one of my all-time favorite songs...

"redemption song" by bob marley

this song first appeared on his 9th album - "uprising". he wrote the song ~1979, when he'd already been diagnosed with cancer, and was privately dealing with a lot of pain and the knowledge of his impending death.

this song is solely acoustic guitar and marley's unadorned singing - unlike most of his other tracks. i love that he keeps it stripped down - which highlights his lyrics, and the emotions that are evoked by simple guitar strumming.

"Old pirates, yes, they rob i;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took i
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the and of the almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Wont you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? ooh!
Some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.

Wont you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs..."

My favorite line is "emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds." According to Wikipedia: "These memorable lines appear to have been taken from a speech given by Marcus Garvey in Nova Scotia during October 1937 and published in his Black Man magazine:
We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind..."

In 2004, Rolling Stone placed the song at #66 among The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.