Exodus was recorded following an assassination attempt on Bob Marley’s life in 1976 at his home in Jamaica. The country was in the midst of significant societal upheaval, and Marley’s massive profile as a cultural icon at the time had drawn the attention of the conservative Jamaican Labour Party (backed by the CIA) and the People’s National Party (backed by Cuba/Russia). The TL;DR version is that Marley had organized a non-political concert called Free Jamaica set to take place in a few days, the event got politicized, and one of these groups shot Marley (either intending to kill or to just injure him) and use the fallout to make him a political icon aligned with their parties beliefs. It’s a pretty wild story with a ton of twists and turns– NME has a great read on the subject if you want to learn more.
At any rate, this event led Marley to flee his native country to London, finishing the bulk of recording for Exodus in the safety of a foreign country. In that sense the album title is incredibly fitting, with the lyrics of the title track drawing on the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt as a metaphor for Rastafarian freedom. You have to imagine Marley was thinking of that vivid imagery based off what he had experienced a few short months before.
Those themes of religion and politics are omnipresent during the entirety of Exodus, an album that blends those themes together alongside tales of making love and enjoying the simple things in life. His long-time band The Wailers provide the backdrop for these themes, cranking out arrangements that have become synonymous with reggae music. The Wailers music is iconic as hell, with non better than the bass grooves of Aston Barrett– his thumping and groovy bass lines fit seamlessly into each track, pushing the pace and rounding out each song with a thick low end that compliments Marley’s immediately recognizable croon.
Standout Songs: “So Much Things To Say”, “Three Little Birds”, “Exodus”
