If there’s one message to take away from the documentary Getting It Back – let’s call it an enduring feeling – then try gratitude. For the power of music to bring people together in a moment, for a generation, across different generations.
It may not happen when or how we expect it to, but there is an inevitability to greatness. And how we get there is the engine of a good story. Cymande’s tale is an uplifting one but it doesn’t shy away from the realities of their time or any time in life.
Worldwide recognition eluded the nyah-rock brotherhood in the 70s, particularly in a post-Windrush Britain blighted by racial division and police harassment. Yet their spiritually fortified rhythms and positive messages created undeniable ripples through popular music, as we later find out in this documentary.
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