De Blackheart Man was de boeman waarmee Bunny Wailer als kind bang werd gemaakt door zijn ouders: “when we were kids, we all grew up hearing about this Blackheart Man, and we were told that you had to be careful of strangers who might walk up to you and invite you into a situation, or you might be found in the lonely countryside, or in the gullies, or anywhere that this individual might have shown up, and then he would take your heart out”.
Blackheart Man is de titelsong van Bunny Wailer’s debuutalbum uit 1976. Bunny verliet The Wailers in 1973, toen hij en Peter Tosh steeds meer gemarginaliseerd raakten en alle aandacht zich richtte op de charismatische Bob Marley. De persoonlijke relatie met Marley en Tosh bleef overigens goed, beiden werkten ook mee aan Bunny’s debuut.
Tikya the Blackheart Man, children
I say, don’t go near him
Tikya the Blackheart Man children
For even lions fear him (repeat)
Growing in a neighbourhood for such along time
That is filled with fear
I can’t go here, can’t go there
And I ain’t supposed to go anywhere
When I ask my Mom if she could let me go out and play
She said be careful of the stranger
Giving candies to children
And then take them away
He lives in the gullies of the city
He’s the Blackheart Man, y’all
The Blackheart Man
Even in the lonely parts of the country
Mind the Blackheart Man, y’all
The Blackheart Man
He ain’t got no friend, no home, no family
He’s the Blackheart Man, y’all
That’s the Blackheart Man
He is famed to live just like the Gypsy
He’s the Blackheart ‘Man, yeah
Growing and learning and gathering, for myself a little more
Experience jumping over the fence
Curiousity has brought me yes it’s brought me, a little common-sense
Trodding the road of life, I’ve come to this one conclusion
That everything is equal under the sun
All hat is created by JAH mighty hand, yeah
And he said knock and it shall be opened
Seek and Ye shall find
Wisdom is found in the simplest of places
In the nick of time, knock and it shall be opened
Seek and ye shall find
Wisdom is found in the simplest of places, in the nick of time
And now I trod the same road of aflictions
Just like the Blackheart Man
Just like the Blackheart Man
Getting my share of humiliation
Just like the Blackheart Man, y’all
Just like the Blackheart Man
You’ll find me even in the prison of the dungeons
Just like the Blackheart Man, yeah
Like the the Blackheart Man
I even get blamed without a reason
Just like the Blackheart Man
Just like the Blackheart man, y’all
[Musical Interlude]
No cross, no crown, no sorrow, no trial and crosses In-a-I way
But the hotter the battle is the sweeter JAH JAH victory
Ancient children use to say if you want good
Your nose got to run run run
How could the world go free, and let JAH bear the cross alone
And them that drink of the old wine hath no place for the new
For the new and the stones that are head of the corner are the
Same one that the builders refused
Now, it’s the Blackheart Man, children
Who’ve become the wonder of the city (rep)
– Uitgelichte afbeelding: By Peter Verwimp – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34788048
