Redemption Song By Bob Marley

Redemption Song

Bob Marley

In June 1980 seems "Uprising", the last album of Bob Marley while suffering from cancer who will win a year later, on 11 May 1981. This album appeared in "Island" is the 15th studio album most famous reggae artists and put a stop to a discography that began in 1965 at Studio one.

As we leave a final testimony and even though Marley has already left to the history of the music of iconic titles this disc closes with a song that will become universal "Redemption Song", sounds like the final testament of a convicted Marley but already elevated to an immortal artist and eternal myth everywhere across the planet.

Bob Marley gave his last concert in Pittsburgh in September 1980. REDEMPTION SONG was the last song he had chosen to interpret that night, knowing internally that it would probably be his last concert here too. Although exhausted, he finally returns to 5 songs recall.

What I find very poignant REDEMPTION SONG is first melody, sad and irresistibly beautiful. It is also the contrast between the text, lyrical incantation retracing the path of a life, while that of the author ends.

Bob Marley (1945-1981)

The song sums up, like a premonition, Bob Marley's life, his thirst for freedom and desire for redemption. Redemption Song also reflects the struggles throughout his life (and his work) by Bob Marley and his attachment to his Rastafarian faith.

The song as a ballad denotes the previous pieces. While a reggae version was recorded with the band, Bob Marley prefers an acoustic version. Alone with his guitar ...

This title that evokes the slave ancestors, the discovery of faith, fighting for freedom, have been grandiloquent and distressing, yet, interpretation is intimate, choosing the lowest setting.

Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

Hymn to Freedom, the lyrics are inspired by a Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey speech, civil rights activist. Written in 1979 and registered early 1980, when Bob Marley was diagnosed with cancer that eats it, Redemption Song sounds like a will. It expresses the desire for redemption from that already the biggest reggae singer.

 Marcus Garvey had such an impact on Bob      Marley  and the Rastafarian culture in general, he  was considered a prophet. When Bob Marley  asked the question of "Redemption Song" "How  long shall they kill our prophets, While we stand  aside and look ?" he was referring to Marcus  Garvey.

"Redemption Song" will become by the scope and power of the song text that denounces slavery and the struggle of the oppressed across the world.

Impossible to talk about without mentioning Marley The Wailers fantastic music training Aston Barrett (bass, piano, guitar, percussion), Carlton Barrett (drums, percussion) without forgetting guitarist Junior Marvin, they form the rhythmic backbone that allows voice Unique Marley fly and take us with her.

Bob Marley & The Wailers

Song lyrics are in bold, the meanings of the lyrics are in italics :

Africans children

Old pirates, yes, they rob I : I, and 9-12 million Africans were robbed of our freedom and sent to the Americas as slaves.

Sold I to the merchant ships : from the European Empires, who’d grown rich supplying colonies with human labor.

Minutes after they took I : 15% died en route, the others suffered greatly.

From the bottomless pit : The survivors were put straight to work in appalling conditions, with no way out.

William Wildberforce

But my hand was made strong : by the same people who made it weak: the European Empires, specifically Britain.

By the ’and of the Almighty : well, Brits, initially aimed to abolish the slave trade then slavery throughout the Empire.

We forward in this generation : the first step: a landmark 1722 legal decision ruled slavery wasn’t supported by English law.

Triumphantly : The Abolition of slavery: 1st mass protest campaign in modern history, paved the way for the rest.

Won’t you help to sing : William Wilberforce MP, did.

This songs of freedom ? : he relentlessly campaigned for change from within parliament for 26 years.

'Cause all I ever have : 1807 Slave Trade Act banning the slave trade, and ensuring the Navy would enforce it. The fight to end slavery continued until 1833, when the Anti-Slavery Act was passed.

Redemption songs : It was the tireless activism of parliamentary and public campaigners that did it.

Redemption songs : and the same techniques are just as capable of ending injustices today.

Marcus Garvey in 1937

Emancipate yourself 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?

Some say it's just a part of it,

We've got to fulfill de book.

Bob Marley singing

Jules Charron - 1er ES 2