Three songs of Armageddon

Firmly rooted in the Bible, Jamaican popular music is replete with references to a higher power. However, while there are numerous references to the story of creation, there are relatively few about the end of the world.

Three of those use the term 'Armageddon', pronounced in true Jamaican style with variations of pronunciation and spelling - Willie Williams' Armagideon Time, Bunny Wailer's Armageddon and Jah Cure's Trod In the Valley.

The first speaks to the literal struggle against injustice and is a bona fide dancehall hit. At first, he puts it in the context of lack of basic resources:

"A lot of people won't get no supper tonight

A lot of people going to suffer tonight

Cause the battle is getting hotter

In this iration

It's Armagideon"

Then Williams speaks to battles of injustice:

"A lot of people won't get no justice tonight

So a lot of people going to have to stand up and fight

But remember to praise Jehovah and he will guide you

In this iration

It's Armagideon"

Bunny Wailer utilises the concept of Armageddon on his debut solo album Backheart Man, placed in the middle of the B side in LP format. There is no mistaking his end-of-times lyrical intent:

"In the beginning, there was but one concept,

And that's the concept of I

Then arose Apollyon, the Devil

Satan! Satan!

Claiming that it's you and I

And from that day on

There was trouble in the world

And the world goin' astray

From that day on

Trouble in the world

And the world goin' astray

We've got wars, and rumours of wars

Trouble in the world

And the world goin' astray...

Nations rising up against nations

Mother against daughter

Father 'gainst son

Little children having childrenÉ

It is the Armagiddeon

Taking place in iration, in iration"

Then, before he was sent to prison, in the late 1990s Jah Cure recorded the defiant Trod in the Valley, which went a far way to maintaining his presence on sound systems during his incarceration. The song sees the singer in a defiant mood:

"Trod in the valley and I never ever fret

"Trod in the valley and I got to blow breath

Trod in the valley to keep myself fit

For this Armagedion war

For this final war"

And although he does not put a definite date on it, Jah Cure opines that the time is close at hand:

"This war is not so far away

It's just around the corner ... ."

- M.C.