6 STORIES
1975 · 70S
TRENCH TOWN, KINGSTON, JAMAICA
It is not a shrug about avoiding women, and it is not really a love song either. "No Woman, No Cry" is Bob Marley sitting with someone in gr…
1977 · 70S
KINGSTON, JAMAICA
The world's gentlest peace anthem was written in a city where political gunmen were killing each other in the streets, and its most famous v…
1977 · 70S
KINGSTON (56 HOPE ROAD), JAMAICA
The sunniest song in the Bob Marley catalogue was written and released by a man who had recently been shot in his own home and was living in…
1980 · 80S
It plays like the happiest song at every beach bar on earth, but "Could You Be Loved" is a confrontation — a dying man asking whether you ha…
1980 · 80S
KINGSTON, JAMAICA
"Redemption Song" is not a reggae song at all — it is one man, one acoustic guitar, and no band, written while Bob Marley reportedly already…
1983 · 80S
KINGSTON, JAMAICA
The sunniest-sounding song in Bob Marley's catalogue is about a Black man taken out of Africa, handed a US Army uniform, and sent west to de…