Bob Marley / Reggae Anthology 2015 / 1970
Sun Is Shining
warm, buoyant, meditative
A sun-drenched, almost meditative reggae track that turns simple pleasure—good weather, dancing—into a quiet spiritual declaration. Marley uses the cycle of the week and the image of light to frame himself as a steady, redemptive presence, blending Rastafarian faith with an invitation to communal joy.
gratitude and presence spiritual steadfastness time and renewal collective upliftment simplicity as devotion
Who's speaking
The narrator speaks in first person directly to a collective 'you,' positioning himself as a guide or reassuring figure rather than a conventional romantic narrator; the voice is calm and self-assured throughout, with little tension or doubt.
What happens
The song doesn't tell a story in a conventional sense; it moves through a week's cycle, day by day, as a way of marking endurance and consistency. Each day becomes a checkpoint where the speaker reaffirms his position and readiness to help, culminating in a call to collective praise and a reminder that any day can bring luck or renewal.
How it's built
Built on a loose verse-refrain structure with the days of the week functioning as a recurring motif rather than a strict verse pattern. The song doesn't escalate dramatically; instead it uses circularity (returning to the same lines about sunshine and standing firm) and a scat-like vocal breakdown near the end that strips language down to pure rhythm, mirroring the song's loose, feel-good core before returning to the central hook.
Section by section
Opening verse
The song opens with an almost weather-report simplicity, immediately linking environmental conditions to physical joy. This sets a tone where observation of the world around the speaker becomes inseparable from the body's urge to move.
Day-by-day refrain
“a new day is rising”
The run through weekdays functions less as a timeline and more as a ritual affirmation. The speaker is 'here' each day, suggesting constancy; the mention of a new day dawning signals renewal happening in small, daily increments rather than one dramatic transformation.
Rainbow verse
“I'm a rainbow too”
This is the song's most striking metaphor, where natural phenomena become self-identification. The rainbow, often read as a sign of covenant or hope, is claimed by the speaker as part of his own essence, reinforcing the idea that he is a source of light and promise, not just an observer of it.
Praise bridge
The pivot to communal praise broadens the song's address from an individual 'you' to 'we,' tying personal steadiness to a shared Rastafarian spiritual practice. This section functions as the emotional and ideological center of the song.
Scat/outro
The dissolution into wordless vocalizing near the end strips the song down to pure groove, suggesting that ultimately the message is less about explicit lyrics and more about feeling and bodily response to joy and faith.
Craft
- personification of time
- Days of the week are treated almost like markers of a ritual calendar, giving ordinary time a kind of mystical weight tied to the speaker's steady presence.
- natural imagery as metaphor
- Sunshine and the rainbow serve as stand-ins for spiritual light and personal radiance; the speaker aligns himself with these phenomena to suggest he embodies hope or renewal.
- repetition/anaphora
- Phrases are repeated across verses and the refrain, creating a mantra-like quality that reinforces reassurance over narrative development.
- vocalese/scat
- The nonsense syllables late in the song dissolve meaning into rhythm, emphasizing feeling and groove over lyrical content, which underscores the song's embodied, dance-driven ethos.
Reading it
The most persuasive reading treats the song as a devotional piece disguised as a simple dance tune: the sunshine, the rainbow, and the day-by-day repetition all point toward steadfast faith and quiet spiritual confidence rooted in Rastafarian belief, with the 'rescue' language suggesting the speaker sees himself as offering hope or salvation to others. An alternative, less spiritually loaded reading sees it simply as a feel-good song about good weather and dancing, with the religious references as background color rather than the song's center—though the explicit invocation of praise and the rainbow-as-self metaphor make the spiritual reading harder to dismiss.
Context
Recorded in 1970, this track comes from an early period in Marley's career before his international breakthrough, when he and the Wailers were deeply embedded in Jamaican reggae and increasingly influenced by Rastafarian theology. The song is one of several from this era blending upbeat, danceable grooves with spiritual messaging, a hallmark of roots reggae's development.
Listen for
- the steady, cyclical bassline that mirrors the day-by-day structure
- the shift from individual assurance to collective praise in the bridge
- the rainbow line as a key moment of self-identification
- the scat vocal breakdown that turns language into pure rhythm
- how the title phrase keeps returning, anchoring the song's mood
About Bob Marley
Robert Nesta Marley was a Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Considered one of the pioneers of the genre, he was renowned for his distinctive vocal and songwriting style.
1945 - 1981 / Jamaica
Full biography and catalogue