For February Book Club, the Black Reading Group will be reading Colin Grant's I & I The Natural Mystics: Marley, Tosh & Wailer. Published in the UK at the end of January, it is a combined biography of The Wailers, a social and political history of Jamaica, commentary on the music scene prior to and including the rise of reggae music. Finally, also it is reportage/travelogue, as Colin tells of his own story of researching the book and his attempts to meet the reclusive surviving Wailer - Bunny Livingston/Wailer.
Sunday 27 February - 3pm, at Waterstones' Piccadilly branch - 5th floor
What it's about?
The Wailers are the undisputed kings of reggae, and on of the biggest and most influential groups of the twentieth century. In the course of their ten years together, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley produced a raft of songs - including Get Up, Stand Up, I Shot the Sheriff' and Stir It Up - that have come to define an era, and a golden age in music.
They had, at one stage, been inseparable; three men united in their ambition for the kind of musical harmony and financial reward that would provide an escape from the Trench Town district of Kingston, Jamaica. On the cusp of success however, they'd been pulled apart, if not by dark forces, then by the elevation of Marley as first among equals and by the razor-sharp instincts of Chris Blackwell, the shrewd and charming boss of Island Records.
I & I The Natural Mystics examines for the first time the history and development of the Wailers, and the overlapping stories of each member in detail. Grant argues that these reggae stars offered a model for black men in the second half of the twentieth century: accommodate and succeed (Marley), fight and die (Tosh) or retreat and live (Wailer). It charts their complex relationship, fortunes, musical peak, and the politics and ideologies that provoked their split in the mid-1970s. Following their trail from Jamaica through Europe, America, Africa and back to the vibrant and volatile world of Trench Town, Colin Grant travels in search of the last remaining Wailer. He unravels the roots of their charisma, their adoption of Rastafari, their suspicion of race pimps and Obeah-men (witch doctors), and illuminates why the Wailers were not just extraordinary musicians, but also natural mystics.
I & I is a remarkable story of creativity, squandered talent and fierce ambitious rivalry - a mix of reportage and revelatory history by one of the our best and brightest non-fiction writers.
About the author
Colin Grant is an independent historian and BBC radio producer. The son of Jamaican emigrants, his first book, a biography of Marcus Garvey, Negro with a Hat is also published by Jonathan Cape. Watch this BBC news report about The Wailers and interview with Colin.
Background Reading
The prologue to the book was published in Granta magazine last June, read it here: Granta
Colin's website - www.colingrant.info
Coverage in The Daily Mail
Reviews in The Scotsman and The Observer
The Sunday Times, has also reviewed this book, it was written by Ian Thomson [author of The Dead Yard: A Modern Story of Jamaica & references to his book on this blog: Ian Thompson]
The Sunday Times review ends like this:
Much of I&I, is inevitably, is devoted to Blackwell, whose mother Blanche had been the lover of Ian Fleming and Errol Flynn - tropical voluptuaries domiciled in Jamaica. In spite of the book's occasional infelicity, it provides a lively introduction to the life and times of the Wailers and incidentally, to the neo-African religious religions and animist cults of beautiful, bedevilled Jamaica.
Check out also Geoffrey Phillip's book Dub Wise - which covers some of the same areas and issues as I &I The Natural Mystics.
Initial Thoughts
At this point I am about 100 pages in, and I am genuinely enjoying I&I - it covers a huge range at quite a 'pace-y' sprint. I don't usually read biographies, and I prefer to listen to music rather than read about it, but this book is about far more than the just the three lead Wailers. I notice that many references to the book state that it is a well known story - often told. I think that while that might be true about Marley, its not the case about the other two Wailers nor about Jamaica particularly. So I am enjoying learning about, in a more formal way, my mother's land.
I highlighted the quote from the Sunday Times by Ian Thomson, because he rather snidely, in my opinion, highlights in those couple of sentences issues about biographies. How much is it right to tell and in telling the story of a famous person, is it right to tell of the indiscretions of those close to them? At this point in the book, I have no idea whether Chris Blackwell's mother is mentioned at all, you might wonder whether she should have been mentioned in the book review - I certainly do and don't think that was entirely necessary. And similarly there are stories about relatives of The Wailers in I&I that give pause for thought on the role of a biographer.
0 comments:
Post a Comment