Jamaica Dandy - free MP3 streaming audio, a true rock and roll reggae story

Jamaica Dandy

We know the white boys come from America
To Jamaica searching for the Rasta
And when they meet teeth flash in the alleyway
Green dollars for Jamaican ganja
He come down from the hills with a golden load
It tastes like cake or candy
Heavy cats from New York hanging down by the wharf
They dealing with Jamaica Dandy

Loading ships on moonlit bays
Blue Mountain hideaways
Nobody sitting in the bushes with a submachine gun
Lord I miss those golden days
We were living in a ganja haze
I want to go back to a time before it all got crazed
Jamaica Dandy, I miss you
Jamaica Dandy, I miss you

The man three times older than the white boys
Swing two machetes in the hot sun
He baled 70 ki's on his hands and knees
Nobody looking if he took one
But then the word came down out of Kingston Town
Cool it on the white connection
Dandy heard it but he told the American boys
We gonna make it through the next election

It was in 1974, my friend, the heat come in from Miami
There was hell to pay from the DEA guns looking for Jamaica Dandy
But when they broke down the door in the dead of night
Smell of the herb so alarming
It was a Rasta joke, empty room full of smoke
He back in the Blue Hills farming

Peter Cross is the songwriter, the lead singer and he also sings all the harmony tracks, plus he's the arranger and the producer.

Oh my, a song about Mary Jane! Now when was the last time you heard a song about that lady on the radio? There really was a man called Dandy living in Negril and I met him there after getting spooked by the Jamaican police in Port Antonio and having to leave there lickety split. Dandy was about 70 years old at the time and everybody told me that he had been smoking pot since he was 7. Dandy took me up into the Blue Mountains and introduced me to the Rastafarians who had a fire ceremony and inducted me into their religion, giving me the Rastafarian name "Jahman" which means "God/man". After that, Dandy and I descended from the mountains and he took me into Kingston where Bob Marley was recording at Studio One. Because Dandy was Dandy, he was able to get into the studio and introduce me to Bob. I just sat on the floor of the studio, totally in awe of this incredibly talented man who put so much truth in his music. This was a man with a serious message in his music and in his life - actually, way more than one serious message in both of them. I'm probably one of the only Caucasian Rastafarians, and if not, I might be the only one left who can still make some sense out of it. But you wouldn't know that today from my clean cut appearance. It was a flash in time, a unique occasion, and it generated a really good song. What more can a songwriter want?