Throw Down Your Arms

Much has been written and said about Sinead O'Conner, both during her life and now after her untimely death. I've been a huge fan since I first heard 'Mandinka' from her 1987 debut LP 'The Lion and The Cobra', a truly excellent first effort.

I admired her as an artist and a strong proponent for peace and equality. She was also a polarizing voice and garnered much hatred and antipathy when she tore up an image of the Pope on Saturday Night Live in 1992 after performing an a capella version of the tune 'War', first made famous by Bob Marley and The Wailers, to protest corruption in the Catholic church.

I remember watching that performance and cheering her on, knowing how much she would pay for an act of open defiance on live television. She was a self-professed protest singer, and I loved her for it.

This post is about what I consider her finest release, the 2005 CD titled 'Throw Down Your Arms', also known as her 'reggae album'. Recorded at Anchor and Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, it was produced by reggae studio heroes Sly and Robbie and includes amazing session musicians that give every tune the rock-solid honesty they deserve. She donated 10 percent of the sales profits to support Rastafari elders in Jamaica.

'Throw Down Your Arms' has become one of the all-time favorite CDs in my collection, a real go-to no matter the mood or occasion. Here's a sampling of several tunes from that release which I believe exemplify her reggae cred.

'Marcus Garvey' 

Written by Burning Spear from their 1975 LP of the same name.

'Y Mas Gan' 

Written by The Abyssinians from their 1976 LP titled 'Satta Massagana'

'Throw Down Your Arms' 

Written by Burning Spear from their 1977 LP 'Dry and Heavy'.

'War' 

Written by Allen 'Skill' Cole and Carlton Barrett, it first appeared on Bob Marley and the Wailers' 1976 LP 'Rastaman Vibration'. The lyrics are almost entirely based on a speech made by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie before the United Nations General Assembly in October of 1963.

'The Untold Story' 

Written by Buju Banton from his 1996 LP 'Til Shiloh'.

"Thanks first and foremost to the great men who wrote and performed these songs and whose inspiration has kept me nourished with strength at times when I might otherwise have lost faith in myself. These men were part of a battle fought for self-esteem and for the freeing of God from religion.  

"As such, they are my heroes, my teachers, my masters, my priests, my prophets, my guides, and my godfathers. And I could never in a million words or years express the love and gratitude I feel towards them, for the truth and rights which they benevolently taught through their music and which raised God from the dead in the soul of a little Irish Catholic woman. Nor could I express the influence they have had on my own singing and songwriting. 

"The originals of these songs can never be bettered, and so all I can hope in recording them, is to honour the composers and pass on their teachings, in the hope that doing so will carry the message of Rastafarai to some who might otherwise not know that God and religion are two very different things. And that God is alive in, and around all of us." 

Sinead O'Connor liner notes 

'Throw Down Your Arms'

Kingston, Jamaica, 2005

*******************************************************

Extra-credit tunes for those who took the time to read this entire post.

'Mandinka' 

Written by Sinead O'Conner from her 1987 LP 'The Lion and The Cobra'.

'The Emperor's New Clothes' 

Written by Sinead O'Conner from her 1990 LP 'I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got'.

Lead image, Gracias de Google Images; all videos, Muchisimas Gracias de You Tube.