd Parks on bass guitar,
Bertram Mc Lean and Winston "Bo Pee" Bowen on guitar, Ansell Collins and
Wisnton Wright on organ, etc).
With a line-up of this calibre, the sessions were guaranteed to sound
good but, apart from the music, what makes these tracks truly memorable
is the combination of Lopez WalkerÆs unique voice and his poetic lyrics.
"Jah Jah New Garden" uses traditional biblical imagery (the Garden of
Eden) and concepts to drive its point home.
"Jah gonÆ to prepare a new garden
Jah gonÆ to prepare a new garden
Jah gonÆ to prepare a new garden
For his children, yeah"
As all oral literature or poetry, the song uses repetition with a
variation:
"Only the meek and the humble shall
Enter
Only the meek and the humble shall
Conquer"
The use of the symbol of the garden makes this song reminiscent of Eddy
GrandsonÆs "Jah Garden" recorded for producer Roy Sinclair in the 1970's
("I and I donÆt want no heathen, into this beautiful garden. No heathen
cannot enter this garden, for Jah lion will be the guard for this
garden" (Rite Sound Reggae Story, Jah Live/SFPP, 1980).
"Send Another Moses," uses the same rhythm track as "Jah Jah New
Garden," is more apocalyptic in tone and outlook as it warns us that
"seventy two thousand heathens coming down to mash down this little
town" and the singer asks Jah to send another Moses to help him "whip
them with the rod of correction" and "throw them in a pit of
destruction." The reference to the "seventy two thousand nations" and to
the "pit of destruction" casts this tune in a biblical mould and
suggests Yabby U as a source of inspiration. Indeed Vivian Jackson
recorded many songs in that style in the mid-1970s ("Conquering Lion,"
with its hauting refrain "seventy- two different nationsà"). The "rod of
correction" recurs in many mid-1970's songs and may have been inspired
by the Rod of Correction given by Haile Selassie himself to the Prime
Minister Michael Manley when he had visited Selassie in Ethiopia. Manley
later used to woo his working-class and Rastafarian voters in the run-up
to the 1972 elections that saw the PNP victorious at the polls.
LopezÆs singing style can best be described as a "bleat" ("For his
children, yeah," the yeah being extended into a bleating sound) û a
style popular with heavy roots performers in the mid-1970s which was
also used by Sylford Walker, and by Fred Locks for his "Black Star
Liners" (released in 1975 as a single and in 1977 on the eponymous LP).
"Trial Days" tells the tale of a Rastaman thrown into jail although he
had "troubled no wicked men." The person is "behind iron bars," but is
comforted by the power of proverbs like "see and blind, hear and death"
and "the horse gallops on the track, no hear what backer say." In fact,
the rhythm track for this tune features a galloping beat that fits the
lyrics perfectly.
The last track "Fly Away" is a song of exile using the bird to symbolise
the RastamanÆs desire to go back home and:
"Mister pilot, mister pilot
can you take one more.
IÆve got to leave the ocean
IÆve got to leave the ocean."
The singer then goes on to say that he may not be as lucky as the
biblical Jonah and may not be "spit out on the shore," but that he has
got to try anyway.
Lopez pays tribute to Winston GregoryÆs vocal style in "Fly Away." A
moving song of Rastafarian exile it has antecedents in Junior BylesÆ
"Place called Africa," the WailersÆ "Rastaman Chant" ("When my work is
over, IÆll fly away home") and Burning SpearÆs "Children" (on Man in the
Hills, Island Records, 1976) which contains the lines "leave the ocean
and come."
The lyrics tell of Rastafarian exile but the song has a more universal
application; the message that lifeÆs journey is a hard one and even
though we can never be certain we wonÆt be swallowed by the whale, we
have to carry on and keep the faith.
The four songs recorded by Lopez Walker testify to the quality of the
artistry achieved by Jamaican singers and musicians in the 1970's and
retain their power to this day. We can only speculate on the heights
Lopez Walker might have reached if he had continued to work as a
recording artist or if luck had come his way.