Burning Spear, whose real name is Winston Rodney, is a Jamaican singer-songwriter who began his artistic career by founding the group that bears his name in 1969. A name which would in truth be a reference to the military reward granted by the first president of independent Kenya, namely Jomo Kenyatta.
Group which produced several albums until 1976, when the singer dissolved the group and took over the name Burning Spear.
Name under which he would subsequently produce numerous albums over the decades that followed.
To discover or rediscover...
Discography (among others ...) :
70s Decade :
Rocking time 1970
New civilization 1972
Marcus Garvey 1974
Give me 1975
It's good 1976
Black soul 1976
Spear burning 1976
Dry & heavy 1977
The sun 1978
Marcus children suffer 1978
Nayah Keith 1979
80s Decade :
Free the whole wide word 1980
Colombus 1980
African teacher 1981
Jah is my driver 1982
Farover 1982
Old boy Garvey 1983
The fittest of the fittest 1984
Resistance 1985
We been there 1985
This experience 1986
No worry U self 1986
Happy day 1986
Tell the children 1988
One way 1988
90s Decade :
One people 1990
Civilization 1990
Garvey 1990
Jah kingdom 1991
Praise him 1991
The world should know 1993
In a time like know 1993
Creation 1995
Burning reggae 1995
Reggae physician 1997
Music 1997
House of reggae 1999
You want me too 1999
2000s Decade :
Rock and roll 2003
They can't 2003
Our music 2005
One Marcus 2005
You were wrong 2008
Run for your life 2008
Tracks :
1970...the beginnings in grouped mode. Nothing extraordinary but the fundamentals are indeed present which necessarily bodes well for the future of events...
1972...a sequel in the same vein. The rise in power is linear and heralds beautiful and great things at a given moment. At least we hope so...
1974...things are starting to get serious with this title. A title with certain inspiration and which rewards all the efforts made so far...
1975...an adventure that grows stronger year after year. As they say Rome was not built in a day...
1976...reggae is establishing itself as one of the major trends of the mid-70s and it is therefore certain that the group will benefit from it in one way or another...
1976...now they have to manage to produce THE title that can set them apart from the crowd. Let's hope it happens one day or another...
1976...for the moment the overall quality is certain but not sufficient to hope to compete with the best of the moment in this field...
1977...afterwards there is room for everyone. The only problem is that without a rapid increase in the level of play, the breakthrough to the highest level seems compromised...
1978...the artist took his destiny back into his own hands and now rides for himself. We still feel like a slight improvement in the quality of the game...
1978...there is improvement but still no major improvement at this stage. The style is perhaps too linear and the inspiration too minimalist...
1979...the 70s will at least have allowed the artist to show that he exists and that he is one of the sure values of the musical field in which he evolves...
1980...the big problem now is that reggae is losing ground over other musical trends at the start of the 80s and it will therefore have to hurry if he wants to hope to make history...
1980...he will finally produce THE title which will more or less bring him the recognition after which he has been chasing since his beginnings. So it's now done...
1981...he managed to find his cruising speed at a time when reggae was declining in intensity year after year. It certainly decreases but does not disappear...
1982...will he succeed in reinventing himself during this decade or will he just be content to do what he knows how to do ? Good question...
1982...because now that he has truly moved from the shadows to the light, it remains to stay in the spotlight as long as possible...
1983...and to stay there he will have to mix new and old influences otherwise the exit door risks approaching faster than expected...
1984...for the moment he is content with the bare minimum and continues on his achievements. Not sure that this is the best way to last at a high level...
1985...afterwards as long as he finds his account and his basic fans as well, why change anything. Everyone leads their career as they wish...
1985...not to mention that we cannot say that he is unworthy, far from it. The only thing we can reproach him for is this relative immobility of style and sound...
1986...we feel like a slight evolution in style and sound at the start of the second half of the 80s. Let's hope it lasts...
1986...the artist finally seems to have realized that without rapid evolution and adaptation to the latest musical trends the rest of the career would be somewhat, even very complicated...
1986...an adventure that has already lasted for more than 15 years, which is not nothing all the same. Moreover, with some great achievements to boot...
1988...not to mention that he manages to perpetuate a style which has lost enormously its influence in 10 years. Great performance all the same...
1988...a decade of the 80s which allowed him to make a name for himself, a real one, and above all to show that this movement deserves very particular attention...
1990...it now remains to be seen what this new 90s decade has in store for him, which he is approaching with the best of intentions at first glance...
1990...stagnation, deceleration, rebirth, only him can tell us what the right option will be in the end. To be continued...
1990...for the moment we would rather be in a phase of stagnation with neither drop nor rise in the level of play. That's at least that to continue the adventure...
1991...the level is sufficient in any case to continue the adventure. We'll have to be content with it anyway because he doesn't intend to change things for the moment...
1991...the advantage with reggae is that it crosses the ages without going too out of fashion. Of course, it has been out of fashion for a long time, but it still holds up to a minimum...
1993...it's the core fans who rejoice in any case as soon as a new opus sees the light of day. And he will produce a certain number of albums...
1993...so when he wants he can still adapt a little more to the latest trends of the moment. Finally...
1995...the improvement was short-lived and here he is again in pure traditional mode directly behind. What a shame that he didn't take the adventure further in terms of evolution...
1995...in principle we can't blame him, that's clear. We can clearly see that he puts good will into what he does but a little modernity would not hurt, quite the contrary...
1997...quantity is good but working on sound and style is good too. Something he regularly forgets to do unfortunately...
1997...it therefore pleases only a limited audience, to say the least, and especially those in the know. Too bad because reggae has proven in the past that it can reach all audiences, even the most closed-minded...
1999...he ends a 3rd decade of career without having evolved any further. We could have hoped that this would be the case but it was indeed a wasted effort...
1999...it now remains to be seen whether he plans to return next decade and especially with what musical project. We will soon be fixed...
2003...in fact he came back 4 years later without changing anything again. His immobility isolates him more and more, especially at the start of the 2000s...
2003...a decade of the 2000s which is no longer reggae at all and which therefore requires certain changes if we want to reach the younger generations...
2005...something that doesn't interest him that much at first glance. As long as he retains a minimum of its basic audience why change anything...
2005...a bias that he assumes at first glance but which does not allow him to shine any further. A career which was limited exclusively to an audience of converts...
2008...the production of titles will have slowed down significantly during this decade, it is clear. It must be said that at some point the source runs out...
2008...and above all, he's been here for a lot of years and we feel that the adventure is coming to an end. To be continued or not, the future will tell us...
Wiki :
Official Website :
Greatest Hits :
Discography :