marley lyrics

When I first heard the Police, I thought it was one of the freshest sounds I'd ever heard. Later on, I learned that they were indebted to Bob Marley, but only in the past few days have I realized how much. I've never been too into Marley, or heard much of his stuff. This place we've been eating, though, plays his music constantly. So much of what I hear — the jazzy rasp of his voice, the epigrammatic guitar riffs, the cool jittery drum fills — is inarguably at the source of the Police's sound.

There's one song that has tickled Catherine and me. Marley sings:

I'm iron
Like a lion
In Zion

which works when sung in a Jamaican accent. But then, when he repeats the line, he ends the stanza with a quick recap:

I'm iron
Like a lion
In Zion
Iron! Lion! Zion!

What a great idea. I think other songs with subtle rhyme schemes could benefit from this device. Hmmmmm:

I will be here
To watch you grow in beauty
And tell you all the things you are too me.
Beauty! Too-me!

I like it better already.