No Woman, No Cry

Writing credit

Though Bob Marley may have written the song, or at least the melody, songwriter credits were given to Vincent Ford, a friend of Marley's who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown, the ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica where Marley grew up. The royalty payments received by Ford ensured the survival and continual running of his soup kitchen.

Early versions

The original demo version of the song which is unreleased was a Gospel version. This version had only the piano riff as the main instrument and was recorded in London for Island Records in 1973 with Peter Tosh and some unknown female backing singers. At the same time of this recording, the demo of the Island version of "Lively up Yourself" was also recorded. This was the last time all three original Wailers (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Neville "Bunny" Livingston - also known as Bunny Wailer) recorded together in a studio. These versions remain unreleased.

1974 studio recording

On Natty Dread, Jean Roussel provided the arrangement and Hammond organ parts for this recording.

Lyrics

The title and main refrain, "No Woman, No Cry" is rendered "No, woman, nuh cry" in Jamaican Patois. The "nuh" is pronounced with a short schwa vowel (a "mumbled" vowel, often represented as "uh" in spelling) and represents a clitic ("weakened") form of "no". It is the equivalent to the contraction "don't". The song is about growing up in the ghetto and persuading a woman that things will get better, entreating her not to cry.

The Fugees version

"No Woman, No Cry" is the fourth single from the Fugees' second studio album, The Score. The song was produced by Salaam Remi. The Fugees' version of the track features Wyclef Jean on lead vocals, and changes the lyric "in a government yard in Trenchtown" to "in a government yard in Brooklyn". An official remix of the track, featuring Stephen Marley, was included on the group's third release, Bootleg Versions. Wyclef Jean recorded a solo version of the track for his Greatest Hits compilation in 2003.

Track listing

UK CD1

1. "No Woman, No Cry" (LP version) - 4:03
2. "No Woman, No Cry" (Remix) - 3:55
3. "No Woman, No Cry" (Remix instrumental) - 3:55
4. "Killing Me Softly" (Live) - 4:25

UK CD2

1. "Don't Cry, Dry Your Eyes" - 5:03
2. "Don't Cry, Dry Your Eyes" (Instrumental) - 5:03
3. "No Woman, No Cry" (LP version) - 4:03
4. "A Change Is Gonna Come" (Live) - 6:04

Other cover versions

The song has been covered by numerous other artists including:

Nina Simone

Billy Ocean

Katherine Jenkins

Gym Class Heroes

Londonbeat

Sublime

Blues Traveler (with Ziggy Marley),

Cas Haley, O.A.R.

Devon Allman's Honeytribe

Joan Baez

Xavier Rudd

Isaiah Firebrace

Jimmy Buffett

Boney M.

Jonathan Butler

James "The King" Brown

Tim Barry

No Use for a Name

Whoopi Goldberg and the Reggae Rodents

Hikaru Utada

The String Cheese Incident

NOFX (live), with El Hefe playing and singing alone

Tila Tequila

Pearl Jam

Andrés Calamaro

Hugh Masekela

Hedley

Twenty One Pilots

Jimmy Cliff

Chaif, a Russian rock band, covered the song at many of their live performances

Pauline Black

Peter Rowan

Show of Hands

John Mayer

Colbie Caillat

Bill Bourne

Matisyahu

Matt Maher

Graham Parker

Edwin McCain

Keller Williams

Eterna Inocencia

Linkin Park - covered the song and played part of it during their 2010-2011 A Thousand Suns tour. It can be heard at the beginning of "The Messenger" in Tel Aviv, Israel.

as a duet by Faith Hill with Tim McGraw

Sean Kingston

Byron Lee and the Dragonaires

Lithuanian pop group ŽAS

the Arabic singer Ali Bahar.

Hed PE - The "G-punk" band began covering the song after 2002 at many of their live shows.

5nizza - the Ukrainian reggae band covered the song at many live performances

The Collective Sound in Bournemouth, England (2011)

Wizkid - the Nigerian recording artist performed a cover of the song at Koga Studios for BBC's Destination Africa.

Art Ensemble Of Chicago (instrumental version)

With other lyrics/in other languages

in 1978 Joe Dassin recorded "Si Tu Penses À Moi" (If you think of me), a version of No Woman No Cry totally rewritten with French lyrics by Claude Lemesle and Pierre Delanoë.

Gilberto Gil sung a version of the song in Portuguese with new lyrics as Não chores mais, as a hymn to the political activists returned from exile upon the passing of the Brazilian amnesty law of 1979

Daniela Mercury, sang the Gilberto Gil version on Balé Mulato – Ao Vivo

German metal band JBO parodied the song in East Franconian dialect as "Ka Alde, ka G'schrei"

The ska punk band Spunge is the only band to ever have officially been given permission by the Marley family to change the lyrics, for their cover on the album Room For Abuse.

Murder 1 featuring Kid Rock has a version of the song with changed lyrics on their 1999 album "American Junkie"

Partial use, parodies and sampling

The pop rap band Sweetbox used a part of the song for the chorus of their song "Everything's Gonna Be Alright".

Naughty by Nature sampled Boney M's version of the song for their hit single "Everything's Gonna Be Alright."

The song "City of Love" by Yes includes "No woman, no cry" as part of the lyrics.

American pianist Louis Durra, recorded an instrumental trio version on "Tangled Up in Blue EP" and "Arrogant Doormats" (2011).

The Christian music rapper Redimi2 recorded a single "No woman, don't cry" which part of the chorus is "Everything is gonna be alright ", the songs is a call for stopping woman abuse.

Fergie used interpolations of the song in her song "Mary Jane Shoes" from the album The Dutchess.

In the 2004 video game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, precinct detective Dick Gumshoe sings a parody of the song titled "No Motive, No Crime", much to the annoyance of the title character.

Russian rock singer Nikolai Noskov used words No Woman, No Cry in chorus of reggae fusion style-song Иду ко дну (I go to the bottom) from the album By belt in the sky (По пояс в небе).

In 2013, an a-cappella satirical video parody "No Woman, No Drive" about Saudi Arabia banning women from driving, went viral on YouTube with over 11,000,000 hits.