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It was a few years ago, actually quite a few years
ago. I visited someone and browsed through his CD
collection. There was one CD that stood out among
the others: the disc carried my name and the name
of the guy I visited.
And under his name was the word
"productions".
Another time, someone took a Sure Dread tune
and "voiced" over it. Not that he
mentioned Sure Dread, though. He didn't even ask
for permission, and the vocals were a total
disrespect to Sure Dread. It was not audible, and
the words were actually quite offensive too.
But there it was, the guy promoting
"his" music on the Internet.
It's not just limited to our solo works. As you
might know, I am also a member of a band called
JAH Roots. In fact, I'm a founding member. The
band started in 1987 and continues until this day.
Throughout the decades, we had several members.
In total, I estimate that ten people on this
planet may call themselves member or ex-member of
Jah Roots.
And some people want to be a member.
Or at least, so it seems.
A few years ago, there was this guy who wanted
to sing with us. And so he joined us during our
practices. It didn't take us to long to realize,
that the guy still needed to do a lot of work on
it, before he could perform live on stage.
And so we told him, that we wanted to invest
time and effort into getting him to the point
wherein he could perform live. I mean, when you're
3-7 tones off-key, there's some work to do.
We shared a CD with him, containing our music.
Demo's, just basic instrumentals we recorded on my
four-track which unfortunately passed away last
year. We told him specifically, that the CD was
just for him to practice at home.
That didn't land too well with the guy. Apparently,
he was contaminated by the
"I-want-it-all-and-I-want-it-now"
attitude that we see so much over here in Babylon.
He wasn't willing to work on his voice, he just
wanted to use us to get himself a name.
A couple of years later, someone handed a video
to us. He had taped it during a festival
somewhere. Our bass player went to see me and told
me: "I got something to show you, and you
won't like it".
We turned on the tube and watched. There was
the "singer", doing his thing on stage!
It sounded off-key as ever, I was told that the
only people dancing were two girls who were so
drunk that they would even dance when there
wouldn't be any music at all.
We watched, and listened. We listened to our
own music!
The guy had taken our music, the disc we gave
him to practice on, and used it for his own lousy
performance! And it sounded even worse than in the
two or three practices we had together!
Sure, we learned from these experiences. In a
way, they're the best compliment you can get. When
people steal your music, because they are unable
to produce their own, this is a compliment. People
do not steal things they do not want. They only
steal things when they really want it and can't
get it.
And in fact, it was actually quite funny to see
how people boast about themselves, pretending to
be you, while in the same time they consider you
lower than low.
But the most important lesson we learned was,
that Dracula is real. When you have blood, which
is the liquid of life, Dracula will want to have
some. And when you don't watch out, you will be
sucked completely empty.
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