Although it's a difficult album to cherry-pick, a standout for me has always been the track "Waiting in Vain." At the center of this tranquil island groove lies a flaming heart of passion. But it's hard to just label it a "love ballad"; it's less of a paean to love and more of a poetic ultimatum, directed at the object of Marley's desires.
Which brings us to the story behind the song.
It's no secret that Marley had a lot of relationships with women other than his wife, Rita. We're talking a lot of other women. I'm not even going to purport that I know anything about Rastafarianism or how Marley's own ideas about fidelity and fathering children were influenced by his religious mores, but he let it be known that he felt marriage was a trap and that his own marriage to Rita was more transactional than spiritual.
Long story short, "Waiting in Vain" was written to his love interest, Cindy Breakspeare—a Jamaican/Canadian model and former Miss World 1976. Story goes, Marley met Breakspeare when she was a teenager and had tried for years to woo her to no avail (hence, the line in the song: It's been three years since I'm knocking on your door...) It wasn't until after an attempt on Marley's life, which prompted him to leave Kingston for London, that he and Breakspeare became an item. It wasn't long after that their son, singer Damian Marley, arrived on the scene in 1978.
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