As a follow-up to my post on Bob Marley’s song “One Love / People Get Ready,” let me recommend three important works (two books and one article) on the lyrics of Bob Marley’s songs.
Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius
The first is a wonderful analysis of Marley’s lyrics, album-by-album (from Catch a Fire to Confrontation), by the internationally famous poet, Kwame Dawes.
Dawes was born in Ghana, but spent his childhood and early adult life in Jamaica, before moving to the USA. Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius is published in at least two editions (Sanctuary Publishing, 2002; and Bobcat Books, 2007).
The Bible and Bob Marley: Half the Story Has Never Been Told
An excellent analysis of how Marley uses the Bible in his songs is The Bible and Bob Marley: Half the Story Has Never Been Told (Cascade, 2013), by Dean MacNeil (I read a prepublication version and wrote an endorsement for this book).
The book doesn’t analyze every biblical reference but focuses on the two main ways Marley’s lyrics appeal to the Bible. The first is his use of wisdom themes from Proverbs and elsewhere in the Old Testament and the second is his use of language from Paul’s epistles in the New Testament to articulate his mission as a Rasta / reggae ambassador to the world.
Dean MacNeil is a jazz musician who for many years taught a summer course on Bob Marley at the Berklee School of Music, which resulted in a student band doing a concert of Marley’s songs at the end of the semester. He has an MA in theology from Loyola Marymount University.
Soon Come: Jamaican Spirituality, Jamaican Poetics
One of the best essays on Bob Marley’s spirituality is chapter 7 in Hugh Hodges’s excellent book, Soon Come: Jamaican Spirituality, Jamaican Poetics (University of Virginia Press, 2008).
Hodges is a Brit teaching literature in Canada. He did his PhD at the University of Toronto with the famous Jamaican poet Lorna Goodison. His chapter on Marley is called, “Walk Good: Bob Marley and the Oratorical Tradition.” In it he suggests that Marley’s performances have a call-and-response character, where Marley functions like a Pentecostal or charismatic preacher, and his albums (especially Survival and Uprising) have the rhetorical power of charismatic sermons.
The Subversive Spirituality of Reggae
On February 17, 2023 I gave a presentation called “The Subversive Spirituality of Reggae: ‘Resisting against the System’ in the Music of Bob Marley & the Wailers,” in Rochester, NY. It was held at the Joy Gallery. Thanks to artist and RIT professor, Luvon Sheppard, for hosting us. The presentation was sponsored by the Rochester Jamaican Organization in celebration of Reggae Month.
CREATION to ESCHATON 