Those Crazy Baldheads...

[Sera Michele]

Who are the bald-heads Bob Marley was talking about? My fiance and I had this conversation in the car while listening to "Crazy Baldheads", and started the discussion.

I feel like the "baldheads" are the corporate, capitalistic men and women that try to conform everyone to a materialistic, self-serving lifestyle. The people that think that just because you don't put on a suit and work 40 hours a week in a cubicle you aren't smart, successful, worthy.

"I'n'I build a cabin;
I'n'I plant the corn;
Didn't my people before me
Slave for this country?
Now you look me with that scorn,
Then you eat up all my corn"

"Here comes the conman
Coming with his con plan.
We won't take no bribe;
We've got to stay alive."



Anyone care to enlighten me? I love Bob Marley, not just for his music, but because his words have so much meaning. I like to understand them to the best of my ability.

[60sHippie]

The reson the rastafarians have dreds is to seperate themselfes from the other religeons such as christianity that grooming ones hair is common

[peace_sells]

What are you talking about 60shippy, did you even read the question?

I too agree that it is the people who as you said are "corporate, capitalistic men and women that try to conform everyone to a materialistic, self-serving lifestyle", I don't think I could have put it better infact!

[Brighid]

"Baldheads" is a derogatory term for people who cut and comb their hair.
60'sHippie is right.
People who cut and comb their hair are the same people who conform to societies norms and expect others to as well.
Rastas wear their hair in dreads partly in obediance to the Bible which says no scissors or comb, and partly to voluntarily seperate themselves from conformists and mainstream society making it almost impossible to be anything but self-sufficient.
In Jamaica it is impossible for a Rasta to work for anyone but himself, they will not get hired otherwise. Rasta children will not be accepted in school higher than primary education. They have to trim for high school. Jamaica is hardly a Rasta country, it is very predominately Christian with more churches per square mile than any other country in the world.
Wearing dreadlocks is a statement saying "We do not need to be a part of the Babylon Shit-stem, keep your jobs and your education and we will be stronger than ever".

[AT98BooBoo]

It just goes to show "Man looks on the outside. God looks upon the heart"

[Sera Michele]

Great replies. Thanks so much!

[Peppy]

seems you are forgetting that Rastafari stems from christianity, alot of those churches that cover jamaica were endorsed by HIM Haile Silasie on his trip there, when he introduced the Eathiopian Orthodox Church,

true though the shitstem has gotten into the church and there are alot of chrissy missy and mister but most rastafarians i know would call themselves christ-ians the difference being chrissy fools are the holier than though type and a true christ-ian knows to "judge not"

[saffronfrancisburnet]

to me the crazy baldheads
is someone who does not look
after nature and what creation
gave us ...as a human

also those in higher positions in life
who are selfish...
and rule over others with hate and anger
for not understanding the other cultures.........

thank you just my opinion
love n peace from saff
no man should rule over any other man....

[Bare Foot Bunny Hugg]

bald people scare me man

[prophet7]

The reson the rastafarians have dreds is to seperate themselfes from the other religeons such as christianity that grooming ones hair is commonWhere do u all get your Rasta knowledge from ? From fortune cookies ?
Rasta nah seperate themselves from no-one ! We are not a seperated people, I and I are united ! Ever heard Bob Marleys song "One Love" ?? If you all really follow God and read your Bibles then you would know what these dreadlocks stand for and resemble !

@all

Baldheads = Babylon = anything or anybody that is negative/bad/wicked. That would be e.g. most police, politricktians, most soldiers, rascists, the KKK, bad thoughts, murderers, liars, etc.,etc.,

One Love
prophet7

[goldmund]

Greetings all. Check this, did Haile Selassie cut and comb his hair? Nuff said. I don't care if Bob Marley did write a song about it with a catchy beat. This song, like Heathen, etc. are part of a militant, fundamentalist, phase that many rastas, including myself, have been through where they are fanatically judgemental toward those outside their beLIEf shitstem.

[heartsnotfarts]

are rastas allowed to sometimes cut their hair... not for looks, i;d never do that, but out of necessiry after a while. can you guys trim pubes and such... idk

[goldmund]

don't haffi dread to be rasta...Morgan Heritage
In fact, most rastas didn't have dreads 'till the '50s/60s.

