Bob
Marley
born
February 6, 1945, died May 11, 1981
Bob Marley (Robert Nesta Marley)
was born on 6 February 1945 in Nine Miles in the parish of St. Ann, Jamaica. His
father (Norval Sinclair Marley) was a English marine-officer and his mother (Cedella
'Ciddy' Malcom)was a native Jamaican who lived in Rhoden Hall. Norval
provided financial support for his wife and child, but seldom saw them, as he
was often away on trips. Bob Marley was ten years old when Norval Marley died of
a heart attack in 1955 at age 60.
Marley and his mother moved to
Kingston's Trenchtown slum after Norval's death. He was forced to learn
self-defense, as he became the target of bullying because of his racial makeup
and small stature (he was 5'4" (163 cm) tall). He gained a reputation for
his physical strength, which earned him the nickname "Tuff Gong".
A precocious musician, a
teenaged Marley formed a vocal trio in 1963 with friends Neville
"Bunny" O’Riley Livingston (later Bunny Wailer) and Peter McIntosh
(later Peter Tosh). The group members had grown up in Trench Town, a ghetto
neighborhood of Kingston, listening to rhythm and blues on American radio
stations. They heard such R&B mainstays as Ray Charles, the Drifters, Fats
Domino and Curtis Mayfield. They took the name the Wailing Wailers (shortened to
the Wailers) because they were ghetto sufferers who'd been born
"wailing."
He was a Rastafarian - a
sect that revered Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (a.k.a. Ras Tafari) as a
living god who would lead oppressed blacks back to an African homeland. As
practicing Rastas, they grew their hair in dreadlocks and smoked ganja
(marijuana), believing it to be a sacred herb that brought enlightenment.
The Wailers recorded for
small Jamaican labels throughout the Sixties, during which time ska – Jamaican
dance music that drew from African rhythms and New Orleans R&B – was the
hot sound. The Wailers had their first hit in 1963 with “Simmer Down,” and
they went on to record 30 sides in the “rude boy” ska style for Jamaican
soundman Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One. By this time, Marley’s preoccupations
were taking a spiritual turn, and Jamaican music itself was changing from the
bouncy ska beat to the more sensual rhythms of rock steady. An association with
Jamaican producer Lee Perry resulted in some of the Wailers’ memorable
recordings, including “Soul Rebel” and “Duppy Conqueror,” and the albums
Soul Rebel and Soul Revolution.
Though the Wailers were popular
in Jamaica, it was not until the group signed with Chris Blackwell’s Island
Records in the early Seventies that they found an international audience. Their
first recordings for Island, Catch a Fire (1972) and Burnin' (1973), were
hard-hitting albums full of what critic Robert Christgau called Marley's
"melodic propaganda." The latter contained "I Shot the
Sheriff." Reggae aficionado Eric Clapton’s version of the song went to #1
in 1974, which further carried the name of Marley and the Wailers beyond their
Jamaican home base.
With the departure of founding
members Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer after Burnin', Marley took center stage as
singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist. Backed by a first-rate band and the
I-Threes vocal trio – which included his wife, Rita – Marley rose to the
occasion with 1975’s Natty Dread (his first album to chart in America) and the
string of politically charged albums that followed. These included Rastaman
Vibration, his highest-charting album (1976, #8); the fiery, oratorical Exodus
(1977, #20); the mellow, herb-extolling Kaya (1978, #50), the live double-album
Babylon by Bus (#1978, #102), and the politicized, defiant Survival (1979, #70)
and Uprising (1980, #46). Uprising was the last studio album released during
Marley’s lifetime.
So influential a cultural icon
had Marley become on his home island by the mid-Seventies that Time magazine
proclaimed, "He rivals the government as a political force." On
December 5, 1976, Marley was scheduled to give a free "Smile Jamaica"
concert, aimed at reducing tensions between warring political factions. Two days
before the scheduled concert, he and his entourage were attacked by gunman.
Though Bob and Rita Marley were grazed by bullets, they electrified a crowd of
80,000 people when both took to the stage with the Wailers on the 5th - a
gesture of survival that only heightened Marley’s legend. It further
galvanized his political outlook, resulting in the most militant albums of his
career: Exodus, Survival and Uprising.
He was particularly moved
throughout his career by the gulf between haves and have-nots, a culture of
oppression that was particularly glaring in his poverty- and crime-ridden
Jamaican homeland. “We should all come together and creative music and love,
but [there] is too much poverty,” Marley told writer Timothy White in 1976.
“The most intelligent people [are] the poorest people...[but] people don’t
get no time to feel and spend [their] intelligence...The intelligent and
innocent are poor, are crumbled and get brutalized. Daily.”
In July 1977, Marley was found to
have malignant melanoma in a football wound on his right hallux (big toe).
Marley refused amputation, citing worries that the operation would affect his
dancing, as well as the Rastafarian belief that the body must be
"whole" The cancer spread to Marley's brain, lungs, liver, and stomach
following his refusal of treatment. After playing two shows at Madison Square
Garden as part of his fall 1980 Uprising Tour, he collapsed while jogging in
NYC's Central Park. The remainder of the tour was subsequently cancelled.
Bob Marley played his final
concert at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 23,
1980. The live version of "Redemption Song" on Songs of Freedom was
recorded at this show. Marley afterwards sought medical help from Munich
specialist Josef Issels, but his cancer had already progressed to the terminal
stage. While flying home from Germany to Jamaica for his final days, Marley
became ill, and landed in Miami for immediate medical attention. He died at
Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami, Florida on the morning of May 11, 1981. His
final words to his son Ziggy were "Money can't buy life".[
Though he died prematurely at age
36, the heartbeat reggae rhythms of the enormous body of music that Bob Marley
left behind have endured. Moreover, Jamaica itself has been transformed by his
charismatic personality and musical output.
