Bob Marleys Uprising Album - Essay Example

Instructions Bob Marley’s Uprising Album The uprising is one of the most famous albums by Bob Marley which was releasedin the year 1980. This album became a hit in charts around the world and was the highest in the UK charts. The songs in this album were all written and composed by Bob Marley himself. He wrote these songs after he was diagnosed with a melanoma cancer in his foot and in most of these songs Marley gets in reality with his mortality. Redemption songs and Could you be Loved are among the most popular songs in the album. Bob Marley songs are still popular among the reggae lovers in the world today and he has been ranked among the top 100 high earning dead musicians. Marley was a Jamaican reggae artist who was a follower of the Rastafarian movement and his songs are mostly spiritual revealing his religious believes. The theme of love also features greatly in his compositions. This article is a review of the album uprising and the songs contained in the CD. Bob Marley is an icon of the reggae music and has inspired many reggae artists around the globe. He is one of the classical reggae musicians whose songs are still popular over 30 years since his death. His appeal to the international audience has been as a result of the fact that in most of his songs, Marley talk about freedom and emancipation from bondage. He encourages people to have an open mind and not let other people dictate their actions. He calls people to resist oppression with many guerilla fighters quoting him as the source of inspirations in their resistance. After releasing this album, Marley and the wailers organized an international tour with the aim of visiting and performing in different countries in the globe. The tour started in Zunich Switzerland and ended in Pittsburg Pennsylvania which was his last concert before his demise. He performe3d in Milan Italy at the San Siros stadium has the largest turn out with around 120000 people. It has been recorded as the largest music even in Italy. He also performed in other European countries such as German, England, Scotland and Ireland. Most of these concerts ware introduced by Winston riley stalag Riddim version as the keyboard player continue to chant Marley name as he got on the stage. The concerts performed in this tour consisted of songs from the album uprising but he also performed some famous songs from the previous albums such as “Get up Stand Up” and “I shot the Sherriff”. The album uprising was the last song released by Marley one year before his death. This album has been reported to be the most religious of all the albums that he released as it directly addresses his Rastafarian beliefs. The album as number 41 in the American billboard black album charts and number 45 in the pop music charts. In the UKO charts the album was among the top ten best songs. Could you Beloved was number 5 in the top UK singles chart. Besides talking about are religious beliefs, the album covers a number of themes. His religion affects his singing from smoking marijuana; believe in Haile Selassie and being a vegetarian. The belief that Selassie was a black prophet from Africa who set the path to righteousness and that marijuana aided in meditation and brought the user close to God. The first song “Coming from the Colds shows Marley will to continue to fight over personal and political freedom notwithstanding the views of other simple minded people. He shows that the people that serve Jah have no limits in what they can achieve in life. In the song “Zion” he continues to exhort the message of hope in the first song. The song “work” voices one of everybody’s concerns about work where he asks why people have to work very hard in order to get a reward from people who do appreciate the effort. “Pimper’s paradise” addresses the issue of prostitution where Marley advices a girl to sop selling her body for money and using drug as she would end up losing her soul. He also talks about cocaine in this song as a portrayal of some of the world growing problem of his time. The use of cocaine as a drug was growing since the 1970s and was a real problem when Marley composed this song. The lyrics in the sings in this album are deep and show great contemplation. In the song “Real situation”, Marley gets philosophical saying that everything in this life leads to destruction. This could as a result of the fact that he coming to terms with the reality of his mortality after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. In his songs Marley tries to address the issues that faced the society at that time. He encourages resistance against oppressing authorities and encourages the people to press on against the oppression that they face. The songs in this album have been said to be most thoughtful probably because he was getting to the sunset of his love. They have memorable line such as “Don’t gain the World and lose your Soul” “wisdom is better than silver and gold”. These could also be allusion from the bible where the first line is quoted from the gospel where Jesus said that what can a man gain if they got the whole world but lost their soul. The other could be taken from the proverbs. Most of the themes in these songs could be seen to