Willie Simpson

Tag: Reggae Rock

  • The Police, Walking on the Moon, Live

    Sting wrote this song while he was drunk in Germany, seems fitting considering the free floating riffs and subject matter.  “Walking on the Moon,” is an unparallelled Police classic, and an example of genuine 80s psychedelia, a sort of rare excursion for 80s pop groups.  Actually the song was originally titled “Walking Round the Room,”…

  • Bob Marley, Concrete Jungle

    I’ve never heard anyone but Bob Marley refer to the sun as the “high yellow moon.”  Fantastic poetry.  “Concrete Jungle,” from Catch a Fire, is one of the bleakest songs about urban dystopia you will ever hear.  It was the lead-off track from Bob’s 1973 masterpiece, Catch a Fire, and is an incredible piece of…

  • Bob Marley, Three Little Birds

    It’s always easy to return to the master of reggae, one Mr. Bob Marley, and this time I have his timeless classic “Three Little Birds” from Exodus.  I always think of this song when trying to convince somebody of Bob’s overall songwriting genius.  I’ll put it simply; this song is as good as anything the…

  • Bob Marley Interview

    Here is Bob Marley being interviewed in Aoteraoa, New Zealand talking about reggae music, his Rastafarian beliefs, his dreadlocks, and marijuana.  The interviewer announces that Bob Marley smokes a pound of grass a week.  I thought that was a high number, no pun intended, but I suppose its true.  I liked Bob’s belief that weed…

  • Bob Marley, Pimper's Paradise

    “Every need got an ego to feed.”  If that’s not the lyric of a master, than nothing is.  “Pimper’s Paradise,” from 1980’s Uprising LP, is one of Bob’s best songs.  Anyone else obsessed with the way he sings “Well-ell aelll..?”  How about the line, “Now she is blusing when there ain’t no blues…?”  I’m not…

  • Bob Marley, Duppy Conqueror, Rare Studio Take

    We’re back in the 1974 Catch a Fire sessions as Bob Marley and the Wailers cut a fifth version of “Duppy Conqueror.”  What is a “duppy,” and why is Bob conquering them?  Interesting question.  Well, in Jamaica, duppy is slang for ghost, and Bob was thinking about opening up a Jamaican branch of the Ghostbusters. …

  • Bob Marley, Get Up Stand Up, Rare Studio Take

    Some very generous youtube benefactors recently uploaded over 30 videos of Bob Marley in the studio recording tracks for his Catch a Fire record.  The video below is a priceless take from the sessions of “Get Up Stand Up,” Bob’s most righteous moment in his career.  This version is a hard slow funky jam of…

  • Bob Marley, Could You Be Loved (Rare Studio Take)

    Welcome to part 88 of my youtube countdown!  Today I have a beautifully rare studio take of Bob Marley singing his 1980 masterpiece, “Could You Be Loved,” from Uprising.  This is probably my favorite Bob Marley song for those keeping score at home.  It has everything I love in a Marley song; that driving irresistible…

  • The Top Ten Most Played Songs on my iPod

    Did you know that when you plug your iPod into your computer, iTunes can arrange your iPod’s mp3s by plays, from most played to least? It’s pretty fascinating to see what you’ve been listening to exclusively, and how many thousands (yes thousands of times) you’ve clicked play on certain songs. Well, I’d thought it’d be…

  • Bob Marley, Stir it Up

    Part 55 of my countdown grooves on with Bob Marley’s gem “Stir it Up.”  Written in 1967, this was one of Bob’s first songs to gain international fame when Johnny Nash covered it and made it a top 20 hit in 1972 in both Britain and America.  The song is one of Bob’s incredible love…