Legend is the one I got, and I'm slowly developing a "feel" for its unique sound.
I'm almost exclusively a classical fan, but I am interested in any type of music in which the performer (or composer) has passed beyond "pop" star and become an artist in the full sense of the word. I'm taking (for example) about the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and a small handful of other cultural icons who are worthy of more than a casual listen.
And lyrics are absulutely essential for me. I don't care how good the sound is, I can't listen if the words are idiotic. So I'm following Marley's verses very carefully now. Strange but always interesting.
Bob Marley Tribute thread
I hope you are able to like it, Whistler, because... well, I love it. But tastes differ, and I'm at peace with that.
I wanted to share this paragraph from the new biography of Bob Marley, called "Before the Legend", written by Christopher John Farley. It's something that happened after Marley had been diagnosed with his fatal cancer.
I wanted to share this paragraph from the new biography of Bob Marley, called "Before the Legend", written by Christopher John Farley. It's something that happened after Marley had been diagnosed with his fatal cancer.
Marley's primary producer told me a haunting story about him. Marley and Blackwell, although they worked together for a decade, were almost never photographed together. They both agreed that if they were pictured in the same frame, there would be those, confronted with their contrasting skin tones, who would falsely assume that the white producer must be the real mastermind behind the black musician's music. So when they were together, they avoided the cameras. But sometime in 1981, Marley, a photographer in tow, stopped by to see Blackwell and announced that he had cancer. As shock registered on Blackwell's face, Marley asked the photographer to take a picture of them. It's the only picture Blackwell says he has of himself with Marley. In the face of death, Marley was looking for a laugh.
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Voronwë the Faithful
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Some biographical information that some people might not know:
One of the seminal moments in Bob's life occurred in 1978 during a very contentious and violent political campaign in Jamacia. During Bob's performance at the One Love Peace concert he brought the two presidential candidates, Michael Manley and Edward Seaga, on stage with him. Marley held their hands high in the air, saying "I just wanna shake hands and show the people we're gonna unite...we're gonna unite...we've got to unite...The moon is high over my head, and I give my love instead. The moon is high over my head, and I give my love instead." I've seen footage of this concert and it is extraordinarily powerful. He had a unique ability to bring people together.Bob Marley was born on Tuesday, 6 February 1945 in the small village of Nine Miles, Saint Ann, Jamaica. His father, Norval Sinclair Marley, was born in Jamaica in 1895 to English parents who originated from Sussex, south east England. Norval Sinclair Marley was a Marine officer and captain, and also a plantation overseer when he married Bob's mother, Cedella Booker, an eighteen-year-old black Jamaican girl. Norval provided financial support for his wife and child, but he seldom saw his son as he was often away on trips. Norval Sinclair Marley died of a heart attack in 1955, age 60, when Bob was just 10 years old. Bob Marley faced questions about his own racial identity throughout his life with a white English father and a black mother, especially when Jamaica was experiencing racial tension in the 1960s. He reflects:
"I don't have prejudice against myself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white."
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
I can understand. It was a big hit for Eric Clapton, but it's pretty close to the worst Bob Marley song.Whistler wrote:Ethel, that song about shooting the sheriff seems to me utterly at odds with everything else he sings and supposedly represents. I've deleted it from my playlist.
Well... I think the song is about justice, as in: I shot the sherrif because I saw him doing something evil. So, yes, I'm guilty. But not in the way you think. Because the sherrif was evil, and it was him who killed the deputy.Whistler wrote:If you (or anyone) wants to tell me why I've misread the song, do feel free to set me straight.
The evil thing the sheriff was doing, however, was plowing up the guy's marijuana crop. That's pretty clear from the song:
Every time I'd plant a seed, he'd say,
Kill it before it grows.
I remember, when I was much younger, that our local DJ caused quite a furor by refusing to play this song on his program.
Yes, I know that marijuana is part of the religion Marley practiced. Still no excuse for this song, in my opinion. It's almost the reggae equivalent of gangsta rap.
Every time I'd plant a seed, he'd say,
Kill it before it grows.
I remember, when I was much younger, that our local DJ caused quite a furor by refusing to play this song on his program.
