Redemption Song

"Redemption Song" is a song by Jamaican singer Bob Marley. It is the final track on Bob Marley and the Wailers' twelfth album, '' Uprising'', produced by Chris Blackwell and released by Island Records. The song is considered one of Marley's greatest works. Some key lyrics derived from a speech given by the Pan-Africanist orator Marcus Garvey titled "The Work That Has Been Done", which Marley publicly recited as early as July 1979 during his appearance at the Amandla Festival.

Unlike most of Bob Marley's other tracks, it is strictly a solo acoustic recording, consisting of his singing and playing an acoustic guitar, without accompaniment. The song is in the key of G major.

History

The song is reported to have been written around 1979, appearing for the first time on a demo tape called "Dada Demos" which, amongst other unreleased tracks and re-recordings of older songs, features an early version of " Could You Be Loved?" with drum machine accompaniment. German journalist Teja Schwaner claims to have witnessed Marley playing ''Redemption Song'' during a hotel stay in Hamburg on tour in 1976, although he could have confused it with another song.

A few years earlier, Bob Marley had been diagnosed with the cancer in his toe that took his life in 1981. According to Rita Marley, "...he was already secretly in a lot of pain and dealt with his own mortality, a feature that is clearly apparent in the album, particularly in this song."

After its recording for the ''Uprising'' album, the song saw its first public performance during the opener show of the ''Uprising Tour'' on May 30, 1980, in Zürich, Switzerland, and continued to be featured in every known setlist of that tour's further concerts. There exist at least two music video recordings of the song, one produced by the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, featuring Marley and his keyboardist Earl Lindo both accompanying themselves on guitars, and a second one from September 1980 featuring Marley during a rehearsal break and his band members listening. A few more recordings from live concerts exist, both audio and video, amongst them a performance from Dortmund, Germany, on June 13, 1980, which is featured on the official 2014 release ''Uprising Live''.

"Redemption Song" was released as a single in the UK and France in October 1980 and included a full band rendering of the song. This version has since been included as a bonus track on the 2001 reissue of ''Uprising'', as well as on the 2001 compilation '' One Love: The Very Best of Bob Marley & The Wailers''. Although in live performances the full band was used for the song, the solo recorded performance remains the take most familiar to listeners.

In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' placed the song at number 66 among "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time." An updated list was published on Feb 16, 2024, where the song was placed a
number 42.

In 2010, the ''New Statesman'' listed it as one of the Top 20 Political Songs.

On 5 February 2020 (on the eve of what would have been his 75th birthday), Marley's estate released a
official animated video
for the song. This also commemorated the 40th anniversary of the song's release.

Personnel

Bob Marley – vocals, acoustic guitar, production

Meaning and influence

The song urges listeners to "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery," because "None but ourselves can free our minds." These lines were taken from a speech given by Marcus Garvey at Menelik Hall in Sydney, Nova Scotia (Canada), during October 1937 and published in his ''Black Man'' magazine:

In 2009, Jamaican poet and broadcaster Mutabaruka chose "Redemption Song" as the most influential recording in Jamaican music history.

In 2017, "Redemption Song" was featured in series 25 of BBC Radio 4's ''Soul Music'', a documentary series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal, with contributors including Marley's art director Neville Garrick, Jamaican Poet Laureate Lorna Goodison, Grammy Award-winning artist John Legend, and Wailers guitarist Don Kinsey.

In American Songwriter's 2019 appreciation of the song, Jim Beviglia analyzed the song as being a "departure" from his regular music:

Marley was too much a force of nature to lose his personality just because he was in a new setting. The rhythmic ingenuity that marked his career can be heard in the little instrumental breakdown between verses. His vocal also drips with idiosyncratic power, from the way he hiccups his way through some of the lines to give them some extra flavor to his brilliant phrasing of the word “triumphantly.” Other songwriters might have crammed in a few other words just to fit the meter a bit more snugly, but Marley’s choice gives that word added meaning.

Certifications

Covers

Manfred Mann's Earth Band recorded their version of the song for the album '' Somewhere in Afrika'' in 1983.

Stevie Wonder recorded a cover version in 1996, which was released on the soundtrack album '' Get on the Bus (soundtrack)'' and his 1996 compilation album '' Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection''.

Joe Strummer of The Clash recorded a cover version that was released posthumously on the album '' Streetcore'' in 2003, which featured his backing band at the time, The Mescaleros. Strummer also covered the song as a duet with Johnny Cash during the latter's sessions for the '' American IV: The Man Comes Around'' album, this version being released later in the box set '' Unearthed''.

Remedy Drive released a cover of the song, on their 2018 studio album '' The North Star''.

References

Further reading

*

External links

*
Lyrics
u2start.com
*Lorna Goodisonbr>Lorna Goodison on the origins and philosophy of "Redemption Song"

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1980s ballads
1980 singles
1980 songs
Bob Marley songs
Island Records singles
Protest songs
Songs about racism and xenophobia
Songs about freedom
Songs written by Bob Marley
Christianity in music
Song recordings produced by Chris Blackwell
The Specials songs