Rodney was born in Saint Ann's Bay, St. Ann, Jamaica, as were Bob Marley and Marcus Garvey; who both had a great influence on Rodney's life. Garvey in his philosophy, which Burning Spear greatly took to, and Marley in directly helping Burning Spear get started in the music industry. Burning Spear was originally Rodney's group, named after Jomo Kenyatta, the first Prime Minister and President of an independent Kenya. As fame took hold the name of the group gradually became synonymous with Rodney.
Burning Spear is one of the strongest proponents of Marcus Garvey's self-determination and self-reliance for all African descendants, thus leading to several album releases in commemoration of the African activist.
In 2002, Burning Spear and his wife, Sonia Rodney who has produced a number of his albums, founded Burning Spear Records.
Burning Spear advocates messages of honesty, peace, and love, which tie in with his religious and political messages of Rasta and black unity.
About Burning Spear
Burning Music
"I don't know how other people see music," reggae legend Burning Spear reflects. "Some people might see it based upon money, some people might see music based upon opportunity and access. But I see music as life. I see music as inspiration."
For more than 35 years, Burning Spear's music-thus, his life-has inspired people on numerous continents. Since the beginning, his songs have implored listeners to fight oppression in all its forms, to work at improving their own condition and to consider the social impact of their actions.
OUR MUSIC builds upon the Jamaican native's legacy of musical activism. With its inimitable dancing groove, the album percolates and bubbles rhythmically in its call for unity between races, between nations, between individuals and even between business associates.
OUR MUSIC is the second album released on his Burning Spear label, following 2003's Grammy-nominated FREEMAN. In the midst of its expected messages about love, oppression and African history is the title track, a public confirmation that his brand of positivity is tempered with a strong sense of self. "Our Music" is Burning Spear's reclamation of his own artistry-a justification for establishing his record company and a challenge to all artists to commandeer their own future.
"A lot of artists just have no time to really look within the business section of the music business," Burning Spear reasons. "There's no one to really sit them down and give them some of that business understanding before they get into what they get into. So then people walk all over these artists and do things where it's not appropriate and it's not right. It's not in the artist's love."
With his art and his business now firmly in his own control, Burning Spear's OUR MUSIC stands among the most joyful albums of his career. Bolstered by its throbbing basslines, bright horn parts and slinky female background singers, the songs embrace persistence ("Try Again"), self-analysis ("Friends"), love ("Fix Me") and community ("Together") through deceptively simple lyrics that point to deeper issues. It is, in effect, smart music you can dance to.
"It's like art," he says. "You're gonna paint this thing, and people are gonna look at this art and say that it looks like a tree, looks like a car, some people it looks like a flower. People are gonna say different things according to what they see. It's very different, what it looks like to them."
No matter who looks at Burning Spear's career, they have to be impressed. Of his more than 25 albums, nine have earned Grammy nominations, with one of them - 1999's CALLING RASTAFRI - receiving the Academy's Best Reggae Album honor. And he remains one of the few reggae pioneers still working and influencing the people today.
Born Winston Rodney in St. Ann, Jamaica, he was an early fan of Bob Marley. As the legend goes, Rodney bumped into Marley while walking through a field, and the two began talking about music. Marley encouraged him to visit Jamaica's Studio One, where Rodney and a fellow musician recorded "Door Peep." By the time of its release, Rodney had branded the duo Burning Spear, taking the nickname of Jomo Kenyatta, who was jailed by a colonial British government in Africa but rose to become the first president of Kenya.
"I believe in people who are gonna stand up for what they believe in," Burning Spear notes, "not only for themselves, but for themselves and their people, and that was what Jomo was doing."
Even more central to Burning Spears' mission - and it truly is a mission - was the doctrine of Marcus Garvey, a 20th century figure who pushed for a stronger black race through self-reliance. The Jamaican-born Garvey supported freedom and economic strength for all people, but made the African-originated population his focus and published his views in a New York-based newspaper, Negro World. Garvey was jailed in the 1920s and eventually exiled to Jamaica, though he never lashed out at the system that brought him down. His message survived, influencing the likes of Kenyatta, Martin Luther King Jr., Marley and Burning Spear, which titled some of its seminal albums MARCUS GARVEY and MARCUS' CHILDREN.
