Blazin d Jumbie

Perhaps it's my love of music in general that has spurned this disgust and animosity towards Machel Montano's road march contender 'Blazin The Trail'. I think too, that it's my strong sense of fairness and justice with regards to all matters of life that has me feeling like this. Lost? Go try to get copies of Blazin The Trail and Jumbie by Mr. Montano. Then listen to them back to back. It may not be clear to you how alike the two songs are until the chorus of Blazin The Trail begins with 'Blaze it! Blaze it up!' but for sure anyone with two ears and a properly functioning auditory system will hear that it's the same thing.

Now I could have been wrong about this before. Maybe I was hearing what I wanted to hear.
However any doubt as to the close similarity between these two songs ended when I saw Machel live at Ladies First and he opened with Jumbie, then went right into Blazing The Trail then proceeded to jump directly from a verse of Blazin the Trail into 'Jumbie! Jumbie Dem!'. AND HE BOLDFACE WITH IT TOO!! that sealed it for me. I got pissed and couldn't appreciate much else after that.

If it weren't a roadmarch contender AND Jumbie hadn't won last year I'd probably not be this angry. However that IS the case and thus I am. Some may say 'well it's just soca you know'. So what? soca isn't music at the end of the day? Just because it's often generic rhythms with generic lyrics with almost no substance whatsoever to them doesn't get it past the fact that this is music that I enjoy. As such I'd like not to be insulted by artistes, ESPECIALLY one of the most popular soca artistes ever, in this manner. Like I've told anyone who would listen to my ranting - if Machel wins this year it's politics. If he does indeed win roadmarch with Blazing the Trail this year I'm really lockin off roadmarch and all related competitions and really not taking this thing (soca) seriously again.

Now I'd just like to say that by itself I don't actually mind Blazing The Trail.. I like Jumbie so of course I must like Blazing The Trail. I can't listen to it without hearing the glaring similarity though so I choose not to listen whenever it's on (i'll change the station, track etc).
Please stop insulting your fans (a group to which I do not belong) and the general public. First you refused to admit the obvious sampling of Enya's Caribbean Blue and now this.. it's disgusting.


and for those who care, I'm backing Faye-Anne for roadmarch with 'Get On'. Even though she's using the same beat etc from her 2007 song 'Make A Stage', she wasn't a contender for road march, as I felt she should be - so I'm glad people are finally realising the potential she has. Goodluck Ms. Lyons!