Some art, like the 1969 Hopper/Fonda film, Easy Rider, flashes boldly in its moment and ages to insignificance or embarrassment. Some, like the soundtrack of the 1972 reggae film, The Harder They Come, is timeless.
I owned the soundtrack early and played the cassette until it was lost. Almost 35 years later, I bought the CD as a present for my wife. She played the entire CD five times in succession, dancing through the house.
There isn’t a bad song on the album. The second cut, “Draw Your Brakes” by Scotty (Jamaican David Scott), begins with a shout-out in Jamaican Patwa (patois).
For years I’ve wondered what the opening lines mean. But an internet lyric search yielded only an untranslated transliteration:
Forward and fiaca
Menacle and den gosaca
I found my way to Peter L. Patrick, Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Essex in Colchester, England. He, an expert in the structure and use of Jamaican Creole, as linguists call Jamaican Patwa, contacted another expert, Kenneth Bilby, at the time a research associate in the Smithsonian Institution’s department of anthropology. Bilby wrote to Patrick who passed the following to me:
It just so happens that I have some info on this, and it’s most likely reliable. (I had long wondered about it myself.) Last year I interviewed Bunny Brown, a good friend of the late Scotty. He and Scotty sang together as members of The Chosen Few in the 60s. I asked him about this part of the lyrics in “Draw Your Brakes,” and he explained it as follows:
“Forward and payaaka, manhangle (manhandle) and den go saaka.”
In the “youth man slang” of the time, “payaaka” was a verb, meaning “to take away another man’s woman/girlfriend.” In this “slang,” “saaka” meant “to fuck.” So the song’s intro meant, “go and take away a next man’s girl, grab her and then go have sex with her.”
The original meaning of “payaaka” in Jamaican Creole was “hawk” (sometimes a particular species of “chickenhawk”); it still has this meaning in some rural areas. By extension it came to mean “greedy, covetous (person).” According to Bunny Brown, urban youth in the 60s further extended the sense to mean “taking away another man’s woman.”
Ken Bilby (R) in Jamaica, 1982
Much of email is spam, and much of the internet is tripe and dung. But dig deeply and scholars like Patrick and Bilby show you emeralds.
I recommend the CD unequivocally. I do not recommend the film; except for the music, it is amateurishly unwatchable.
Similar or related posts:
Interesting, but I think I was better off not knowing.
I have been using that line for years and that is not what I thought it meant. I thought it meant just to go forward and to climb on. Nothing about taking someone elses girl and doing the nasty. I just used to tell my dr. about going forward in life after divorce – i guess i was way off saying that to him. OH WELLL!!!
Thanks for that .. I too often wondered what that meant. Been a fan of Reggae for many, many years – the dialog of the Jamaican’s is very interesting – Love how they express themselves.
Misinterpretation is an amazing thing afterall. Misunderstanding the wording of that intro: “Forward and payaaka, manhangle (manhandle) and den go saaka.”, I had thought it an age-old philosophical rasta saying, something akin of what others have posted earlier, about keeping ones focus.
And now I laugh, and realize that this entire time I have been revering a message intended for pimps and players…
You’re right about the music and terribly wrong about the film. It is really a wonderfully localized cinematic experience. I suggest re-visiting it.
Thank you for this. I have wondered about it myself. To find the answer at the highest levels of scholarship; it is truly a cool thing you did. Many thanks!
You said it. The Internet is full of tripe… but every once in a while… you come across something like your post and your faith in humanity is restored.
Thanks so much. I’ve wondered about this since watching (many midnight showings of) The Harder They Come. One of the very few English language films that I (a native speaker of English) have seen where I benefited from sub-titles. Trainspotting is another.
Listening again, though, it really does sound like “fiaca” not “payaaka”…
Many, many, thanks.
This Antiguan guy dragged me along to see the movie in maybe 73 or 74-ish…The Harder They Come… WTF was ragggay in 74 ? I memorized the songs on the spot and will never forget the bicycle scene…
don’t
fock
wit
me
However…tonite, after 35 years of wondering…I believe what you wrote. Man…I gotta teach that to my grandsons.
Fascinating. Might be a false cognate, but knowing what it means, could “saaka” be related to UK English slang “shag”?
As Austin Powers would say,” Oh, do behave!”
Interesting stuff, but I disagree about the movie. Amateurish or not, I think it’s worth seeing.
That is a splendid bit of scholarship. “The Harder They Come” was one of the first records I used to play on my parents’ phonograph, at about age 4 (born in ’71). Those opening lyrics always mystified me, but I’ve always sung along gamely. Thanks for clearing that up, 35 years later.
Thanks for your kudos. I strive to defend whatever hypothesis I am making with real research, unlike much of the internet, often a source of tripe and misinformation.
Not at all. Professor Patrick’s explication made me wonder whether a Jamaican listener (now or then) would’ve understood the words. As I live in NYC, I may run into someone before too long who can shed some light on it. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything.
On the topic of individuals with compelling blogs, you might check out the “Stuff That Makes Me Happy” tab on http://jasonamendolara.wordpress.com/
In my opinion… watch the film, it will teach you a good deal about Kingston Ghetto life in the late 60s and early 70s….and the music IS great.
