New Respecta: Book Of Rules by The Heptones -- Misheard Lyric Or Great Unknown Bob Dylan Song?

The Heptones

Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of hearing the great 1973 Heptones song "Book of Rules" is unlikely to forget it. The experience probably came while seeing the movie "Rockers" or possibly listening to the album "Night Food" or hearing the song played on the radio. Like Desmond Dekker's "Israelites", The Wailers' "Stir It Up" and The Paragons' "The Tide Is High", it occupies a secure, unbreachable place as a song most non-reggae aficionados can identify and identify with. Without being in the slightest a watered-down version of reggae (like, say, Eric Clapton's terrible, logy version of "I Shot The Sheriff"), it's a brilliant example of a "cross-over" hit from another musical culture.

For me, because of a possibly mis-heard lyric, I've always thought of "Book of Rules" as a great Bob Dylan song not written by Bob Dylan. According to some internet websites that collect song lyrics, which are notoriously inaccurate, the song's words, apparently borrowed from an oft-quoted, but historically somewhat obscure short poem by an American poet named R.L. Sharpe (1870-1950), seem to be these:

Book of Rules

Isn't it strange how princesses and kings,

in clown-ragged capers in sawdust rings?

While common people like you and me,

we'll be builders for eternity.

Each is given a bag of tools,

a shapeless mass and a Book of Rules

Each must make his life as flowing in,

stumbling block or a stepping stone.

While common people like you and me,

we'll be builders for eternity.

Each is given a bag of tools,

a shapeless mass and a Book of Rules

Look when the rain has fallen from the sky.

I know the sun will be only missing for a little while.

While common people like you and me,

we'll be builders for eternity.

Each is given a bag of tools,

a shapeless mass and a Book of Rules

The original Sharpe poem, called "A Bag Of Tools", is a short work that reads:

A Bag Of Tools

Isn't it strange

That princes and kings,

And clowns that caper

In sawdust rings

And common people

Like you and me

Are builders for eternity?

Each is given a bag of tools,

A shapeless mass,

A book of rules;

And each must make --

Ere life is flown --

A stumbling block

Or a steppingstone

Bizarrely, I think, you can hear Dame Maggie Smith recite the poem in this UBS bank commercial.

The lyric I "misheard", according to the internet transcriptions I found, is the last line of each verse. Instead of "mass", I hear "mask".

What I hear, and what really hit home with me, goes:

"Each is given a bag of tools,

A shapeless mask and a Book of Rules."

Both lyrics fit and "work". However, for me the word "mask" (which I still heard clearly when I listened to the song on headphones this morning and I actually believe is one of several deliberate, effective alterations the Heptones made to the source material) draws a much subtler, sadder and more accurate picture of the worker's yoke and mantle than the more general, indefinite "mass". The hopelessness of being saddled with "a shapeless mask" contrasts strongly in counterpoint with the redemption the "sufferah" protagonist hopes and seeks to create through his labor and works, i.e., to make stepping stones, not stumbling blocks. Ultimately in the song, redemption is found through the buoyant melody, exceptional musicianship and glorious lead and harmony singing of Leroy Sibbles, Earl Morgan and Barry Llewellyn.

Listening to "Book of Rules" this morning, I was also struck by a similarity of mood and attitude it shares with another "Dylan-y" song, Joe South's extraordinary "Games People Play". They would co-exist very well on an anthology called, say, "Music for the Downbeat and Extremely Thoughtful."

Misheard, differently interpreted lyrics are a rock and roll tradition and my hearing, at this point, is more degraded than I would like it to be. Here is "Book of Rules" by the Heptones. You be the judge and please let me know your thoughts. And if you like this song, there's a great Heptones world to discover, both through the group's own records and through the inestimable contributions to Jamaican music made by their leader Leroy Sibbles, who played bass guitar (as partner to drummer Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace) and acted as arranger (paired with keyboardist Jackie Mittoo) on most of the classic Studio One recordings that form an important part of reggae music's foundation.

My beautiful Russian Blue cat U, a genuine reggae afficionado and connoiseur, was raised on Leroy Sibbles' felt-as-much-as-heard, heart-massaging "riddims". If you have never seen a cat transported by Jamaican bass sounds (especially via the medium of made-in-JA 12" vinyl recordings), you're really missing something.

Some Books Of Rules: