It is no exaggeration to say that Bob Marley is one of the greatest popular song writers of the 20th century. Along with John Lennon, Bob Marley led the way in marrying music to social consciousness.
Born Robert Nesta Marley in 1945 in Parrish of St. Anne, Jamaica, Marley rose from poverty to fame writing songs of love, politics, and spirituality. He remains the most famous figure of his nation, as well as the face of a neo-political social movement that fuses Pan-Africanism, social-consciousness, and moral principle with a message of the dignity of the individual in the global age.
I’ve listened to all of Bob Marley’s albums and have many favorite songs. The list that follows contains ten songs that, taken as a whole, represent the range of Bob Marley’s style, poetry, and artistic message.
Burning and Looting (Burning & Live) – “How many rivers do we have to cross before we can talk to the boss?!”
An anthem of political awakening and a call to morally necessary civil disobedience, “Burning and Looting” is a song about the concept of doing what is unlawful when doing what is lawful would is morally wrong.
Marley performed this song at many of his live shows. Along with “No Woman, No Cry” it was a performance staple that always riveted the crowd. The blend of heavy rhythm and sweet melody featuring the I-Threes in chorus, “Burning and Looting” displays all the genius of Bob Marley’s song writing skills and the R&B; qualities of the Wailers (the band behind Mr. Marley).
Could You Be Loved (Uprising) – “Don’t Let Them Fool You.”
This was Bob Marley’s biggest hit on the R&B; charts – his only song ever to break into Billboard’s top 40.
With a catchy, simple chorus, the song is a grab-bag of disconnected sayings after the fashion of a John Lee Hooker blues number. All the lyrics fit together, emotionally, however, even if they don’t come together in a neat intellectual package.
One is drawn to wonder why a song like this would be his biggest hit, divorced from the more meaningful and impassioned poetry that characterizes almost all of his other songs.
Small Axe (Burning)- “If you are the big tree, we are the small axe, sharpened to cut you down.”
A song about the power of the spirit to stand against oppression, “Small Axe” is an early articulation of what would become Bob Marley’s non-African political cause.
The song is anchored by its choppy, bouncy rhythm, a trait it shares with much of the album Burning, which was the last album to include Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.
It was this same album that created another staple Marley anthem, co-authored with Peter Tosh, “Get Up, Stand Up”.
Redemption Song (Upsiring) – “Free yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.”
This song shows Bob Marley to be a “wisdom writer”, combining insight and biblical language to create a modern message of spiritual salvation. From out of a dark history, the song suggests, a people can find the way toward redemption, salvation, and self-knowledge.
Them Belly Full(Natty Dread & Live)- “A hungry man is an angry man. A hungry mob is an angry mob.”
Them Belly Full is another example of Bob Marley’s songwriting genius. This song finds Marley again giving voice to the plight of the poor.
“Them Belly Full” expounds on the social side of politics, where hunger and anger come together to create a dangerous community. This song appears on the Live album along side “No Woman, No Cry” and “Burning and Looting”. The album stands as a testament to Bob Marley’s dedication to the his first political cause, that of calling for a global liberation from poverty.
Trench Town Rock (Live)- “One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain.”
Another anthem from the repertoire of Bob Marley anthems, “Trench Town Rock” shows one of the softer sides of Marley. A song that comes before and after politics, “Trench Town Rock” is about the power of music to lift the spirit.
Trench Town is the name of a poor neighborhood in Kingston Jamaica. When Bob Marley was starting on his journey into music in Trench Town he was sleeping in the kitchen of a shack in the ghetto. Music delivered him from poverty and pain and that is what this song is all about.
No Woman, No Cry (Natty Dread & Live) –
“No Woman, No Cry” bridges the gap between several modes of songwriting. It is at once an anthem and a lyrically rich remembrance of hard times passed. It is an epistle too, a good-bye letter to a lover.
The emotionality and the powerful chorus sung between Bob Marley and the I-Threes make this an extremely moving and memorable song.
So Much Things to Say (Exodus) – “I and I don’t come to fight flesh and blood but spiritual wickedness in high and low places.
“So Much Things to Say” speaks to the impossibility of overstatement when it comes to the complaints of the poor and under-represented peoples of the world. As a song of solidarity, Marley’s “So Much Things to Say” references several famously persecuted minority figures, like Marcus Garvey and Jesus Christ, while suggesting that “when the rain falls, it don’t fall on one man’s house.
The warning: If it can happen to Garvey, it can happen to you.
Turn Your Lights Down Low (Exodus) – “Turn your lights down low and pull your window curtains.”
From Bob Marley’s strongest album, Exodus, “Turn Your Lights Down Low” is a classic example of reggae’s seductive qualities. Marley croons with yearning on this number and his poetic powers are turned very effectively to the subjects of love, romance, and passion.
Babylon System (Survival)- “Babylon System is a vampire, sucking the blood of the children.”
One of the greatest melodies in Marley’s long line of genius melodies, “Babylon System” gives an insight into the complexities of the character of Bob Marley.
He was a tremendously hopeful and positive man. His positivity was balanced out by his bitterness, as can be clearly seen on his last two albums – Uprising and Confrontation. “Babylon System” appears on the Survival album and finds Marley continuing the Nyabingi call to chant down Babylon with music and pointing some sharp criticisms at a cultural system that was built on the back of slave labor.
The most powerful message of the song is not a negative one. It is, instead, a message of righteous and positive rebellion: “We refuse to be what you wanted us be. We are what we are and that’s the way it’s going to be.”
A few more words on “Babylon System”… The rich percussion on this track is essential reggae of the rare genre-defining type. Every once in a while a single song or album manages to capture the essence of a musical movement. Miles Davis Someday My Prince Will Come is this kind of album. “Babylon System” is this type of song, epitomizing the ethos and the atmosphere of Jamaican roots reggae.
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Sources:
http://www.metrolyrics.com/bob-marley-lyrics.html
