u/CurtisFridge

I’ve been thinking about songs from the past which politically resonate today.

I think this one would feel at home at any time period.

Marley offers furious patience over impatient rage, with biblical propheticism.

And while the target of this song for him is gatekeeping in the monopolised Jamaican music industry of the late 60s / early 70s, the question for us in 2026 is - if we are the small axe...

... who is the big tree?

I can think of a few names.

The version for me is the one Lee "Scratch" Perry produced in 1970. The Wailers sound incredible.

This song is forever threaded into my prayer mat.

I'm eternally grateful to the person who wrote it, and also to the person who introduced me to it when I was 6.

@jonnyforever_