Celebrating
45 years on the shelves, Bunny Wailer’s debut album, Blackheart Man,
was released on this day, September 8, in 1976. It remains one of the
most brilliant, important reggae albums ever released.
The album
is a mystical marvel of top notch songwriting used to support messages
of profound power, all the while maintaining a kind of quiet humility
that refuses to allow those messages to come across as “preachy”. It’s
an honest expression of faith and love that never feels anything less
that 100% authentic. It’s an astounding achievement to be able to
communicate with such force while never raising the amplitude above a
hush.
The album kicks off as it means to go on with the
magnificent title track, a story pulled from Wailer’s childhood where he
was warned of the Jamaican equivalent of the “bogie man”, a figure who
would often align with perceptions of the Rastafarian movement among the
general population. As the song progresses, Bunny recounts his
shedding of those fears and the way that process eventually put him in
the place of the Blackheart Man he’d been warned against. In doing so,
the song masterfully illustrates the process of enlightenment changing
perception where the “evil” seen by the ignorant becomes the “good” of
the illuminated. Darkness becomes light.
The remainder of the
album accomplishes similar feats of inspirational insight, touching on
concepts of repatriation (Dreamland), justice (Fighting Against
Conviction) and various other manifestations of Rastafarianism. The
music is all delivered by a who’s-who of the eras best players like the
flawless rhythm section of the Barrett brothers and guest appearances by
Wailers cohorts, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. Everyone and everything on
this album seems to be working towards a singular, perfect
manifestation of roots reggae music that ends up as a near flawless
album of timeless beauty.
This was one of the first reggae
albums I ever purchased, right alongside Peter Tosh’s Equal Rights LP,
both of which I picked up early in 1982. I couldn’t have picked a
better pair of albums to start my exploration of this vast genre.
Nearly 40 years after being introduced to my music library, Blackheart
Man remains an album I can put on just about any time and marvel at its
effortless perfection. It emanates from the speakers like a deeply
exhaled breath of freshness every time I play it and it always retains
its power to inspire with its heartfelt messages.
