“Bob’s method was to write about reality, or about what was happening at the time,” says Rita Marley, wife of reggae great Bob Marley. “It was like, ‘What’s in the news?’ ‘What's in the headlines?’ There was always something to write about.”
That observation was never truer than on Exodus, Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1977 masterpiece. Released at the height of the British punk movement, the album mixed righteous indignation with romantic intensity, and framed those themes in soulful reggae grooves later adopted by bands like the Clash, the English Beat, and the Police. Previous Marley albums such as Natty Dread and Positive Vibration had assumed similar stances, but on Exodus the urgency of the message was ratcheted up as never before.
“Bob worked very hard,” says Rita Marley, who also sang as a member of Marley's backing trio, the I-Threes. “His feeling was, ‘I know what I’m doing isn’t just something that I—Bob Marley—am doing. It’s prophetic, it’s an assignment, and it’s something I had better get right, now.’ He worked with a really serious commitment, as if he knew he wasn’t going to be around very long, physically. He was on a mission.”
Fact is, when Marley began work on Exodus he had good reason to be contemplating his mortality. While living in his native Jamaica, in late 1976, Marley had agreed to perform a free outdoor concert, titled “Smile Jamaica,” at the bequest of the country’s Ministry of Culture. Though the show was billed as a non-partisan event, the politically charged atmosphere was fraught with danger. Two nights prior to the concert, gunmen stormed into Marley’s home and shot and wounded him in an assassination attempt. Marley went on to do the show, but immediately afterwards he and the Wailers went into self-imposed exile in London.
“Man, that wasn't part of the plan, to go to London,” says Rita Marley. “It was a compulsory move. And it was obvious in the songs Bob wrote at the time. There was a hurt, and anger—not about the brothers who did the shooting, but about the ones who set them up. We had to move. After the assassination attempt, we got scared, for real.”
Galvanized by the attempt on his life, Marley poured himself into the songs on Exodus. Several tracks deal directly with his brush with death. On “Natural Mystic,” “Heathen,” and “Guiltiness,” Marley’s scratchy, staccato chords—played on his iconic mahogany Les Paul Special—are punctuated by sinewy leads from guitarist Junior Marvin, creating a dark sense of foreboding. Likewise, the rumbling bass, sharp horns, and smoldering riffs on the title track brim with defiance, while also paying homage to Marley’s love of American soul music.
“That’s all we used to listen to,” says Rita Marley, when asked about the R&B influence. "That was like our food, in terms of thinking that one day our music would be played on American radio stations. This was in the early ’60s. My group—the Soulettes—thought of ourselves as the Supremes, or Mary Wells. And Bob Marley and Wailers, at that time, wanted to sound like Curtis Mayfield and James Brown.”
In contrast to the spiritual militancy that dominates the first half of Exodus, the second half draws from another primary source: Marley’s love affair with the then-recently crowned Miss World, Cindy Breakspeare. In Breakspeare, Marley found inspiration for the most passionate love songs he would ever write. “Waiting In Vain” captures beautifully the sweet ache of desire; likewise, the weepy guitar leads on “Turn Your Lights Down Low”—played by the newly recruited Marvin on a Les Paul—punctuate the tenderness and poignancy of the lyrics.
“Bob’s feeling was, ‘I need a guitarist who’s going to rock me,’” Rita Marley offers. “Junior was that kind of person, especially on-stage. The way he played, you wanted to cry sometimes.”
Exodus went on to garner Bob Marley and the Wailers a degree of commercial success that, to that point, had eluded the band. Not only did the album reach gold status (a first for the group), but the title track became the first Marley single to receive widespread airplay on African-American radio stations. A second single, “Jamming,” became a global hit, and remains one of the best-known songs in the Marley canon.
In addition, the album further deepened reggae’s impact on Britain’s punk bands, with whom Marley felt a strong kinship. During the sessions for Exodus, the reggae legend even recorded a non-album single—“Punky Reggae Party”—to celebrate the outlaw-spirit connection between the two music camps.
More importantly, Exodus elevated the entire genre of reggae—and its attendant philosophies and themes—to worldwide prominence. Still, as Rita Marley points out, Bob Marley remained humble in spirit—though resolute with his music—for the rest of his life.
“He never stopped to think, ‘Wow, I’m Bob Marley’,” she says. “He was Robert—or Robbie—before he was Bob, and that’s what we always called him. But he was also very strict and very disciplined. Recording and making music was fun, but we didn’t joke around. Bob made sure every note, and every sound, was as perfect as it could be. He never took anything for granted.”