Bob Marley Redemption
Redemption
The most well known protest artist on an international level is Robert Nesta Marley also known just as Bob Marley. For many years Marley sang songs of religious faith, social and political issues. With his songs he put reggae protest music on the map for many nations and made it a major cultural and political force in Jamaica. The lyrics of Redemption Song are from a speech given by the Pan-African orator Marcus Garvey and to this day it is considered to be one Bob Marley's most influential songs. This Song can be interpreted in many ways but the repetition of some key words and the artist’s main message throughout his career, makes us believe that this is a song about being a slave to the modern world.
Marley starts the song with a glimpse at his history. Marley is from Jamaica which was a former British Colony. Africans were brought to the Caribbean on slave ships though out the fifteenth , sixteenth, and seventeenth century they were captured and put into holding pits before they were sold and shipped to the slave traders who brought them to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations, hence his first line “Minutes after they took I, from the bottomless pit.” He sang of his ancestor’s strength, a strength that helped them to overcome their state as slaves. Bob Marley changes the path of the song and brings us to present time with the lyrics “We forward in this generation,” the singer is talking about actual issues that we can work on with the lessons from the past. As the song continues he writes “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds”, the phase in this line is “Mental slavery”. Many would agree that there is still a form of slavery since democracy is considered to be the standard political system in many countries, it is true that the politicians that we elect don’t fulfill their promises also the government seems to meets the needs of big corporations rather than listening and helping the people.
The most well known protest artist on an international level is Robert Nesta Marley also known just as Bob Marley. For many years Marley sang songs of religious faith, social and political issues. With his songs he put reggae protest music on the map for many nations and made it a major cultural and political force in Jamaica. The lyrics of Redemption Song are from a speech given by the Pan-African orator Marcus Garvey and to this day it is considered to be one Bob Marley's most influential songs. This Song can be interpreted in many ways but the repetition of some key words and the artist’s main message throughout his career, makes us believe that this is a song about being a slave to the modern world.
Marley starts the song with a glimpse at his history. Marley is from Jamaica which was a former British Colony. Africans were brought to the Caribbean on slave ships though out the fifteenth , sixteenth, and seventeenth century they were captured and put into holding pits before they were sold and shipped to the slave traders who brought them to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations, hence his first line “Minutes after they took I, from the bottomless pit.” He sang of his ancestor’s strength, a strength that helped them to overcome their state as slaves. Bob Marley changes the path of the song and brings us to present time with the lyrics “We forward in this generation,” the singer is talking about actual issues that we can work on with the lessons from the past. As the song continues he writes “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds”, the phase in this line is “Mental slavery”. Many would agree that there is still a form of slavery since democracy is considered to be the standard political system in many countries, it is true that the politicians that we elect don’t fulfill their promises also the government seems to meets the needs of big corporations rather than listening and helping the people.