‘The Summer of Marley’ culminates this week with a brand new, official lyric video for Bob Marley & The Wailer’s “Exodus,” which debuted on Bob Marley’s Official YouTube Channel.
The new video for “Exodus” draws on shared histories, collective pain, and a cry for liberation, showing through rich visuals a parallel between the Biblical story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and the hope of guiding the Rastafarians to freedom. Led by an international team of artists from Africa, Europe, and South America, the video articulates a message of triumph, hope, unity, and strength of a community coming together using hand-drawn illustrations and textures laced with powerful, archival footage of Bob Marley & The Wailers performing “Exodus” in Zimbabwe in 1980. The protagonists set out to leave a destroyed land behind, hoping to find the Fatherland, with aspirations to build a spiritual homeland and find redemption and peace in the middle of Africa.
Over the summer, the original album of Bob Marley & The Wailers, Exodus, named the “Best Album of the 20th Century” by Time magazine in 1999, became available in Dolby Atmos.
In addition, the Marley Family, Island Records, and UMe marked the 45th anniversary of Exodus with a revised digital Exodus: Deluxe Edition in June. The digital deluxe album features the ten tracks from the original album, plus 18 Singles & Sessions tracks; 13 of the tracks were culled from two previous Deluxe Editions. Previously unreleased tracks, “Natural Mystic (Horns Mix),” and “The Heathen (Alternate Version),” the rare 7-inch versions of “Exodus,” “Jamming,” and “Punky Reggae Party,’ and the original B-side to “Jamming” are also included on the new digital deluxe, as well as two cuts previously unavailable digitally.
The Exodus: Deluxe Edition also boasts two additional bonus tracks, including the edited live versions of “So Much Things To Say” from the June 1st show (previously released on the Deluxe Edition of Exodus 40 – The Movement Continues in 2017) and “Exodus,” the finale from the Rainbow’s June 2nd set, previously featured on the album’s 2001 Deluxe Edition. Each performance is otherwise presented unedited within their respective live set.
June also highlighted the digital premiere of three of the four nights from Bob Marley & the Wailers’ historic June 1977 run at London’s Rainbow Theatre. While a select number of tracks from the Rainbow recordings were included on previously released Deluxe Editions of Exodus, audio and video of the entire June 4 concert were released during the year-long 75th Birthday Celebration in 2020. Most of the legendary performances from the three nights, each featuring slightly different setlists and alternate arrangements, had never been heard. Twenty-nine songs throughout the three shows, equating to more than three-quarters of the total songs performed, are previously unreleased performances.
