Songs
The music is succinctly described in 2000's World Music: The Rough Guide as " fine selection of sweetly harmonised vocals, militant 'rockers' rhythms and Garveyite lyrics." Although the music is sometimes unconventional, the themes are typical of reggae, focusing on what critic Robert Christgau encapsulates as "broken bodies" and "the exultation of oppression defied." The album has a strong spiritual base, with multiple references to Jah and repeated exhortations to proper behavior.
Though several of the songs draw on ancient texts or historical events, they remain essentially oriented on the future. The song "Africa" is a relatively jaunty if wistful dream of repatriation that is more optimistic about the future return to Africa than mournful about the brutal separation from it. The "right time" referenced in the title track, the first song penned by the band itself, is the upcoming Apocalypse, with the band envisioning public response with lyrics that reference the Bible and the writings of Marcus Garvey.
The latter song features a particularly tricky drum beat, which drummer Sly Dunbar recalled in 2001's This is Reggae Music evoked both skepticism and imitation: "When that tune first come out, because of that double tap on the rim nobody believe it was me on the drums, they thought it was some sort of sound effect we was using. Then when it go to number 1 and stay there, everybody started trying for that style and it soon become established." According to the Independent, the entire album was "revolutionary", the breakthrough album of "masters of groove and propulsion" Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, with "Sly's radical drumming matching the singers' insurrectionary lyrics blow-for-blow."
Garvey, Jamaica's first national hero and a recurrent referent in Rastafarian music, doesn't only feature on "Right Time", but appears on several other songs on the album, establishing what would become a persistent theme in the Mighty Diamond's work. His words are utilized in "I Need a Roof", which draws together musical themes from "Right Time" and the traditional song "Ol' Man River" in a "bouncy yet moody" prayer for basic shelter, a "sufferation" classic that was penned in response to the rampant inflation in Jamaica at the time. "Them Never Love Poor Marcus" speaks directly of Garvey, castigating those who betrayed him.
Other songs focus heavily on proper modes of behavior. Track "Why Me Black Brother Why" explores black on black crime in Jamaica and warns that Jah will judge. The album's British single debut, "Have Mercy", is another religious appeal to Jah, described by 1998's Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music as "perhaps" the band's "best song." "Go Seek Your Rights" intermingles the expected message of requiring righteous treatment with an appeal to living righteously. On a similar theme, "Gnashing of Teeth" is another Apocalyptic song that warns that the only salvation is righteous behavior. Even the relationship song "Shame and Pride" focuses on righteous living as its narrator tries to keep his girlfriend from self-destruction.
Read more about this topic: Right Time
Famous quotes containing the word songs:
“When we were at school we were taught to sing the songs of the Europeans. How many of us were taught the songs of the Wanyamwezi or of the Wahehe? Many of us have learnt to dance the rumba, or the cha cha, to rock and roll and to twist and even to dance the waltz and foxtrot. But how many of us can dance, or have even heard of the gombe sugu, the mangala, nyang’umumi, kiduo, or lele mama?”
—Julius K. Nyerere (b. 1922)
“Dylan is to me the perfect symbol of the anti-artist in our society. He is against everything—the last resort of someone who doesn’t really want to change the world.... Dylan’s songs accept the world as it is.”
—Ewan MacColl (1915–1989)
“O women, kneeling by your altar-rails long hence,
When songs I wove for my beloved hide the prayer,
And smoke from this dead heart drifts through the violet air
And covers away the smoke of myrrh and frankincense;
Bend down and pray for all that sin I wove in song....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)