[Sera Michele]

Greetings all. Check this, did Haile Selassie cut and comb his hair? Nuff said. I don't care if Bob Marley did write a song about it with a catchy beat. This song, like Heathen, etc. are part of a militant, fundamentalist, phase that many rastas, including myself, have been through where they are fanatically judgemental toward those outside their beLIEf shitstem.

You consider Bob Marley to be a fundamentalist? I don't consider him judgemental, but I wouldn't know how extreme his beliefs are compared to your average rastafari, considering I don't know much about rasta beliefs on a whole.

I do notice that some of his lyrcis are very politically/religiously minded while some are very neutral. Perhaps phases of his life?

[goldmund]

yes. he went through a militant phase, that's all. he came out of it toward the late seventies. Rasta can be, or can have, a very militant/revolutionary side, the whole fyah bun thing. Part of it is a spiritual discipline, firmness, a lion-like stance toward the world; part of it is intolerance toward other faiths, people of the world, etc. a spiritual pride thing.

Not all rastas are like this way, many of the more devout are. This fiery brand of rasta changed my life, for the better, but made me a very judgemental person with all of the spiritual depravity that implies :( .

That said, Rasta is one of the brightest faiths out there, a true mystical firebrand, not always succumbing to the ways of the world or this forum.

[all_rhodesian_reject]

Why is jamaica so anti rasta? Why aren't rasta children allowed higher ed? I'm confused...i thought jamaica was extremely rastafarian

[goldmund]

Rasta is still somewhat seen as being anti-social. Babylon was where they were at and they fought against it. It's no wonder Babylon fought and continues to fight against them. Also Jamaica is very Christian, very protestent, and very religious in general. Rasta is anethema to that culture and the power structure that comes out of it. As far as rastas not being allowed in higher ed, I've never heard of that. In fact, there are many rasses in Jamaica that are professionals: doctors, lawyers, teachers, politicians, and so forth.

One more quick note: when Haile Selassie I visited Jamaica in 1966, without verifying his role within the rasta belief system, he campaigned on behalf of the human rights of his supporters. Much improved as a result.

[jo_k_er_man]

I dont understand.... you all sit here and say just becuase you let your hair get all knottied up that you havent conformed and those who cut their hair are conformed to babylon and the rest of the shit storm called corperate america. I shave my head, not becuase i wanted to look like everyone else, i did it to make my life simple, no hair, no care.... never will i conform to the machine. i refuse to work for corperate america... i work for the small man... mom and pops... my boss jokingly asked me if i was gonna run off and work for applebees cuz its opening up, and i was like "hell no, i refuse to work for any corperate business, you cant do what you want, you do what they want"


PS: sorry for the rambling at the end :&

[erowid]

It is about being seperate from the latent european, in social structure/custom influence not power, and christian dominant social entities in the world today. Yet at the same time it is about being one with nature and not to waste your time with combing and grooming and working to put the slickest cleanest version of you out, almost in denial of the natural manifest of yourself. I think the fact that you have a baldhead is must less directly refered to by this than say someone who feels they must gell their hair all slick everyday or someone driven bald through the stresses of business and hoarding. You're decisions reflects a simple sort of sensibility in choosing the easiest path in a way, and not going out of your way to clean your appearance up twards societies standards.
__________________________________________________ ________________

They who can give up essential liberty to purchase a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-- Benjamin Franklin

Make no laws whatever concerning speech, and speech will be free;
so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free,
you will have a hundred lawyers proving that "freedom does not mean abuse, nor liberty license";
and they will define and define freedom out of existence.
--Voltarine de Cleyre

[Weepingoak]

I could be wrong but last year I read something that Salassie wrote, or it was written about the writing of Salassie.


I lead me to belive that there were bald headed Rastafari. This is what lead me into my "Secert life" as I call it, I stoped useing metal to eat with, cut out dairy, Stoped drinking and have tried alot to moderate caffine but I am addicted to coffee. I also started keeping my hair covered in public for the most part.

[goldmund]

of course there are rasta without dreads. crazy baldheads is a figure of speech, yet it also points to a certain militancy that some rases had/have toward the outside world. There is a thread that talks about the origins of dreads in the rasta movement under Knotty-know-how.

[TheSkaEffect]

umm, sorry guys but your all pretty much wrong. Now, ive never heard the song but i know that bob marley was a skinhead before he got the dreads. (not the bad nazi skinheads, they just took the skinhead name and made it bad) bob marley was a "rude boy" before he was "rasta" he wore a suit, tie and shaved his head, as did many reggae/ska loving youngsters in jamaica and america in the 1950's. From what i can tell the song is about bob lookin back at his old days.

