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‘Hurricane Blues’ (previously released without music
in 1996 on the LKJ Acapella Live album) and ‘Seasons
of the Heart’, are “poems in which I was trying to explore
some inner landscapes.” And then there is the title
track, ‘More Time’.
Whilst clearly a statement about the working conditions
and hours forced upon the poor and disenfranchised,
I am left with the impression that it applies to
Johnson himself. “There is no reason why we can’t
work less hours and enjoy our lives more,” he tells
me. “But if we do get more time, we have to organise
ourselves to get some benefit from it. What is life if we
cannot get some pleasure from friends and family, from
relaxation and contemplation? Most people do not have
an idea of what their human potential is, we are so used
to not having time.”
As you might expect, his own preferred forms of
relaxation are far from extravagant. “I enjoy being with
people. Socialising. The simple things, the simple things
in life are the ones that give me pleasure. Going to the
pub and having a pint, playing a game of dominoes or a
game of pool. Being with my grandchild. Little things
like that. Reading a good book. Eating a good meal.”
Some may feel that although Johnson is progressive
in his ideals, his music style bears no mark of the revolution
in technology that has taken place since he started
recording. “Well, I’m not a luddite in that respect,” he
says, although he seems ambivalent about other more
modern combinations of music and politics. “If it’s
done well, it can be very entertaining and very fine –
but it has to be done well. There is always a danger
of the music dominating the words. You have to very
careful about how you do that. But as for rap, when
it’s done badly it’s just boring. The only rap record I
used to have, or I still have, is Grandmaster Flash, ‘The
Message’. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything that
tops it. I never heard a rap tune that can better that.”
What Johnson does is outside the vagaries of musical
fashion and he is not a man to pander to trends. The
message of the music is all important. “I do worry in a
sense that people might forget that I’m a poet and just
get off on the music but I always like to think of it in
this way, that the music articulated in a good way, and
also the views are plain and clear and articulated well.
But I don’t want people to forget that I’m a poet.”
So how does a man who’s political views have not
changed for 20 years, and who’s musical style resists
influences manage to sound so contemporary? And
how does he manage to cross so many borders and
reach so many people? Maybe it’s because the issues
he writes about are still as relevant today as they were
in 1978 and until they go away, Linton Kwesi Johnson
will always be there, dragging them quite literally onto
the centre stage.
“In a sense, even though a lot of my poems are
about the black experience, as well as other things,
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