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A sufferer's song done up dancehall style, "Crucial's insistent rhythm, chanted litany of woes, and subtly infectious chorus, quickly proves contagious. Certainly the right wing Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) heard the possibilities, and used it - without Bunny Wailer's permission - for the campaign song.Incidentally, their opponents, the People's National Party (PNP) did the same to Bob Marley and his "Bad Card".In fact in the early Seventies, The Wailers had been keen PNP supporters, and campaigned on the party's behalf in the run- up to their election in 1972. By 1980, however, all three were entirely disillusioned not just with the PNP but with Jamaican politics across the board. That year saw the worst election violence in the island's history, with over a thousand citizens murdered in the run-up (some sources go as high as 1,400), and all the while "Crucial" and "Bad Card" blasted from opposite sides of the political divide.Ironically enough, Bunny's song was selected in order to illustrate the PNP's failed policies, his suffering meant to represent that of the entire island. Ironic, because upon winning the election the JLP instituted a sweeping program of free market "reforms" that swiftly threw tens of thousands out of work, raised prices on staple goods beyond the ability of most to pay for them, and dumped much of the population into even deeper poverty where they've remained ever since.
