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Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com ‘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, BUY Linton Kwesi Johnson music online from and 290 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
Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com I’m not a ghetto artist. My audience is not a black audience, my audience is a broad cross section of people, so I don’t think I’m preaching to the converted.” He has played all over the world, from Japan to Turkey, Iceland to Brazil, and with his new album, he looks set to attract a whole new audience. “I just make my records and write my poems and I’m just grateful that somebody bothers to listen to it,” he says. Somehow, I think it is the audiences and record buying public who should be grateful. � BUY Linton Kwesi Johnson music online from and 291 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
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