Story Behind The Song

The musical genesis of this track spans almost 2 decades, a love of South African township rhythms and a musical stubbornness that surely must have infuriated Dman and Maximus (bassist and drummer respectively), members of the Frieda's Boss rhythm section. As a younger man, I became enamoured with the seamless melodic sojourns of the fretless bass. Remembering a bass line I had written that deliberately spanned a range of 10 notes to show off the uniqueness of the fretless, I set about grafting it into the fabric of the chorus as we arrived at the relative major. Add tasty harmonious chants from Vstylee to the urgent, staccato main line and a polar opposite of the darker, minor key narrative of the verse had found its muse. Someone told me that it is essential to establish the mood or tone of the song without delay and we tried to do this by having Dman mimic an arrhythmic heartbeat on the bass. Falling in line are the kick and guitar sounds with the hope being that the listener would experience a feeling of foreboding as one would when vision of a small, peaceful village is juxtaposed against a mismatched musical backdrop featuring minor chords and disjointed syncopation. This track was certainly the most challenging from a vocal standpoint, both performance and arrangement-wise. Sad to say, that the chorus challenged my upper range and Vstylee and I spent hours working through phrasing and long minutes glaring at the piano. Years earlier I had played with a draft of this song and a good friend listened to it and simply said, you've got a good voice and it sounds great when you put your self into it. This just sounds too ...bleccch, (vanilla). That hurt, but it was true. Hard to swallow, Now it felt like I had bitten of more than I could chew to raas! Before you walk away: a confession to and an admonition from my father!

Song Description

Cathartic, like awesome, is a word that is overused these days but having said that, I did expunge latent feelings of guilt and morbid, sliding doors curiosity while penning the lyrics to Before walk away. Curiosity, because I wanted to play out the scenario that may well have taken place had I stayed on the path I was headed down as a youth with ambitions to run tings coupled with a typical boyhood penchant for guns and old testament justice. Guilt because I carried around with me a measure of regret that I hadn't done more for my brother once legitimately established in accepted social circles, whatever that was at the time. A semi autobiographical, cautionary tale is how I would describe Before you walk away. Scenarios based on situations in which I found myself within spitting distance were sharpened and lent colour and license in order to complete the didactic extrapolations. It's a tragedy with biblical undertones drawn from the last letter my own father wrote to me which closed: remember son, As you sow, so also shall you reap. From there a chorus was born and with it verses chronicling the wide path to destruction, grief and a coronial footnote.

Lyrics

Verse 1
Some time ago dis 'ere 'oman gave birth to a pickney bwai
And de man who de father shed tears of joy and began to cry
Work de yard, work de earth, work de job but 'im know an' love de reason why
An' im look 'pon de bwai hoping in nuh follow in his life of crime

Years go by and de bwai has grown up he's his father's son
And de man who de father looks on as he knows his job is done
Fold 'im clothes, some ammunition and a stolen automatic remington
Bag is packed, kiss 'im mother, wave, 'im smile and he leaves for Ol' Kingston

An' 'is father say

Pre-chorus
But before you walk away
Listen a what your father say
Son you reap what you sow
I'm telling you something you should already know

Chorus
Reap what you sow when you just tek all fe you own self
Reap what you sow when you cyan turn away from wealth
Reap what you sow when you nuh gi' ya breddah nuff help
Reap what you sow when dey pon put a man a death

Verse 2
Too many men live by the gun and by the same they die
Too many sons grow up lookin' for an eye for an eye for an eye
Do a deal, deal go bad, braaap braaaap and den someone will pay with their life
Dis headstrong bwai, he no care, he t'ink 'im got what it takes fe survive

Now him a gangsta, makin' money and enemies
Ignoring the lessons from his past and just doin' whatever he please
Man on his knees begging please don't take my life another key to seize
Can't be touched, can't hurt, can't be killed at least that's what this bwai believed

Dub section
Temptation fe de easy life, it come from his father
His father and his brother, they kept it from his mother
Providing for his family, by taking from some others
Suspicion ruled the roost inna yard, but dem never could discover
How he bought de beamer, when he already got two others
Tell us how you did it son, but he never bother
Tell us 'bout your job son, but he kept it under cover
Til dey get some answer... from de coroner

Pre-chorus
Chorus x 2

Some time ago dis a 'oman gave birth to a pickney bwai
And de man who de father shed tears of grief!