THERE’S a new -- absolutely unheard of -- Bob Marley track that will be featured on the latest collection of the legend’s music.

The video for the track titled “Slogans” was on stream on MSN’s Web- site on Tuesday morning, the day the album was released for all the world to hear.

And bet your bottom dollar it may not be the last that you will hear from the man dubbed by Time magazine as the artiste of the 21st Century.

It was worth waiting for; pure and vintage Marley that was recorded in 1979, just another addition to the treasure trove of music that lives because it speaks for the voiceless.

Bob sings that he’s tired of hearing too much slogans and sweet talk from the hypocrites on the single which is one of 20 tracks on the album titled “Bob Marley and the Wailers - Africa Unite: The Singles Collection”.

And the video is a clever job, which features footage of Marley that’s hardly ever seen anymore, juxtaposed with footage from the 60s when Martin Luther King marched.

In between there are some distressing shots from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina tore open the sheets of decency to reveal the great disgusting divide between Black and White Americans.

And so I imagined it playing on mainstream American music video stations -- like MTV, MTV2, BET and VHI -- giving Bob the chance that he never had in his own lifetime.

It is ironic, because he was diagnosed with cancer while on a US tour and has always commented that while he “converted” millions across Europe and Africa to his religion of truth, love and peace, Americans were much more reluctant to convert.

Is this the beginning of a new movement, shepherded by his children?

The question is worth asking; the dream is worth the time and space on anybody’s head.

And the music is worth listening to, for while Bob provokes your thoughts with the revolutionary fervour of his lyrics, he also soothes you with the love of Jah.

For a piece of retro, I found this really interesting quote in which he explains his incredible mix of militancy and compassion, which was more balanced because he tuned in to God.

It begs the questions; Who are the real revolutionaries?

Who are the mercenaries?

Who are the tricksters?

Why do we have misguided “artistes” using the almighty power of words lightly?

Has our own superstar, Bunji Garlin, only now realised that freestyling lyrics does not represent freedom?

After all, he made the confession only when he confronted the grief of the parents, and friends of a teenager who was innocently caught in the crossfire from shooters in Chinapoo, Morvant.

He’s been freestyling bad man lyrics for years in the name of his Jamaican cut throat counterparts, Bounty Killer et al.

But I ask, how can this songbird change his tune?

Can a man change overnight, as Bunji has promised.

So here are a few words from Bob, for Bunji and the other youngsters who are pretending to be real men, for whom the light of wisdom is far away for they must shed a lot of load to lighten up for the soul to accept the Father first, and all things shall fall in line thereafter.

“You can’t show aggression all the while.

“To make music is a life that I have to live.

“Sometimes you have to fight with music.

“So it’s not just someone who studies and chats, it’s a whole development.

“Right now is a more militant time on earth, because it’s Jah Jah time.

“But me always militant, you know.

“Me too militant.

“That’s why me did things like Kaya, to cool off the pace.

“People don’t understand that we live in this earth too.

“We don’t sing these songs and live in the sky.

“I don’t have an army behind me.

“If I did, I wouldn’t care, I’d just get more militant.

“Because I’d know, well, I have 50,000 armed youth, and when I talk, I talk from strength.

“But you have to know who you’re dealing.

“Maybe if I’d tried to make a heavier tune than ‘Kaya’ they would have tried to assassinate me because I would have come too hard.

“I have to know how to run my life, because that’s what I have, and nobody can tell me to put it on the line, you dig?

“Because no one understands these things.

“These things are heavier than anyone can understand.

“People that aren’t involved don’t know it, it’s my work, and I know it outside in.

“I know when I am in danger and what to do to get out.

“I know when everything is cool, and I know when I tremble, do you understand?”

But Bob had no army behind him.

He was a lone soldier with his guitar and a sense of justice.

Singing for the people of the ghetto, after all, is not just to keep them jumping, waving and flashing lighters.

Being successful in music is not about getting the opportunity to piggyback on a riddum with some Jamaican artiste.

Bob Marley -- and the Wailers -- did not ride on anyone’s bandwagon, but painstakingly and lovingly charted their own course.

So, it is time to return to the joy that we still have new music flowing from the legend who lives.

“Slogans” is one of seven or eight songs found on a tape of Bob working in his room with a drum machine, around 1979, which would have been about two years before he passed on.

It was a sketch of a song which was brought up and instruments added, including Eric Clapton on guitar.

The track listing on the album features live versions of classics like No Woman No Cry, Sun Is Shining and Africa Unite.

The bonus track, No. 20, is Damien Marley’s “Jamrock”, the title track from an album which he released a couple of months ago.

Much of the work was done by Bob’s second son Stephen, who explained that he has no problems not singing, but producing the music.

“The way we look at it is: I and I come as the sons and daughters of Bob Marley,” Stephen explains unashamedly.

“We are privileged enough to be the offspring, and there must be a reason why we are here and together.

“We search out the reason because we really have to know our purpose.

“And we see Jah set it so.

“Him set it that way through our father.

“His work paved the way so I and I can walk Earth with the respect of people,” he explained.

Now is the time for Bunji and all the rest of jokers down here to look within and see if they are making sense.

A man can never utter the truth unless he opens his soul to Jah.

And the truth is the most powerful and potent force; for it is the word of the Most High!