Yes, I know that marijuana is part of the religion Marley practiced. Still no excuse for this song, in my opinion. It's almost the reggae equivalent of gangsta rap.
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Voronwë the Faithful
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I think I Shot the Shirriff is about being caught up in forces that one cannot control:
Not my favorite Marley song, but still one worth thinking about, IMHO.
(And the protagonist "shot the Sherriff" because the Sherriff was "Aiming to shoot me down").Reflexes had got the better of me
And what is to be must be:
Every day the bucket a-go a well,
One day the bottom a-go drop out
Not my favorite Marley song, but still one worth thinking about, IMHO.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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truehobbit
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That's what I was thinking, too, and what I said in my first post here.Whistler wrote:
And what I think about it is that he sends mixed messages.
The "war" song is there in that category along with the "Sheriff" song, IMO.
but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.
The “War” lyrics were taken directly from a speech by Haile Sallassie, king of Ethiopia, to the United Nations in 1963.
Haile Sallassie wrote:On the question of racial discrimination, the Addis Ababa Conference taught, to those who will learn, this further lesson: That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained; And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed; Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-will; Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven; Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil.
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truehobbit
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Thanks for the info, tinwë! 
It's not that I didn't understand the meaning, though, but that the, as I read it, readiness for actual bloodshed here stands in contrast to peaceful messages of the other songs. Similarly with the lyrics of the Sheriff-song.
That's why I agreed with Whistler on there being mixed messages.
It's not that I didn't understand the meaning, though, but that the, as I read it, readiness for actual bloodshed here stands in contrast to peaceful messages of the other songs. Similarly with the lyrics of the Sheriff-song.
That's why I agreed with Whistler on there being mixed messages.
but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.
Well, the “mixed message”aspect isn’t a problem for me, nor is it surprising, knowing what little I do about his life - the child of an inter-racial marriage (his father was white), he experienced racism from both whites and blacks. His father, who he never saw much, died when he was ten and his mother raised him in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica. Trenchtown the neighborhood was called because it was literally built over a ditch that drained sewage from the town. During his life he had to endure police harassment for his religious beliefs, the racial and political strife that plagued Jamaica during the sixties and seventies, and a politically motivated assassination attempt that left him with minor wounds and his wife seriously wounded. Given all of that, the positive side of his message seems all the more surprising to me.
But, I’ll admit, I much prefer the live version of “War” that appears on the “Babylon By Bus” album which he did as a medley with the song “No More Troubles”. The lyrics pick up from the verse that begins “war in east...”
War in the east,
War in the west,
War up north,
War down south
Some winning
Some losing
Some dying
Some crying
Some singing - “We don’t need no more troubles”
We don’t need no more troubles, no more troubles, no more troubles, eh
What we need is love
To guide and protect us on
If you hope good down from above
Help the weak if you are strong
We don’t need no trouble
What we need is love (what we need is love sweet love)
We don’t need no more troubles
We don’t need no more troubles, no more troubles, no more troubles, eh
We don’t need no more troubles
No more war, no more war, no more war, I say
Speak happiness
It’s sad enough without your woes
Come on and speak of love
It’s sad enough without your foes
We don’t need no trouble
What we need is love (what we need is love sweet love)
But, I’ll admit, I much prefer the live version of “War” that appears on the “Babylon By Bus” album which he did as a medley with the song “No More Troubles”. The lyrics pick up from the verse that begins “war in east...”
War in the east,
War in the west,
War up north,
War down south
Some winning
Some losing
Some dying
Some crying
Some singing - “We don’t need no more troubles”
We don’t need no more troubles, no more troubles, no more troubles, eh
What we need is love
To guide and protect us on
If you hope good down from above
Help the weak if you are strong
We don’t need no trouble
What we need is love (what we need is love sweet love)
We don’t need no more troubles
We don’t need no more troubles, no more troubles, no more troubles, eh
We don’t need no more troubles
No more war, no more war, no more war, I say
Speak happiness
It’s sad enough without your woes
Come on and speak of love
It’s sad enough without your foes
We don’t need no trouble
What we need is love (what we need is love sweet love)