[goldmund]

Bob never shaved his head, even when he was a ska musician. He had shorter hair, and he wore a suit and tie, but not a shaved head. Also the lyrics for "Crazy Baldheads" is a fiery militant song about chasing "bald headed" people, ie. the non-rastas, out of town. It has nothing at all to do with a reflection on his earlier days as a ska musician. I apologize is this reply sounds rude, I am exhasted from driving all over this weekend. :)

[Fallen_stars]

I'd resume the baldheads to one word : ANANCISM....

WTF?
Anancism is a rastafari social theory to explain the 'survival instinct' who conduct us to where we were as a person and as a society....It's a little complex to explain here for me in english but I read a lot about this...

[Brighid]

As far as rastas not being allowed in higher ed, I've never heard of that. In fact, there are many rasses in Jamaica that are professionals: doctors, lawyers, teachers, politicians, and so forth. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Maybe because you did not go to school in Jamaica, like I did? :H

There are a few professional rastafarians, not many. Most of them became rasta after they graduated university. Altough the Twelve Tribes don't locks their children until they are over 18, when they decide for themselves if they want to locks or not.

[Zion]

Who are the bald-heads Bob Marley was talking about? My fiance and I had this conversation in the car while listening to "Crazy Baldheads", and started the discussion.

I feel like the "baldheads" are the corporate, capitalistic men and women that try to conform everyone to a materialistic, self-serving lifestyle. The people that think that just because you don't put on a suit and work 40 hours a week in a cubicle you aren't smart, successful, worthy.

"I'n'I build a cabin;
I'n'I plant the corn;
Didn't my people before me
Slave for this country?
Now you look me with that scorn,
Then you eat up all my corn"

"Here comes the conman
Coming with his con plan.
We won't take no bribe;
We've got to stay alive."



Anyone care to enlighten me? I love Bob Marley, not just for his music, but because his words have so much meaning. I like to understand them to the best of my ability.
Your on the right track, and know that Baldheads whatever they are are negative, so chase negativity out of your being. or your town.

[UrsusKind]

Ok so I know how it is to read or hear something about someone negative and then to realize it is pointing at you. If what you read or hear is coming from someone or something that you regard as truth or honest then you try to find ways to duck the burn of the coment, lyric or text. As a black man I actually grew up thinking the bible condemned the black to a lower status, AND I AM BLACK!!!!!

Think of it this way and in two facets. One Bob was a black man of mixed herritage, so he felt the downpresure form white society as only a black man can. This downpressure was also from his own people (his white ancestors) as a form of rejection from his own.

The secound facet to consider is that Bob was a human believer in a very young understanding. That is to say Rasta as a way was (is) still young. Most, many, perhaps all black enlightened men have gone through on a road that leads them trough the anger that they feel towards their downpressive society. A road they pass through and leave behind, perhaps to return to when frustrations beat them down. My point is Rasta was (still is?) evolving and so was Bob. A living overstanding of a living Jah if you will.

Baldheads were white folk and black folk alike who were not Rasta who gained wrongly from the exploit of the poor.

But Bob he change,
as to the things we have,
them meaning change,
even unto ourselves,

one day maybe baldhead white and black non Rasta

the next just the exploiters

you know we grow

[velvet]

Think of it this way and in two facets. One Bob was a black man of mixed herritage, so he felt the downpresure form white society as only a black man can. This downpressure was also from his own people (his white ancestors) as a form of rejection from his own.

Just wondering.. do you feel like Marley was totally accepted by the black community? My bf is of mixed herritage (half chinese, half indonesian, grew up in Surinam, now lives in The Netherlands) and he doesn't really feel like he has any roots.. genetically, culturally.. all very different. A lot of communities seem to shy away from people that aren't fully a part of them genetically.

When you read what these 'rastafarians' say at this website: http://rastafari.unn13.com/cointel/truth.html I wonder how positively Marley is viewed by the 'black power' and/or 'rastafarai' community, since he wasn't of 'pure blood'.

I refrerred to that website before.. in this post: http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1512933#post1512933

Anyway.. just wondering..

