War (Bob Marley Song) - Songwriting Controversy

Songwriting Controversy

The song is credited to Alan "Skill" Cole (idea) and late Wailers' drummer Carlton "Carly" Barrett (music); The music was an extension of the one-drop drumming style, which Carlton Barrett, if not invented, but further developed and refined. The lyrics is an exact repetition of a speech in the UN by the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. Marley had his way, by oral agreement, rewarding friends who contributed to the compositions - even if they only contributed with ideas - and Marley's sudden onset of fatal cancer in combination with the religious belief that Rastafarians could not die, causing immobility in copyright questions regarding several songs. Among these were "No Woman No Cry," "Rebel Music" and "War".

However, based on two simple guitar chords, the semi-improvised, spirited melody put to Selassie's words is unmistakably Marley's. Barrett's brother, Wailer musician Aston "Family Man" Barrett (who created the bass line, key to the song's efficiency) has since brought law suits against the Marley estate (In practice, the widow Rita Marley) for unpaid royalties and credit for songs such as War that were either written by others and not by Bob Marley, or in collaboration with Marley. One such suit resulted in a $500,000 settlement in 1994. A later suit filed in the UK was dismissed. Wailers group leader, arranger and bass player Barrett has lost the case; but it also appears that Bob Marley had several of his multi-million selling 1974-1976 songs credited to close friends and relatives because he was under an unfavorable publishing contract, signed in April 1968 with Cayman Publishing, that would have otherwise deprived him of much of his songwriting royalties. Crediting close friends, such as football player Allan "Skill" Cole or drummer Carlton Barrett therefore enabled Bob Marley to circumvent the law until new, more favorable agreements were made. The songs concerned include the hit "No Woman No Cry", credited to ghetto friend Vincent 'Tata' Ford (who actually said the words "No woman no cry", meaning No woman, don't cry in standard English, comforting a woman visiting his soup kitchen in Trenchtown, where poor musicians like Marley often went in the 1960s in order not to starve to death), and several others; This was revealed in Stephen Davis' biography "Bob Marley," thus leading to a lawsuit by Cayman owner Danny Sims, for a time manager for both Marley and the American soul and rocksteady singer Johnny Nash (a friend who Marley first wrote "Stir It Up" to), who sued the Bob Marley estate in the 1980s, also years after Marley's passing. Eventually Sims lost the case "Let bygone's be bygone's" as legally, he made his claim too late. Sims sold his publishing contract to Marley producer Chris Blackwell's Blue Mountain music in 1986.

Bob Marley was originally an extremely talented song writer, but during the ska-, rocksteady- and the primitive reggae era, only Peter Tosh could play the guitar in The Wailing Wailers. Carlton Barrett was considered the most promising young reggae drummer in Jamaica when he belonged to Lee "Scratch" Perry's studio band The Upsetters, and when Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer broke with Perry in 1972, they "stole" the The Barrett brothers from Perry. The Barrett Brothers have a very large part in the development of Bob Marley's special sound, that does not sound like other reggae music. When Tosh and Wailer left 1973, it was Aston Barrett's idea to rearrange the band's music room, to create a rehearsal room, and set it up like a little demo studio to tape the new concept of lyrics, melodies, and music. Bob Marley and the Wailers started to prepare themselves much better musically before they were ready to go into the studio. The first work was the album called Natty Dread 1974 (where "No Woman No Cry" and "Rebel Music" can be found, and the second album was Rastaman Vibration with the songs "War" and "Want More" (Aston Barrett). After Marley's death, it was not easy to determine who did what in creating music. The songs "grew" naturally through rehearsals, etc., but when it came to Bob Marley and the Wailers, the band members were convinced that they were led by a prophet who inspired them all. Bob Marley was extremely charismatic, and after his death in 1981 many of the band members had difficulties to make a living, sometimes due to depression and personal crises. The royalty battles are really deeply tragic, but the situation has improved in many ways since Marley's sons David (Ziggy) and Stephen became grown and took over the heritage, the copyrights and the responsibility.