addressing the issue of preparing oneself for the afterlife. Marley acknowledges that the way in which a person lives their life now will affect their afterlife. He points out that there is need to preserve the soul from the bad influences of this world such as drug addictions and other evils. The songs “Forever Loving Jah” and “Zion Train” are some of the songs in this album that Marley uses to talk about his Rastafarian belief. According to him, Haile Selassie is the equivalent of Christ in the Christina religion as he says that it is possible to have a black god. This song also portends Marley future. The songs are beautifully sung with the backup singer making them very melodious. Rita, Marley’s wife is one of the backup singers in the song “forever loving Jah’. He talks a lot about the afterlife and how the work we do when are still on the planet could help in making the afterlife enjoyable. Marley’s course vocals are accompanied by the Wailer’s sweet melodies that keeps everyone hooked. The most memorable song on this album is the redemption song. In this dong, Marley only plays his acoustic guitar making it very different from the other reggae song. The lyrics are catchy and you only have to listen to it once to get the tune. In this song, Marley tells people to free themselves mentally and otherwise. The song is a political lament and gives a different message compared to his early freedom songs. He asserts that the first step towards emancipation is freeing one’s mind. One of the catchy lines of this song is “None but ourselves can free our minds and was borrowed from Marcus Garvey: a man who Rastafarian considered a prophet. The song “Could you be loved” is the most loved one by audience as it has catchy phrases and has been played a lot on different radio stations in the world. Marley was of mixed decent born of both black and white parents. He could identify with the issue of oppression that the black slaves had suffered through. Marley sees it as his job to send the message of Jah to the blacks of the world. His songs are intertwined with black oppression and the messages of freedom. This could be because Marley was half black and he called himself African Jamaican which is in line with the pan-African movement label. Rastafarians as a movement is opposed to authority as it sees it as a source of all the problems existing in the globe. Rocking dreadlocks is a sign of defiance and this could be the reason why different resistant groups wear their hair long. Part B Redemption Song This is one of the most famous songs in the Uprising album. The song falls under the acoustic folk classical reggae and is unique in many ways. This song displays a lot of freedom in composition. The introduction is made of a tune that is not repeated anywhere else along the song. The finishing also has an unusual beat. The song is unique in that it is only accompanied by an acoustic guitar, there are no backup singers and the chorus has unusual lengths. The introduction has four bars which are repeated two times. The verse has four bars each. The chorus consists of 11 bars. This creates an irregular arrangement breaks down the song. The second appearance of the chorus has thirteen bars while the third appearance has 17 bars further making the son to have a unique structure. The third and second verse has similar lyrics. After the second chorus before the third verse there is an eight line rhythmic chord. Outre consists of three beats and four bars long. It has the characteristic feature of reggae song of emphasizing on the third bar with the “scant”. Another unique thing about this song is the fact that it only has one accompanying instrument the acoustic guitar played by Marley himself. The main theme of the song is the oppression faced by African Jamaican slaves and he focuses on the joy obtained from having freedom after years of oppression. Marley’s connotation gives this song significant meaning. He sings with a rough voice which could be an indication of the hard things happening in his life. He had just escaped from an assassination attempt, was diagnosed with a terminal illness and had just parted way with Taylor who he realized had been stealing from him. Marley takes time choose the right terminology that makes this song enticing. One cannot help but notice the melancholic mood in this song. This could be a premonition of Marley’s death considering that this was his last composition and he had been told by his doctors that e did not have a long time to live. He starts by narrating about the problems that the African slaves faced at the hands of their oppressor. He however asserts that the slaves have been given power by God and that the emancipation of the mind is what they needed in order to escape physical slavery. Marley maintains optimism in this song where he says that the young generation had the power to make the best out of the suffering that the previous generations suffered through slavery. They just needed to keep their minds open for opportunities to prosper. This song came to be universally accepted because there were many people around the globe suffering from oppression due to either slavery or colonization. The African Americans could fully identify with this song since they