![]() ![]() ![]() So beware my friends, for she’s pretty smart, she has a face like an angel, and eyes like blazing fire. I held her hands, she held mine too, she smiled at me, believe me folks, she was a Dracula. Dekker sings, “One rainy night, as I was walking on the beach, I meet a girl, believe me folks she was fabulous. But some Jamaican musicians, namely Lee “Scratch” Perry and Peter Tosh, have used vampires to describe people who are leeches, who suck the life from others, who exploit and take from others. The vampire does appear in Caribbean folklore as Old Higue, a duppy. He is also being quite nasty about the woman about which he sings. But there is more than just whimsy in Dekker’s song. Dekker doesn’t sing of a vampire, but he sings of Dracula, the most popular vampire, an icon of pop culture and movies, so there is a bit of fun play present in this song. It may, in fact, be a little of all of these possibilities. In “Dracula,” Dekker’s female subject can either be a monster of novelty in this humorous song, a reference to a duppy, or a metaphor for a blood-sucking creature. Take the tip from me yeah, and you will see Lord.” What Dekker means by keeping his life is subject to interpretation, but it is evident that if the man, or the wise man, is the keeper of the life of his wives (multiple) and kin, then the man is certainly in the seat of power, and Dekker is offering his advice to his listeners on this subject as the man with the wisdom. There is no unity and equality in Dekker’s “A Wise Man,” when he sings, “A wise man keepeth his life, and the life of his wives and kin. In Dekker’s songs “Mother Pepper” and “It’s a Shame,” he again sings of women as gossipers and trouble makers, insulting them with the same phrase in both songs, “Just stand and look at your mouth, it big as the Gulf of Mexico.” “Mother Long Tongue” is also about a gossiper as Dekker sings, “In the morning when you wake, you don’t wash your mouth, you just lippy lippy lippy gal, wha wrong with you.” A lippy lippy gal is one who talks too much, a blabbermouth. It’s better to seek a home in Mount Zion high, Instead of keeping oppression upon innocent man. It needs no light to see you’re making disturbances. You’re going from town to town making disturbances, It’s time you stopped doing those things, you old Jezebel. “This carry go bring come, my dear, brings misery. Carry go, bring come, is the act of spreading gossip. In “Carry Go Bring Come,” women are gossipers, stirring up trouble, creating problems. She is also invoked in Justin Hinds in his song, “Carry Go Bring Come,” a song that Dekker covered with The Specials. Jezebel is a symbol of sexuality and trickery, a woman who was evil and cunning. Here is a Jezebel, no, you are a cannibal, you are the root of all the evil, you are a Jezebel, like a parasite, you are the root of all your pain.” He is advising other men to resist this evil creature who will create misery and devour them, like Jezebel, the biblical character who, through her made-up beauty, seduced her husband into worshiping false gods. In “This Woman,” Dekker doesn’t mince words when he sings, “Oh yeah, here is a Jezebel, more like a lion, here is the root of all your pain, she is a Jezebel, more like a lion, she is the root of all your pain, don’t let she rotten you, don’t let she get to you, and when today she’ll try to come into your heart. Women are the creator of trouble and problems. Don’t come running to me baby with all your troubles.” He is exhausted, tired of hearing this girl’s troubles as he sings, “What’s wrong with you? Lord knows. In “You’ve Got Your Troubles,” Dekker isn’t feeling much sympathy for the subject of this song, a recipient of troubles, identified only as “girl.” He sings, “You’ve got your troubles baby, I’ve got mine.” It’s not a shared misery, a community of support. Women were either the recipient of troubles, or the creator of troubles. They were bloodsuckers, cannibals, seducers who lured men to evil. Sure there were sweet love songs in the tradition of American rhythm and blues, but then Dekker had a definite opinion when it came to relationships. Even though there were troubles and misery, he encouraged us to live in unity and since we were one creation we should live as one nation.īut then there were Desmond Dekker’s women, or more accurately, the girls and the themes of love and unity didn’t seem to apply to the male and female sexes. ![]() He told of how money is so hard to get and so easy to go. His songs also told of the problems of everyday people, those who slaved for bread so every mouth could be fed, how it is very hard sometimes for a man to find his own meal and sometimes he has to go out and steal. Desmond Dekker was perhaps most well-known for his rude boy songs, the lyrics that celebrated rude boys, but also told them to keep a cool head. ![]()
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