Nesta Robert Marley, OM (6
February 1945 – 11 May 1981), more widely and commonly known as Bob
Marley, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter
and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggaebands The Wailers (1963-1974) and Bob Marley
& The Wailers (1974–1981). Marley remains the most widely
known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited with helping
spread both Jamaican music and
the Rastafari movement to
a worldwide audience.[1]
Marley's music was heavily influenced
by the social issues of his homeland, and he is considered to have given voice
to the specific political and cultural nexus of Jamaica.[2] His best-known hits include
"I Shot the Sheriff",
"No Woman, No Cry",
"Could You Be Loved",
"Stir It Up", "Get Up Stand Up", "Jamming", "Redemption Song", "One Love"
and, "Three Little Birds",[3] as well as the posthumous
releases "Buffalo Soldier"
and "Iron Lion Zion".
The compilation album Legend (1984),
released three years after his death, is reggae's best-selling album, going ten
times Platinum which
is also known as one Diamond in the U.S.,[4] and selling 25 million copies
worldwide.[5][6]
Life and Career
Bob
Marley was born in the village of Nine Mile in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica as Nesta Robert Marley.[7] A Jamaican passport official
would later swap his first and middle names.[8] He was of mixed race. His
father, Norval Sinclair Marley,
was a White English-Jamaican,[9] whose family came from Sussex, England. Norval claimed to have been a captain in
the Royal Marines,[10] and was a plantation overseer,
when he married Cedella Booker,
an Afro-Jamaican then
18 years old.[11] Norval provided financial
support for his wife and child, but seldom saw them, as he was often away on
trips. In 1955, when Bob Marley was 10 years old, his father died of a heart
attack at age 70.[12] Marley faced questions about
his own racial identity throughout his life. He once reflected:
"I
don't have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was
black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't deh pon nobody's side. Me
don't deh pon the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me deh pon God's
side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white."[13]
Although Marley recognised his mixed
ancestry, throughout his life and because of his beliefs, he self-identified as
a black African, following the ideas of Pan-African leaders. Marley stated that
his two biggest influences were the African-centeredMarcus Garvey and Haile Selassie. A central theme in Bob
Marley's message was the repatriation of black people to Zion,
which in his view was Ethiopia, or more
generally, Africa.[14] In songs such as
"Survival", "Babylon System", and "Blackman
Redemption", Marley sings about the struggles of blacks and Africans against
oppression from the West or "Babylon".[15]
Marley met Neville Livingston (later
changed to Bunny Wailer) in
Nine Mile because Bob's mother had a daughter with Bunny's father, younger
sister to both of them and also had a relationship with him. Marley and
Livingston started to play music while he was still at school. Then Marley left
Nine Miles when he was 12 with his mother to Trench Town, Kingston. While in
Trench Town, he met up with Livingston again and they started to make music
with Joe Higgs, a local singer and devoutRastafari. At
a jam session with Higgs and Livingston,
Marley met Peter McIntosh (later known as Peter Tosh), who had similar musical
ambitions.[16] In 1962, Marley recorded his
first two singles, "Judge Not" and
"One Cup of Coffee", with local music producer Leslie Kong. These songs, released on
the Beverley's label under the pseudonym of
Bobby Martell,[17] attracted little attention.
The songs were later re-released on the box set Songs of Freedom, a posthumous collection
of Marley's work.
Personal Life
Religion
Bob Marley was a
member of the Rastafari movement, whose culture was a key element in the
development of reggae. Bob Marley became an ardent proponent of Rastafari,
taking their music out of the socially deprived areas of Jamaica and onto the
international music scene. He once gave the following response, which was
typical, to a question put to him during a recorded interview:
Interviewer:
"Can you tell the people what it means being a Rastafarian?"
Bob:
"I would say to the people, Be still, and know that His Imperial
Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is the
Almighty. Now, the Bible seh so, Babylon newspaper seh so, and I and I the
children seh so. Yunno? So I don't see how much more reveal our people want.
Wha' dem want? a white God, well God come black. True true."[38]
Observant of the Rastafari
practice Ital, a diet that shuns meat, Marley was a
vegetarian.[39] According to his biographers,
he affiliated with the Twelve
Tribes Mansion. He was in the denomination known as "Tribe of
Joseph", because he was born in February (each of the twelve sects being
composed of members born in a different month). He signified this in his
album liner notes, quoting
the portion from Genesis that
includes Jacob's blessing to his son Joseph.
