Could You Be Loved
Could You Be Loved is one of the most successful songs by Bob Marley & the Wailers . It wasreleased as the eighth song out of tenon the1980studio album Uprising .
Statistical data
The album version is in the key of B minor , but on live performances the song was mostly played in A sharp minor , i.e. a semitone lower. The duration of the album version is four minutes. In the US Billboard - Charts reached Could You Be Loved 6th place in the "Club Play Singles Chart" and No. 56 in the "Black Singles Chart". In Switzerland it reached number 2 in the singles charts in October 1980, and in Germany it was also number 13.
Lyrics description
Could You Be Loved , similar to Coming In From The Cold , which also appeared on the Uprising album, contains a personal message of hope . The first stanza is to be understood as a warning against a system that tries to control people's minds and give them illusions; the love would not leave anyone alone and in the darkness must be the light place.
The second verse sung by the I-Threes is a nearly identical copy of part of the lyrics of Judge Not , the first song Marley recorded in 1961 at the age of 16. The stanza means that while pointing at others, you are being judged the same way at the same time. One should love one's fellow human beings instead of criticizing them.
The third stanza is a differently worded repetition of the first stanza; connected is a well-known phrase of social Darwinism , "the fittest survive" (in German: "survive the strongest"). Marley used a reinforced phrase here, saying that only the fittest of the fittest would survive. The fourth stanza - sung again by the I-Threes - forms the end of the song; it is a realization that people remain dissatisfied no matter how they are treated. The stanza ends in Marley's invitation to stand up and say something (“Say something!”); this is repeated several times until the end of the song.
Music description
Could You Be Loved has an unusually poppy character with little reggae elements ; Marley knew about the temporary importance of pragmatism, which is why he consciously chose a slightly more poppy style than usual, which should appeal to radio stations in the United States . Also because Marley and his band were about to make their final breakthrough in the United States, he needed a "more mass-produced", commercial song that would serve as a draft horse for the Uprising album. The project was successful: the single was a great commercial success. Could You Be Loved is therefore a popular and frequently played song in discos . The song has been covered several times, including by Joe Cocker , Toto , Rastaman Sensation , Gee Bello , Shakespears Sister and Yannick Noah . Also Marley's children, e.g. B. Damian , Stephen, and Ziggy occasionally play the song during their performances.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Official Swiss Hit Parade - Could You Be Loved.Retrieved on February 11, 2017
- ↑ Official German Charts - Could You Be Loved. Accessed February 11, 2017
- ↑ Kwame Dawes: Bob Marley: The Exceptional Poet . PPV Medien, ISBN 3-932275-88-8 , pp. 322-327 .