Bob Marley's funeral in Jamaica
on 21 May 1981 could be compared with one of a king. Hundreds of thousands of
people (including the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition) visited
the funeral to celebrate the fact that Bob Marley was a real 'Jah Rastafari'
after all.
After the funeral Bob Marley's
body was taken to his birthplace were it rests in a mausoleum. The mausoleum
became a real place of pilgrimage in the years after. A month before Bob's
death, he was awarded Jamaica's Order Of Merit, the nation's third highest
honor, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the country's
culture.
Marley’s pacifist reggae
anthem, “One Love,” was adapted as a theme song by the Jamaican Tourist
Board.
Marley’s music continues
to find an audience. With sales of more than 10 million in the U.S. alone,
Legend - a best-of spanning the Island Records years (1972-1981) - remains the
best-selling album by a Jamaican artist and the best-selling reggae album in
history.
February
6, 1945
Bob Marley is born in St. Ann’s Parish in Jamaica.
1962
Bob Marley records his first single, “Judge Not,” at Federal Studios in
Kingston, Jamaica.
February 10, 1966
Bob Marley and Alpharita (“Rita”) Constantia Anderson get married.
October 24, 1966
After eight months spent living in America with his mother, Bob Marley returns
to Jamaica.
August 23, 1970
The Wailers begin recording a series of classic recordings with producer Lee
“Scratch” Perry in what would be a classic lineup: Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer,
Peter Tosh and brothers Aston and Carlton Barrett.
December 30, 1971
Bob Marley visits Island Records’ head Chris Blackwell at his London office.
The resulting association will make a superstar of Marley and establish Island
as THE reggae label.
December 13, 1972
'Catch a Fire,' by the Wailers, is released in the U.K. Heralded as “the first
genuine reggae album in history,” it comes out in the U.S. the following year.
September 14, 1974
Eric Clapton’s version of the Wailers’ “I Shot the Sheriff,” written by
head Wailer Bob Marley, hits #1 and helps generate interest in reggae.
May 10, 1975
Though Bob Marley has been recording prolifically in his native Jamaica since
1962, Natty Dread is the first album by Marley and the Wailers to make the U.S.
charts, reaching #92.
July 18, 1975
Bob Marley and the Wailers perform at the Lyceum in London. The concert is
released in Britain as the album 'Live!.' After selling briskly as an import, it
is released in the U.S. in October 1976.
May 13, 1976
'Rastaman Vibration,' by Bob Marley and the Wailers – and featuring an
American, Don Kinsey, on lead guitar – is released. It becomes Marley’s
highest-charting album, reaching #8 in the U.S. and #15 in the U.K.
December 3, 1976
Bob Marley and his entourage are attacked by gunman. A wounded but undeterred
Marley electrifies a crowd two nights later at a free "Smile Jamaica"
concert.
January 17, 1977
Bob Marley and the Wailers cut new material in London, marking the first time
they’ve recorded outside of Jamaica in six years. Of more than 20 songs
recorded, ten turn up on 'Exodus' (1977) and ten on 'Kaya' (1978).
April 12, 1978
Bob Marley orchestrates a Peace Concert in Jamaica that features key reggae
acts, including the Wailers, in an attempt to cool down the violent conflicts
that are tearing Jamaica apart.
October 8, 1979
'Survival,' a militant new album by Bob Marley and the Wailers, is released as a
47-date tour kicks off at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre.
June 8, 1980
A month after the release of the African-themed 'Uprising,' Bob Marley and the
Wailers kick off the Tuff Gong Uprising tour, during which they’ll perform for
a million people in 12 countries.
September 20, 1980
Bob Marley suffers a stroke while jogging in Central Park. X-rays reveal a brain
tumor.
September 21, 1980
Bob Marley performs the final show of his career, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The tour’s remaining dates are canceled as Marley seeks treatment for his
spreading cancers.
October 4, 1980
Stevie Wonder’s tribute to Bob Marley, the reggaefied “Master Blaster (Jammin’),”
enters the singles charts. It will top the R&B chart for seven weeks and
peak at #5 on the pop chart.
May 11, 1981
Bob Marley dies of brain, lung and stomach cancer at 11:45 a.m. in Miami,
Florida.
May 21, 1981
Bob Marley is given a state funeral in Jamaica and buried at Nine Miles in St.
Ann’s Parish, beside the house in which he was born.
January 19, 1994
Bob Marley is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the ninth annual
induction dinner. Bono of U2 is his presenter, and Rita Marley accepts the award
on behalf of her late husband.
April 7, 1999
'Legend,' Bob Marley and the Wailers’ greatest-hits collection, receives its
10th platinum certification, signifying sales of more than 10 million copies.
Get up, Stand
up
Get up, stand up:
stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Preacherman, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. Come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. Jah!
Get up, stand up! (Jah, Jah!)
Stand up for your rights! (Oh-hoo!)
Get up, stand up! (Get up, stand up!)
Don't give up the fight! (Life is your right!)
Get up, stand up! (So we can't give up the fight!)
Stand up for your rights! (Lord, Lord!)
Get up, stand up! (Keep on struggling on!)
Don't give up the fight! (Yeah!)
We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, Lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (What you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (Yeah, yeah, yeah!)
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (In the morning! Git it up!)
Stand up for your rights! (Stand up for our rights!)
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (Don't give it up, don't give it up!)
Get up, stand up! (Get up, stand up!)
Stand up for your rights! (Get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Don't give up the fight! (Get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight!
Credit: Bob
Marley.com, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame |
