Couple of days ago, I woke up with a smile on my face and the chorus from ‘Three Little Birds’ whirling in my head “don’t worry about a thing/ ‘Cause every little thing’s gonna be all right”. 😇 It may be that that was the day I started my ten-day journey back to London to see Nidhi, Rukmini and Harsh. Or, that it was also May 11^th, the anniversary of Bob Marley’s passing. Who knows. Anyway, I spent the whole day listening to Bob Marley and the Wailers, lost in the uplifting lyrics and music that so characterised Marley’s music. He sang about oppression, rebellion and emancipation, he sang about religion and he also sang of love…but mostly, he sang of the certainty of hope. His simple yet complex lyrics, combining with the sunny beat of his reggae, have somehow always touched something deep inside of me. Perfect antidote to current times.

The first Bob Marley songs I ever heard were covers by other artists – Eric Clapton’s “I shot the Sherrif”’ and Boney M’s “No Woman No Cry”. These were on the radio a lot in the mid to late 70s and it never even occurred to me then that these were covers 😱. It wasn’t till 1980, when the album ‘Uprising’ was released that Bob Marley really appeared on the radio in Delhi with “Three Little Birds” and “Could You Be Loved” from that album on ‘A Date With You’. I distinctly remember absolutely falling in love with the Reggae sound and Bob Marley and the Wailers. (Confession time – for a while I thought the band was Bob Marley and the Whalers – 😂 no Google you see!). However, it was a couple of years later in 1984 when ‘Legend’was released that I really, truly, discovered the genius of Robert Nesta Marley. I’ve owned ‘Legend’, in one form or another for the past forty years!  BTW ‘Legend’ is the album that has spent the second longest number of weeks on the Billboard Album chart – it is only outranked by ‘The Dark Side of The Moon’.

“Three Little Birds” is my favourite Marley song. It was inspired by three real birds that used to regularly visit Bob’s windowsill in Jamaica, perch there, and sing. Apparently, one day, looking at them, Bob wrote out the song in a matter of minutes, creating one of the most uplifting…perky…hopeful songs ever. It’s been covered by everyone you can imagine, but the original by Bob Marley is by far the best. Even people who don’t know or like Reggae love this one. The song you want to listen to when you’re feeling down and out, mustering the will to get back out there. Been there. Done that. Got the T shirt. 👍🏽

Rise up this mornin’ / Smiled with the risin’ sun / Three little birds/ Pitch by my doorstep/Singin’ sweet songs/Of melodies pure and true/ Saying’, (this is my message to you)

Singing’ don’t worry about a thing /’Cause every little thing gonna be alright /Singing’ don’t worry (don’t worry) about a thing/ ‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright

“Get up, Stand Up” was written in response to the poverty that Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer (the core of the Wailers) saw during visit to Haiti. This protest anthem, written by Marley and Tosh, has endured the decades and inspired millions. Bob wrote this in the context of abject poverty and subjugated human rights, with references to heroes of emancipation, Abe Lincoln (“you can fool some people some of the time….” is a quote from Lincoln) and his Rasta faith (“Almighty God is a living Man” refers to Emperor Haile Selassie), I think the reason this is so popular is that everyone can identify our situation, big or small, in this song. While the studio version on ‘Legend’ is fantastic, I prefer the version on ‘Live’ – while performing at the Lyceum Theatre in London, on the spur of the moment, Bob added the “woyo-yo-yo-yo” chant – and the audience joined in as one! Followed by, Bob Markey singing “Excuse me while I light my spliff” 😂. Sadly, this was the last song Marley ever performed. Desperately ill with cancer, he decided to fly back to to Jamaica from Germany to spend his last days. However, despite his cancer having metastasised to his brain he made a stop in Pittsburgh to perform a concert, closing with “Get Up, Stand Up,”. He died eight months later on May 11, 1981.😭

“No Woman No Cry” was written on a plane ride from Jamaica to London. Again, it’s the live version from the Lyceum concert, that’s the one everyone knows and loves. The moment when the audience starts singing the chorus even as the first chords are played, even before Bob Marley sings a single line – I tell you, it gives me goosebumps! An anthem of hope, friendship and love amongst tough times, it harks back to Bob’s growing-up years of poverty in Jamaica’s Trench Town ghetto, eating “cornmeal porridge, I say, of which I’ll share with you”. While it talks of grief with “good friends we lost along the way”, it’s all about hope. Don’t cry. Tomorrow will be better. Interestingly, song-writing credit on this song includes one Vincent Ford – the story goes that while growing up in Trench Town, Bob used to regularly eat at the soup kitchen run by Ford. In return, Marley gave writing credit on this song to Ford so that future royalties would allow Ford to keep the soup kitchen going! 

“Exodus” is a fantastic groove with even better lyrics

“Open your heart and look within/Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?/ We know where we’re going/we know where we’re from/We’re leaving Babylon/We’re going to our Father land”.

Written about the Rasta faith, and the repression they were undergoing, again Bob wrote revolutionary lyrics that inspire. One of my favourite songs!

“I Shot The Sheriff” really became a hit thanks to the cover version, which revived Clapton’s career. For the longest time I had never even heard the Bob Marley original. Clapton’s cover is great obviously and we heard it on the radio incessantly in Delhi. But Marley’s version is rawer. You can hear the underlying rage of someone who has been unjustly oppressed for a long time until one day the pressure just explodes. Of course Sherriff John Brown didn’t ever exist, that’s more of an allegorical reference to oppressors everywhere, who will find one day that they will be at the receiving end. 

I recently read a wonderful quote about Marley – “Marley sang about tyranny and anger, about brutality and apocalypse, in enticing tones, not dissonant ones…..He was the master of mellifluent insurgency” That just about captures Bob Marley the Revolutionary.

Of course, there is another side to Bob Marley – sensual and full of love. That’s Part II then 😁