Watch live footage from the orginal Smile concert.
No matter what political upheaval might have been rocking his country, Bob Marley always found a way to smile when thinking about Jamaica.
That sentiment eventually fed into the song, "Smile Jamaica," which wasn't officially released on any of his albums but is available on compilations and in an alternate version on Kaya.
Bob's son, Stephen Marley, whose debut solo CD, Mind Control, drops March 20, sat down with BobMarley.com to listen to and discuss the songs meaning for the fourth installment of the site's "Listening Series," which sheds new light on how and why some of the singer's classic songs were recorded.
"The concept of this one to feel up, to feel irie regardless of the situation," Stephen said. "In particular, in that song my father was talking about Jamaica, and the political situation there got him down."
With that, Stephen then started lightly singing the simple but powerful opening lyrics, "Feeling out, feeling down/This feeling wouldn't leave me alone/Then up came-a one that said/'Hey, Dread, fly, Natty Dread, and smile!/You're in Jamaica: C'mon and smile!'"
Stephen and his brothers Damian, Julian and Ky-mani recently gave Jamaicans a big reason to smile, playing a concert on Feb 10 in Bob's hometown and burial place of Nine Mile in rural St. Ann Parish to honor the 62nd anniversary of their father's birth.
The proceeds benefited Ghetto Youths International, the foundation started by Stephen and Ziggy in 1992 to help young, often underprivileged artists get a start in the music business. And in a nod to the famous Dec. 5, 1976, concert of the same name in which Bob performed in front of 80,000 fans in a Kingston park despite being shot two days earlier in an assassination attempt, they called the performance "Smile Jamaica."
"Again, (Bob was) bringing positivity through music, not because of the situation in the world," Stephen said, recalling the message of the song. "And it's not good to talk about if you just talk about what's going on (politically) sometimes, you know? Positive things have to be the highlight.
"As him say, sometimes it takes one to say, 'Smile, man.' Once there's life, there's hope."