Since its emergence through the evolution of ska in Jamaica, Reggae has been a tool used to carry the Rastafari movement banner and communicate it to the world, as well as He took the flags of social criticism regarding the problems that much of the world live.
Being so, It does not surprise that several were chosen between the 100 best protest songs of all time, According to a count made by the magazine Rolling Stones which included issues of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh y Junior Murvin.
Police & Thieves
At place 66 pops up “Police & Thieves” of the aforementioned Junior Murvin, a “REGGAE classic about violence in the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, either because of police brutality or street bands in struggle”, holds the aforementioned publication.
“The song would charge a new life when it became the theme of the disturbances of the Notting Hill Carnival in 1976, When London's youth faced the police for the type of harassment detailed in the song. The Clash were inspired to write ‘White Riot’ For their first LP and would also version ‘Police and Thieves’, The first of the band's many incursions into reggae”, add the magazine.
Legalize It
Then, at place 54 The classic appears Peter Tosh “Legalize It”, The first theme of his first solo album, homonymous name to the song, launched in 1976 After his way of The Wailers.
“More than an ode to marijuana, ‘Legalize It’ It was a blow to the ‘shit’ Jamaican, whose police arrested and brutalized Tosh in 1975 for participating in the Rastafari ceremony of smoking marijuana. In a languid pulse, Tosh talks about the medicinal benefits of cannabis and its intercultural impact (‘The judges smoke it, even the lawyers do it ’), creating a song and slogan that have turned on the decriminalization movements in several countries and decades”, holds Rolling Stones.
Get Up, Stand Up
Later in the ranking, in the post 35, It was located one of the most popular struggle and resistance hymns of reggae as “Get Up, Stand Up”, A song co -written by Bob Marley and Tosh himself, that appeared in the album of The Wailers de 1973 Burnin '.
“Built from a melody of American Funk Rockers, This simple call to weapons insists that you do not have to wait for peace in the beyond, but demand it right now. It would be the last song that Marley played in life, But it has endured as a standard of direct action music, versioned by Santana and the Rolling Stones and sample in the final minutes of the AGIT-POP Classic Enemy ‘It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back '”, He wrote the publication.
Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)
Almost arriving at the top had appeared in the place 12 “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)” of Bob Marley, released on the album Natty Dread, The first after the exit of Peter Tosh y Bunny Wailer, in which it alerts about the problems in Jamaica and makes a kind of counterpoint between the well -off classes, With its full stomachs, And the rest of the population “hungry”.
“This prominent theme of Natty Dread, The first album he made after separating from the classical training of the Wailers, distils its philosophy of the voice of the people in a concise warning to the ruling classes of Jamaica and the world: ‘A hungry crowd is an angry crowd’. And although Marley interprets the song in the relaxed melodic style that helped him connect with pop and rock audiences (On Bridge, invites listeners to “Forget your problems and dance”), That only makes it a more effective vehicle for your message about economic inequality”, emphasizes Rolling Stones.
Another song that appears in this list, specifically in him place 52, it is “Manifest” of Victor Jara what “gently touched and sung with tenderness, It is an ode to the power of change of music when it is in the hands of the common man”, The magazine raises, He adds that “The song was one of the last ones that Jara wrote before her arrest and murder under the Pinochet regime, and will last forever as a symbol of the ability of music to illuminate, Raise and challenge”.
Reggae being one of the musical styles that promoted the music of protests the world, strange that only four of them will be included in this list, Well there are other hymns that could perfectly be, as “Equal Rights” Y “Here Comes The Judge” de Peter Tosh; “Exodus” Y “So Much Trouble In The World” Bob Marley; “Fighting Against Conviction” de Bunny Wailer; “Slavery Days” de Burning Spear, among many others.
You can check the complete list in this link.
