Reposted from this date in 2016
Robert Nesta Marley would have been 74 years old today, born on the sixth of February, 1945 in Saint Anne Parish, Jamaica
Let’s go back to the early days and start with the Wailing Wailers eponymous 1965 album. Those most familiar with his later Rastafarian canon may find the R&B inspired harmonies with Peter and Bunny surprising. Also surprising, the ska rendition of Burt Bacharach’s “What’s new Pussycat.” We’re definitely in the pre-reggae days here. But we also hear an early version of the anthem ‘One Love,’ with the ska moving towards rock-steady, and a precursor of the conscious uplifting message that will be center to hist later works:
By 1970’s ‘Soul Rebels’ release, the reggae riddims are starting to bubble up, as is Marley’s message
I’m a rebel, soul rebel
The sun shall not spite me by day, nor the moon by night
With 1971’s Soul Revolution we’re on the cusp of ska, rock steady, and reggae. In Sun is Shining, we clearly hear the one-drop that is central to the reggae sound:
Sun is shining and the weather is sweet.
Make you want to move your dancing feet.
By 1973’s Catch A Fire the reggae and the message are maturing:
Slave Driver, the table is turned
Catch a fire or you will get burned
Every time I hear the crack of a whip, my blood runs cold
I remember on the slave ship how they brutalize your very soul
Today they say that we are free
Only to be trapped in poverty
1975’s Burnin’ , the Wailers sixth album, was their last, as Peter and Bunny would subsequently move on to pursue their solo arcs beyond the shadow of Bob’s growing international stardom.
Burnin’ opens with Marley and Tosh’s anthem Get Up Stand Up, arguably one of the most empowering songs of all time, across all genres:
Get up stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up stand up
Don’t give up the fight
1974’s Natty Dread was Marley’s first release under the banner Bob Marley and the Wailers, and the first to feature the beautiful harmony of the I Threes, Marleys wife Rita, Marcia Griffiths, and Judy Mowatt:
The social justice message, of course, continues throughout
Them belly full but we hungry
A hungry mob is an angry mob
The 1976 release, Rastaman Vibration gives us the revolutionary anthem War, which puts Ethiopian Emporer Haile Selassie I 1963 speech before the United Nations General Assembly to music
Until the philosophy which hold one race superior And another Inferior Is finally
And permanently Discredited And abandoned - Everywhere is war - Me say war.
That until there no longer First class and second class citizens of any nation Until the colour of a man's skin Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes - Me say war.
That until the basic human rights Are equally guaranteed to all, Without regard to race - Dis a war.
That until that day The dream of lasting peace, World citizenship Rule of international morality Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, But never attained - Now everywhere is war - war.
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, In Mozambique, South Africa
Sub-human bondage
Have been toppled, Utterly destroyed - Well, everywhere is war - Me say war.
War in the east, War in the west, War up north, War down south -
War - war -
Rumours of war.
And until that day,
The African continent
Will not know peace,
We Africans will fight - we find it necessary - And we know we shall win As we are confident In the victory
Of good over evil - Good over evil, yeah! Good over evil - Good over evil, yeah! Good over evil - Good over evil, yeah!
1977’s Exodus gives us the beautiful Three Little Birds as well as the powerful title track.
Don’t worry about a thing
Cuz every little thing gonna be alright
Rise up this morning
Smile with the rising sun
Three little birds
Flit by my doorstep
Singing sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true
Saying
This is my message to you
Men and people will fight ya down When ya see Jah light Let me tell you if you're not wrong Everything is all right. So we gonna walk -through de roads of creation: We the generation
Trod through great tribulation
Exodus, movement of Jah People
Kaya, released in 1978, is a more mellow, ganja-inspired beauty, giving us some of Marley’s most beautiful uplifting tracks such as Easy Skanking, Is this Love, Satisfy my Soul, the title track, and a more polished Sun is Shining.
Survival, from 1979, marks a return to Marley’s more revolutionary side. The track title speak for themselves: So Much Trouble in the World, Babylon System, Zimbabwe, Africa Unite
You see men sailing on their ego trip, Blast off on their spaceship,
Million miles from reality: No care for you, no care for me.
Africa unite: 'Cause we're moving right out of Babylon, And we're going to our Father's land
1980’s Uprising is Marley’s proclamation of his Rastafarian faith
Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the 'and of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfill the book.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
Marley had been diagnosed with cancer, and began to face his own mortality. He would die the following year, on May 11, 1981.
Livicated with so much respect to Bob Marley and his powerful timeless legacy
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