Door opens on possibilities, closes on danger

In Nesbeth's immensely popular song, My Dream, there is a repeated reference to a door.

He talks about pressing ahead in the face of adversity, as there were those who would block his way, but Nesbeth deejays that when they closed one door "me buss doors after doors after doors after door after doors after doors."

In a society where financial progress can be made difficult by those who control access to opportunities, getting through that door comes up in Jamaican popular music. So does the actual door to a dwelling, as it stands between someone and their objective - or it protects them from danger.

Bob Marley uses the door in more ways than one. In Waiting in Vain, it is romance, as the songwriter reflects that "it's been three years since I'm been knocking on your door/and I still can knock some more". Then, in Coming in from the Cold, he uses a proverb to sing of alternate routes, so "don't you know when one door is closed, many more is open". It is the same principle as Nesbeth's use of the door, the difference being the force of the opening.

DOORSTEP

On the approach to the door is the doorstep - a place for sitting or three little birds to alight and sing sweet songs, as Marley sings in Three Little Birds. But the door can also be a place where the unwelcome try to gain access, so Burning Spear sings of the Door Peep, who "shall not enter dis a Holy Land/where wise and the true man stand/sipping from this cup of peace".

In Nuff Man A Dead, Supercat sees a threat possibly coming through that door - as well as another opening - because "if a guy knock me window a pure ol iron come out/yu tink a water is lead coming out."

He deejays, "I'm not sure any more/who's knocking at my door", so he makes himself a smaller target on the tried and proven way - "me have a bed and me a sleep pon di floor/why, nuff a skull a bore/dem a take off window an' tear off door/if a bway knock me door nuff skull ago bore." He is well equipped to deal with whatever comes in, and so is Mr Easy, who makes it deadly clear that "but anybody test my door after hours that a murder/we know the flex we know the score we are ready for whatever".

Bob Dylan's beautiful dirge, Knocking on Heaven's Door, has made its way into reggae through Luciano's cover version (among others). Before getting to that end of the inexorable process of life, in Sleep with Angels, Spragga Benz deejays, "Life is a gift to both rich and poor/death is the only thing that is sure/every man must go through that black door/so all me frens who gone through before I sing/ may your spirit rest in peace, rest in eternal peace/and I hope that one day we all will meet/ and reason pon glory street."