“No, woman, no cry” is not a happy song. It’s based on the time that Bob Marley spent in a housing project (the Government Yard) in a ghetto called Trenchtown, in Kingston, Jamaica. The singer is comforting a woman (no-one has ever worked out who). He’s using an isolated, intimate moment to highlight the deprivation and hopelessness and grind of poverty. It’s sad and it’s haunting, and coupled with the soaring melody, it should strike a chord in the hardest of hearts. Continue reading