Summary
The legendary reggae duo tell Chitra Ramaswamy why a Burns Night celebration isn't complete without adding a taste of Jamaica
SLY Dunbar, one half of the legendary Riddim Twins, Sly and Robbie, is singing 'Auld Lang Syne' to me. I've asked him what he makes of Robert Burns, considering the duo are heading to Glasgow to headline a Jamaican Burns Night at Celtic Connections. The idea behind the evening is to explore, through music and West Indian grub, what might have been had Burns gone to Jamaica, as he had planned to, in 1786 to work as a bookkeeper on a sugar plantation. The success of the Kilmarnock Edition of his poems kept him from setting sail from Greenock, but it's a difficult, morally complex part of the bard's history that has only been discussed in recent years.See the full content of this document
Extract
Sly and Rabbie
Dunbar, however, is more interested in the music. From his home in Kingston, Jamaica, he tah-dah-da-da's the first few bars of 'Auld Lang Syne' and then says: "He was the one who wrote that, no? Someone told me he was a great writer."
As for what a Jamaican Burns Night means to him, it's all a...See the full content of this document
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