World of Jamaican Music

Discover artists and hear songs from everyone on the site! Log in to Spotify in this browser to hear full songs. SourcesYour Voice

An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

Burning Spear

Artist. Reggae, dub

Active
1969-present
Sunrise
March 1, 1945, St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica
Also known as
The Spear, Jah Disciple

Winston Rodney, who records as Burning Spear, has spent five decades on essentially one subject: Marcus Garvey and the case for African redemption. Few artists in any genre have narrowed their material that far and sustained it that long.

Rodney was born in St. Ann's Bay, the parish that produced both Garvey and Bob Marley. By his account he met Marley by chance in the hills of St. Ann, mentioned that he was interested in singing, and was told to go to Studio One. He did, and recorded for Coxsone Dodd from 1969; on leaving Dodd he brought in Rupert Willington and Delroy Hinds, brother of the singer Justin Hinds, as harmony singers. The Studio One sides are good and largely unnoticed.

The breakthrough came with Jack Ruby, an Ocho Rios sound system operator turned producer, and the album Marcus Garvey (1975). The vocals are closer to chanting than to singing, delivered over slow rhythms with heavy horns, and the effect is more like a service than a performance. "Slavery Days," "Old Marcus Garvey," and the title track set out the argument that history is not over and that the injuries of the plantation are current business. A dub version, "Garvey's Ghost," followed the same year. Errol Thompson engineered the sessions, and Aston Barrett and Robbie Shakespeare were among the bass players on the album.

What made him distinctive was the voice and what he chose to do with it. The Rough Guide hears in his style more of traditional Rastafari chanting and jazz-like improvisation than of mainstream reggae; his records have few immediate hooks and rely instead on a smoky studio ambience and an intensely concentrated delivery best heard across a whole album, which makes him, after Marley, perhaps the Jamaican artist best suited to the LP. Bradley groups him with Culture and the Abyssinians as dread acts who moved into minor keys rather than the upful, Impressions-style harmony of most roots singers. Rodney himself recalled that when he turned to protest songs, people who admired his voice called it a waste of a voice.

Island issued Marcus Garvey internationally with the mix altered and the tempos slightly raised, to Rodney's objection. He recorded further albums for Island, including Man in the Hills, Dry and Heavy, Social Living, and Hail H.I.M., and later set up his own Burning Music label, which he has run since.

He appears in Rockers (1978) performing an unaccompanied "Jah No Dead" to the dejected protagonist, one of the few scenes in the film that stops for the music.

His live performances run long, built on repetition and call and response rather than variety. The Rough Guide called him the most compelling live performer in reggae, one who at his best almost hypnotizes an audience. He has won two Grammy Awards for Best Reggae Album, for Calling Rastafari (1999) and Jah Is Real (2008), and continues to perform in his eighties.

Last updated October 31, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Barrow and Dalton note that "his message has not changed over the years": Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 147.
  2. Barrow and Dalton say he was "born in the same St Ann's Bay area as Marcus Garvey and Bob Marley": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 146.
  3. Wikipedia dates the conversation with Marley to 1969: "Burning Spear," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Spear. Bradley says he began at Studio One in 1969, auditioning with "Door Peeping" for Leroy Sibbles: Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 269.
  4. Barrow and Dalton write that "upon leaving Clement Dodd, Burning Spear brought in the harmonies of Rupert Wellington and Delroy Hines": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 146. Wikipedia has Willington singing with him from the Studio One audition and Hinds joining later: "Burning Spear," Wikipedia. A Gleaner obituary of the Studio One engineer Sylvan "Bim Bim" McKenzie, reprinted by Augustyn, says he "is said to have been instrumental in introducing" Rodney to Dodd. Heather Augustyn, "Remembering Bim Bim," SkaBook (blog), November 21, 2014, https://skabook.com/2014/11/21/remembering-bim-bim/. Katz credits Cedric Brooks with "an instant impact" on "Door Peep." David Katz, "Cedric Brooks Obituary," Guardian, May 8, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/may/08/cedric-brooks.
  5. Barrow and Dalton call the Studio One material "two albums' worth of exemplary tracks": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 146. Bradley says he was signed to Dodd for five years "with negligible success": Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 273.
  6. On Jack Ruby (Lawrence Lindo), the horn section of Dirty Harry Hall, Herman Marquis, Vin Gordon, and Bobby Ellis, and the 1975 hits and album, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 146-47.
  7. Barrow and Dalton describe him as the leading voice of singers "concerned almost exclusively with black history, its relation to contemporary ghetto conditions, and the salvation promised by Rastafari": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 146-47.
  8. On Garvey's Ghost as the dub version, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 147; "Burning Spear," Wikipedia.
  9. Katz says Errol Thompson "engineered the sessions that produced Burning Spear's roots masterpiece, Marcus Garvey," and puts Aston Barrett on it and on Dry and Heavy and Social Living; he credits Robbie Shakespeare's bass with helping it "become a breakthrough sensation." David Katz, "Errol Thompson," Guardian, December 9, 2004, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/dec/09/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1; David Katz, "Aston 'Family Man' Barrett Obituary," Guardian, February 4, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/04/aston-family-man-barrett; David Katz, "Robbie Shakespeare Married Funk and Reggae to Create a Catalogue of Classics," Guardian, December 9, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/dec/09/robbie-shakespeare-married-funk-and-reggae-to-create-a-catalogue-of-classics.
  10. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 146-47.
  11. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 358.
  12. Rodney, interviewed by Bradley. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 347.
  13. Barrow and Dalton refer to "the remixed form of its UK release by Island": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 147. Wikipedia says Island "remixed and altered the speed of some of the tracks, much to the annoyance of fans and the group": "Burning Spear," Wikipedia.
  14. Barrow and Dalton list Man in the Hills and Dry & Heavy with Island's Mango imprint, Social Living (1978) with his own Burning Spear label, and Hail H.I.M. (1980) with Burning Spear in Jamaica: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 147. Wikipedia says Hail H.I.M. was issued by EMI rather than Island: "Burning Spear," Wikipedia.
  15. On his own Spear and Burning Spear imprints in the 1970s, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 147. On Burning Music, "Burning Spear," Wikipedia.
  16. Barrow and Dalton describe his a cappella "Jah No Dead," "backed only by the surf on the beach": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 136.
  17. Barrow and Dalton call him "the most compelling live performer in reggae, who at his best almost hypnotizes his audience": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 147.
  18. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 147.
  19. Wikipedia dates the awards to the 2000 and 2009 Grammy ceremonies: "Burning Spear," Wikipedia.

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map