Music Monday- More songs of Protest

Hi hi!

Isn’t life funny? Like how one minute you’re like ‘it’s all good, I totally got this!’ and the next you’re like ‘whoa! Jk!’ I feel like the last month has been like that for me…one of my last posts I mentioned trying to share more of the history behind protest songs once a week in July…which would have been in addition to going back to work…and starting a birth class…and starting an intensive MPH summer course. Wow. 3 week follow up? Well I’m still working and I am still in my masters’ courses…as for all the other stuff…all I will say is haha what was I thinking?

But since I last wrote about protest music, the Detroit Free Press did this great piececovering Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and I wanted to share. Side note: this write up has a great collection of vintage photos of Marvin Gaye and of Detroit in the 1960s-1970s.

And since I’m too tired to tackle the complex stats and epidemiology write ups that are due tomorrow, I wanted to cover another artist I love…Bob Marley!

Source

The sounds of Bob Marley’s music are among my first childhood memories, so he is definitely an artist I have a strong emotional attachment to. From a young age I remember listening to this song (video below,) wondering what a buffalo soldier was, who was stolen from Africa? Why were they fighting?

As it turns out, this song was released after Marley's death and was written by both Marley and fellow Jamaican Noel ‘King Sporty’ Williams. The original term ‘buffalo soldier’ is thought to have developed after Black soldiers were sent to the Western parts of the United States in the 19^th century after the Civil War. There they were tasked with settling railroad disputes, building forts, and protecting colonizing settlers from Native Americans, whose land was yet again being encroached upon by white Europeans (the layers of disenfranchisement here run deep.) Native Americans who encountered these Black soldiers began calling them ‘buffalo soldiers’ for their hairs’ perceived resemblance to thick, curly buffalo fur. Marley and his co-writer re-envisioned the term in his song, protesting the role of the Black cavalrymen in building the country that continues to reject Black folks to this day.

The words of the song are pretty clear on Marley’s stance on how Black people are treated in this country, so in lieu of writing more, I’ll leave them below. The only commentary I’ll add is how troubling it is to think of how relevant the song remains in the 21^st century, well over a hundred years after these buffalo soldiers were forced to build a nation that continues to reject their people as equals.

There are so many great Bob Marley songs to choose from when it comes to songs of protest. Billboard has listed (in their opinion) the 10 greatest protest songs in his repertoirehere, if you’re interested in a deeper dive. 😊 

Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock Rasta
There was a Buffalo Soldier
In the heart of America
Stolen from Africa, brought to America
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival

I mean it, when I analyze these things
To me, it makes a lot of sense
How the dreadlock Rasta was the Buffalo Soldier
And he was taken from Africa, brought to America
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival

Said he was a Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock Rasta
Buffalo Soldier, in the heart of America

If you know your history
Then you would know where you coming from
Then you wouldn't have to ask me
Who the heck do I think I am

I'm just a Buffalo Soldier
In the heart of America
Stolen from Africa, brought to America
Said he was fighting on arrival
Fighting for survival
Said he was a Buffalo Soldier
Win the war for America

Said he was a, woe yoy yoy, woe woe yoy yoy
Woe yoy yoy yo, yo yo woy yo, woe yoy yoy

Woe yoe yoe, woe woe yoe yoe
Woe yoe yoe yo, yo yo woe yo woe yo yoe

Buffalo Soldier, troddin' through the land woo ooh
Said he wanna ran, then you wanna hand
Troddin' through the land, yea, yea

Said he was a Buffalo Soldier
Win the war for America
Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock Rasta
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival
Driven from the mainland
To the heart of the Caribbean

Singing, woe yoy yoy, woe woe yoy yoy
Woe yoy yoy yo, yo yo woy yo woy yo yoy

Woy yoy yoy, woy woy yoy yoy
Woy yoy yoy yo, yo yo woe yo woe yo yoy

Troddin' through San Juan
In the arms of America
Troddin' through Jamaica, a Buffalo Soldier
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival
Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock Rasta