Adonis Diaries

Redemption Song and Me say war; (Feb. 3, 2010)

            I love to dance on the rhythm of Reggae; I cannot understand the sentences but I could feel the soft special excitements from the dancers around me. I could get the basics with titles like “Get up, Stand up”, “Soul Rebel”, “Lively up yourself”, “Them belly full but we hungry”, and “revolution”.

            Bob Marley (1945-81) died young from cancer.  Singer Manu Chao stated: “When you wear Bob Marley T-shirt it is as good as planetary passport to enter any infamously renowned districts; that’s the kind of world dimension that Marley incarnates to represent rebellion in non-violence”

            Bob Marley disseminated more than anyone what is called Rastafarian sect.  Rastafarian is borrowed from the original name of late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie (Power of the Trinity) with was Ras Tafari Makonnen (Fearless and noble prince).  I edited slightly the lyrics of the two songs:

Redemption Song (1980)

 Old pirates robbed I

Sold me to the merchant ships

Minutes after they took I

From the bottom-less pit

My hand was made strong

By the hand of the Almighty

We forward in this generation

Triumphantly

Won’t you help in singing?

These songs of freedom

Cause all I ever had

Is redemption songs

Emancipate your spirit from mental slavery

None but yourself can free your mind

Have no fear for atomic energy

Cause none of them can stop the time

Some say it’s just a part of it

We’ve got to fulfill the Book

Won’t you help in singing?

Redemption songs

Me say war (1973)

 Until the philosophy that hold one race

Superior and another inferior

Is discredited and abandoned

Everywhere is war

Me say war

Until there’s no longer

First and second class citizens

Until the color of man’s skin

Is of no significance anymore

Than the color of the eyes

I’ve got to say war.