Bob Marley might be thought as God to many people but he hated to be labeled with such nonsense. What matters the most about Bob Marley is his justified soul and his superb music.
Yeah, I have also read his full biography as well as description on each single song he has ever written and performed with his wonderful band The Wailers. His lyrics paint peace, anti-racism and redemption with probably the brightest themes anyone can imagine.
In his massive library of works, not a single sad song is found. Even if the lyrics are somehow more serious than others as heard in "400 Years", "Them Belly Foul", "Rat Race" and "I Shot the Sheriff", he has pasteurized it with hopeful and glittering light of Reggae and that's the key to his immortality. He might be complaining but that's what drags you away from your daily chores and exhaustion through time. You're already mesmerized by his powerful magic of positive vibrations.
I don't really want to point out only one song here. Personally I have never heard a song better than "Redemption Song" but I'm not here to discuss that. To many folk, "Redemption Song" is just more than 3 minutes of acoustic music and I guess they have written about it for miles and miles. But "Jammin'" is Bob Marley and the Wailers at their peak era. Exodus is now recognized as one of the greatest albums of all time by many critics and "Jammin'" is easily the heart of that masterpiece.
Jamming goes on two different directions. On Marley's Rastafarian ego, Jamming was a gathering to smoke herbs and become nearer to Jah (God). On the other side, Jamming can be easily all those small friendly gatherings that is spent with pleasure and joy they share with each other. The very pleasure which Marley is eager to share with you. And you don't need a certificate to be in that cult: "Ain't no rules, ain't no vow, we can do it anyhow. I and I will see you through" This I&I term might only look simple but in fact is a little more complicated than that. It is a Rastafarian term and this is what I've found about it:
"I and I is a complex term, referring to the oneness of Jah (God) and every human. Rastafarian scholar E. E. Cashmore: "I and I is an expression to totalize the concept of oneness, the oneness of two persons. So God is within all of us and we're one people in fact. The bond of Ras Tafari is the bond of God, of man. But man itself needs a head and the head of man is His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I (always pronounced as the letter 'I,' never as the number one or 'the first') of Ethiopia." The term is often used in place of "you and I" or "we" among Rastafarians, implying that both persons are united under the love of Jah."
Well, maybe Haile Selassie I really was the one and only Jah to Marley but you can always have your own interpretation. Jamming is also the facility to unity and oneness as Marley emphasizes on "We all defend the right; Jah - Jah children must unite: Your life is worth much more than gold." Zion, to Rastafarians is the Promised Land in which Jah sits and rules all creation.
Physically, Mount Zion is a hill just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. But the gem of this song lies in the last verse which is breathtakingly marvelous to be completely thought by one person or prophet: "Jam's about my pride and truth I cannot hide to keep you satisfied. True love that now exists is the love I can't resist, so jam by my side."
Anyway, Reggae is all about the groove, there are zillions of reggae artists, overwhelmingly original and mature. But what keeps Bob Marley and the Wailers an inevitable reality is that they were the first reggae band to rise from the poor depth of Jamaica and publicize their music throughout the world. No other non-English spoken musical act has ever reached that summit. Now you hear the name of Bob Marley beside The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Whoever Marley was and whatever the number of his girlfriends was, he is bound to immortality. So you better jam by his side.
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