Marley’s Redemption

Marley’s Redemption - This homage to Bob Marley was inspired by the 2012 Documentary “Marley”. I have been a Bob Marley fan for most of my life. His song “Get Up, Stand Up” has influenced and spoken to this Spiritual Agnostic. I have a few stories to share later in this post about three songs in particular.

About the drink: Jamaican Rum represents a singular taste experience in the Rum universe. It starts with Molasses from Jamaican Sugar Cane. Jamaican rum gets its “Funk” from Dunder, a byproduct of the normal distilling process that is added back into the mix for extra flavor. In this drink I have used two giants; Nephew & Wray Overproof Rum and Hamilton’s Pot Still Black Rum. One of Bob Marley’s Producers “blessed” the 4 corners of the studio with Jamaican rum as a sacrament!

In a Stainless Steel Mixing cup of crushed ice add:

• 2 oz Hamilton Pot Still Black Rum

• 1 oz Wray & Nephew Overproof Jamaican Rum

• 1 oz fresh Lime Juice

• .75 oz Molasses Syrup (Molasses & Simple Syrup)

• .5 oz Pineapple Syrup

• 1 Dash Fee Brother’s Molasses Bitters

• Pinch of grated Nutmeg

• Garnish with a spent lime half filled with .5 oz of Wray & Nephew, and ignited!, and a mint sprig (a spliff leaf if you prefer ;-) )

• Enjoy!!

“Get up, Stand Up” by Bob Marley was a two-by-four across my existentialist head 40+ years ago. Obviously, its context was meant for someone else who’s situation was very different from mine. His reality was TrenchTown in Kingston, Jamaica; a place with little sanitation, potable water, safety, education or opportunity. Mine was a Midwestern college town with the inverse being true. Our family situations were also diametric to each other. Bob, never knew his father, a white Englishman in Jamaica with the Army. Raised by his black, Jamaican mother, his identity was questioned by everyone around him. He was “Half Caste” to his contemporaries. But his mother gave him his sense of self.

His situation was similar to, but not exactly like the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. He did not really know his father either. His mother was white, Midwestern American. His father a black Kenyan. According to his book “Promised Land”, his identity was questioned too. Albeit, a bit differently in Honolulu, Hawaii. Both men searched for meaning. Meaning about who they were, but also about their place and purpose in the world. Each concluded that could make a difference in the world. One chose music to touch the the spiritual conscience of the world, the other the world of politics to take the helm at the center of power to right the inequities in the country and the world.

In “Get Ip, Stand Up”, the lyrics are a repudiation of the institutional racism and hypocrisy in the trappings of Western religious hierarchy, and the unholy alliance with opportunistic governments that used the imagery and dogma to “keep the masses in their place”. I have embolden the areas that spoke most to me. “The Mighty God is the living man!”

Get up, Stand up by Bob Marley

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight

Preacher man don't tell me
Heaven is under the earth
I know you don't know
What life is really worth

He said all that glitters is gold
Half that story ain't never been told
So now you see the light, hey
You stand up for your right
Come on

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight

Most people think
Great God will come from the sky
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high

But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now a you see the light
You stand up for your right
Jah!

Get up, stand up (Jah, Jah)
Stand up for your right (oh-hoo)
Get up, stand up (get up, stand up)
Don't give up the fight (life is your right)
Get up, stand up (so we can't give up the fight)
Stand up for your rights (Lord, Lord)
Get up, stand up (keep on struggling on)
Don't give up the fight (yeah)

We're sick and tired of your ism-schism game
Dy'n' and go to Heaven in-a Jesus' name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty God is a living man

You can fool some people sometimes
But you can't fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light (watch you gon' do?)
We gonna stand up for our rights (yeah, yeah)
So you'd better

Get up, stand up (in the morning) give it up
Stand up for your right (stand up right now)
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight (don't give it up, don't give it up)
Get up, stand up (get up, stand up)
Stand up for your rights (get up, stand up)
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight (get up, stand up)

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight
Get up, stand up

“Redemption Song” is a sledgehammer of a song to the human heart. It outlines an oppression of a peoples. But….also the hope, the dreams and the irrepressible spirit of the human heart. It speaks , using the term “I” in the place of the pronoun “me”. I think this is purposeful in that in slavery they were no longer an “I”, but an “It” or “That”.

In absence of freedom and opportunity, “Songs of Freedom” were the only power they could wield. First as a shield, then as a sword, and then as a fire that cannot be denied! Bob’s words were clearly saying that they can “Kill our prophets”, but the message, the work, and the struggle will continue until freedom is realized.

My Mother lived in St. Kitts in the Eastern Caribbean for 9 years, and she very much enjoyed living there and made it her home. While she had many ex-pats as friends, she was also deeply enmeshed in the local community as well. She volunteered at the Children’s Home each week or more. She shopped in locally owned stores and markets.

I want to be clear: there is poverty in St. Kitts, but nothing at the level of TrenchTown in Kingston, Jamaica. But, it is a former colony of England and has only been a sovereign nation since the early 1980’s and its people know what subjugation feels like. Still, Bob’s music has resonance all over the Caribbean. In example, when Mom was shopping at the locally owned IGA for her groceries she noticed there was music playing overhead: It was “Redemption Song”. While it should not surprise anyone that it might be playing there, the subtle reaction from the grocery checker and everyone in the store was striking. The checker was singing, the patrons were singing. And if she didn’t have a lump in her throat, Mom would have been singing.

Redemption Song by Bob Marley

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 hand of the almighty
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly
Won't 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
Some say it's just a part of it
We've got to fulfill the book
Won't you help to sing
Another song of freedom
'Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs
Redemption songs…

The last song needs little explanation. But through all of the things that could have disheartened Bob, his message was clear. One Love!

One Love by Bob Marley

One love, one heart
Let's join together and a-feel all right
One love (full of mercy)
One heart (I tell you)
Let's join together (at this house I pray)
And a-feel alright (and I will feel alright)
Let's join together and a-feel all right

Now, let them all pass all their dirty remarks (one love)
There is one question I'd really like to ask (one soul)
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own?

One love, one heart
Let's join together and a-feel all right
One love (hear my plea)
One heart
Let's join together and a-feel alright
Let's join together (let's just trust in the Lord)
And a-feel all right (and I will feel alright)

Let's join together to fight this holy battle
So when the man comes there will be no, no doom
Have pity on those whose chances grows thinner
There ain't no hiding place among the kingdoms of love, yes

One love (hear my plea)
One heart (oh)
Let's join together and feel all right
One love (full of mercy)
One heart (I tell you)
Let's join together (let this house a-pray)
And a-feel all right (and I will feel alright)
Let's join together and a-feel all right

One love, one heart
Let's join together and a-feel all right
One love (full of-)
One heart (oh)
Let's join together and a-feel all right
Let's join together (let's all pray to the Lord)
And a-feel alright (and I will feel alright)

I tell you, let them all pass all their dirty remarks (one love)
There is one question I'd really like to ask (one soul)
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own?

One love (full of mercy)
One heart (I tell you)
Let's join together (at this house I pray)
And a-feel alright (and I will feel alright)

One love (hear my plea)
One heart (hear my plea)
Let's join together and a-feel all right
Let's join together (let us pray to the Lord)
And a-feel all right (and I will feel alright)

Peace my friends!