[yovo]

Crazy baldheads, in this particular song is refferring to the white colonials in Jamacian history. Like many caribean nations, even centuries after slavery the economies are still such that whites controll the land and plantations, and by default the government, there's is an extraordianry gap between the classes, and the dividing line is skin colour. He's making the statement that it's the slaves and thier decendents who put the food on the table and keep the country running with their labour yet they are still to this day looked down upon, and through the countries institutions(mainly education and religion) kept in a state of subserviance and shame. He was using Rastafari to deliver a political message and It's a pretty clear statement really:

I'n'I build a cabin;
I'n'I plant the corn;
Didn't my people before me
Slave for this country?
Now you look me with that scorn,
Then you eat up all my corn

Build your penitentiary, we build your schools,
Brainwash education to make us the fools.
Hate is your reward for our love,
Telling us of your God above.

[yovo]

Just wondering.. do you feel like Marley was totally accepted by the black community? My bf is of mixed herritage (half chinese, half indonesian, grew up in Surinam, now lives in The Netherlands) and he doesn't really feel like he has any roots.. genetically, culturally.. all very different. A lot of communities seem to shy away from people that aren't fully a part of them genetically.

When you read what these 'rastafarians' say at this website: http://rastafari.unn13.com/cointel/truth.html I wonder how positively Marley is viewed by the 'black power' and/or 'rastafarai' community, since he wasn't of 'pure blood'.

I refrerred to that website before.. in this post: http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1512933#post1512933

Anyway.. just wondering..To answer that question you have to look at roots of the black diasporia(the mass migration of Africans to the Americas though slavery). Children of mixed European and African blood in the Americas were so common (mostly because slave owners took certain 'liberties' with there 'property') that they were classified as thier own ethnicity, that of a 'melato'. Melatos were afforded more privelige in society over pure blooded Africans. Understandily there was a lot of tension and ill feeling amongst all 3 groups. Some melatos looked at thier European blood as a curse, they themselves were partially that which they despised(their opressors), so there was an element of shame. Others used their status as leverage, to carve out a better life for themselves. Others outright believed that they were in fact superior to pure blooded Africans because of thier mixed blood which further established the notion of this entirely fictitious 'race'. Even though a melato was afforded more priviledge if they pushed it to far they were severly reminded by Europeans' that they weren't to behave as 'uppidy niggers'. So they were constantly in limbo, in a position of power, but born into shame. They were forced more or less to take refuge in one side or the other but were never truely accepted by either, they were manipulated, and manipulated others. This dynamic and these tensions still carry on to this day, more so in the Carribean where little has changed in the structure of society since the slave trade. In Haiti for example, which has been indipndent for over 200 years, even after the french were completely dispelled from the island the legacy of that racism lingered. The melatos simply moved up the ladder and took the place of the whites, and it is this dynamic which is still to this very day the root cause of that countries destabilisation.

Bob Marley was a melato, he was perhaps shamefull of this fact himself, but in a way he almost served as the poster boy of the diaspora because of it. His lyrics were deeply political and steeped in this tale of a displaced people, looking to regain thier identity. He broke down barriers, and made those of African decent, all over the globe, realise that there was more which united them, then divided them. He was a collosal figure of importance even in Africa(and still is), where he became a folk symbol of Pan-Africanism, independence and a voice for the plight of the third world. In his own community he was viewed as a force of mediation, amongst rival gangs, and a patriarchal figure for many beyond his own family using his wealth to support many in trenchtown. It was inevitable he would be a force to be reckoned with in his own countries politics aswell. White politicians there clamoured for his endorsement, but really despised his stature and influnence, and through thier henchman an attempt was even made on his life. This, in addition to his increasing devotion to Rastafari culminated to turn him into something far beyond a musician, or activitst or even simply a man but a cultural prophet for his people.

There will always be those who find faults in others, or think less of someone because of thier ethnicity, but on a whole, yes, the 'black community' (which I hope I've shown is many things, and in many places) not only accepts the man, but reveres him.

[Nimrod's Apprentice]

I believe the term crazy baldheads goes back to the days of the babylonian captivity but youd have to believe the ture Israelites looked simliar to bob marley and Emporer Sellasie. It was because in babylon just like all sumeria, the lay man wore a bald head. Only the royalty was allowed to stand out with hair. So therefore the baldhead is an image of a worker/slave of the ancient Dictator. Dedicating their life, work, love, inheritance, money, spirit, and yes hair to their emporer, instead of themselves or god.