Remember The Jolly Boys, the Jamaican mento combo last mentioned at RAMH at the foot of this post for their cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab”? Here’s the “official” video for “The Passenger” (an Iggy Pop composition!), about which their YouTube channel says:
The video for “The Passenger” by The Jolly Boys, takes the form of a filmic documentaryesque journey with lead singer Albert Minott captured on The Jolly Boys tours earlier this year. It is particularly interesting that the 72 year old Jamaican had never been over the Atlantic in his life; his observations on life in a Europe that he had only ever seen in movies and on TV was an insight. We will be seeing the full documentary of this later in the year.
Amy Winehouse… Iggy Pop… You can’t say these guys exactly reach for the obvious, hmm?
Lyrics:
The Passenger
(by Iggy Pop; performance by The Jolly Boys)I am the passenger
I ride and I ride
I ride through the city’s backsides
I see the stars come out of the sky
Yeah they’re bright in a hollow sky
You know it looks so good tonightI am the passenger
I stay under glass
I look through my window so bright
I see the stars come out tonight
I see the bright and hollow sky
Over the city’s a rip in the sky
And everything looks good tonightLa la la la lalalala…
Get into the car
We’ll be the passenger
We’ll ride through the city tonight
We’ll See the city’s ripped backsides
We’ll see the bright and hollow sky
We’ll see the stars that shine so bright
And everything was made for you and me
All of it was made for you and meLa la la la lalalala…
He rides and he rides
He sees things from under glass
He looks through his window’s eye
He sees the things he knows are his
He sees the bright and hollow sky
He sees the city asleep at night
He sees the stars are out tonight
And all of it is yours and mine
And all of it is yours and mine
So let’s take a ride and ride and rideLa la la la lalalala…
La la la la lalalala..
whaddayamean says
this is totally great. ::endless afternoon loop::
John says
All: we’re in New Orleans for a few days. RAMH itself is auto-posting during that time, but my commenting is gonna be rather scattershot in the meantime. Will catch up for sure sometime over the weekend (including at your blogs :)).
(Aside to Froog: no, I am not researching the second line. Not by intention, anyhow!)
s.o.m.e.one's brudder says
Well this could have been a comment on the prior post, but then…I wasn’t having an issue. Could NOT get the jolly Jolly Boys playing through your post today. Had to go to the YouTube page to see it, as it kind of froze here, and I’ve never had that issue before. Happy I did, too. Would be fabulous to imagine them playing this WITH Iggy. That would be great!
Jayne says
Fabulous rendition of an Iggy Pop classic. I’ve been entirely charmed by these gentlemen that I had to do a little research last night (trying to figure out if there was a relation between Jolly’s lead vocalist–hand-walking and fire-eating Albert Minott–and Sugar Minott–a well known Jamaican reggae performer who died last year). Turns out that this group of septuagenarians (some, may be octogenarians) have been on the Jamaican music scene for more than half a century, and are masters of Mento–the pre reggae/ska music of Jamaica.
Their backstory can be found at http://www.jollyboysmusic.com/ and includes an association with the late swashbuckling, yachting and hard partying Errol Flynn, who, it is said, dubbed them with their jovial name.
Imagine watching them perform at one of their regular gigs in Port Antonio? For that alone, it’s worth a flight to Jamaica.
Jayne says
Forgot to mention that I couldn’t confirm a relationship between the two Minott musicians.
Froog says
Ah, yes, I remember when you featured these chaps a year or so ago. Tremendous fun!
That banjo works so well on The Passenger – I immediately find it difficult to imagine that it could ever be played any other way.
You should check out the second line if you can, JES – although I think, outside of carnival season, it’s mostly only done for funerals, which are naturally less enticing to strangers and less open to their spontaneous participation. Have a great trip, anyway.