There are many versions and opinions as to exactly what meaning is intended in Jamaican Patois; like any truly organic language, meaning shifts all the time. A professorship at Harvard is less likely to help in one’s knowledge of Jamaican Patois than being Jamaican and growing up there for example. So I personally like to take all ‘knowledge’ as defined by a white western academic with a pinch of salt and all experience as defined by the people who have lived it, with a pinch of pepper. A lot can be lost in translation.
Respects Steve for your efforts in trying to clear up the muddied informational sidewalk that is the internet!
I completely agree that the film seems to depict life in Jamaica in a manner not otherwise easily accessible to outside audiences. My calling it “unwatchable” is a production value judgment that comes from my 20 years in the film business. As a social document it is meaningful. As a film, it was, because of its budget I suppose, poorly made.
Whatever your [ed: Mike Murphy's] opinion of “white western academic[s],” the source for this translation is Joel Bunny Brown. He is more than qualified to interpret Jamaican patois, even by your curiously limited criteria.
For more on Bunny Brown, see:
http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20100206/ent/ent4.html
I take your point. Though have found the recollections of Jamaican musical artistes to be populated by distortion, misappropriation and self engrandisement. It’s very interesting to listen to three or four producers talk about what the etymology for the word Ska, or for that matter Reggae came from, you won’t find any one man agreeing and in the same way, I feel certain that definitions will differ grandly regarding an entire introduction.
The chap in question’s name though, isn’t Joel Bunny Brown, it’s Noel Bunny Brown.
The film is a classic! Wow!
Thanx, man, been wondering about it myself for a long time. Always liked the sound of it, but never realized the actual meaning=) Now I’ll be sure to be cautious around Jamaicans speaking their hypnotic language=)
Thanks very much for this, which I stumbled across in the process of trying to find Ken Bilby. We had exchanged emails and had contact info for him but can’t find it. Do you know where is now?
I do not agree, however, with your assessment that the film is “amateurishly unwatchable.” Sure there are some moments that are amateurish, but so what. Given Jamaica and its conditions and the budget he had to work with, I think he did very well, especially now that it has been restored. It’s eminently watchable, an important cultural document and an iconic film, one that captured not only Jamaica at a(n IMO) very crucial time, and showed us the Jamaica we never saw and never knew existed. The performances he got from non-actors Jimmy Cliff (singer), Basil Keane (dentist) and Bobby Charlton (insurance salesman) are just fine, if not great, and it’s peppered with people from the Jamaican music industry: Toots Hibbert, Prince Buster, Duke Reid, Joe Gibbs, Carlton Lee, Jackie Jackson, Hux Brown, Gladstone Anderson, and even a cameo from the Prime Minister’s wife, Beverly Anderson, who mocked the typical wealthy Jamaican housewife: “Who left the gate open?”
Anyway, thanks for solving the riddle of this intro – I never knew what it was for almost 30 years.
Thanks for the cameo information. I like the film, I’ve seen it several times. I will look for those people when I see it next time.
It’s sad that Cliff refused to make any movies after that, because he was proud of his work in THTC, only to end up in the dreadful, “Club Paradise”.
Thanks. I ‘ve wondered what that meant for longer than I can remember. I even asked Peter Tosh at his concert in Vancouver and he couldn’t explain it to me (possibly because of the ganja)
I’m so glad I found this post. Thank you! I’ll stop saying this to people unless I mean it!!! Yikes!
The movie is decidedly rough and it is also known as one of the first ENGLISH language movies to need English subtitles. If you want a fuller version of the story, read the novelization of the film by Michael Thelwell. It starts out back in Ivan’s village and fleshes out a lot of characters. A fantastic read!
Thanks. I’ll check it out. Novelizations, of course, are always written after the film and, as such, can patch things up.
The song is about the singer’s girl going away for another man, and hence, “go and take away a next man’s girl, grab her and then go have sex with her.” is a message intended to the one who stole his girl, to the one his girl is running to.
Do not say it was a message inteded for pimps. If anything, it reinforces the song’s main theme.
And I forgot to say kudos
Thanks for your work
Thanks for this. Ras Yodahe’s comment is illuminating, stop that train indeed. I always thought it was ‘Manacle’ as in handcuffs, not ‘Manhangle’.
What prompted a search for this was here on Cape Cod, lots of Jamaicans are working summer jobs, (lotsa ‘rhydim’ a gwan on, ta raas!) I actually asked the meaning of this phrase last night after 35 years, and someone actually knew! He said it was the ‘old slang’, but I still wanted to confirm…
I think I read that ‘novelization’ in a hammock in Negril about 25 years ago, was that the one that used the term ‘Riggin’? Always wondered what that meant (‘raging’?).
I miss Reggae (or was that what they used to call Rocksteady?)
Yeeeees! I was just listening to this song and FINALLY I remembered to look this intro up(it only took me 8 years…haha)
Well done!
I spent a lot of time in Jamaica a long time ago. I always took these lyrics a bit literally and thought “forward and fiaca” translated as “forward and fire car (as in train car)”, “menacle” meaning manacle or lock the cars together and “den gosaka” – well, I never was got sure about that part, I liked to think it meant “go southward” but in patois it could be anything. But anyone who has listened to the song for the last 40 years is pretty sure that it is “fiaca” and “menacle.”
Your interpretation is imaginative, but I’m more confident about the academic’s research on the patois.