The message I get from Bob Marely is best summed up in these lyrics from Trenchtown, Jamaica.
One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain
So hit me with music, hit me with music now, yeah
Trenchtown Rock
This was live at the Rainbow Theatre in London 1977. Just a year before the concert took place Bob Marely was dodging bullets from an attempted assignation. He and his wife suffered wounds, but more wounds would come when he found out in 1977 he was diagnosed with skin cancer.
This song speaks to me with atomic love.
Hit me with music... ♪♫•¨•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•¨•♫♪
I wish all the guns shot out music in this world.
The world has got it all wrong. We censor music but don't want to censor weapons that kill.
One Love
This song is just obviously beautiful and powerful. In 1978 Bob Marely went back to Jamaica in spite of political conflicts. Towards the end of the concert Marely asked the two opposing leaders to come to the stage and shake hands. They did it in a sign of peace between the National Party and the Labour party of Jamaica.
"They call me crazy because I smoke marijuana, but they call the person who invented the atomic bomb a genius." -Bob Marley.
Redemption Songs
This was Bob Marely's last song and one of the most significant. The lyrics of the song were inspired by the Pan-Africanist Marcus Gavey's speech.
This video below is an acoustic version of the Redemption song recorded just months before Marely's departure.
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
Obviously Bob Marely was in a lot of pain while playing this song. There are cleaner recordings but the spirit of the song rings out. It's kind of like Steve Goodman playing "A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request" in the bleachers of Wrigley Field.
Brings tears to my eyes.
Marley's final words according to his son Ziggy were:
"Money can't buy life."
How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?