# Bob Marley

Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981), more famously known as Bob Marley, was a Jamaican singer, guitarist, songwriter, and social activist. His vision of "One World, One Love," is a dream that inspired many.

## Quotes

* The more you accept herb, the more you accept Rastafari.
** "Bob Marley interview on Marijuana" (1979) from the Come A Long Way documentary, made for New Zealand TV show Good Day (1979) with reporter Dylan Taite
* All dese governments and dis this and that, these people that say they're here to help, why them say you cannot smoke the herb? Herb... herb is a plant, you know? And when me check it, me can't find no reason. All them say is, 'it make you rebel'. Against what?
** As recorded in filmed interview (1979) with Dylan Taite in Aotearoa, New Zealand
* Alcohol make you drunk, man. It don't make you meditate, it just make you drunk. Herb is more a consciousness.
** As recorded in filmed interview (1979) with Dylan Taite in Aotearoa, New Zealand
* We don't have education, we have inspiration; if I was educated I would be a damn fool.
** As recorded in Time Will Tell (1992), a documentary by Declan Lowney
* Today, people struggle to find what's real. Everything has become so synthetic that a lot of people, all they want is to grasp onto hope.
** As quoted in Rolling Stone's The Immortals (2004) "Bob"
* Possession make you rich? I don't have that type of richness. My richness is Life, forever.
** Interview for the Australian TV show 60 Minutes

### Song lyrics

* One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain.
** Trenchtown Rock (single, 1970)
* Some people say great God come from the sky take away everything and make everybody feel high, but if you know what life is worth, you will look for yours on earth.
** Get Up, Stand Up (cowritten with Peter Tosh), from the album Burnin' (1973)
* Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights! Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
** Get Up, Stand Up, Burnin' (1973), cowritten with Peter Tosh
* Every day the bucket a-go a well, one day the bottom a-go drop out.
** I Shot The Sheriff, from the album Burnin' (1973)
* If you are the big tree We are the small axe Sharpened to cut you down Ready to cut you down
** Small Axe, from the album Burnin' (1973)
* A hungry mob is an angry mob.
** Them Belly Full (But We Hungry), from the album Natty Dread (1974)
* Never make a politician grant you a favour They will always want to control you forever.
** Revolution, from the album Natty Dread (1974)
* If you get down and you quarrel everyday You're saying prayers to the devils, I say.
** Positive Vibration, from the album Rastaman Vibration (1976)
* Truth is the light So you never give up the fight.
** Final jamming of Live at the Roxy (recorded 1976)
* When the rain falls, it won't fall on one man's housetop.
** So Much Things to Say, from the album Exodus (1977)
* Your life is worth much more than gold.
** Jamming, from the album Exodus (1977)
* Don't worry about a thing, 'Cos every little thing is gonna be alright.
** Three Little Birds, from the album Exodus (1977)
* One love, one heart, Let's get together and feel alright.
** One Love (cowritten with Curtis Mayfield), from the album Exodus, originally recorded on The Wailing Wailers (1965)
* Excuse me while I light my spliff (spliff) Good God I gotta' take a lift (lift) From reality I just can't drift (drift) That's why I am staying with this riff (riff) Take it easy, easy skanking Got to take it easy, easy skanking.
** Easy Skanking, from the album Kaya (1978) · Video on YouTube
* They say the sun shines for all But in some people world it never shine at all.
** Crisis, from the album Kaya (1978)
* Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny.
** Zimbabwe, from the album Survival (1979)
* Life is one big road with lots of signs, So when you riding through the ruts, Don't you complicate your mind Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy Don't bury your thoughts; put your vision to reality
** "Wake Up and Live!” on Survival (1979)
* In the abundance of water a fool is thirsty.
** Rat Race, from the album Rastaman Vibration
* When one door is closed, many more is open.
** Coming in from the Cold, from the album Confrontation
* It is better to live on the house top than to live in a house full of confusion.
** Running Away, from the album Kaya

#### Judge Not (single, 1961)

* Judge not, before you judge yourself. Judge not, if you're not ready for judgment.
* The Road of life is rocky and you may stumble too, so while you talk about me, someone else is judging you.

