Mick Hartley

The gift this Christmas of a vinyl-to-mp3 turntable plus software has had me listening to some of my old mid-Seventies reggae 45s for the first time in years. Well represented in my collection is Junior Byles, one of the earliest and best of that generation of Rastafarian singer/songwriters, whose 1972 LP Beat Down Babylon, produced by Lee Perry, was something of a breakthrough in terms of what became known as roots reggae. He went on to produce a number of classic singles like Fade Away (not to be confused with, um, Not Fade Away) and Curley Locks.

I wondered what had happened to the man since. Well, here's what:

By 1975, Byles' health had begun to decline. Suffering from depression, he was deeply affected by the death of Haile Selassie, unable to reconcile this with his belief in Selassie's divinity, and attempted suicide.

We should resist the temptation to laugh. It's a tragic story:

He was admitted to Bellevue Hospital, after which his health continued to decline. Although he had regular spells in the hospital, he continued to record, reworking "King of Babylon" for Winston Holness, working again with Campbell, and recording a cover of The Archies' "Sugar Sugar" with Big Youth. By the end of 1976, he had all but vanished from the music scene, with a comeback attempted in 1978, recording two singles for Joe Gibbs. It was clear that he was still not well, however, and it would be 1982 before he re-emerged, working with New York label Wackie's. Progress on a planned new album was slow, and Byles was beset by tragedy when his mother died, and he lost his home in a fire. His wife and children also emigrated to the United States, and aside from a few singles, Byles would release nothing until 1986's Rasta No Pickpocket album. The album did not, however, see a long-lived upturn in Byles' fortunes, and by the following year, he was living on the street, scavenging for food in dumpsters, and begging from passers-by, suffering from marijuana-dependency.

A fairly damning comment on the Rasta lifestyle, you might think. Haile Selassie was always an odd choice for a divinity anyway, and with all that back-to-Africa stuff you'd think, in a time when a man with an African father is about to become President of the US, that it was time to wrap the whole thing up.

According to the Rastafarianism article in Wikipedia, though, (in which we learn, among much else of interest, that the term Rastafarianism is considered derogatory and offensive by Rastas themselves) it's doing well in some surprising places:

Today, Rastas are not just Black African, but also include other diverse ethnic groups including Native American, White, Māori, Indonesian, Thai, etc. Additionally, in the 1990s, the word Rastaman became part of the vocabulary of the the fall of the USSR, a youth subculture of cannabis users formed, primarily in Russia and Ukraine, many of whom began to call themselves Rastamany ("растаманы", in plural). They adopted a number of symbols of Rastafari culture, including Reggae music (especially honouring Bob Marley), the green-gold-red colours, and sometimes dreadlocks but not Afrocentrism (most are ethnically Slavic). Many of them protest against what they call "Babylon". A Russian Reggae scene has developed that is only partially similar to common reggae. Rastamany have their own folklore, publish records, as well as create websites and form online communities….

A small but devoted Rasta community developed in Japan in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Rasta shops selling natural foods, Reggae recordings, and other Rasta-related items sprang up in Tokyo, Osaka, and other cities. For several years, "Japan Splashes" or open-air Reggae concerts were held in various locations throughout Japan.

And, for those like me who wondered what Haile Selassie himself made of it all, this is fun:

There is controversy about some statements made by Haile Selassie when asked directly about the Rastas' claims regarding him. During a 1966 visit to Jamaica, although he refused many requests to deny divinity, he replied to such a question by Edward Allen, Minister of Education, by stating that he was indeed fully human. This was taken by members of the media as a denial of divinity; however several Rastafari theologians have pointed out that according to the miaphysite doctrines held by the Emperor's Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Jesus Christ is indeed fully human, in addition to being fully divine in one indivisible nature; and that His Majesty replied subtly and wisely by pointing out one of the attributes of Christ that he possessed — much as Jesus is said to have responded subtly to Pilate and others who questioned him in this way according to the Gospels. According to this argument, if Selassie's admitting to being fully human would disqualify him from also being divine, then it must also exclude Christ on precisely the same grounds.

You can see why theology is often considered to be the father of philosophy. Life of Brian also comes to mind.