Marley was one of the first artists to release reggae music that would be met with large scale mainstream recognition. After going through a few shifts in identity and branding, including dancing between names like the Teenagers, the Wailing Rudeboys and the Wailing Wailers, they settled on the name that they carried with them for the remainder of their career.
Long, long before anyone was aware of Bob Marley for his work in reggae music, Marley was working on something in an entirely different genre and style from what he eventually became famous for. That genre was ska, one of the early influences and roots of reggae.
Like Marley, Ska was Jamaican born, a genre that fused together elements of Carribean and American musical styles. Sign In. Edit Bob Marley. Showing all 57 items. Started every performance by proclaiming the divinity of Jah Rastafari. He was also an official guest at Zimbabwe's independence celebration two years later, an honor Marley was quoted as saying was the highest he'd ever received.
He also had seven illegitimate children Rohan b. Survived an assassination attempt, receiving minor injuries in the chest and arm December His albums are in the process of digital remastering and are being re-released with additional material such as alternate versions and unused demos. His posthumously released anthology collection "Legend" is one of the highest selling "greatest hits" recordings by a solo artist.
He is buried in a crypt at Nine Miles, near his birthplace, with his Gibson Les Paul Guitar, a soccer ball, a cannabis bud, and a Bible. Born to Norval Sinclair Marley , a Jamaican Marine officer and captain of Welsh descent, who later became a plantation overseer, and his wife Cedella Marley. His song "One Love" has been used extensively for Jamaican tourism commercials.
His album 'Exodus' was chosen by Time magazine as the greatest album of the 20th century. Was arrested in England for possession of a joint of a marijuana.
Considered by many to be the first superstar from the Third World. His song 'Rasta Man Chant' is a traditional Rastafarian chant, known to every adherent of the faith.
Following the attempt on his life, he left Jamaica and lived in England between and They had a son together, Damian Marley. It was announced that his wife plans to have his remains exhumed and moved to Ethiopia January Refused amputation of his cancer-affected toe due to his religious beliefs.
Suffered from a form of skin cancer called malignant melanoma, which is not common among black people. When Cedella became pregnant, the captain kept his promise — but left her the next day rather than face disinheritance. Marley understood that the struggle for power might result in bloodshed, but he also maintained that if humankind failed to stand together, it would fail to stand at all.
I n the s, Cedella moved to Kingston — the only place in Jamaica where any future of consequence could be realized. She and her son made their home in a government tenant yard, a crowded area where poor people lived, virtually all of them black. The yard they settled in, Trench Town, was made up of row upon row of cheap corrugated metal and tar-paper one-room shacks, generally with no plumbing. It was a place where your dreams might raise you or kill you, but you would have to live and act hard in either case.
These gangs evolved soon enough into a faction called Rude Boys — teenagers and young adults who dressed sharp, acted insolent and knew how to fight. Kingston hated the Rude Boys, and police and politicians had vowed to eradicate them. It was music that gave a displaced population a way to tell truths about their lives and a way of claiming victory over daily misery, or at least of finding a respite. The commentary could be clever and merciless, and the music that Marley first began to play had the tempo to carry such sharp purposes.
But the Rude Boys would soon receive an unexpected jolt of validation. C edella Marley was worried that her son had grown too comfortable with ghetto life and was too close to the Rude Boys. There were frequent fights, even stabbings, in the Trench Town streets and at ska dances.
Marley, though small and slight, was known as a force in Trench Town. He even had a street name: Tuff Gong. But he had no aspiration for a criminal life. The group spent considerable time sharpening its vocal harmonies with singer Joe Higgs. Dodd recorded the tune the next day with his best studio musicians, the Skatalites, and that same night he played the record at one of his sound-system affairs.
It was an immediate sensation, and for good reason: For the first time, a voice from the ghetto was speaking to others who lived in the same straits, acknowledging their existence and giving voice to their troubles, and that breakthrough had a transformative effect, on both the scene and on Marley and his group, who would call themselves the Wailing Wailers and, finally, the Wailers.