"Those men wasn't preachin' any violence," Burning Spear says. "They were preachin' about Oneness and the struggles of black people about where they can live and having their voices heard. I don't see anything wrong with his plan and his direction. I think he opened a lot of eyes and opened a lot of mouths so those people could really talk and their voices could be heard. I think the time is right now to clear his name up and set his record free."
Burning Spear's mission remains rather unchanged today, though the act and the music have undergone some alterations. The duo grew into a trio, but has long since morphed into Burning Spear, a solo artist. And while his music has always been a vehicle for social change, his songs are now increasingly melodic, developed with catchy hooks that use short phrases and point more subtly to internal truths for those willing to go through self-exploration.
The music survives in a much different musical era. The reggae genre, once a distinct idiom unto itself, has been co-opted by artists throughout the years and melded with other pop forms. Artists such as Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, The Police, Stevie Wonder and UB40 combined it with pop and rock during the '70s and '80s, while Shaggy and Sean Paul have blended it with hip-hop textures in more recent years. Even country man Willie Nelson put together a hybrid album involving Toots Hibbert, of The Maytals.
Those efforts have called attention to the genre, and specifically to those who helped bring reggae to the world in the '70s, including Burning Spear, Peter Tosh, Hibbert and Marley. In his time, Marley gave Burning Spear his personal seal of approval, and the Spear continues to maintain a devotion to reggae's roots while continuing his service to Jah.
"I think people have to remember the originals," Burning Spear suggests. "So to be honest, I don't really feel no way about it when people put reggae in a different form. Regardless who's gonna do what with the music, I don't think they interfere with Burning Spear."
OUR MUSIC relies heavily on the roots of the reggae movement.
"What I tried to do with this album, musically and lyrically, is to go back to the '70s, when we were singin' about the history and the culture and the lifestyle of these people," Burning Spear observes. "A lot of Burning Spear songs of that earlier times, people would see as political. To me, it's just a natural thing. As an artist, I just expressed that."
Burning Spear continues his mission of expressing his heart, of entertaining and educating the masses. He cleverly accomplishes that by winning over his listeners' bodies before he impacts their minds. He witnesses that process each time he takes the stage.
"You see the head start to nod, you start to see one movement from one of these legs down here and another one, 'til the whole body just gets involved in the whole thing," he laughs. "You have to think about that when you're creatin' the music-you're not just creatin' the music for people to sit back and listen, 'Oh, that's all good and that's bad.' You need people to shake a leg."
As they listen at home and shake legs to OUR MUSIC, listeners will also be swept up with the headiness of Burning Spear's message. The political statements are still there, most obviously in the continued references to Marcus Garvey ("One Marcus" and "Little Garvey").
But OUR MUSIC also contains deeper ideas that penetrate quietly, subtly into the mind before they reach clarity. The bouncy "Friends" asks rather simplistically, "Are you my friend, my neighbor or my enemy?/Who are you? Who are you?" On further reflection, it's obvious that the question is a complex one about societal roles and provocative self-evaluation. "Together" recalls the image of African slaves, shackled together at the ankles, while suggesting that contemporary blacks can still link together figuratively at the elbow in the continued quest for equality. And "Fix Me" embraces the power and essence of love, which Burning Spear sees as the ultimate goal of humanity.
"Love," he says, "is a harmony thing, it's a communication. Love is a link."
Burning Spear's link is a pure one in 2006. Unfettered by someone else's record company, still linked to the roots of reggae and to the ideals of its forefathers, OUR MUSIC points to a better world for those who are oppressed, and for those who simply believe a better world is possible.
"Music," Burning Spear maintains, "is a very important thing. We have to remember that no force is stronger than the music."
