Redemption Song

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"Redemption Song" is the last track on Bob Marley's ninth Island music album, Uprising. At the time he wrote the song, circa 1979, Marley had already been diagnosed with the cancer that was to later take his life, and according to Rita Marley, he was already secretly in a lot of pain and dealt with his own mortality, a feature which is clearly apparent on the album, particularly on this song.

Contents 1 The song 2 Cover versions 3 References 4 Samples 5 See also

The song

Marley was a pioneer in spreading the reggae music of Jamaica throughout the world; however "Redemption Song" is a simple folk song. The opening notes are a variation on "Guns of Navarone", a ska song by The Skatalites which was extremely popular in the 1960's and is marked as a turning point in the evolution of the form.

Unlike most of Bob Marley's tracks, this is strictly a solo acoustic recording, consisting of Marley singing and playing an acoustic guitar, with no accompaniment whatsoever. A full band rendition of "Redemption Song" was made available as a bonus track on the 2001 reissue of Uprising, as well as being featured on the 2001 compilation One Love: The Very Best of Bob Marley & the Wailers. However, the solo performance remains the take with which most listeners are most familiar.

The song, like most of Marley's, took on his Rastafarian religious convictions head on, but also urges people to free themselves from their self-imposed mental shackles.

In 2004, Rolling Stone placed the song at #66 among The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (which qualifies it as one of the five greatest songs of the 1980s).

Cover versions

The song has been covered by a wide and varied group of artists, including most notably Outlandish, Lauryn Hill, Arrested Development, U2, Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash (both as a duet and each as a solo), Sinéad O'Connor, Life of Agony, Stevie Wonder, Dave Matthews Band, Majek Fashek, Christy Moore, Ian Brown, Pearl Jam, Ben Harper, Keller Williams, Sweet Honey in the Rock, No Use for a Name, Chris Cornell, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Amparanoia, Hapa, Marley's son Ziggy Marley (which features Irish Folk band The Chieftains), Moodswings with Tanita Tikaram (a blend of the Marley Song and the spiritual "Oh Happy Day") and Ms. Dynamite (which she performed at Live 8), which in itself bears testament to the huge fan base Marley had, and also the power of the song itself.

• At the 'Tribute to Heroes' concert, the concert held after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Wyclef Jean sang the song while draped in an American flag.
• Perhaps one of the most interesting variations, done by various Jewish youth groups, is coupling of the prayer "Mi Chamocha", which speaks of the exodus from Egypt, with the tune and chorus of "Redemption Song".
• As well, in the first season of Lost, James "Sawyer" Ford sang the song.
• In late 2006 Pink performed the songs live during the European leg of her I'm Not Dead Tour.

References

The title Redemption Song has been widely used also, mainly in a black, or African American context. For example, Mike Marqusee's book on Muhammad Ali was called Redemption Song, as was Bertice Berry's book about a book dealer who specialises in African American literature. A biography of Joe Strummer is also called "Redemption Song".

Samples

See also

de:Redemption Song

Wikipedia information about Redemption Song This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Redemption Song". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.