BURNIN' & LOOTIN'
Written by Bob Marley Bob Marley (Burnin', 1973) Live performance Excuse me Mr. / Burnin' & Lootin' * First time ever live on 07/10/97 at The Metro, Chicago, IL. Appears on "Jah Work" (single) 1997 / "Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals - Live" (EP) 1997, Japan / "Mama's Trippin'" (single) 1997. Info From www.bobmarley.com : "How long before we can be seen as just human beings?" The night before there had been a curfew: the youth, who would throw molotov cocktails at the police, had been burning and stealing. Bob and Rita woke in their Second Street tenement apartment and found rifles pointed at them through their windows, the police "all dressed in uniforms of brutality". Everyone - the entire ghetto - is surrounded. For four days they can't even go to the shops. Bob was seen as a community leader; and the police would come and ask him which youth had taken the car of the stolen goods. "We were all calculated as hoodlums, even before the Rasta thing came into being," says Rita. "But they were depending on Bob to be a good-good Rudie. We lived before the cemetery. By seven or eight in the morning everybody's out on the sidewalk, Bob playing his guitar, a football match gets started. Because Bob was lightskin, it not so bad fe we. Jamaica very colour prejudiced." Lyrics This morning I woke up in a curfew. Oh- Lord, I said Oh- God, I was a prisoner too - yeah. I did not recognize those faces that are standing over me. These faces of brutality, of brutality - yeah. How many rivers do we have to cross, cross, cross, Before, before we can talk to the boss? All that we've had, all that we've had, It seems we have lost, lost, lost. We must have really paid, really paid, Paid the cost, paid the cost. And that's why, that's why we gonna be, Burnin' and lootin' tonight. Yes, we (gonna be) burnin' and lootin' tonight. Burnin' and lootin' tonight. Burnin' all illusions tonight. Original lyrics This morning I woke up in a curfew Oh god, I was a prisoner too - yeah Could not recognise the faces standing over me They were all dressed in uniforms of brutality How many rivers do we have to cross Before we can talk to the boss All that we got seems lost We must have really paid the cost (That's why we gonna be) Burnin' and a-lootin' tonight (Say we gonna burn and loot) Burnin' and a-lootin' tonight (One more thing) Burnin all pollution tonight (Oh yeah, yeah) Burning all illusions tonight Oh stop them Give me the food and let me grow Let the roots man take a blow All them drugs gonna make you slow now It's not the music of the ghetto Weeping and a-wailing tonight (Ooh can't stop the tears) Weepin' and a-wailin' tonight (We've been suffering all these long, long years) Weeping and a-wailing tonight Give me the food and let me grow Let the roots man take a blow All them drugs gonna make you slow now It's not the music of the ghetto We gonna be burnin' and a-lootin' tonight (To survive, yeah) Burnin' and a-lootin' tonight (Save your babies lives) Burning all pollution tonight Burning all illusions tonight Burnin and lootin tonight Burnin and lootin tonight |