Bob Marleys Song War - Essay Example

SONG Listening to songs can tell us not just about the lyrics, but also about their meaning. We can study about the life of the of the lyrics, and we can discover different aspects of their message. Sometimes this message is very conventional and seeks to follow trends or the fad of the times. But in other songs, the lyrics are more universal and applicable. In fact, some songs don’t even start off as songs, in terms of their lyrical content. Lyrics may be taken from a n umber of sources, including speeches. The reggae music artist Bob Marley used a speech by Ethiopian leader Halie Selassie for the song “War.” Selassie was an African leader and also a major figure in the religion of Rastafarianism, of which Marley was a member. Marley was also known for his lyrical content in terms of his ability to directly address political issues of the time. By looking at the song lyrics to the Bob Marley song “War,” the listeners of the music and the readers of the lyrics can see how the artist is first of all a Rastafarian by religion, and then an activist by political involvement: the song shows both sides of Marley, the Rasta side and the political side Bob Marley was seen by many as a representative voice of the Jamaican lower class and Rastafarian religion and culture, and there are explicit political connections to be made between his music and society, especially his work with the Wailers, during which time the song “War” was co-opted from Selassie’s speech. At many times during Marley’s life, the connections he made with politics were explicit, as when he used his stage to unite political leaders in a spirit of friendliness and hand-shaking, or when he sang about the dire situation in Africa in songs like “War,” which as mentioned was directly taken from a political speech by the Rastafarian deity and Ethiopian dictator Haile Selassie. But at the same time, there is a tension between politics and religion/mysticism in Marley’s life and lyrics that makes calling him a political leader or saying that he chose political reggae music difficult. To a true Rastafarian, which image Marley adhered to even at the heights of his international pop-stardom, involvement politics was to be avoided at all costs as a function of Babylon. But at the other end of the spectrum, Marley was definitely involved in political activities, and “War” signifies lyrically what is basically a political message about African unity and peace, only to be achieved through freedom from bondage. “And until that day, the African continent/ Will not know peace, we Africans will fight/ We find it necessary/ and we know we shall win/ As we are confident in the victory/ Of good over evil” (Marley). These lyrics clearly extend the political message of the original author as well, since the two can be directly compared: “Conflicts between nations will continue to arise. The real issue is whether they are to be resolved by force, or by resort to peaceful methods and procedures, administered by impartial institutions.” (Selassie). The speech and the song are basically stating the same message. The song “War” starts out with a number of conditions. Marley sings these conditions in the form of a list, and then ends the verse with the word, “war.” For example, in the lyrics, Marley starts off by stating, “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior/ Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned/ Then everywhere is war.” (Marley). The lyrics build up a sort of list of these conditions, each starting with “until” and ending with “war.” This is the verse; the chorus interrupts the building list and goes into another list, this time of directions of the compass, at each of which is war. Finally, towards the end of the song, the clause that “until” begins is completed, thus completing the narrative—until the day of freedom from bondage, prejudice, slavery, and other inhuman practices, the Africans will know war instead of the peace they should. What the lyrics focus on in terms of analysis is the contrast between the song as a political message, in this case an anti-war message; and the song as a religious message, since Marley was a Rastafarian after all, and this religions holds Selassie to be a very holy man. In analysis of these lyrics, on the one hand,one wants to address the direct issue of politics as they appear in Marley’s songs and actions, as in “War.” There is the hazily-defined assassination attempt that almost cost Marley his life, which very likely had political motivations (to his dying day, Marley professed to know who shot him, but did not tell). There is the fact that Rastafarianism embraces the political words and actions of African leader Haile Selassie as being divine. There is the fact that Marley engaged political leaders in dialogues explicitly during live shows. And there is the fact that he sang, if not penned, songs containing lyrics like, “Until the ignoble and unhappy regime that holds our brothers in Angola… has been toppled and totally destroyed, everywhere is war” (Marley). Stating that Marley totally gave up on talking about politics in the face of this evidence becomes increasingly difficult. As even Steffens admits, “his image as a rebel for all seasons, treated like a deity among defiant youth and seasoned revolutionaries alike, who recognized him as one of their own, embracing him in Harare during Zimbabwes independence, and sending him messages of solidarity from Peruvian jungles to Himalayan hideaways” (Steffens). The main question is whether or not all of these people really misconstruing his message as one of religious obedience or whether it was actually political. There is the fact that, after all, Bob Marley did not write “War” himself, but took the words directly from a divine figure in the Rastafarian religious canon. There is the fact that for all its social overtones, it is basically a religious song, not an explicitly political one. There is the fact that no one knows for sure what motivated the assassination attempt- it could very well have been not political at all in nature. At the same time, though, one must ask whether we can really draw such definite lines between religion, politics, economics, and social issues, and place Marley on one “side” or the other. One thing that can be done is to take one of Marley’s more political songs (perhaps unlike “War,” one that he wrote himself), and see exactly how political he is being through the lyric. He was a representative who was able to hold himself above petty politics while still establishing a series of universal messages. “Because Marley came from a poor background, he was able to give an authentic voice to this neglected constituency. By staying above the internecine battles of the existing political leadership, he was able to attract a following that others were unable to garner” (Wolk). But despite this observation of his being above politics, Marley was also linked by association with politics by the explicit political themes he often chose as his message. And the result, whether through misinterpretation or intention, was not universally positive or peace-love, either. “Marleys work often served to ‘incite’ rather that ‘unite’ various populations. Within Jamaica, Marleys expressions of anger often led to violence among the ‘rude boy’ gangs, exacerbating the political, economic, and social problems” (Wolk). Based on his powerful lyrics, people have gone so far as to call Marley a prophet. REFERENCE Marley, Bob. “War” Mp3 audio file. Selassie, H. “Address to United Nations.” http://www.africaresource.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=240:haile-selassies-1963-address-to-the-united-nations&catid=36:essays-a-discussions&Itemid=346 Steffens, Roger. “Bob Marley.” http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/marley_b.html. Wolk, Howard. “Bob Marley, Reggae, and Rastafarianism: Cultural Leadership in Post- Independence Jamaica.” http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/leadership/bob_marley_reggae_and_rastafarianism.html. “Song lyrics—War” http://www.ocap.ca/songs/war.html Read More