What's on my iPod: Bob Marley - Could You Be Loved

By Gregory John "G.J." Vitale on June 25, 2012

The second edition of my weekly iPod update features “Could You Be Loved” by Bob Marley and the Wailers (I have chosen to include “the Wailers,” but many people nowadays remove them, even though Marley kept the name even after the original Wailers broke up).  Although it is originally featured on 1980′s Uprising, “Could You Be Loved” is also featured on many compilation albums.  The source of the song on my iPod is 1984′s Legend, one of these greatest hits compilations of Marley’s music that contains “Could You Be Loved.”  Legend is the best-selling reggae album of all-time at 25 million copies worldwide (right now I’m looking at one of those 25 million sitting comfortably in my CD rack between The Who’s Who’s Next and Rush’s Hemispheres…I know, I should get to alphabetizing).

The song has every aspect of a classic Marley reggae track with the twist of a Brazilian cuíca, a friction drum that produces a high-pitched, squeaky timbre heard throughout the track, and an interesting intro riff.  The infectious riff plays throughout, almost methodically forcing your head to bob up and down to the beat.  It is slightly disco-esque and runs unaccompanied for the first ten seconds before being joined by the universal sound of reggae: the off-beat ska stroke on guitar.

Lyrically, it begins with two group repetitions of “Could you be loved and be loved” before entering a stanza about holding on to your beliefs sung by Marley.  The song continues in this general pattern for its entirety.  A neat little wrinkle is thrown in when the backing singers reference Marley’s first recorded single entitled “Judge Not,” when they preach, “The road of life is rocky and you may stumble too/  So while you point your fingers someone else is judging you.”

Thoughts – It all seems pretty straight forward to me.  Just a solid reggae jam.  The message is very similar to songs like “Get Up, Stand Up:” fight for your freedom.  What you are fighting for freedom of?  That is always up to the listener to interpret.  This is a big reason why Marley’s “songs of freedom” (to reference “Redemption Song”) are so universal and widely loved.  They seem to be just ambiguous enough to bring all people into the equation, but strong enough to maintain a realness.  The call and answer portion that ends the song is exemplary of this relationship with the masses.  Marley calls “Say something!” while his backing vocalists reverberate the question at hand “Could you be loved?”  It seems Marley is asking us all to do a little soul searching and answer the question ourselves.

Song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-_NMAllsJc

Lryics - http://www.metrolyrics.com/could-you-be-loved-lyrics-bob-marley.html

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