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Rating: I leave it to others, because I am not able to, to classify in order of importance the masterpieces of Bob Marley. The ranking game on what the best album of an artist is, is a silly and self-serving game. Many have tried, and with Marley, it often risked the verge of a brawl: "Burnin" is better than "Rastaman Vibrations"? "Uprising" is better than "Survival"? There you go, everyone could say their piece, and there would be no end to it.
My favorite is "Exodus", released in the graceful year of 1977. I have no memories of the album's release (I was only 2 years old, if you don’t mind), but I have very vivid memories of the majesty and grandeur of this incomparable masterpiece that, equally, has nothing to envy compared to the great albums made in the USA of the mid-Seventies. At a time when the 'Saturday Night Fever' and the myth of dance music (loud, repetitive, boring, adolescent) were exalted, Bob Marley gifts us a discographic gem that is hard to forget after the first listening.
"Exodus" is, for the first time, entirely recorded at Island Studios in London, and the band usually accompanying Marley in his albums and concerts undergoes a slight shake-up: Alvin Patterson, an old friend of Marley, joins on percussion, while Julian Murvin debuts on guitar. The music becomes more intense, more rhythmic, and if you want, more hammering: the usual display of great Jamaican experience, indispensable choirs, and a precise choice from the first track: to be damnably commercial without renouncing class and substance. Something that, unfortunately, many have not been able to do.
And damnably commercial are tracks like "Natural Mystic" or the truly remarkable final crescendo of "One Love/People Get Ready". On the radio, the catchy single "Jammin", more cohesive and compact than the still excellent "No Woman No Cry", plays frequently.
A separate mention deserves the almost 8 minutes of "Exodus", demonic ska that brought Marley to the top of all the world charts and established him, if there was ever a need, as the undisputed king of rasta music.
On the other hand, "Exodus" couldn’t be anything but a masterpiece: from the simple and unadorned cover to the double meaning of 'exodus': the distance of the slaves' descendants from Africa (and perhaps this is the most correct meaning), to Marley's personal exodus, who was forced to move to London after being the victim of an assassination attempt during an election campaign in Jamaica.
I don't know if "Exodus" is indeed Marley's best album, perhaps it's his most famous, it certainly contains memorable tracks, but it is undoubtedly the last piece before the end. Because if it is true that after this album, Marley would still record other albums (including the masterpiece "Uprising"), it is also true that it is with "Exodus" that his health troubles began, which would lead to Marley's untimely death: after the album's release, Marley discovered he had cancer; doctors told him that to cure it, a toe needed to be amputated, but Marley refused the operation as it was contrary to the rasta culture. He managed to live another four years, but it was from that fateful decision not to undergo surgery that Marley's troubles began: death is never a nice thing, but to have passed away at only 36 was just one way to enter myth and legend. Too bad that, in myth and legend, Marley was already there while alive.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Natural Mystic (03:27)
There's a natural mystic
Blowing through the air
If you listen carefully now you will hear
This could be the first trumpet
Might as well be the last
Many more will have to suffer
Many more will have to die
Don't ask me why
Things are not the way they used to be
I won't tell no lie
One and all got to face reality now
Though I try to find the answer
To all the questions they ask
Though I know it's impossible
To go living through the past
Don't tell no lie
There's a natural mystic
Blowing through the air
Can't keep them down
If you listen carefully now you will hear
Such a natural mystic
Blowing through the air
This could be the first trumpet
Might as well be the last
Many more will have to suffer
Many more will have to die
Don't ask me why
There's a natural mystic
Blowing through the air
I won't tell no lie
If you listen carefully now, you will hear
There's a Natural Mystic blowing through the air
Such a Natural Mystic, blowing through the air
There's a Natural Mystic, blowing through the air
Such a Natural Mystic, blowing through the air
Such a Natural Mystic, blowing through the air
Such a Natural Mystic, blowing through the air
03 Guiltiness (03:19)
Guiltiness (talkin' 'bout guiltiness)
Pressed on their conscience. Oh yeah.
And they live their lives (they live their lives)
On false pretence everyday -
each and everyday. Yeah.
These are the big fish
Who always try to eat down the small fish,
just the small fish.
I tell you what: they would do anything
To materialize their every wish. Oh yeah-eah-eah-eah.
Say: Woe to the downpressors:
They'll eat the bread of sorrow!
Woe to the downpressors:
They'll eat the bread of sad tomorrow!
Woe to the downpressors:
They'll eat the bread of sorrow!
Oh, yeah-eah! Oh, yeah-eah-eah-eah!
Guiltiness
Pressed on their conscience. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
These are the big fish
Who always try to eat down the small fish,
just the small fish.
I tell you what: they would do anything
To materialize their every wish. Oh, yeah-eah-eah-eah-eah-eah.
But: Woe to the downpressors:
They'll eat the bread of sorrow!
Woe to the downpressors:
They'll eat the bread of sad tomorrow!
Woe to the downpressors:
They'll eat the bread of sad tomorrow!
Oh, yeah-eah! Oh yeah-e-e-e-e-e!
Guiltiness. Oh yeah. Ah!
They'll eat the bread of sorrow everyday.
04 The Heathen (02:32)
Rise up fallen fighters
Rise and take your stance again.
