The Middle Passage. Note Mozambique on the east coast.

Okay, thanks. So all the Middle Passage routes are westward from Africa to the Americas. I think I misread your comment as saying that the ship was travelling a Middle Passage route, when in fact you were saying the opposite. I'm still wondering why a ship would have gone east from Mozambique and ended up east of Australia in the South Pacific, but I'll just wave my hands and mutter about being blown wildly off-course, and let it go.

For dating it -- I'm assuming that if you know ships, it's like a car model or airplane style.

Gotcha. I can honestly say that never would have occurred to me! Signed, knows not a damn thing about car or airplane models.

Re: "Redemption Song", my experience has been -t's; seems like everyone knows that song. On the other hand, I went to a hippie college and then travelled the hippie backpacker route (and now live in a hippie-esque college town where bumper stickers that read "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds" are abundant), so my sample population might not be so broadly representative.

who does not know Bob Marley?

Yo.

I mean, I know who he is. But I couldn't identify a single one of his songs.

I mean, I know who he is. But I couldn't identify a single one of his songs.

Kalshane: Not A Hippy Backpacker

'Redemption Song' came up on my iPod on the way home, actually. Freaky.

Apropos of nothing wrt popularity, 'Redemption Song' was covered by Joe Strummer on his last album.

Very well, I should add.

Actually, Redemption Song is the only song of Bob Marley I can positively identify. Other songs, maybe I'd recognize the voice after a little while, but I can't name any Bob Marley songs but that one off the top of my head. Oh wait, there was that "Stand up for your rights" song. So, two.

(I am a little more familiar with Ziggy Marley, but in that way where I hear anything that sounds like post-70s reggae and I say, "Oh, that must be Ziggy Marley." We had a tape of his music, when I was a kid.)

Not to expose my ignorance thoroughly.

My perception is that most of the songs from Legend are pretty widely known.

I could identify most Marley songs that get radio play, but I think Michael was surprised Sawyer chose to sing that song, not just that he knew it.

My experience in college was that if it wasn't on Legend, only the fans knew them. However, the less danceable the song (like Redemption Song), the less likely it was to be known, and much less likely that the lyrics could be repeated.

I, OTOH, know diddlycrap about Ziggy Marley's music. I might recognise a couple songs, but he's just so not an integral part, except by bloodline, of the reggae scene for me.

I am unhip and only know No Woman No Cry and I Shot the Sheriff. I just downloaded Redemption Song from iTunes, and I am fairly certain that not only is it unfamiliar, I have never heard if except when Sawyer was singing it. (I like it, though)