A Natural Mystic?
Amara Foster
Bob Marley is one the biggest and most famous reggae artists in not only Jamaica, but the world. He writes and creates music that addresses different issues from a spiritual, political, and social background. One well known song written and performed by Marley is Natural Mystic. The main function of Natural Mystic is storytelling. He is trying to raise awareness through the different elements of this song. The musical traits that help tell this story include text, which consist of lyrics sung at a steady pace and are heavily repeated for emphasis, multiple instrument layers, consisting of percussion and brass instruments, that play at slower speeds, helping to bring the text to life, call and response, that is created between the voice and instrument layers, and tempo, which remains steady. These traits are consistent throughout the entire song, helping Marley to create and tell his story.
The text of the reggae song, Natural Mystic by Bob Marley is a strong musical trait throughout the song. It connects to the function of storytelling. This then connects to a lot of specific characteristics of who Bob Marley was, what he stood for, and what he wanted his music to stand for. Bob Marley was a solid songwriter, who wrote heartfelt lyrics. These heartfelt lyrics were sung at the same pace throughout the song. Marley draws an emphasis on specific lyrics. These lyrics are heavily repeated to help his story. Some of Marley’s music works as works as a spiritual endeavor(Vogel, Bob Marley). The flow of the lyrics and Marley’s singing helps to point this song in a more spiritual and Biblical direction. Marley is singing his words directly to his audience. He wants listeners to understand this idea of this “natural mystic” that he keeps repeating. His constant repetition helps listeners understand the meaning of his song and the story that he is trying to tell. He is telling a story about this “natural mystic.” Marley’s songs usually center around universally appealing anthems of peace, love, solidarity and fighting oppression(Jackson). These are usually the stories that are told through his music. But this song is a little different. This is one of his songs where he is trying raise awareness. Marley is trying to tell us, as his audience something through the sounds created by and through the text and through this story. Marley wants his audience to see what he sees and hear what he hears. The steady pace of the text, and the constant repetition help with this. He wants people to come together and recognize the truth and importance of this deeper interpretation of this “mystic,” that he is singing about. How the lyrics of this song sound show that Bob Marley is one of the best songwriters and performers of his generation(Vogel, Bob Marley). The musical trait of text really play a huge role in creating this purpose and telling the story of Natural Mystic.
There are multiple instrument layers within in the song, but they all come from two main groups. The instruments are from the percussion and brass groups. The instrument layers have a specific function within the song. Their function of course is to help tell Marley’s story. The instruments show that this story can be told with no words. There are times where the the instruments play by themselves without Marley singing. The story is still being told when this happens. The instrument layers alone play a large role in the function of the song. But they also work with another main layer to help tell this story, and help raise awareness of this natural mystic that Marley is singing about.
Call and response is another musical trait that is strongly heard in the song Natural Mystic by Bob Marley. It connects to both function of storytelling, as well as contextual information found in my research about Bob Marley and his musical style. Call and response is created between the voice layer and the multiple instrument layers. The instruments respond to the lyrics that Marley’s singing. Also, Marley’s singing responds to the instrument layers. Marley sings at a slower, steadier beat, and the instruments also play at a slower, steadier beat. This connects to how Marley was beginning to move his own personal sound to a slower reggae beat(Vogel, Bob Marley). The call and response created between the layers reflects this sound. The slower reggae beats of both layers work together to help tell this story, and to help raise this awareness of this “natural mystic,” that Marley is signing about. Remember that some of Marley’s songs were considered spiritual endeavors(Vogel, Bob Marley). Part of the story that Marley was telling had to do with spirituality. The call and response created helped to also demonstrate this spiritual aspect of the song. Bob Marley sings with an emotive voice (Jackson) in a lot of his music. In this particular song, he follows this trend within the voice layer. The instrument layers support this emotive singing. The instrument layers react to Marley’s emotive voice, through the melodies that they create, and the tempos that play. Both layers that are used to create this call and response, are stand strong on their own, individually. But when they are put together, they become even stronger. Their musical strength makes the story that is being told more effective. The voice layer and the instrument layers work together, creating call and response. The call and response heard helps to connect to the function of storytelling, and it also connects to the musician that Bob Marley was when it came to his own sound, what some of his music stood for, and the deep emotion behind his songs, from both the singing and instruments.
The tempo of Natural Mystic by Bob Marley is a strong musical trait throughout the song. The tempo of Natural Mystic remained pretty throughout the entire song. Since ,Marley moved the sounds in his music toward a slower reggae beat(Vogel, Bob Marley), this characteristic not only played a role in how influential he was, but also the tempo in this song. The tempo of Natural Mystic meets this piece of contextual information. The tempo is a consistently steady, slow reggae beat. It matches the sound that Marley was not going for in his music. Marley was coming completely into his own style. Having his tempo in this specific, and many other songs of his, follow this pattern of a slower reggae beat, helped to demonstrate how he was coming into his own style(Vogel, Bob Marley). The steady tempo of this song not only plays a role in the story that is being told, but it also helps to express a few of the themes that Marley demonstrates in his music. Marley’s music is all usually politically empowering(Vogel, Bob Marley). His songs are also universally appealing anthems of peace, love, solidarity and the idea of fighting oppression(Jackson). These themes do not exactly fit the message of this specific song and story. But they connect to explaining why Marley seems to use these steadier and more consistent tempos in his music. His tempos do not need to go through a lot of changes or consist of a faster beat for him to be able to tell his story and to get his message across. The story that is being told in Natural Mystic has a spiritual side to it. Another piece of contextual information is that Marley wrote and sang some songs that were considered spiritual endeavors. The steady, slower, and softer tempo helps to draw emphasis on the lyrics that convey this spiritual side. The tempo of Natural Mystic help to connect to both the function of the song, but also to what Marley stood for in his music, and the type of sounds that he represented.
The musical traits that are included in Natural Mystic, which are text, texture of layers, which include one vocal layer, multiple instrument layers, and call and response, and tempo. These musical traits all work together, and individually to help Bob Marley raise awareness through the story that is being told.
Works Cited
Jackson, Blair. “Bob Marley, Live CDs are on the Way!” (n.d.).
Vogel, Daniel R. “Bob Marley.” Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia. 2019. 3p.
Marley, B. (1977). Natural Mystic. Jamaica.
