Song Fact Friday “Marley”

Me and You and Marley… Read all about this special song written about the islands!

Interview Quoted From: April 29, 2013|By Chrissie Dickinson, Special to the Chicago Tribune

Question: In ‘Marley,’ you name check the late reggae legend Bob Marley and his number ‘Redemption Song.’ It sounds like a page torn from your journal expressing gratitude for life but also realizing life can sometimes get overwhelming.

Kenny: I think it can for everybody. There’s this emotion we all feel of being overwhelmed at times, feeling that you can’t get ahead. For me it’s self-imposed because I’m so driven and I’m always going from project to project. I start to feel this knife of responsibility. My way of pulling that knife out is being on a boat and trying to be still and just listening to the waves hit up against the side of the boat. I’ve got Bob Marley playing. I’ve got this old copy of ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ by Hemingway that I bought in the Florida Keys years ago. I’ve read that book 25 times. Every time I get on the boat, I start reading it again. It’s the idea of me being out there completely away from the sound of the generator, the catering truck, sound check, guitar amps, the ringing in my ears — all the things that twirl around in my head from years of being on the road. The idea of being completely alone out there on a boat with Bob Marley and a book is awesome.

https://youtu.be/JqXvlMo4ryQ

“I wrote that song in my kitchen here in town with Tom Douglas. But it’s so true and authentic to my life, because I thank God every day that I’m as blessed as I am, that I have the friends that I have, that I get to make music for a living, that I get to go out and play for a pretty big mass of people. But, with that comes the knife of responsibility, like it says in the song. I feel the most solid in my skin when I can pull that knife out and just try to be still. It’s very hard for me to be still, especially when you’re planning, some things two years ahead. It’s really hard when you’re doing that to sometimes live in the moment. My favorite way to try to do that is I have a copy of Hemingway’s ‘Old Man in the Sea” I bought in the Keys a long time ago, and that same copy is on my boat right now. I’ve dropped it in the ocean, it’s been rained on, I’ve spilled rum on it, it’s weathered by the sun, it looks horrible. But I love it because, in a lot of ways, it describes my journey, the struggles of the character in the book. I bet I’ve read it 25 times, it reminds me of the relationship I had with my grandfather. That’s part of it, along with friends, family, whoever, and nine times out of 10 a Bob Marley record, that helps me live in the moment. Bob Marley, I believe, other than Willie Nelson, is the most universal artist ever. But it’s less about Marley and more about me describing how different my life can be, and what I do to find balance on the balance beam, what it takes to do that.” ~Kenny Chesney~ Via Billboard Magazine

I’ve seen so many places and so many faces
Left behind so many traces of my soul
I carry all these voices with the ringing in my ears
Some girl’s tears and the rhythm of the road
Sometimes my life takes more than I can give
That’s when I gotta go

Where no one’s around
But the silence and the sound
Of “Three Little Birds” for company
I got a sip of something strong
A secondhand “Old Man and the Sea”
Out here with me
Me and Marley
Me and Marley

God knows I love my life and I thank Him every night
But sometimes I feel the knife of responsibility
And the struggle and the strife, what’s wrong and what’s right
Has got me searching for the light and my place of peace

Where no one’s around
But the silence and the sound
Of “Three Little Birds” for company
I got a sip of something strong
A secondhand “Old Man and the Sea”
Out here with me
Me and Marley

We all live in chaos, noise and negativity
But I still believe in one love bigger than you and me
You and me
You and me and Marley
You and me and Marley

I hear redemption’s song
A whisper on the sea
Out here with me
Out here with me
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
Me and Marley