and just started to enjoy their freedom as freed slaves. However, they remained poor and low in the society despite being freed. Marley points out that what needed to be done was to free the mind and stop thinking like a slave. This would enable the black people to catch up with the oppressor in terms of economic growth. The same applied to countries in Africa and other former colonies. After several years of colonization, these countries had grown to depend on their colonizer for guidance and even support. It was time they freed themselves from this and started acting as freed states. The song is empowering and encourages people to free themselves and this is why it has been very popular all over the world. The song has been performed by other famous artists such as Alicia keys, Rihanna, Steve Wonder and Pink. Resistance is a theme evident in this song. Te song starts at a low tone but the tempo increases as the song progresses. It is evident that Marley advocates for peaceful resolution of problems but if this fails people should resort to more aggressive forms of resistance. The song has some biblical allusion where Marley describes slavery as being thrown into a bottomless pit. He also identifies himself with Joseph and talks about the killing of the prophets all which are found in the bible. Could you Be Loved The song “Could you be loved” has been interpreted differently by different people some citing it to be a love song while others think it is a resistance song written. The song is dancehall genre and has been that one would like to dance to this explain why it became popular in around the world and in UK. The song is a resistance to the Jamaican school system which he says is not fit for the Jamaican children. The people who were former slaves languish in poverty and they need an education in order to elevate themselves financially. The system however has an absurd requirement of children wearing shoes to school. Most of the parents cannot afford to buy shoes for their children who are locked out of the system and the cycle of poverty continues. The line where he says that “Don’t let them fool ya” could refer to the outdated school curriculum. The education that Jamaican children are subjected to omits the crucial history of the Jamaican people on slavery and oppression which are important in understanding the current situation. Failing to teach the children about their origin is like stealing their identity and this affects their future development. He is disgusted by the system and uses his music as a way of addressing the upper ruling class to develop policies that are more efficient to the people. The education system is an important institution in the development of a country. The rulers need to ensure that they make education available to all people and especially the poor Jamaican children who need the education to break the poverty cycle. Pimpers’ Paradise This is another song within the album of uprising. In this song Marley addresses the issue of the use of drugs such as cocaine. Use of cocaine had become a major problem in the world around the 1970s and 1980s with many youths being lost in the vice. It is this song Marley speaks against prostitution as he says that is taints the soul and makes the person evil. The song is about a man who fell for a girl who liked to party and would lover back because all she was a pimpers paradise. The girl is pretty and loves to drink and take drugs. She gets the money to dress well from prostitution. Marley feels sorry for the man who falls for this girl because he feels that due to the extensive use of drugs, the girls has reached a point of no return and cannot change her lifestyle. He pities the man who becomes a victim of this girl’s charm as he would never turn her into a house wife as all she is a prostitute. Moreover, the man may not be in a position to give the girl the expensive things that she is used to. It is a message to men that they should be careful of girls who put themselves out there because habits die hard. Another message that Marley tries to send in this song is that addiction is not a good thing as it taints the soul. The actions that people do when they are still on earth affect their afterlife. Having illicit sex and being indulged in drugs pulls a person away from the sole purpose of serving Jah and they instead serve self. The song has a nice tune that one can dance too and as commonly been played in discotheque. There are different instruments which are used to accompany this song and the rhythm is in line with the classical reggae tunes. Conclusion The album uprising is most remembered because it was the last album Bob Marley released before his demise. Although not all the songs in the album became hits, it contains masterpieces which have been seen to be most thoughtful of all the singles that Marley released. Redemption song has been reported to be the most popular gaining popularity all over the globe. It is evident that Marley besides talking about his religious believes was keen to address the issues affecting his people and used his singles to send a message to the authorities. Work Cited Uprising album cover http://www.emusic.com/album/bob-marley-and-the-wailers/uprising/12228619/ Read More