Hey, you wanna see pretty pictures while I am telling you a story?
Cool!
"What's the band name?"
A dude with blond hair is staring at me, and give me a pen.
Band...Are we a band? Yes, we play in a garage every Saturday morning, the only day when there is no class, yes there is 2 guitar players, a drummer, and a bass player, yes we play covers, and the year is 1998.
Every wanna be band is playing Wonderwall by Oasis, Jamiroquai is the hottest shit, people still smoke Marlboro and CD players are spinning with Alanis Morissette.
Of course, it was obvious that we would play No Woman No Cry, because it's fucking easy.
C G Am F
That's it. That's it?
Wow that's so easy then...So why we aren't sounding like the CD?
I guess we should just play louder and louder, eventually we will get it!
We never really did, you don't learn Reggae in a year, or even a lifetime.
Every Saturday, we would gather, play a bunch of C G Am F, and then call it a day after 2 hours of screaming and exhausted. 😄
No technique, no understanding of intensities, or silence, but just the pure joy of being able to do like our idols.
I remember recording our first rehearsals, with a mixing desk, that I borrowed from my father.
Hearing ourselves for the first time was incredible to me. I then started recording all our rehearsals, then play them at home.
I guess that's how we got better, by listening ourselves, and being a critic.
Anyway we weren't really a band, just a bunch of kids playing instruments, I was just the singer, and one night we go to see a real Reggae concert.
Seeing these pros on stage, was a revelation to me. 13 years old Ed that day decided that it was the coolest shit he had ever seen.
We were so fucking excited after the band playing, there were an open mic and I entered our name.
"What's the name of the band?"
"I don't Know"
""I don't know" is the name of the band?"
"Just hold on a sec"
I turn to my fellow musicians, "how should we call ourselves?"
Quite frankly, I kinda forgot what was the name of our band, I think something shitty from the 90s, like KAAZE with two As of course.
"Ladies and Gents, welcome on stage KAAZE"
The stage, was a big stage for a small band like us. I had no idea that the stage would feel so big.
Man, my heart is racing like crazy, we are all looking at each other like "are we really doing this?"
"Hey Ed, we have to do No Woman No Cry, that's our best!"
By this, Tom the guitar player meant, that you can't fuck up C G Am F.
I didn't know how to play the guitar at the time, my mission was to sing, hold the mic stand, and sing.
I step forward into the light, my heart is even faster now.
In the audience I see people I've been knowing for my whole childhood, other school kids from the area, some of them recognize me, start laughing, one of them told me afterward that they thought I was about to do some standup, I am the funny guy, not the singing type, that's for sure.
The bass starts, then the drummer, who was my long time friend at the time, the only one that pursued a pro career as a musician like I did.
He was a good drummer! Still is.
Anyway I am drifting, back to what's happening on that stage one day in 1998.
The 2 guitarists of the band, start strumming with precisions. Tom and Nicolas are twins, and they sound very complimentary, I always thought it was a cracking concept to have twins musicians.
They didn't make it as musos, one is a pharmacist, the other probably got into a very lucrative political job.
But on that day in 1998 on that stage, they are musicians. We all are, I hold onto the mic stand like it's the only thing that keeps me from collapsing out of pure fear.
I counted correctly the intro, it's my time to sing, I close my eyes, and start the first verse.
And...It was magical. It was so quick, I felt like it lasted forever at the same time.
I open my eyes at the end of the song, the people are cheering, our buddies are buying us drinks, we celebrate :)
I was hooked.
We continued gathering every Saturday, we learnt more songs. Eventually I moved to Nancy, and did a music school, with the same drummer from that band.
We had more bands, we split. All band eventually split, it's just a part of life.
I don't speak the the drummer anymore, but he was a good friend.
I offered him to perform with me at the Olympia many years later, after I did that TV show in France, but he wasn't interested, different stroke I guess.
"I am a jazz musician now" he told me on the phone. "I can't do commercial stuffs".
Alright then. No hard feelings. I did the Olympia with another percussionist, and it was great.
No Woman No Cry is the first song I've ever played on a stage, and I've kept it with me, right in my pocket, all along my musical career.
I haven't played it for years, and when I mean years, AT LEAST 20 years, because when I got really serious about music, I wasn't interested in just C G Am F anymore, that's noob stuff haha.
But this year, I am introspective, and I like to revisit my past, just for the sake of it, and see how can make sound these 4 simple, simple chords, and see what I can feel when I do so.
A long time has passed, and the words don't have the same meaning 24 years later.
But I still remember how I felt on that stage, because it's still here today when I play the song.
I don't think it will ever go away
[Chorus]
No woman, no cry
No woman, no cry
No woman, no cry
No woman, no cry
[Verse 1]
'Cause, 'cause, 'cause I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown
Oba, observing the hypocrites, yeah
Mingle with the good people we meet, yeah
Good friends we have had, oh good friends we've lost along the way, yeah
In this bright future you can't forget your past
So dry your tears I say, yeah
[Chorus]
No woman, no cry
No woman, no cry, eh, yeah
Little darling don't shed no tears
No woman, no cry
[Verse 2]
Eh, Said, said, said I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown, yeah
And then Georgie would make the fire light, I say
A log wood burning through the night
Then we would cook corn meal porridge, I say
Of which I'll share with you, yeah
My feet is my only carriage
And so I've got to push on through
But while I'm gone
[Bridge]
Everything's going to be alright
Everything's going to be alright
Everything's going to be alright
Everything's going to be alright
Everything's going to be alright
Everything's going to be alright
Everything's going to be alright
Everything's going to be alright
So No woman, no cry
No woman, no cry, I say
Oh little, oh little darling, don't shed no tears
No woman, no cry, eh
[Chorus]
No woman, no woman, no woman, no cry
No woman, no cry
One more time I've got to say
Oh little, little darling, please don't shed no tears
No woman, no cry
[Guitar breakdown]
▶️ 3Speak
Alternate slick 4k Link just in case
