5 Amazing Stories Behind Bob Marley Songs

This Friday, the long-awaited documentary Marley will hit theaters and video on-demand outlets everywhere. Here are 5 snippets to get you started.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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This Friday, the long-awaited documentary Marley will hit theaters and video on-demand outlets everywhere. Directed by Oscar-winning film maker Kevin MacDonald, the groundbreaking movie manages to shed new light on Bob Marley, one of the best-known and most influential superstars in the history of music.

Marley gets down to the nitty gritty, uncovering little-known facts about the forces that drove this boy from the rural village of Nine Mile to become the King of Reggae, and helping us to hear his music with new ears. It's the sort of film that contains so many amazing details that it should probably be watched more than once (especially if you happen to be smoked out the first time you see it on 4/20).

Based on just one advance screening—and a close listen to the film's incredible soundtrack album—we've pulled together the back-stories behind these five Marley classics. Let's just say the movie may change the way you hear these songs forever...

RELATED: 100 Best Bob Marley Songs
RELATED: Do Androids Dance? - The 10 Best Remixes of Bob Marley Songs That Aren't on "Legend Remixed"

Written by Rob Kenner (@boomshots)

Bob Marley & The Wailers "Jammin" (1977)

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Label: Tuff Gong

This bouncy cut off the Exodus album, also featured on the greatest hits compilation Legend, became one of Marley's best known songs, a celebration of good times and great music. But it took on a whole new meaning when Bob Marley returned to Jamaica from self-imposed exile in London (where he'd been cooling out since a 1976 assassination attempt) and performed the song at the One Love Peace Concert on April 22, 1978.


 

Bob's hypnotic live performance of 'Jammin,' which is featured in the film Marley and included on the film's official soundtrack, turned a party song into a mystical ritual to cast out the curse of political violence.


 

Bob's hypnotic live performance of "Jammin," which is featured in the film Marley and included on the film's official soundtrack, turned a party song into a mystical ritual to cast out the curse of political violence. Jamaica was then on the front lines of the Cold War, with a pro-Cuba socialist government led by Prime Minister Michael Manley clashing against a fiercely anti-Communist right-wing opposition led by Edward Seaga.

Only Bob Marley could have convinced Manley and Seaga to jam with him onstage and join their hands together in a sign of unity under the banner of Jah Rastafari. Although the bloodshed would eventually continue, for that one miraculous moment at least it seemed that reggae music had the power to change the world.

Bob Marley & The Wailers "Smile Jamaica" (1976)

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Label: Tuff Gong

Its chorus might sound like a tourist-brochure slogan—"Smile, you're in Jamaica"—but as the movie Marleymakes clear, "Smile Jamaica" was written with a more serious purpose than celebrating sunshine and sandy beaches. In 1976 tensions between the socialist People's National Party and the right-wing Jamaican Labour Party were flaring into gunplay as thugs aligned with both sides battled for control of Kingston's streets.


 

When the Manley government called for general elections shortly after Bob's "Smile Jamaica" concert was announced, Marley appeared to be in the PNP's corner—putting him in mortal danger during the hotly contested election.


 

Bob Marley released this song in hopes of bringing the people together, and even planned a free concert of the same name. But when the Manley government called for general elections shortly after Bob's Smile Jamaica concert was announced, Marley appeared to be in the PNP's corner—putting him in mortal danger during the hotly contested election.

Two days before the Smile Jamaica concert, on December 3, 1976, a group of assassins snuck into Marley's compound at 56 Hope Road and shot Bob, his wife Rita, and his manager Don Taylor. Miraculously, nobody was killed—and Marley went on with the show as planned, defiantly displaying his bandaged bullet wounds on stage.

The Wailers "Small Axe" (1970)

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Label: Upsetter

Lee "Scratch" Perry was more than a brilliant producer, he was a singer, songwriter, and shaman who recognized the genius of Bob Marley and considered him something of a kindred spirit. In the movie MarleyScratch speaks of Bob with apparent love and respect, recalling the many classic records they made together.


 

As the movie Marley makes clear, the song was originally intended as a reggae diss track.


 

One of the most enduring Wailers / Perry collabos was "Small Axe," a boastful selection that was so popular it was re-recorded on Burnin', The Wailers' second album for Chris Blackwell's Island Records. But as the movie Marley makes clear, the song was originally intended as a reggae diss track.

Like Perry, The Wailers had broken away from Coxsone Dodd's Studio One to launch their own label. At the time Studio One was one of the "Big Three" dominant labels in Jamaican Music, along with Treasure Isle and Federal. The Wailers and Scratch (aka The Upsetter) were the "small acts" (or axe) stepping up to chop down the "big tree" (or Big Three).

Legend has it that Scratch came up with the concept for the song while sitting on the toilet. Whether or not that story is true, there's no doubt that The Wailers and Scratch were shitting on the competition with this one.

The Wailers "Corner Stone" (1970)

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Label: Upsetter

Built upon a line from Psalm 118—"The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone"—this Wailers classic can be interpreted as a universal underdog's anthem, like so many Marley classics before and since.


 

Bob recorded the song soon after being rebuffed by the family of his white father, Captain Norval Marley of Britain's Royal Marines.


 

But the film Marley suggests that Bob recorded this particular song soon after being rebuffed by the family of his white father, Captain Norval Marley of Britain's Royal Marines.

In one of the film's most powerful sequences, Marley's lighter-skinned relatives listen to the song with pained facial expressions as they reflect on the fact that Bob has become the Marley, the illegitimate Rasta son who was rejected by his military father is now the only reason the Marley name is renowned around the world. Such is the power of song. Prophecy fullfilled.

The Wailers "I'm Hurting Inside" (1968)

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Label: Wail M Soul M

On September 23, 1980, Bob Marley performed the last concert of his life in Pittsburgh, PA. Suffering from terminal cancer, the Tuff Gong was not expected to live much longer. Still he rehearsed relentlessly before that last show as usual—but this rehearsal was a bit different.


 

Suffering from terminal cancer, the Tuff Gong was not expected to live much longer. Still he rehearsed relentlessly before that last show as usual—but this rehearsal was a bit different.


 

According to the movie Marley, Bob instructed the band to play the same song over and over—"I'm Hurting Inside," a plaintive, little-known late 60s Wailers cut that spoke to the pain in the 35-year-old man's body and soul.

He never performed the song during his final concert, which is captured on the live album Live Forever. Apparently Bob was just feeling this song that day for deeply personal reasons. "When I was just a little child, happiness was there a while," he sang. "But for me it slipped one day. Happiness come back I say..."

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