Musical Youth – Pass The Dutchie
It’s a bit of a tenuous connection, but I put this in because they’re singing “pass the dutchie”, which is interesting because the original lyric was “pass the cutchie”, which is a pipe you use to smoke weed with. Now obviously little kids from Birmingham couldn’t sing about passing around a pipe, so they changed it to “pass the dutchie”. In Jamaica, a dutchie is a cooking pot. So basically they’re singing about passing a cooking pot to the left hand side, which obviously makes the song ridiculous. But, somewhat relevant to this list. I don’t think anybody globally would have known the difference between dutchie and cutchie – how many white people knew that a dutchie was a cooking pot? I don’t think it would have made a huge difference, really. If it were today The Daily Mail would probably write a story about ‘do you know this song is about passing a weed pipe!’
Lee Scratch Perry – Roast Fish & Corn Bread
This is a song very specifically about food, and if you ever have the opportunity to go to Jamaica and partake in roast fish and corn bread, you’ll understand why Mr Perry was moved to write a song about it. Especially if you’re a Rastaman in Jamaica. Imagine having the fish over an open fire, and eating it with the corn bread or a dumpling. Or another thing you can have with it is bread fruit, which is a big fruit in the shape of melon which when you roast it on the fire, this stuff comes out that’s like bread. The combination of roast fish, dumpling and corn bread in Jamaica, it should be on everybody’s bucket list. While I’m talking about food I might as well talk about Jamaica’s national dish, which is something called ackee and saltfish. Ackee is eaten as a vegetable, but funnily enough it’s actually a fruit. It’s Jamaica’s national dish, it looks very much like scrambled eggs on a plate. If you pick it before it’s properly ripe it’ll kill you stone dead. But I’ve never known that to actually happen. That is my favourite Jamaican dish and I highly recommend it. It should be on everyone’s bucket list too.
Pluto Shervington – Dat
You’ve got to have a laugh with this one. It’s about a Jamaican dilemma: wanting to eat meat – particularly pork. Which funnily enough, while it’s scorned by the Rastas, it’s loved by the rest of the country. The song is basically about going to a market, and he wants to order some pork but he can’t bring himself to say the word out of embarrassment. So instead we get the refrain ‘sell I a pound of dat t’ing there’. It was a bit of a chart hit back in the early 70s if I remember correctly. It’s a very funny situation, because there are a lot of people out there who pretend they don’t eat meat but they do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIJ797fWW_A
Sugar Minott – Buy Off The Bar
I was looking at this list and thinking ‘what we need is a bloody good drink’. Sugar Minott is saying ‘come in and buy up the bar’, he wants to buy everybody a round. He goes through a list of all these favourite Jamaican drinks – Red Stripe’s in there, rum is in there. It’s a good old drinking song.
Toddla T – Rice & Peas
There are a few Jamaican restaurants I go to in London and when I go in there these days, it’s full of white people. It’s interesting to see the impact Jamaican cuisine has had on the English palette, in much the same way as Asian cuisine has. If chicken tikka masala or something is the most popular Asian dish in Britain, I tell you, from what I see on the streets, not far behind it would be jerk chicken, rice and peas. It’s interesting that Toddla T should do a homage to that dish, because it’s very much popular among black and white people. And of course, rice and peas is a staple of all Jamaican dishes. Though I’ve got to tell you now, if you go for ackee and saltfish, go for it with white rice. Otherwise the rice and peas can be too overpowering for the subtleties of the ack. And by the way – the peas aren’t green peas, it’s actually a bean, a black-eyed or a red bean, or something called a gunga bean. It’s not green peas that you have in England.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D24CdJSrvEg
Bunji Garlin, Kubiyashi & Walshy Fire – Chicken & Dumplin
This was one of the new hot tunes at the carnival this year. One of many in a long line of tributes to what has become the staple dish of actually too many people. You’ve gotta be careful with chicken these days – I do often wonder how they can grown chickens fast enough to feed everybody every day. Something ain’t right there. Beware – go for the organic shit. I think we’ve got to get the kids off of chicken and into the fish. Too many kids are eating that fast food and it ain’t proper chicken. It’ll all end in tears, or disproportionately huge kids. Which some of them already bloody are.
Admiral Bailey – Big Belly Man
This is what will happen if you eat too much of this stuff – you’ll end up a big belly man. What’s funny is that in Jamaica, a big belly is a symbol of pride for some guys. It’s like a status symbol. It doesn’t work in my world, but for some guys it’s a massive status symbol. Emphasis on the word massive.
Burning Spear – Brain Food
There are all kinds of food, and I guess it’s pretty obvious what kind my man Winston Rodney, Burning Spear is talking about in this song. He’s talking about the herb. Make of it what you will – there are all kinds of nourishment and all parts of your body needs feeding. So it’s a song about smoking weed. Which is also appropriate because smoking weed gives you the munchies. There’s a little Jamaican food movie coming together here. I’ve done the soundtrack for a Jamaican foodie movie. What’s that Japanese movie that always makes me hungry, is it Tampopo – the one with all the bloody noodles? This is my Jamaican version of that.
Lorna Bennett – Breakfast In Bed
So you’ve had a good meal, you’ve had a good drink and a good spliff. You’ve gone out and you’ve found yourself a lady. This song is all about the next morning, isn’t it? If it were me making the breakfast, believe it or not it probably would be something like ackee and saltfish with a slice of breadfruit. Or callaloo, which is like spinach, but with a bit more bite to it. Callaloo and saltfish with breadfruit or ackee and saltfish with boiled dumplings. And there’s a juice I love called soursop juice, made of a fruit that I love. In Jamaica you have a solid breakfast, because you’re going to go out and do a hard day’s work. It sounds carb heavy, which it is, but then you go out and do eight hours work. Not recommended if you’re an office worker, but maybe once in a while.
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Don Letts was talking to Malcolm Jack
