Listen & Download No Woman No Cry, a reggae song by Jamaican reggae band Bob Marley and The Wailers, from their 1975 album Live!, though the song first became known in 1974 from the studio album Natty Dread.
“No Woman, No Cry” was co-written by Bob Marley along with his friend Vincent ‘Tata’ Ford, who is actually the person who taught Bob Marley (plus Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer) how to play guitar. The song is about a memory that Ford has of a woman crying in the street in front of his home, and the story goes that he sat under a tree in Trenchtown and strummed his guitar while writing the words to the song.
The studio version is good for sure, but the live version from the Lyceum in 1975, from the album Live! has way more guts. This is the version that has really become famous, as it is played slower and with more emotion than the studio cut. It’s the version that people know, and the one that earns this track its spot on this list.
Another little aside for the Deadheads out there: The Bob Marley & The Wailers concerts from 7/17/75 and 7/18/75 do take place at the same Lyceum in London where the Grateful Dead played a four-night stand to close out their famous Europe ’72 tour.
LYRICS
No, woman, no cry.
No, woman, no cry.
No, woman, no cry.
No, woman, no cry.
‘Cause—’cause—’cause I remember when a we used to sit
In a government yard in Trenchtown,
Ob—observing the hypocrites.
Yeah!
Mingle with the good people we meet.
Yeah!
Good friends we have. Oh.
Good friends we have lost along the way. Yeah!
In this great future you can’t forget your past.
So dry your tears, I say.
Yeah.
No, woman, no cry.
No, woman, no cry. Eh, yeah!
A little darlin’, don’t shed no tears.
No, woman, no cry. Eh!
Said—said—said I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown. Yeah.
And then Georgie would make the fire lights,
I say, log wood burnin’ through the nights.
Yeah!
Then we would cook cornmeal porridge,
I say, of which I’ll share with you.
Yeah!
My feet is my only carriage
And so I’ve got to push on through.
But while I’m gone,
Everything’s gonna be all right!
Everything’s gonna be all right!
Everything’s gonna be all right, yeah!
Everything’s gonna be all right!
Everything’s gonna be all right-a!
Everything’s gonna be all right!
Everything’s gonna be all right, yeah!
Everything’s gonna be all right!
So, no, woman, no cry.
No, woman, no cry.
I say, oh, little—oh, little darlin’, don’t shed no tears.
No, woman, no cry. Eh.
No, woman—no, woman—no, woman, no cry.
No, woman, no cry.
One more time I got to say,
Oh, little-little darlin’, please don’t shed no tears.
No, woman, no cry.
Stream and Download Bob Marley & The Wailers – No Woman, No Cry Mp3 Below
