Bob Marley – Small Axe lyrics

Bob Marley – Small Axe lyrics

Why boasteth thyself
Oh, evil men
Playing smart
And not being clever?
I said, you're working iniquity
To achieve vanity (if a-so a-so)
But the goodness of Jah, Jah
I-dureth for-I-ver

So if you are the big tree
We are the small axe
Ready to cut you down (well sharp)
To cut you down

These are the words
Of my master, keep on tellin' me
No weak heart
Shall prosper
And whosoever diggeth a pit
Shall fall in it, fall in it
And whosoever diggeth a pit
Shall fall in it (... Fall in it)

If you are the big tree, let me tell you that
We are the small axe, sharp and ready
Ready to cut you down (well sharp)
To cut you down

(To cut you down)

(To cut you down)

These are the words
Of my master, tellin' me that
No weak heart
Shall prosper
And whosoever diggeth a pit
Shall fall in it, uh, bury in it
And whosoever diggeth a pit
Shall bury in it, uh (... Bury in it)

If you are the big, big tree
We are the small axe
Ready to cut you down (well sharp)
To cut you down
If you are the big, big tree, let me tell you that
We are the small axe
Ready to cut you down (well sharp)
To cut you down
Sharpened...

Lyrics taken from /lyrics/b/bob_marley/small_axe.html

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Small Axe meanings

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+ 14
dvelezz 2008-10-20 22:25:09

The powerful have always exploited the weak. Though they have managed to achieve success, measured by the fulfillment of personal vanity, it comes at the cost of the entire human race and natural world. Fortunately, change can come from the bottom up. It just takes a small axe to bring down a big tree and if many are wielded, a forest of corruption and mental slavery can be brought down. There is hope for the disenfranchised, but it lies in our hands.
--Daniel Velez.

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+ 2
Unregistered 2012-05-23 07:35:46

This song is actually about the corruption in politics and cheating conflicts that arise and how the power of a people can overcome to cut them down. As they boasteth themeselves in their political parties, working in the name of equality to ensure their personal gain in-equality. The word master relates to the slavery term from which I and I would've been having to refer to in times gone by.

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+ 1
Unregistered 2012-05-29 22:13:31

Also a reference to the tree(three) recording powers who bob felt were ripping off the artists so he warned them that there would be a revolution in the recording business and the artists would cut them down.
Bunny wailer put a curse on him and he died suddenly of a heart attack soon after. The way the artists were being treated spurred bob on to start his own label so he would have control of his music glenn sands.

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- 3
myg0t_Azide 2011-07-24 18:27:24

Marley had come to realize the virtues of deforestation in his latter years and spend significant effort promoting logging and development. This was a song written for a fund-raiser he hosted in 1967 to gain equity for the clearing of a large parcel he owned just outside of Kingston. He implied that religious people stood in the way of progress and touted the virtues of hard work to overcome the fear of nature.

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