Dry your tears, I say.
No Woman, No Cry. What we have here is the ultimate break-up song for men. Men who have been badly hurt. Men who have had their hearts ripped out by some heartless, manipulative, soul-killing bitch-on-wheels. Men so devastated that all they can do is sit in the government yards in Trenchtown and share cornmeal porridge with other emotionally castrated men. And presumably smoke mass quantities of marijuana.
Actually, according to Wikipedia, “No Woman, No Cry” is really entreating a woman not to cry. It would be rendered “No, woman, nuh cry” in Jamaican Patois. The “nuh,” which makes a shorter vowel sound for “no,” is the equivalent of the contraction “don’t.” So it would be, “No Woman, Don’t Cry.”
But the coolest thing about this song is that Bob Marley gave the songwriter credits to “V. Ford.” Vincent Ford was a friend of Marley’s who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown, the ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica where Marley grew up. The royalty checks received by Ford ensured the survival and continual running of his soup kitchen. In all probability, Bob Marley wrote the song, but wanted Vincent Ford — and the soup kitchen — to have the royalties. And stick it to the record company at the same time. Not bad.
This No Woman No Cry sign is available on posters, t-shirts, and other assorted crap cool stuff at the Road Sign Fun store.
