Bob Marley with Lauryn Hill "Turn The Lights Down Low"

Album: Chant Down Babylon (Tuff Gong/ Island; 1999)
Songwriters: Bob Marley
R&B Peak Position: #49

"Turn your lights down low/ And pull your window curtain..."

Originally found on Bob Marley's much-heralded 1977 opus, Exodus, an album recorded in London while the reggae legend recuperated from an assassination attempt on his life, "Turn Your Lights Down Low" saw the reggae legend taking a break from the charged political themes that dominated his musical output to indulge in a little romance.

"I wanna give you some love/ I wanna give you some good, good lovin'" he croons, signaling his lady to set the mood for an evening of pleasure that's been long awaited. Dutifully framing his amorous poetics in a candlelit ambiance, backing band The Wailers pull together a feline-esque slow groove out of guitar curlicues and subtly-plodding percussion, while his trio of female backing vocalists, The I Threes, accent the chorus' erotic urges.

Sticky goodness, "Lights" might not have been released as an official single (or ever really given full credit as a Marley essential), but it certainly stuck as a midnight favorite between lovers'.



DL: "Turn Your Lights Down Low (Original)" (YFH)

Twenty-two years later, the record was re-introduced to the masses for the tribute album, Chant Down Babylon, a project that saw Bob Marley's music revamped with appearances from Erykah Badu, Chuck D, The Roots and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry among others. The album wasn't completely well-received but it housed at least one gem in it's updating of "Turn Your Lights Down Low", which was transformed into a duet with Lauryn Hill, who also happened to co-parent Marley grandchildren with Bob's son Rohan.

At the time, Hill was still riding off the critical acclaim and commercial success that was her multi-Grammy-winning acclaimed master-work The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill released a year prior, and any new material she graced was instantly swarmed with worldwide affection. That adoration was especially deserved for the contemporized "Lights" redux, to which her soulful vocals were seamlessly planted in response to Bob's followed by a rapped verse that impeccably summed up the celebration of adult love that the original brought to light ("Loving you is a like a song I replay/ Every three minutes and thirty seconds of every day/ And every chorus was written for us to recite/ Every beautiful melody of devotion every night...").

Un-surprisingly, the tranquilizing semi-remake scored Hill yet another Grammy nod in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category.

Bob Marley | Turn Your Lights Down Low
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DL: "Turn Your Lights Down Low (Version 2)" (YFH)