BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS - War

When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated world leaders and foreign dignitaries from across the world made their way to Washington DC to attend the state funeral. Among the distinguished guests was Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. Just a month before this, in October 1963, Selassie had been in the US addressing the United Nations General Assembly. Selassie delivered a powerful speech promoting peace and human rights, which was later published, with Selassie giving permission for the speech to be used freely. Bob Marley And The Wailers did just that, they put parts of the speech to music and released the song on their 1976 Rastaman Vibration album. The lyrics to War were only slightly modified from the actual speech, and it has become one of Marley's greatest classics. Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia since 1930, had gained a lot of respect across the world ever since his majestic 1936 speech to The League Of Nations in Geneva. That year Haile Selassie was celebrated in the US as Time Magazine's "Man Of The Year". When that 1936 speech was delivered Mussolini was invading his country - Selassie would spend the next five years in exile. His warnings in that visionary speech were ignored, and within just three years World War II broke out.