Bob Marley on “Rastaman Vibration” Ban

Positive Vibrations via Cedella Marley, A Nice Time

“Rastaman Vibration” was one of the first record ever banned for me. Yeah, because it carry the speech of Haile Selassie, and because the country trying to go communist or socialist, they never want to hear what Selassie have to say. So them just ban it.

When Rastaman song get banned in Jamaica man it was war at the radio stations that play our music. War! A literal going to fight fe get your music played. Cause you know them figure say Rasta is changing society. But that is what we come to do. And people get quarrelsome and weak. We come to change things and when them see changes them quarrel and say it’s changing. And that’s what we come fi do, and them know it. -Bob Marley

photo by Dennis Morris