Story of the song: Redemption Song by Bob Marley

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on the reggae star signing off with special poignancy

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Despite never making the UK charts, “Redemption Song” remains one of Bob Marley’s defining songs. The closing track on his final studio album, 1980’s Uprising, it’s the sound of the reggae star signing off with special poignancy. It was written and rehearsed by Marley and the Wailers in the closing months of 1979, during the band’s live shows for the Survival album, but kept in the can. When Marley presented Island Records’ Chris Blackwell with the tapes for Uprising, the following year, Blackwell nodded with pursed lips. Good as it was, he thought it lacked something. Marley took his point and the following day he returned with the outstanding “Redemption Song” which duly completed the album’s running order.

The song was recorded by Marley at his own Tuff Gong studio in Jamaica, with the singer accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. It was this stark solo take, more akin to Bob Dylan’s early protest work than the hardnosed reggae with which he had made his name, that made it on to Uprising. A full band version later appeared as a B-side and a bonus track on the 2001 pressing of the album. It was the final Marley single, the last song he performed in concert, in Pittsburgh in September 1980, and was brought to the wider listening public when it was included on the first mainstream Marley compilation, Legend, issued posthumously in 1984.