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Bob Marley
"Bob Marley gave me back my dignity" a black musician told us in an interview one day. This is possibly the key to the work of Robert Nesta Marley, the Jamaican musician born in St Ann on 6 February 1945. For many he is one of the Rasta movement's spearheads, sometimes even called a prophet. But his role is both more obvious and greater than that : from a small third world island, Bob Marley became a planetary reference. From the farthest corners of Africa to Europe, America, Asia and Oceania, there is not a single place in the world whose music was not radically changed by Marley. For the past 35 years, his songs with their simple lyrics and melodies have been played over the air around the globe.
"Bob Marley gave me back my dignity" a black musician told us in an interview one day. This is possibly the key to the work of Robert Nesta Marley, the Jamaican musician born in St Ann on 6 February 1945. For many he is one of the Rasta movement's spearheads, sometimes even called a prophet. But his role is both more obvious and greater than that : from a small third world island, Bob Marley became a planetary reference. From the farthest corners of Africa to Europe, America, Asia and Oceania, there is not a single place in the world whose music was not radically changed by Marley. For the past 35 years, his songs with their simple lyrics and melodies have been played over the air around the globe.
No media plan, no strategy could have forecast the success of "Catch a fire" (the Wailers' first album released on the record label Island) : nor the reggae phenomenon nor the huge and dazzling popularity of Bob Marley.
Robert Nesta Marley was born in 1945 in Jamaica, an British colony of the West Indies, close to Cuba and Haiti. His father, Captain Norval Marley was a white man in his fifties ; his mother, Cedella Booker, a black teenager who soon had to raise her son alone (the father providing them with a degree of financial support).
As a child, Bob became friends with Neville O'Rilley Livingstone (called "Bunny") and during their teenage years (1959) they were both taught by Joe Higgs, one of Jamaica's first recording artists. Joe Higgs paid particular attention to both musical rigour (above all in singing) and the moral side to his teaching. He insisted on his students writing lyrics with meaning, stressing the educative and political role of songs. His apprentices would heed his words, learning how to get a clear message across. It was at Joe Higgs' house that Bob Marley and Bunny Livingstone met Peter McIntosh.
In 1962, Jamaica's year of independence, Bob Marley released his first single "Judge not". Not really a success, it was nevertheless an important step. The next year Bob, Bunny, Peter -now called Peter Tosh- formed their first band with Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith : the "Teenagers", soon changing the name to "Rudeboy Wailers" (during the ska period) and then the "Wailing Wailers". Braithwaite, Kelso and Smith left the group and the Wailers recorded "Simmer Down" with the Skatalites, produced by Sir Coxsone Dodd (with whom the Wailers would record over 70 tracks). It went to n°1 in Jamaica in February 1964.
1966 was a year of upheavals : on10 February Bob married Rita Anderson, left Coxsone and went to work in the United States (where his mother was living). He made enough money to set up his own label when he returned to Jamaica, reforming the Wailers (with Tosh and Livingstone). Marley then began to take an interest in the Rasta movement. The group worked hard, gaining a following and building up a repertory. It was not before 1970 and an encounter with Lee "Scratch" Perry that the true Wailers sound was created based on its rhythmic section. But the radios were not convinced.
While the Wailers went through a bad patch, Bob Marley worked with North-American soul singer Johnny Nash. In 1971, Nash sang a song written for him by Marley "I can see clearly now", a huge hit. But "Reggae on Broadway", sung by the Jamaican, did not have the same success. A disappointed Marley decided to return to his island.
In 1972, Bob Marley took advantage of a concert by the Wailers in England to meet Chris Blackwell, the renowned founder of Island, one of the most important record labels in England at the beginning of the 70s (Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, Cat Stevens..). Born in Jamaica, Blackwell was bowled over and gave the group 4 000 pounds on the spot (despite the advice of his friends who thought that he would never see his money again) to record an album at home as they saw fit. Which is how "Catch a fire" came to be, the first reggae album to be recorded (a market previously dominated by singles). During the American tour following the record's release, Bunny Livingston left the group (he hated flying and life on the road). But the formidable machine had begun to turn.
The following year (1974) "Burnin" was released, a sparkling jewel of a record including the now legendary track "I Shot the Sheriff", later covered by Eric Clapton in a successful bid to relaunch his career. The next one to leave the group was Peter Tosh. Bob replaced his two friends by the I-Threes, a singing trio made of Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt. By this time the Wailers were playing all around the world.
In 1975, the album "Natty Dread" was the consecration of their success : the single "No woman no cry" went into the Top 40 (the prestigious British charts). A moment of glory crowned by the wonderful "Live !" (At the London Lyceum), also released in 1975.
But the amazing international popularity of Bob Marley acquired in so short a time, was also a source of trouble for him: on 3 December 1976, he was the victim of an attempted assassination in Kingston the day before a huge national reconciliation concert. The singer went to live in London, his world-wide success apparently unstoppable. In 1977 "Exodus" (Jamming, Waiting in vain..) was released, in 1978 "Kaya" (Is this love ?), in 1979 the live "Babylon by Bus"… At the same time, Bob Marley's social and political role came almost naturally. He received a Peace medal from the United Nation ; got Jamaica's two major political enemies on stage together, forcing them to shake hands during the "One Love Peace Concert" in Kingston ; performed in Africa (Kenya, Zimbabwe and the mythical Ethiopia).
In 1980, following an injury to his foot during a football match in Paris, Bob Marley was discovered to be suffering from cancer in the brain, the lungs and the stomach. He had only a few weeks to live. Treatment bought him a little more time ; he died on 11 May 1981 in Miami without having been able to get back to Jamaica.
In just a few years, Bob Marley became a legend. The ten albums he recorded for Island are absolute gems backed by Chris Blackwell's stroke of genius in applying the marketing and distribution techniques of rock stars to this Jamaican group. But Bob Marley never had a superstar's lifestyle : even at the height of his popularity, he was still rejected by his country's elite, allergic to his marginal appearance, his cones of ganja, his free spirit and the hordes of poor people that he helped.
Today his songs are as poignant as 30, 25 or 20 years ago, from the passionate "Get Up Stand Up" to the resolutely naïve " Is this Love ? " or the desperate "Too much troubles in the World " full of gentleness, anger and compassion. Hey Bob, if you come back, sing just the same way…
Magali Bergès
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