7 THINGS YOU TOTALLY DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT BOB MARLEY’S LYRICS THAT BROUGHT THE WESTERN CIVILIZATION DOWN

From ‘No Woman, No Cry’ to ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ Bob Marley has always written tricky songs.

For example did you know ‘No Woman, No Cry’ actually meant ‘No, woman, do not cry’ as opposed to ‘Without women there wouldn’t be a cause to cry about’?

Now you know. It totally means that because: Jamaica.

Or, did you know ‘I Shot The Sheriff’ was about birth control? It means ‘I thought I shot my wad outside (Sheriff means both belly and outside in Jamaica) but it turns out I knocked her up (Gamete is endearingly called Deputy in Jamaica). Because Jamaica.

Incidentally, ‘No Woman, No Cry’ was written right after this song, only to be followed by ‘Is this Love’, which takes its name from a well known phrase that means (endearingly) ‘Do I have to marry this woman now?’ in Jamaican dialect.

Actually, this might be the least trickier of this trilogy. When you listen to what Bob has got to say without the music (or read it, if you will) it sounds much less trickier.

Consider the opening line. Bob makes a very clear statement, but somehow it is still used in wedding ceremonies all over the world:

I wanna love you, I want to love and treat you right;
I wanna love you every day and every night:

When do people say they want to love someone? When they are stuck with someone they don’t love. Same goes for Bob: he doesn’t love her but he has to be with her.

Previously on Bob: Everyday the bucket went down to the well (they were fuck buddies), and one day the bottom a-dropped out (he accidentally knocked her up). He faced the social pressure, they tracked him for it, forced him to man-up, grow a pair, do the right thing.

He tried to explain, but what was to be must have been, his reflexes got better of him, and he’s found guilty and had to pay. With what? With honoring the woman he can fuck everyday, but can’t love.

So he envisions his fate, you can taste the anxiety in his premonition:

We'll be together, with a roof over our heads;
To share the shelter in a single bed;
Is this love - is this love - is this love -
Is this love that I'm feelin'?
Is this love - is this love - is this love -
Is this love that I'm feelin'? Wo-o-o-oah!

He goes ‘woah, time out’ at the end because he knows, it isn’t love. But why is he setting the situation, or more like, for whom?

I wanna know - wanna know - wanna know now!
I wanna know - wanna know - wanna know now!

He’s demanding an answer, but from whom?

I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I - I'm willing and able,
So I lay my cards on your table!

At last it’s revealed: he’s addressing the woman. He’s insinuating the situation. He’s trying to say:

“Look, I can do this. I’m willing to do this. I’ll be okay with being in this loveless forced marriage just to keep my self esteem afloat, and uphold your honor, but do you really want me to do this?

“Do you want me to marry you, spend time together in my small room with a bed obviously not meant to carry two people, merely upon a promise?

“And what’s that promise? The shittiest promise there can be: a promise out of an obligation. And an obligation to whom? Not you, but to the others. To do what? To love you. I want to love you, but do you want that? Do you want someone who loves you unconditionally, or, someone who says he wants to love you?

These are the cards he’s laying upon her table.

Yet, she is either too thick, or, too unwilling, he has to repeat himself.

After he squeezes in the fact that he doesn’t have any income or resource to feed them both, but only Jah’s Providence, he repeats his loaded question over and over again, redirecting the question to the audience before the only appropriate fade out ending in the history of recorded music:

Is this love - is this love - is this love -
Is this love that I’m feelin’?
Someone tell me if its love, love ... [Fade out]

Well Bob, we both know it isn’t love you’re feeling. It’s the anxiety of this union; it is the fear of its inevitable results; it’s the frustration of your double bind. These are what you’re feeling. Not love.

But you’re doing the right thing, and that ought to be good for something.