The name was meant to describe somebody who called out from the ghetto — a sufferer and witness. Marley had already found one of the major themes that would characterize his songwriting through his entire career. Marley had eyes for other women during this time — he always would — but he was drawn to Anderson for her devotion as a mother. He missed his wife and home. According to a persistent myth, Garvey instructed his followers in to look to Africa for the crowning of a black king, as a sign that a messiah was at hand.
In point of fact, Garvey never uttered such a prophecy, but the claim remains attributed to him to this day. In , when a young man named Ras Tafari maneuvered his way onto the throne of Ethiopia, the prophecy that Garvey never proclaimed took on the power of the word made flesh for many. In Jamaica, a cult called Ras Tafari sprang up around this belief in the s.
Rastafarianism developed as a mystical Judeo-Christian faith with a vision of Africa, in particular, Ethiopia, as the true Zion. The Rastafarians never had a true doctrine but rather a set of folk wisdoms and a worldview. One of their beliefs was that marijuana — which the Rastas called ganja — was a sacramental herb that brought its users into a deeper knowledge of themselves.
More important, Rastas had an apocalyptic vision. Accordingly, Rastas believed that Babylon must fall — though they would not themselves raise up arms to bring its end; violence belonged rightfully to God. Until Babylon fell, according to one legend, the Rastas would not cut their hair. They grew it long in a fearsome appearance called dreadlocks. In , while Marley was visiting his mother in Delaware, Selassie made an official state visit to Jamaica.
He was met at the Kingston Airport by a crowd of , According to some accounts, he adopted the religion soon after his return to Jamaica, as early as or In turn, his faith would help Marley find new depths in his music.
T he timing could not have been better. In and , as Marley and the Wailers began recording again, the Jamaican music scene was undergoing another critical change.
Ska had slowed its beat — life in Kingston was growing grimmer, and there was less interest in dancing to exuberant music. One bullet struck Marley in the sternum and the bicep, and another hit his wife, Rita, in the head.
Fortunately, the Marleys were not severely injured, but manager Don Taylor was not as fortunate. Shot five times, Taylor had to undergo surgery to save his life. Despite the attack and after much deliberation, Marley still played at the show.
The motivation behind the attack was never uncovered, and Marley fled the country the day after the concert. Living in London, England, Marley went to work on Exodus , which was released in The title track draws an analogy between the biblical story of Moses and the Israelites leaving exile and his own situation. The song also discusses returning to Africa.
The concept of Africans and descendents of Africans repatriating their homeland can be linked to the work of Garvey. Released as a single, "Exodus" was a hit in Britain, as were "Waiting in Vain" and "Jamming," and the entire album stayed on the U.
Today, Exodus is considered to be one of the best albums ever made. Marley had a health scare in He sought treatment in July of that year on a toe he had injured earlier that year. After discovering cancerous cells in his toe, doctors suggested amputation. Marley refused to have the surgery, however, because his religious beliefs prohibited amputation. While working on Exodus , Marley and the Wailers recorded songs that were later released on the album Kaya That same year, Marley made his first trip to Africa, and visited Kenya and Ethiopia—an especially important nation to him, as it's viewed as the spiritual homeland of Rastafarians.
Perhaps inspired by his travels, his next album, Survival , was seen as a call for both greater unity and an end to oppression on the African continent. One line from the song reads: "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds. They also planned a series of concerts in the United States, but the group would play only three concerts there — two at Madison Square Garden in New York City and one performance at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — before Marley became ill.
The cancer discovered earlier in his toe had spread throughout his body. Traveling to Europe, Marley underwent unconventional treatment in Germany and was subsequently able to fight off the cancer for months. It soon became clear that Marley didn't have much longer to live, however, so the musician set out to return to his beloved Jamaica one last time.
Sadly, he would not manage to complete the journey, dying in Miami, Florida, on May 11,
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