Redemption Song by Bob Marley (1980)

From blackwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Redemption Song by Bob Marley

Redemption Song is a song by Bob Marley as a final track from his twelfth album, Uprising, released in 1980. The song is one of reggae singer greatest works as some key lyrics derived from a speech by the Pan-Africanist orator, Marcus Garvey, entitled “The Work That Has Been Done.” [1]

Key Lyrics

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 hand 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?

Some say it's just a part of it

We've got to fulfill the book [2]

Black Empowerment

The song gives message to listeners, to urge themselves to "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery," because "None but ourselves can free our minds." These lines taken from a speech given by Garvey during October 1973’s speech at Menelik Hall in Sydney, Nova Scotia, published in Black Man magazine:

We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind …

Mutabaruka, Jamaican poet and broadcaster, chose this song as the most influential recording in Jamaican music history, in 2009. [3]

Unlike most of Marley’s songs with a reggae style, this song is an acoustic solo track with no sign of reggae, as some key lyrics derived from a speech given by the Pan-Africanist orator, Marcus Garvey. [4]

Chris Blackwell, Marley’s producer and founder of Island Records, discusses the track. “When I did hear it, I liked it, but I didn’t really love it,” he admits. “Because I felt the lyrics were so important and so relevant that it would be better if it would be done acoustically.” [5]

References

  1. Redemption Song. wikipedia.org. Retrieved January 29, 2021
  2. Redemption Song Bob Marley & The Wailers. genius.com. Retrieved January 29, 2021
  3. Redemption Song. wikipedia.org. Retrieved January 29, 2021
  4. Redemption Song Bob Marley & The Wailers. genius.com. Retrieved January 29, 2021
  5. Martoccio, Angie. Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’: Behind the Scenes of the Animated Video. February 14, 2020. rollingstone.com. Retrieved January 29, 2021