Amy Winehouse Rehab Analysis

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Upon first listening the Jolly Boys cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” you
immediately recognize the hook of the infamous song. After listening to it for a few
times you start to realize what great things the Jolly Boys and mento music bring to this
composition. Before taking this class I couldn’t tell the difference between ska, reggae or
mento music. The ease of the lead singer Albert Minott , and his style of singing and the
cadence of his voice, hints towards the evolution that would eventually be named ska
music .The video opens with the five member band playing the maracas, banjo, congo
drums, the guitar and the murumba box.
In the composition and in the video you see the mixture of both African and
European instruments and styles, and …show more content…

When Amy Winehouse is singing “Rehab” you can
hear the angst in her voice is defiant. The Jolly Boys take on the song is very
relaxed and easy going, when the sing “They tried to make me go to rehab” it is not in
defiance. The feeling that I get from the song is that a day on the beach in Jamaica will
make everything “irie”.
I could also hear a lot of what would eventually become the future of reggae
music and the influences I now hear in contemporary Jamaican music. I truly enjoyed
watching the Jolly Boys reintroduce mento music into popular music by choosing a song
like “Rehab”. I also enjoyed seeing how the murumba box was being used in the
composition. Listening to the song I can also hear the relaxed vibe of ska music and
“don’t worry “ vibe of the song. In the video they are playing on a stage to one woman



sitting down in the audience. I looked at this as foreshadowing to the relevance of mento
music to contemporary listeners. When the young woman gets up and starts to dance to
the music, it defiantly states that if you listen to how cool this music is, you would like it
also. I too, not only think that the Jolly Boys are very cool and very much relevant

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