Uprising

Uprising is the twelfth and final studio album released during Bob Marley's lifetime, recorded at Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, from January through April 1980 and released on June 10, 1980, through Island Records. Marley conceived it as the thematic centerpiece of a trilogy that also included Survival (1979) and the posthumous Confrontation (1983).

The album is Marley's most overtly religious work, shaped by sharp internal tension: songs of hard-won joy and communal exuberance sit alongside tracks of apocalyptic gravity. Island Records founder and co-producer Chris Blackwell encouraged the inclusion of uptempo material to balance the record's serious tone, resulting in the crossover singles "Could You Be Loved" (which reached No. 5 in the UK) and "Coming in From the Cold."

Uprising was recorded while Marley's health was deteriorating from acral lentiginous melanoma, a rare skin cancer diagnosed in 1977 that he had refused to treat by amputation on religious grounds. He died on May 11, 1981, eleven months after the album's release. The closing track, "Redemption Song," performed solo on acoustic guitar, functions as both a philosophical summation of his career and, in retrospect, a valediction from an artist who knew his time was running short.