Boing Boing, a collection of wonderful things, has an irregular series of videos that they call BB TV. Xeni Jardin is the usual host, but BB’s music coverage is done by Russell Porter.
Porter, got himself on Toots Hibbert’s tour bus to ask about the birth of Reggae and the current state of Jamaican Music. Toots is quick to point out that he coined the term Reggae, and I’ve heard this many times from the man, but I’ve never gotten a satisfying answer to why the word Reggae was used in the first place, or what it really means. What he does offer is the meaning behind the lyrics to Monkey Man, and that story makes this video worth your while:
October 8th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Toots didn’t invent it. Lara Elizabeth Putnam’s found that communities of migrant Jamaican laborers were using the word in Limon, Costa Rica in the 1930s (dances where they danced mento, in fact). You can see her present some of this research here: http://tv.mona.uwi.edu/#id=165
What she’s found is amazing and deserves wider recognition.
Dan Neely