Bob's new surroundings in London heavily influenced the music on 'Exodus'

Bob Marley's Exodus really began on the night of December 3, 1976. The Wailers were rehearsing for the Smile Jamaica Concert held by the far left People's National Party. Michael Manley, Jamaica's Prime Minister and the leader of the PNP, asked the Wailers to play a free concert at the National Stadium in Kingston. Bob accepted the invitation and even wrote a single, "Smile Jamaica," for the show.

After the concert, an announcement was made: Michael Manley's PNP called for general elections to take place a few days after the free event. To many Jamaicans and anti-communists, it appeared that the Wailers where supporting Prime Minster Manley for reelection. It didn't help that the original Wailers had performed on the Band Wagon tour of 1971, a tour in which many young Jamaican singers supported and played for the PNP movement and for exposure. (In fact, the musicians' participation is widely held to have helped launch Manley to the Prime Minster seat.)

While rehearsing for the concert on December 3, a group of young men came to 56 Hope Road and opened fire on the band. Rita Marley was shot in the head, Don Taylor (the Wailers' manager) was hit in the leg and lower body, and Louis Griffiths (the band assistant) was also shot. As he peeled a grapefruit in the kitchen during a rehearsal break, a bullet grazed Bob's chest. Luckily, everyone survived the shooting and the band went on to play at the Smile Jamaica concert two days later, as scheduled.

The next day, Bob and his crew flew to Compass Point, Bahamas, to get away from everything and focus on music in the villas owned by Island Records founder, Chris Blackwell. While they were there, the band drafted some of the acoustic tracks for the album that would become Exodus. "Jamming" was one of a few new songs Bob and the Wailers had been working on around this time, but none of the tunes were quite finished yet. Because of daily hassles by the Bahamian government regarding visas, the group decided not to complete their work there. Instead, they gathered their belongings and made their own exodus to England.

It was this trip that truly led to the recording of the seminal Marley album, Exodus. The band had easy access to a recording studio that was open at any and all hours of the night. And so Bob, being a stranger in a strange land, went to work. As he worked, a number of factors converged and affected the material on the album. Bob was truly considering the meaning of the word "exodus" due to the forced move away from his home, where he'd been attacked. He was living and working in London, where a musical and cultural uprising was taking place with punk music. Finally, while the band was abroad, Blackwell introduced them to Junior Marvin, who brought a harder rock feel to the music than what they had had with former guitarists, like Al Anderson, Earl "Chinna" Smith, and Donald Kinsley. Between Marvin's musical contributions and the punk vibe all around the band as they wrote material for the new album, an undeniable connection to rock began to seep into Bob and the Wailers' sound. Meanwhile, the nature of their own enforced exodus to London weighed heavily on Bob's lyrics. When the album was finally finished, it was Bob Marley's first true international success, in part because of the new sound, and in part because it took on political and cultural issues that countries around the globe were facing.

On Exodus, you can almost hear Bob reflecting on his surroundings, much like Stevie Wonder had done with Songs of the Key of Life. The opening track, "Natural Mystic" wonders why life contains so many questions that remain unanswered. "So Much Things To Say" doubles as a history lesson, reminding listeners that even Jesus Christ was the subject of criticism in his time. Another track, "The Heathen" explains why Bob had to leave Jamaica and promises a return (one that he made a year later for the One Love Peace Concert.) And the title track, "Exodus," functions as a cry for the movement of Jah people against the Babylon establishment that seems to be fighting against his cause. Other songs on the album contain lighter concepts, like having fun and falling in love. But overall, the album is a historic look into the soul of a man who carried himself with pride and only longed to see a unified people.

As Bob said, "Open your eyes and look within are you satisfied with the life you're living."