Culture: The Bridge and its Shadow

More likely than not, Culture (Joseph Hill, Albert Walker and Kenneth Dayes) will always be remembered for the album that they released in ’77 called Two Sevens Clash. It’s become one of the better thought of recordings from the roots era and has even been cited as the place where Joe Strummer devised the name for his band in the UK – although the date of that seems problematic. Regardless of that discs import within JA and beyond it, Culture was around for several years prior to levying that massive cultural statement up reggae fans. And despite the fact that in perusing the internets, the release date of the group’s first five albums or so shifts back and forth between ’77 and ’78, a pair of discs – Harder than the Rest and Baldhead Bridge – sound as strong as the group’s better known effort.

The production on Harder than the Rest as well as Two Sevens Clash, while still more than acceptable as a whole, each suffers a bit from the fact that the ‘80s were right around the corner. And as a result of that, coupled with the fact that Culture, being one of the better known bands on the island was able to working a relatively swank settings, some of the electronic production flourishes come off as trite at this late date. Baldhead Bridge is void of such missteps by contrast – apart from the synthesizer that crops up on “How Can I Leave Jah?”

Being as influenced by Burning Spear as any other performer – not counting Motown or Stax artists – Culture imbued its music with a dense Rasta philosophy that’s inescapable, although never contrived. The topical messages served to make Two Sevens Clash – the album and the song – all the more mystic. Again, that album and track being what the group would forever be associated with doesn’t change the fact that some offerings on Baldhead Bridge match or even go beyond that aforementioned track.

“Behold I Come,” which was released as a part of not just Baldhead Bridge, but Harder than the Rest as well (the latter album possessing the stronger version), is simply a part of travelling song tradition. What separates this track from others is that it’s focused on the “voice of the most high.” Hill and company were walking up a mountain and heard a voice. Upon the recognition of the fact that the voice was a message from Jah, the group sings “Behold, I come quickly.”

There’s nothing complex about the devotion that Culture exhibits in most of its work. Simplicity isn’t necessarily the hallmark of JA’s lyrical stuffs, but in the hands of these folks works to good effect. And despite the seeming lack of depth to the material here, its dogged adherence to orthodoxy is as charming as it is confounding to the uninitiated. Baldhead Bridge and Harder than the Rest won’t ever be anything other than shaded over by the spectre that is Two Sevens Clash, but the simple fact that they both still exist in various repackaging is more than enough.