Culture: Baldhead Bridge

Culture: Baldhead Bridge

1978

VP Music Group Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Them A Payaka  2.  How Can I Leave Jah  3. Baldhead Bridge  4. Behold I Come  5. Love Shines Brighter  6. Jah Love  7. Zion Gate  8. So Long Babylon A Fool I (And I)


I love Culture's predicament here...The prior year they released "Two Sevens Clash," an album that banked on Marcus Garvey's prediction (that the world was going to end in 1977) coming true...A perfect, beautiful doomsday prophesy of an album...But luckily for one-year old me, that premonition didn't come to pass...Otherwise I would have missed out on 38 fabulous years of cubicle-haunting...

Live everyday as if it were your last, I always say...

Anyway, I think that "Baldballs Bridge" really is every bit as good as "Two Sevens Clash"... There's nothing here as genre-defining as that album's title track, but it's easy to get past that when there's so much sweet, sweet, roots reggae here...

I can't remember how much I talked about Culture's sound previously, so if I'm repeating myself, forgive me...Culture is undeniably roots reggae, but they have a much lighter, gentler touch than most of the thicker, earthier artists in that genre...If the lyrics weren't so devoted to political and spiritual concerns, it could possibly pass as lover's rock..I think more than anything, Joseph Hill's unique (ignoring a fairly obvious debt to Burning Spear's Winston Rodney) vocals  keep it out of that category...He's too sticky and mucus-y for all that...He gives the stuff a sort of ragged charm belying the often sweet back-up harmonies...It's a super-addictive sound once you get attuned to it...

Highlights?  Definitely the title track, which actually has a lot going against it, but still works...For example, it's based on "London Bridges" and if there's one way to irritate me for sure, it's basing a song on a goddamn nursery rhyme...I absolutely despise each and every example of Mother Goose rock that I can think of ...Except for "Baldhead Bridge" which works spectacularly well for some unknown reason...Maybe it's the giddiness? The idiosyncratic vocal delivery? The quick and nimble rhythm section? A certain inherent weakness for this particular nursery rhyme? Who knows, but I can never get enough of it...If I were to be totally objective, I could see this driving someone nuts...With the sing-songiness and the nasally vocal...It's a good thing I'm not objective...

The album closer (at least on my particular version), "So Long Babylon A Fool I (And I)" is also brilliant...Quiet, meditative, primal thump where you can really hear Culture tap into something special...Again, I can't praise Joseph Hill's voice enough...Normally, when you hear this kind of conga/bongo, bippity bop on a record you expect some smooth, angelic voice searching for a sort of easily-understood -by-a-pop-audience transcendence, but Joseph's numb, drawling, incantations feel so personal and real...Like he's chanting deeply within himself, to make himself feel better...He sings it as if no one were listening, which is always a good way to obtain an interesting performance...A great, great closer...

Toss in a few more winners like "Them A Payaka" and the lovely "Jah Love" and you have a solid record that any roots fan should enjoy...If you still  haven't made it past "Two Sevens Clash," what are you waiting for? I'm calling it as good as that album and everyone knows that's a classic...

Here's "Them A Payaka" by Culture...Enjoy...