Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDLXX--Bob Marley: Three Little Birds

 Just a bit late again...and that's one New Year's Resolution for 2024 already down the drain....

During the early days of the pandemic, my youngest son and I watched dozens of documentaries, one of which was the very well done Marley, a thorough look at the life of the reggae star.  While it was a bit late in the game, it was also my introduction to this week's tune.  As an aside, later that summer, once the baseball season had started, it was the walk-up song for Giants' catcher Chadwick Tromp (there's one of the better names in baseball history).  As the saying goes, sometimes it is indeed a small world....

Bob Marley was featured in the twelfth (!) post on Friday Night Jukebox, for one of my all-time favorite tunes, "Redemption Song."  When I first started I didn't do bio paragraphs, but since this is international superstar Bob Marley there isn't much my meager talents can add to his history.  Suffice it to say he is one of the all-time greats, both as a musician and as a human being.

"Three Little Birds" (many think the song is called "Don't Worry About a Thing" or "Every Little Thing Is Gonna Be Alright") was released in 1980 on Marley's seminal album, Exodus.  The song was released as a single in the U.K. and reached #17.  The album hit #8 in the U.K. and was Marley's biggest hit in America peaking at #20 on the Billboard 200.

Fun Fact:  Time magazine named Exodus the album of the century.  High praise indeed!

Throughout my years writing posts for FNJ, I've noted a time or two (or a hundred) how artists can often do so much with so little (also known as The Wonder That Is Simplicity), and "Three Little Birds" is the essence of minimalism.  The song has one verse and one chorus (the chorus is two lines repeated once each) and Marley sings them to perfection (the closing is just the two lines of the chorus over and over and over).  The song itself is a call to not let worry get in the way and just enjoy that moments life gives us.  It was also the song I sent to my family after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 Presidential Election--and hopefully a good luck charm for Biden/Harris in 2024....

Lyric Sheet:  "Singing, 'Don't worry about a thing/Cause every little thing is gonna be alright..."

Enjoy:

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XII--Bob Marley: Redemption Song

This week it's back into the political fray....

This is one of those songs that I'm not sure I have the words to do it justice--there's a beauty in its simplicity that's hard to describe.  Released as a single in October of 1980 (but only in France and the U.K.), "Redemption Song" is the last song on Bob Marley and the Wailer's Uprising album, and would ultimately be the last song released before his death in May of 1981.  While not a hit single in the traditional sense, "Redemption Song" would end up at #66 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and is considered by many to be Marley's masterpiece.

Though Marley and the Wailers music can arguably be called the personification of reggae, "Redemption Song" is a sparse (just Marley and an acoustic guitar, one of the few songs he did without the Wailers) number that is a call for strength and perserverance in the face of adversity.  The lyrics borrow from a speech  by Marcus Garvey in 1937 extolling the power of the mind to free African-Americans from mental slavery.

For me, the song is all about Marley's vocals.  They literally embody the notion of redemption--Marley's voice is weary but not weakened.  There is a power in the peace with which he carries the lyrics, and considering the song was written at a time when Marley knew he was dying, a hopefulness that both embraces and envelops the human spirit.

Not so embarrassing factoids:  the guitar intro was one of the first things I learned to play on guitar (I played it until my fingers ached) and the song itself was the third tune I ever learned to strum and sing.  Rock on, emaycee!

Here's hoping you'll "...help to sing these songs of freedom...."

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee