Spike Magazine

Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com
and helped found Creation For Liberation, the seminal
Black Arts organisation of the 1980s.
He has been involved with innumerable campaigns,
set up his own record label and received honorary
degrees and awards. His work is now taught in universities
up and down the country. I could go on, but you
get the picture. There is no doubt that Linton Kwesi
Johnson is totally committed to improving and drawing
attention to the Black British experience. Considering
this, it seems almost sacrilegious to ask: Is his work as
relevant now as it was 20 years ago?
On this point, Johnson has no doubts. In the two
decades that Linton Kwesi Johnson has been making
music, his political stance has not shifted an inch. “I
think Tony Blair is a natural born Tory. He’s a natural
born Tory who would have been quite comfortable
on the left of the Tory party with people like Kenneth
Clark and Michael Heseltine.” he tells me. And what
does he think the most pressing political issue of the
day is? Without drawing breath, he gives an emphatic,
two word answer. “The police.”
His 1980 collection of poetry was entitled Inglan Is
A Bitch. Despite the many battles that have been won,
he stands by that statement. “When one looks at what
happened to Stephen Lawrence, when one thinks of
the fact that a black person is eight times more likely
to be stopped and searched than a white person, that
a black person is five times more likely to be given a
custodial sentence than a white person, that the ACPO
– the Association of Chief Police Officers – has come
out and admitted that racism is institutionalised within
the police force, that the black nurses within the health
service for years have gotton a raw deal. When one
thinks of all these things, yeah, Inglan is a Bitch. I still
believe as passionately in the same things I did 20 years
ago, and although we have made some head way, the
struggle for social justice is still on.”
As ever, that struggle is clearly articulated on his
new album, More Time. Some are already saying that
it is his best work yet, a work in which the political
and musical sides of Linton Kwesi Johnson are more
strongly interwoven than ever. Ultimately, the feel is a
touch lighter than in the past; the mood seems that little
bit more optimistic. Johnson seems to agree. “Well,
some of the poems are optimistic, forward looking. I’m
writing about the possibilities of life. I try to make the
music suit the mood of each poem. Like on ‘Reggae
Fi Bernard’, a poem about the death of my nephew, I
tried to conjure up the music of the Jamaican marching
bands, who would traditionally form part of the funeral
procession. But to an extent, you know, it’s about the
banishment of grief and the celebration of life, so in
that sense the music might be brighter. It’s a poem
about how we can benefit from life.”
There are also hints that this album is perhaps the
most personal Johnson has ever made. Two tracks,
BUY Linton Kwesi Johnson music online from and
289
More
Spike
email
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z