13. No Woman, No Cry, Bob Marley & Wailers

I first heard this song on New York island radio in 1976, adopted it as my own in a little incident in Antigua that winter, and have never heard it since without, first, smiling, and by its end, feeling I’m a better person. Of course I’m not, but that’s the effect Bob Marley has had on millions all around the world. Who knows what the words mean, above all the patois title, but the message of reassurance comes through: “everythin’s gonna be alright; everythin’s gonna be alright.” The organ in the background establishes the hymn-like context, and the minor progression of four downward half-notes, with a syncopated jump to the last one, establishes the most relaxed mood that carries through the song, however long it lasts. The organ trills above, to add beauty, not urgency. And then, only then, does our hero the singer join in, with his plaintive reverie, “I remember, when we used to sit – trala-lala-lala-la…” Maybe we can’t honestly identify with the Jamaicans huddling around their campfire, but the sentiments and the music are universal. “Good friends we’ve had, good friends we’ve lost” – even more poignant after Marley’s death in 1987 – but somehow, we’ve got to push on through. The music rolls on, and whether the version you hear is four minutes, six minutes, ten minutes, I never want it to end, I never want to leave that government yard down in Trenchtown.