Musician Spotlight: Burning Spear

Burning Spear is the stage name of Winston Rodney (OD) who was born on 1st March 1945 and is a prolific singer-songwriter from Jamaica. A practicing Rastafarian, Burning Spear has influenced huge swathes of musicians both in his home country and further afield thanks to his reggae roots. It all began in the 1970s when reggae started to make its way over to the US and beyond.

Born in Saint Ann, Jamaica, Burning Spear was enamored with the rhythm and blues and jazz music he was able to hear from the US since some of the country’s radio stations could be received in Jamaica. But this was just one of his passions; another was political activism, and Burning Spear was particularly interested in ideas of self-expression and free speech.

At the start, the name ‘Burning Spear’ was not Rodney’s at all, but instead was the name of the group he formed – it was named after a Kenyan military award. The first single the group released was ‘Door Peep’ which was popular enough to allow for more singles to be cut as well as two albums.

By 1975, however, Burning Spear was beginning to outgrow the production they were involved in and began to work with Jack Ruby instead. It was at this time that their first big hit was released; this was ‘Marcus Garvey’, and there was quickly a follow-up to capture this success, and that song was ‘Slavery Days’.

Moving on again, the success that the album Marcus Garvey garnered in 1975 meant that Island Records became interested, and this allowed the album to reach a great many more people. The problem, however, was that Island Records chose to remix many of the tracks, changing the speed of them. The record was not as popular as it should have been as a result, and Rodney stepped away to set up Burning Music, allowing him to have complete control over everything he produced.

This was the catalyst for the group splitting up. Contracted to release more albums with Island Records (which were Garvey’s Ghost and Man In The Hills), Rodney did as he had to do but then left, taking the name of the group with him, and becoming Burning Spear in his own right.

One of the first things Burning Spear did when he was on his own was to perform a concert in London where he had a large number of fans. His backing group were members of Aswad, and the concert at the Rainbow Theatre was completely sold out. The show was recorded and Live! was released for those who hadn’t been able to make it to the show itself due to it being sold out so quickly.

Burning Spear’s passion can be seen in this live performance:

Although Burning Spear continued to release well-received albums and tour extensively after 1977, it wasn’t until 2000 that he won his first Grammy. This was for his album Calling Rastafari which was released in 1999. He won a second Grammy in 2009 for Jah Is Real.

Burning Spear’s music featured a wide variety of instruments, from jazz instruments like saxophones to rock instruments like guitars with tremolo pedals.

In 2007, Burning Spear was awarded the Order of Distinction (OD). Learn more about this influential artist on his website.