Protests and Palm Trees: Retrospective of Rastman Vibrations

What can we learn from music in 1976? In the Billboard Hot 100 we can find John Sebastian’s “Welcome Back” at no. 1, Diana Ross’s “Love Hangover” at no. 7 and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” sitting at no. 11. Nowhere in the charts you will find Earth’s most beloved Rastafarian. His eight studio album continues as a voice for peace while naming humanity’s turmoil. In 1976 we were electing the first president after Nixon’s resignation, recovering from the Vietnam War and fighting another on communism.

Rastaman Vibration uniquely adopted modern synths and rock to launch the unmistakable sound of Bob Marley and the Wailers deep into humanity’s memory.

Hand drums introduce use to laid back guitar riffs and palm tree synths. Life is easy, but only if we make it that way. Intro track “Positive Vibrations” reminds us of our agency over our lives.

“If you get down and quarrel every day

You’re saying prayers to the devil, I say.”

Bob Marley & the Wailer’s simple salt-breeze sound carries lyrics critical of 1976 Jamaican social engineering. Tactics that can be felt in many countries around the world. Want More warns us of greed while guitars and drums foretell a punishment a few steps behind. Crazy Baldhead reclaims the fruits of labor stolen by oppressors. Johnny Was memorializes the victims of collateral damage.

Hand drums introduce each social vignette.

Rastaman Vibration’s strength rests in its message. Ten years before the album, Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie, addressed the world’s pain to the United Nations which would fuel the lyrics to War. The strongest track on the album would live on fuel sentiments for the next 49 years.

Twenty-some years later, Sinead O’Connor would perform War to address the pain of systematic child abuse in the catholic church to Saturday Night Live. Because her performance exposed abuse a decade before the Boston Globe, she was met with amplified criticism. 

The hurt and healing wrapped in the Rastafarian album was hopeful of a humanitarian future. What have we learned since 1976 and what can we learn from listening to the voices of the past? We have not forgotten about Bob Marley nor the distress he sang about. While the Earth no longer hosts the Jamaican's unifying voice,  his memory can inspire actions to engage, understand and unite. 

Just as the Vietnam War, Watergate and the Cold War have been carved into Humanity’s memory, today’s wars will be too.