'Cause he who fight and run away
Live to fight another day.
Chorus
As a man sow, shall he reap
And I know that talk is cheap.
So the hotter the battle
Is the sweeter the victory.
Chorus
Rise up freedom fighters
Rise and take your stance again.
'Cause he who fight and run away
Live to fight another day.
Chorus
05 Exodus (07:35)
Exodus, movement of JAH people(Oh,Yeah)
Exodus, movement of JAH people
men and people will fight ya down,tell me why
when ya see JAH light
let me tell you if you're not wrong(and why)
everything is allright
so we gonna walk,(allright) through the roads of creation
we're the generation,tell me why
who trod through great tribulation
Exodus, movement of JAH people
Exodus, movement of JAH people
open your eyes and look within
are you satisfied with the life
you're living(huh)
we know where we're going
we know where we're from
we're leaving babylon
we're going to our father's land
Exodus, movement of JAH people
Exodus, movement of JAH people
Exodus, Exodus, Exodus
Exodus, Exodus, Exodus
movement of JAH people
movement of JAH people
movement of JAH people
movement of JAH people
move, move, move, movement of JAH people
JAH come to breakdown downpression, rule equality
wipe away transgression
and set the captives free
Exodus, movement of JAH people
Exodus, movement of JAH people
06 Jamming (03:31)
Ooh, yeah! All right!
We're jammin':
I wanna jam it wid you.
We're jammin', jammin',
And I hope you like jammin', too.
Ain't no rules, ain't no vow, we can do it anyhow:
I'n'I will see you through,
'Cos everyday we pay the price with a little sacrifice,
Jammin' till the jam is through.
We're jammin' -
To think that jammin' was a thing of the past;
We're jammin',
And I hope this jam is gonna last.
No bullet can stop us now, we neither beg nor we won't bow;
Neither can be bought nor sold.
We all defend the right; Jah - Jah children must unite:
Your life is worth much more than gold.
We're jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin')
And we're jammin' in the name of the Lord;
We're jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin'),
We're jammin' right straight from Yah.
Yeh! Holy Mount Zion;
Holy Mount Zion:
Jah sitteth in Mount Zion
And rules all creation.
Yeah, we're - we're jammin' (wotcha-wa),
Wotcha-wa-wa-wa, we're jammin' (wotcha-wa),
See, I wanna jam it wid you
We're jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin')
I'm jammed: I hope you're jammin', too.
Jam's about my pride and truth I cannot hide
To keep you satisfied.
True love that now exist is the love I can't resist,
So jam by my side.
We're Jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin'), yeah-eah-eah!
I wanna jam it wid you.
We're jammin', we're jammin', we're jammin', we're jammin',
We're jammin', we're jammin', we're jammin', we're jammin';
Hope you like jammin', too.
We're jammin', we're jammin' (jammin'),
We're jammin', we're jammin' (jammin').
I wanna (I wanna jam it wid you) - I wanna -
I wanna jam wid you now.
Jammin', jammin' (hope you like jammin' too).
Eh-eh! I hope you like jammin', I hope you like jammin',
'Cause (I wanna jam it wid you). I wanna ... wid you.
I like - I hope you - I hope you like jammin', too.
I wanna jam it;
I wanna jam it.
07 Waiting in Vain (04:15)
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love
From the very first time
I placed my eyes on you, girl
My heart said follow through
But I know now that I'm
Way down on your line
But the waiting here is fine
So don't treat me like a
Puppet on a string
'Cause I know how to do my thing
Don't talk to me as
If you think I'm dumb
I wanna know
When you're gonna come
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love
'Cause summer is here
I'm still waiting there
Winter is here
And I'm still waiting there
[solo]
Like I said
It's been three years since I'm
Knocking on your door
And I still can knock some more
Ooooh girl ooooh girl
Is it feasible, I wanna know now
For I to knock some more
Ya see
In life I know
There's lots of grief
But your love is mu felief
Tears in my eyes burn
Tears in my eyes burn
While I'm waiting
While I'm waiting for my turn
See, I don't wanna wait in vain for your love
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love
I don't wanna I don't wanna
I don't wanna I don't wanna
I don't wanna wait in vain
I don't wanna I don't wanna
I don't wanna I don't wanna
I don't wanna wait in vain
It's your love that I'm waiting on
It's my love that you're running from
It's your love that I'm waiting on
It's my love that you're running from
09 Three Little Birds (03:00)
"Don't worry bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing is gonna be all right.
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"
Rise up this mornin',
Smiled with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Sit by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', ("This is my message to you-ou-ou:")
Singin': "Don't worry 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing is gonna be all right."
Singin': "Don't worry (don't worry) 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing is gonna be all right!"
Rise up this mornin',
Smiled with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Sit by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', "This is my message to you-ou-ou:"
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing, worry about a thing, oh!
Every little thing is gonna be all right. Don't worry!"
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing" - I won't worry!
"'Cause every little is thing gonna be all right."
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing,
'Cause every little thing is gonna be all right" - I won't worry!
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing,
'Cause every little thing is gonna be all right."
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing, oh no!
'Cause every little thing is gonna be all right! /fadeout/
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