Redemption Song

Prompt #40 by Bob Marley

Whoo hoo! What an awesome week, Mountain Jam, by the Allman Brothers Band made! Thanks for such a great prompt and Headliner Long Live the ABB!

And boy do I like this new format, we’re going to roll right on with it! Look for our Headliner Submission to hit your inboxes Tuesday afternoon, and you’ll get this newsletter as soon as the submissions close on Monday night.

Week #39 Feature🏆

Wow! What a fantastic week of Stories from the Jukebox! I really enjoyed all of the submissions, but there was one that really stood out…

Gray is awarded our Feature this week for her short story titled, Mountain Jam Session. The way she brought the reader right there into the kitchen with her, Nin, and Nanny, is magical. There’s more wisdom in that room than one can stir with a stick, but Grace somehow is able to make the reader feel it.

The windows were starting to steam over. Grace leaned against the counter as Nin dropped the jars into the boiling pot. She hadn’t always been interested in helping make the end of season jams—as a matter of fact, for a long time she scoffed at the idea of anything so old fashioned. But these last few years she’d started returning to Preservation Mountain, Alabama, to visit her grandmother and great aunt to learn about jam making—and maybe a few other life lessons.

Mountain Jam Session

---

Here’s this week’s prompt, Redemption Song, by Bob Marley!

"Redemption Song" is a song by Jamaican singer Bob Marley. It is the final track on Bob Marley and the Wailers' twelfth album, Uprising, produced by Chris Blackwell and released by Island Records. The song is considered one of Marley's greatest works. (Wikipedia)

Some key lyrics derived from a speech given by the Pan-Africanist orator Marcus Garvey titled "The Work That Has Been Done", which Marley publicly recited as early as July 1979 during his appearance at the Amandla Festival.

The song is reported to have been written around 1979, appearing for the first time on a demo tape called "Dada Demos" which, among other unreleased tracks and re-recordings of older songs, features an early version of "Could You Be Loved?" with drum machine accompaniment. Unlike most of Bob Marley’s other tracks, “Redemption Song” is strictly a solo acoustic recording, consisting of his singing and playing an acoustic guitar, without accompaniment.

After its recording for the Uprising album, the song saw its first public performance during the opener show of the Uprising Tour on May 30, 1980, in Zürich, Switzerland, and continued to be featured in every known setlist of that tour's further concerts.

There exist at least two music video recordings of the song, one produced by the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, featuring Marley and his keyboardist Earl Lindo both accompanying themselves on guitars, and a second one from September 1980 featuring Marley during a rehearsal break and his band members listening.

Calling all Poets, Fiction, or Non-Fiction writers that love music — Share your prose of 1500 words or less, using the prompt, Redemption Song.

Remember:

• Each Tuesday I’ll publish a newsletter with that week’s song prompt — along with a featured writer’s submission from the previous week.

• Anyone is then free to run with it! Just add the link to your story or prose in the comments of this newsletter.

• Subscribers to Stories from the Jukebox, also have a chance to be featured in the following week’s newsletter. And I’ll do my best to give feedback and restack each submission.

There’s always rules:

1. All forms of prose are welcome, just keep it under 1500 words.

2. Submissions must be published by midnight on Monday.

3. Submissions must include a tag/link to this week’s Song Prompt Newsletter embedded within the post.

While anyone is welcome to add their post in the comments at any time — all rules must be followed for a post to be eligible to be featured or shared.

How would you like to pick our prompt? Find out how to join our revolving list of Headliners here.

---

I sort of chose our prompt this week. But really, it was Stoic Sisterhood by Janet Shan. Janet Shan shares writings on philosophy, Stoicism, faith, and books that cultivate clarity, restraint, and steady thinking.

You see I’d been following Janet’s writing for a while and really enjoy looking at subjects from her perspective. And probably two months ago now, I ran across a Note where she mentioned Redemption Song — I wish I could find it, but it appears lost in the ether. She’d mentioned a quote, and that she grew up listening to the song, but didn’t realize it’s full meaning until later in life. I immediately knew that I wanted that story to Headline the Jukebox!

Here’s our Headliner, Growing into the meaning of “Redemption Song”!

I grew up hearing Bob Marley before I really stopped to think about what the lyrics were saying. Back then, I just loved the beat — the riddim, as we’d say in Jamaica. Later in life, I started hearing the weight of his words.

The music was everywhere. From family gatherings, weddings, parties, and music playing in the bars to cars passing through the neighborhood with the windows down. Somebody always had Bob Marley playing, including his older songs with the Wailers.

The song that continues to resonate with me is “Redemption Song.”

Growing Into the Meaning of “Redemption Song”

---

Do you know a reader or writer that’d be perfect for this prompt? Share it with them!

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Oh and if you’re an email reader, just hit reply — I want to hear from you too!

Don’t like commitments, but still want to support my writing? You can make a one-time contribution here.

---