Redemption Songs: One Love, One Heart

By Abby Zimet | Common Dreams

For a break from the madness, and to honor a much-missed voice these days, we celebrate the 76th birthday (on Feb 6) of the great Bob Marley – reggae legend, devout visionary, fighter for the rights of the oppressed and fervent believer that “righteousness someday prevail.” Marley' died of cancer at 36, an incalculable loss the more you know of his life and work. Still, his music and message of resistance live on.

His birthday last year launched a year-long celebration of his legacy dubbed BobMarley75; as a first installment, his estate released a stirring, animated new video to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the emblematic “Redemption Song” from Marley’s final album Uprising, issued the year before he died. Created by French artists Octave Marsal and Theo De Gueltzl, the video features nearly 3,000 original drawings representing Marley's message of the journey to emancipation: “None but ourselves can free our minds.”

Marley also sang the song in Pittsburgh in September 1980 in his last public appearance; given he'd newly learned he was dying, it was a “more than brave” performance. May he rest in peace and power.

“My music will go on forever. Maybe it's a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever.” – Bob Marley

One Love

Redemption Song

How long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look
Some say it’s just a part of it
We’ve got to fulfill the book

Won’t you help to sing,
These songs of freedom
‘Cause all I ever had, redemption songs
All I ever had, redemption songs
These songs of freedom

 Redemption Song

Pittsburgh 1980's Redemption Song

Get Up, Stand Up

The new video:

Image Credit

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