Redemption Song Analysis

Bob Marley dedicated his life to striving for society to move away from the days of racial and social discrimination, and to moving towards a utopian society. In his early years, he experienced extreme poverty and lived an extremely rough life, due to growing up without a father. As his life neared the end after being diagnosed with toe cancer; Bob released his a masterpiece, known as “Redemption Song.” In this song, Bob brings forth racial issues by asking “we the people” to not turn a blind eye to reality, but rather to push for what is right by ignoring those who oppress the people and striving for an improved society with the help of the hand of God.

Bob Marley’s early life allowed for the basis of his start as a humanitarian and as a singer. Born to Norval and Cedalla Marley on February 6, 1945, Bob was without a father figure in his life by age five (“Bob Marley-Early Life 1”). In his early teens, Bob moved to Trench Town, a notorious poverty stricken part of Jamaica built over a sewage trench. The government-built housing was comprised of at least four families to a house (“King 1”). Despite the downfalls of the community, Trench Town was the start of Bob Marley’s reggae career. Reggae is a combination of Jamaican Folk Music, drumming for American Rhythm and Blues, and Jazz (“Rastafarian Movement 1”). Bob became involved in a new up and coming form of music, leading him to leave a job as a welder’s apprentice to go off and follow his dreams reggae stardom (“Bob Marley-Early Life 1”). Bob and childhood friend Neville Livingston got their start from Peter Tosh, a mentor to young vocalists (“Bob Marley-Early Life 1”). Together the trio became known as Bob Marley and the Wailers. Their music began to reflect their beginnings.

The young artists began to write lyrics, which spoke out about the struggles facing the poverty in Jamaica. Although rising in stardom, Bob split from the studio with which he was working and moved to the United States under the alias Donald Marley (“Bob Marley-Early Life 1”). While in America, Haile Selassie visited Jamaica. Known as the messiah in the Rastafarian religion Haile helped spread the Rastafarian religion to the Jamaican people (“Rastafarian Movement 1”). Upon returning to Jamaica, Bob converted from Catholicism to Rastafarianism, changing his religious views God serving as a father figure to God as a living spirit inside of each and every single person. In his new belief, speech enabled the presence of God to be felt and Bob’s speech was song (“Rastafarian Movement 1”).

During his change in religion in the 1970’s, Jamaica was in a stage of disrepair. The government was failing and the poor was only becoming poorer. The government had attempted to aid the lower class through social reform, but failed due to a lack of funding. The government-built housing was halted and the unfinished foundations became housing for the homeless (“King 1”). Many Jamaican citizens were living in houses made of metal scraps from junkyards and dumps. A budget deficit within the government led to welfare payments being cut causing further impoverishment. On top of all the social issues, political violence broke out causing tourism to decrease, coincidently hurting the economy even further (“King 1”). This sweep of violence and impoverishment personally affected Bob Marley in December of 1976 when an assassination attempt was made on Bob Marley’s life. Although the attempt failed, the bullet still grazed his chest and became lodged in his arm, and he was exiled to London(Bob Marley-Early Life 1). With Jamaica at its absolute worst, the people needed a source of inspiration that peace would be redeemed. His beliefs to speak out against the government had now almost cost him his life, but he still continued to push for change.

After being diagnosed with toe cancer, Bob knew life was not going to afford him many more days on earth, since he would allow the use of modern medicine to cure his cancer (“Redemption Song 1”). Knowing this Bob and the Wailers released the album Uprising, including “Redemption Song.” In 2004, the song was placed at number sixty-six among The 500 Greatest Song of All Time by Rolling Stone and in 2010, the New Statesman listed it as one of the Top 20 Political Songs (“Redemption Song 1”). The song, extremely popular, has a deeper meaning. Bob begins the song with a reflection into his ancestors when he spoke of “Old pirates, yes, they rob I”. These lyrics are direct illusion to how his ancestor’s history directly affected him. Following that, he speaks of being sold to the merchant ships, referring to slavery becoming a trade issue. The slaves were then taken from the bottom of the ship perceived as hell. From this hell and bottomless dark-hole the hand of Bob Marley was made strong by the hand of the Almighty. After this Bob sang, “We forward in this generation Triumphantly”. This is referring to progress of rights of people as his generation progresses. The next part of the song goes to a smaller portion, where he asks (you) personally to help in the process of moving forward. Then Bob sang, “’Cause all I ever have: Redemption songs, redemption songs.” This is referring to God redeeming him from bad to good, from slavery to freedom. Bob knew he himself had been redeemed, but knew in order for all to be redeemed he would have to give them a path to redemption.

From the chorus, he goes to a piece of the song in which he gives the people a path to redemption. To start this next verse he sings of emancipating yourselves from mental slavery. Meaning that the only person that makes oneself a slave to societal pressure is oneself. One has the responsibility to free themselves from this mental trap. He then repeats this idea, further reinforcing this idea into the people; that they must free themselves. He sang, “Have no fear for atomic energy,” meaning do not fear those above oneself. Do not let those people have power over oneself and do not let them enslave oneself. He then song of how long will the killing of the prophets continue, or the killing of the followers of the Rastafarian way of life, who stand up for their rights. He then directly questions the people when he questions exactly how long will we allow this to go on and stand off to the side. Then in the last part of this verse he sang, “Some say its just a part of it: We’ve got to fulfill the Book” This is Bob directly alluding to the violence, saying its just part of it, and we need to not let it put oneself back into mental slavery. Bob then ends the song with a repeat of the last two versus. These two are repeated in order to push forward his ideas of to how everyone can free himself or herself from mental slavery. Bob Marley in this song lays forward the problem within society[mental slavery], the solution[redemption from the hand of God] and a path to which the solution to the problem can be achieved. Bob Marley sees the problems within society, as he knows his is coming to an end. He knew the path by which he was able to make it and gives the people a solution to becoming free of mental enslavement. Bob saw a society changing for the better, but all along knew that is progression was to halt, that the people would fall back into the trap of mental slavery. Bob even at the end of his life was attempting to bring the people out from the dark ages. Instead of weeping over his eminent death, he pushed for the betterment of society. “Redemption Song” was one of his last punches in the fight to free people of mental slavery.