### Uprising (1979)

* Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, None but ourselves can free our minds. Have no fear for atomic energy, 'Cause none of them can stop the time.
** Redemption Song; the song was inspired by a speech by Marcus Garvey in Nova Scotia in October 1937, published in his Black Man magazine, Vol. 3, no. 10 (July 1938), pp. 7-11:
       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.
* Won't you help to sing, These songs of freedom? 'Cause all I ever had, Redemption songs.
** Redemption Song
* We JAH people can make it work.
** Work
* Don't gain the world and lose your soul Wisdom is better than silver and gold.
** Zion Train
* Two thousand years of history Black History could not be wiped away so easily.
** Zion Train
* And what has been hidden from the wise and the prudent been revealed in the mouth of the toddlers.
** Forever Loving Jah
* Who are you to judge the life I live? I know that I'm not perfect and that I don't claim to be, so before you point your fingers make sure your hands are clean.
** Could you be loved
* They say: only the fittest of the fittest shall survive, stay alive!
** Could You Be Loved

## Disputed

    Some famous songs were made popular by Marley, but writing credits were actually given to his close friend Vincent Ford. Ford did not write these lyrics, Marley did, but gave Ford writing credits so he could use the royalty money to help pay for his Trenchtown soup kitchen.
* Say you just can't live that negative way You know what I mean Make way for the positive day Cause it's a new day.
** Positive Vibration, from the album Rastaman Vibration (1976)

#### No Woman, No Cry, from the album Natty Dread (1974)

* Good friends we have had, oh good friends we've lost along the way In this bright future you can't forget your past So dry your tears I say No woman, no cry No woman, no cry Little darlin' don't shed no tears No woman, no cry
* Ev'rything's gonna be alright So, no woman, no cry.

## Misattributed

* The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness.
** Originated from a scene in the 2007 film I Am Legend
** Misattribution quoted by Taika Waititi in March 2019 after the New Zealand Mosque shootings.

## Quotes about Marley

* I carried Bob Marley’s Redemption Song to every meeting I had with a politician, prime minister, or president. It was for me a prophetic utterance or as Bob would say "the small ax that could fell the big tree". The song reminded me that freedom always comes with a cost, but for those who would prepare to pay it, maybe "emancipation from mental slavery" would be our reward.
** Bono, as quoted in Marley Legend: An Illustrated Life of Bob Marley (2006) by James Henke, pg. 57
* I am Boutros Boutros-Ghali; put down your gun and listen to Bob Marley.
** Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in an interview for Da Ali G Show, Episode 8 : "War" (28 February 2003)
* You just mentioned Bob Marley — I can remember when I was in college, listening — and not agreeing with his whole philosophy necessarily, but raising my awareness of how people outside of our country were thinking about the struggles for jobs and dignity, and freedom.
** Barack Obama, in an interview with MTV (26 October 2012)
* He had this idea. It was kind of a virologist idea. He believed that you could cure racism and hate... literally cure it, by injecting music and love into people's lives. When he was scheduled to perform at a peace rally, a gunman came to his house and shot him down. Two days later he walked out on that stage and sang. When they asked him why — He said, "The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness."
** Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman, in I Am Legend (2007) (Note. This is a work of fiction. There is no indication that the quoted words were actually spoken by Bob Marley.)
* The U.S. empire rests on a grisly foundation: the massacre of millions of indigenous people, the stealing of their lands, and following this, the kidnapping and enslavement of millions of black people from Africa to work that land. Thousands died on the seas while they were being shipped like caged cattle between continents. "Stolen from Africa, brought to America"-Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier" contains a whole universe of unspeakable sadness. It tells of the loss of dignity, the loss of wilderness, the loss of freedom, the shattered pride of a people. Genocide and slavery provide the social and economic underpinning of the nation whose fundamental values reject hate, murderers, and evil.
** Arundhati Roy War Talk (2003)

## External links

* Official Bob Marley website
* Bob Marley on IMDb