C/D Redemption Song

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(this question is prompted by mention in this thread

of bob geldof performing the song on an album entitled 'africa's prayer'. it would be too easy to make sneery comments. i won't.)

A search in ILM's archives for this title produces this:

(It is a statistical fact that 90% of buskers on the London Tube play "Redemption Song", regardless of race, creed or colour. And 100% of them sing it an unconvincing Jamaican accent - even the Jamaican ones

-- Dadaismus (dadaismus@yahoo.com), April 25th, 2003.

i've met a lot of hippies in my time. i have even been a hippy. i still own a copy of bob marley's 'kaya' and still snigger slightly, sixteen-year old style, at the opening line 'excuse me while i light my spliff'. cos, its a bit naughty, like..

but i never could reconcile myself to this song, even then. odd, because so many other people seem to have taken it as some sort of personal anthem. the line 'emancipate yourself from mental slavery/ none but ourselves can free our minds' has some resonance, although many other songwriters have opined along similar lines, but then

'have no fear for atomic energy/ none of them can stop the time' ???

i have heard many cnd-supporting, peace-loving types shutting their eyes reverently, putting on THAT accent and intoning these words about the inevitability of armageddon.
and not just singing it - because you can sing a song you don't mean - but sort of...snuggling up to it and slurping suggestively at its nipples. why?

like dadaismus says, it is a perennial busker favourite. is that because its easy to play or because people like to hear it?

i still snigger at 'easy skanking', still smile wistfully at 'got to have kaya now/ for the rain is falling' even though i don't really know what it means and probably would sing along to many of the other famous bob marley songs in the way that you do to songs you've heard too often. but i don't consider myself a bob marley fan now. and this song will never make sense to me. does it make sense to you?

i'm going with dud. someone explain why i'm wrong..

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Unfortunately Marley is reggae for people who don't like reggae - which he doesn't deserve

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I like reggae but don't like Bob Marley. much. I liked his stuff with Tosh and Bunny better than the big band better...

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

better better better

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Bob obv. never read 'Watchmen'

― dave q, Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

aaargh

1) its a solo piece. so you don't need a rhythm section
2) it has a 60s folk rhythm. so it fits into busker's repertoire
3) it's the last song on marley's last studio album. so it has rockist "resonance"
4) it's pretty and has a feelgood message

dissing bob marley = dud

"X is music for people who don't like X" = less dud but still dud

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:37 (twenty-two years ago)

i guess that should read "X is Y for people who don't like Y"

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:37 (twenty-two years ago)

dissing buskers = classic though.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

That went without saying. Especially when they do Richard Ashcroft songs.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Ned: what are your thoughts on fluf's version?

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I quite liked it, but then again half the punk bands in OC and southwards seemed to be covering it in concert and elsewhere in the 90s, so the effect was dulled.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I quite liked it, but then again half the punk bands in OC and southwards

Don't you mean "the OC"?

*runs, hides*

(It's just started showing in the U.K. Get ready for some international inappropriate article use).

― C W (C W), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, you better run.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:36 (twenty-two years ago)

It's also really one of the easiest songs to play on the guitar, ever. I'm sure that contributes.

― Scott, Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

would you people rather buskers played "The End" or something?? (drop-d and go!)

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I really love "Redemption Song" with all my heart, which is partially why it usually bothers me hearing half-assed street musician versions of it. The same could be said of the time I was subjected to "Imagine" as performed by Darius Rucker and Blues Traveler.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

nickalicious OTM

― bbc6 personality (bbc6 personality), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I actually love this song, as it is one of the only Marley songs that doesn't sound like every other Marley song. And it has a beautiful melody.
I've never paid much attention to the lyrics, and Bob Marley's lyrics are generally useless. But mental slavery is bad, right?
So, Classic.

― Sym (shmuel), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 00:42 (twenty-two years ago)

'Generally useless'? Gaaaah.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 06:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Stop me if I've told you this one before but... I was in one of those London tube stations with the long tunnels (it was either Chancery Lane or St. Pauls) and in the distance I could see this black guy busking with a guitar but I couldn't quite make out what he was playin'. "Oh fuck", I thought, expecting any minute to hear him bleating, "Eman-ci-pate yourself from men-tal slav'ry" but when I drew nearer I realised he was singing "Do You Remember Walter?" from The Kinks' "Village Green" - well I had to give him some money after that!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic for that melody, for the simple yet compelling downstroke guitar bridge, for the weak exhalation at the end of "while we stand aside and look", and the heartbreaking fragility of Marley's voice at the end of the chorus ("cause all I ever have/had").

Dud for all those bad covers by buskers and people who should know better (I saw Bono cover it solo on the ZooTV tour, aargh).

But, anyway, I don't think of it as a reggae song, more as a folk/spiritual type thing.

― David A. (Davant), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 20:37 (twenty-two years ago)

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