Because my interest is in the various ways the spoken word can be integrated into different media and musical forms I like to experiment with different genres. One of my experiments in dub poetry has the title ‘Truth Dies‘ and the result can be found below. Dub poetry is all about social commentary and I will consider this further in my article ‘Speaking the Music‘ (Dada de Dada, 1 January 2023). Dub poetry can be performed a cappella (and is therefore dependent on the inherent musicality of the poet’s voice), or with an instrumental backing (usually a minimal reggae-type beat). Such a backing beat may be unique or based on a ‘riddim’, a rhythmic template designed to be used in a multiplicity of different productions. One of the masters of dub poetry is Benjamin Zephaniah whose performances are rhythmic works of incisive, and sometimes painful/controversial, political and social commentary.
I cannot possibly match Zephaniaha’s virtuosity but my ‘Truth Dies’ demonstrates another reuse of the ubiquitous ‘Tempo’ dub riddim (rhythm), albeit this time with a celtic brogue twist. The growl of the bass seems particularly appropriate to the theme.
In summary, Truth Dies about how we humans of whatever world location and hue appeared hard-wired to believe in stories. At times we seem to prefer the stories over reality and so we gravitate towards people and sources that tells us what we want to hear. Our politicians, those who would be king, and those who would do us harm know this and so we become their victims because the ‘truth’ dies on the altar of their ambitions or manipulative character. The growth of social networking provides a ready channel for disseminating such new ‘truths’ and recruiting personal armies of believers/followers.
There’s also a video of Truth Dies with a synced lyric track available on YouTube.