Music
Burning Spear Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Yes, I want to be music
So they can play me, music
So they can hear me, music
So they can dance me, music
Twelve Tribe
Nyahbingi
Nyahbingi Rock
Bobo
Do the Bobo Skank
Bobo
Do the Bobo Skank
I want to be music
Yes, I want to be mus
Music when it hit you, you feel alright
I want to be music
Music when it hit you, you feel alright
I want to be music
What more could I want to be
I want to be music
What more could I want to be
I want to be music
Jah music I want to be
Yes, I want to be music
Jah music I want to be
I want to be music
Come dance this music people come dance it
Jah know I want to be the people music
His majesty know I want to be international music
Yes, him know I want to be this world music
Yes, I want to bem I want to be, I want to be,
I want to be
I want to be music
Yes I want to be music
Yes I want to be the people music
I want to be music
Yes I want to be music
International music
Jah know I want to be music
When we were dancing
Everyone was laughing
No one was fighting
When we were dancing
Everyone was laughing
No one was fighting
I want to be music
More music
I want to be music
Peaceful music
I want to be music
More music
I want to be music
Peaceful music
Twelve Tribe
Do the Twelve Tribe Dance
Nyahbingi
Nyahbingi Rock
Bobo
Do the Bobo Skank
Bobo
Do the Bobo Skank
I want to be music
More music
I want to be music
Peaceful music
I want to be music
More music
I want to be music
Peaceful music
The lyrics of Burning Spear’s song ‘Music’ express the artist’s desire to be one with music in a deep spiritual sense, rather than just being a performer or instrument of music. The artist wants to become music itself, with the capacity to evoke emotions in people, make them happy and create peace. The song encourages people to dance and enjoy the music because it has the power to bring people together in happiness and unity. The artist also desires to be recognized as an international musician and his music to be embraced by people of all nations without discrimination, as music for all. Furthermore, the artist wants his music to be peaceful without any form of violence or conflict.
The artist makes reference to several musical styles such as the Twelve Tribe Dance, Nyahbingi Rock and Bobo Skank, which are all roots reggae styles that emerged from Jamaica's Rastafari culture in the 1970s. The Twelve Tribe movement believes in the importance of the number 12 and the Nyahbingi drumming tradition, both of which feature in Burning Spear's music. Nyahbingi drumming is synonymous with Rastafari religion and played a significant role in its development, providing a spiritual grounding through its rituals and music. Bobo Shanti is another Rastafari group known for their spiritual practices, which include chanting, nyabinghi drumming, and dancing.
Line by Line Meaning
I want to be music
The singer wishes to be music itself, so that people can play, hear and dance to their sound.
So they can play me, music
The singer desires to be played as a musical composition so that people can experience their sound.
So they can hear me, music
The singer wishes for their sound to be heard by the people who, in turn, will react to it.
So they can dance me, music
The singer wants people to feel their music and vibe with it by dancing to the rhythms and beats of their sound.
Twelve Tribe
A reference to a Jamaican Rastafari group, the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Do the Twelve Tribe Dance
A call to action for people to dance in the style of the Twelve Tribes.
Nyahbingi
A style of Rastafari music that is characterized by drums and chanting.
Nyahbingi Rock
A call to action for people to dance in the style of Nyahbingi - with a rocking motion to the drum beats.
Bobo
A reference to the Bobo Ashanti, a branch of the Rastafari movement that trace their roots to Jamaica.
Do the Bobo Skank
A call to action for people to dance in the style of the Bobo Ashanti, known as the Bobo Skank.
Music when it hit you, you feel alright
The singer believes that when their music is felt by the listener, it brings a sense of well-being and happiness.
What more could I want to be
The singer feels that being music itself is the ultimate expression of who they are and what they want to achieve.
Jah music I want to be
A reference to the belief in Rastafarianism that music is a spiritual force that can connect people with their inner selves and with their deity Jah.
Come dance this music people come dance it
The singer is urging people to dance to their music and join in the celebration of rhythm and sound.
His majesty know I want to be international music
The singer believes that their music has the potential to transcend cultural boundaries and to be enjoyed by people around the world.
Yes, him know I want to be this world music
The singer wants their music to be a force for unity and harmony across the world, regardless of cultural differences.
When we were dancing
Everyone was laughing
No one was fighting
The singer recalls a time when their music brought people together in a joyous celebration of life and unity.
More music
The singer wants to create more of their music for people to enjoy.
Peaceful music
The singer desires to make music that brings a sense of calm and tranquility to the listener.
Contributed by Addison V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
KAMARA OSMAN BIKAL
I am so much in love with this song.
Colin Hill
1qq1 aq aaà
Tito Njuguna
Music I want to be.......fire
kumi yayo
i wear Burning Spear make me feel today like am already in heaven Big Big up legend
dark souljah
His voice sounds like the heavenly clouds flowing
taboo7tatoo
Burning Spear will always remain one of my best roots reggae group. Jah bless
joe barasa
Behold The Burning Spear! this song brings back some very good old memories
Lucas Rammego
Best music that makes a man to rethink about the future
taboo7tatoo
In his youth days, Burning Spear was a real rebel including the members of the band. They were dread, but dread for good. Jah Bless
Bororio Mageto
My all time favourite burning spear track