I’m gonna chase you out of earth!
So begins one of my all-time favourite songs, Chase the Devil by Max Romeo, produced by the divinely crazy Lee Perry. Its startling opening lines are lifted from the Bible.
Romeo: Lucifer son of the morning, I’m gonna chase you out of earth!
Isaiah 14:12: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Romeo: I’m gonna put on a iron shirt, and chase Satan out of earth. I’m gonna put on a iron shirt, and chase the devil out of earth.
Job 18:18: He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
Romeo: I’m gonna send him to outta space, to find another race. I’m gonna send him to outta space, to find another race. Satan is an evilous man, But him can’t chocks it on I-man. So when I check him my lassing hand. And if him slip, I gaan with him hand.
Errr … don’t think my King James’ says anything about evilous and chocking …
In one biographical note I read on Romeo, when he was young and feckless, he narrowed his ambitions down to two: preacher or singer. He chose right.
Update:
I included the track in a musical quiz in September 2006. Check it out.
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