Marley was baptised by the Archbishop of theEthiopian
Orthodox Church in Kingston, Jamaica, on 4 November 1980.[40][41]
Family
Bob Marley had a number of
children: three with his wife Rita, two adopted from Rita's previous
relationships, and several others with different women. The Bob Marley official
website acknowledges eleven children.
Those listed on the
official site are:
1. Sharon, born 23 November 1964, daughter of
Rita from a previous relationship but then adopted by Marley after his marriage
with Rita
2. Cedella born 23 August 1967, to Rita
3. David "Ziggy", born 17 October 1968,
to Rita
4. Stephen,
born 20 April 1972, to Rita
5. Robert
"Robbie", born 16 May 1972, to Pat Williams
6. Rohan, born 19 May 1972, to Janet Hunt
7. Karen,
born 1973 to Janet Bowen
8. Stephanie,
born 17 August 1974; according to Cedella Booker she was the daughter of
Rita and a man called Ital with whom Rita had an affair; nonetheless she was
acknowledged as Bob's daughter
9. Julian, born 4 June 1975, to Lucy Pounder
10. Ky-Mani, born 26 February 1976, to Anita
Belnavis
11. Damian, born 21 July 1978, to Cindy Breakspeare
Makeda was born on 30 May
1981, to Yvette Crichton, after Marley's death.[42] Meredith Dixon's book lists
her as Marley's child, but she is not listed as such on the Bob Marley official
website.
Various websites, for
example,[43] also list Imani Carole, born
22 May 1963 to Cheryl Murray; but she does not appear on the official Bob
Marley website.[42]
Legacy
"Bob Marley
was the Third World's first pop superstar. He was the man who introduced
the world to the mystic power of reggae. He
was a true rocker at heart, and as a songwriter, he brought the lyrical force
of Bob Dylan, the personal charisma of John Lennon, and the essential vocal stylings of Smokey Robinson into one voice."
— Jann Wenner, at Marley's 1994 posthumous
induction into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame[53]
In 1999 Time magazine chose
Bob Marley & The Wailers' Exodus as
the greatest album of the 20th century.[54] In 2001, he was posthumously
awarded the Grammy
Lifetime Achievement Award, and a feature-length documentary about
his life,Rebel Music, won various awards at the Grammys. With contributions from Rita, The
Wailers, and Marley's lovers and children, it also tells much of the story in
his own words.[55] A statue was inaugurated, next
to the national stadium on Arthur Wint Drive in Kingston to commemorate him. In
2006, the State of New York renamed a portion of Church Avenue from Remsen
Avenue to East 98th Street in the East Flatbush section
of Brooklyn "Bob Marley
Boulevard".[56] In 2008, a statue of Marley
was inaugurated in Banatski Sokolac, Serbia.[57]
Internationally, Marley's
message also continues to reverberate amongst various indigenous communities.
For instance, the Aboriginal people of
Australia continue to burn a sacred flame to honor his memory in Sydney's Victoria Park,
while members of the Native American Hopi and Havasupai tribe revere his work.[58] There are also many tributes
to Bob Marley throughout India, including
restaurants, hotels, and cultural festivals.[59][60]
Marley has also evolved
into a global symbol, which has been endlessly merchandised through a variety
of mediums. In light of this, author Dave Thompson in
his book Reggae and Caribbean Music, laments what he perceives to
be the commercialized pacification of Marley's more militant edge, stating:
"Bob
Marley ranks among both the most popular and the most misunderstood figures in
modern culture ... That the machine has utterly emasculated Marley is beyond
doubt. Gone from the public record is the ghetto kid who dreamed of Che Guevara and the Black Panthers,
and pinned their posters up in the
Wailers Soul Shack record store; who believed in freedom; and the fighting
which it necessitated, and dressed the part on an early album sleeve; whose
heroes were James Brown and Muhammad Ali; whose God was Ras Tafari and whose sacrament was marijuana. Instead, the Bob Marley who surveys
his kingdom today is smiling benevolence, a shining sun, a waving palm tree,
and a string of hits which tumble out of polite radio like candy from a gumball
machine. Of course it has assured his immortality. But it has also demeaned him
beyond recognition. Bob Marley was worth far more."[61]
Discography
- The Wailing Wailers (1965)
- Soul Rebels (1970)
- Soul Revolution (1971)
- The Best of The Wailers (1971)
- Catch a Fire (1973)
- Burnin' (1973)
- Natty Dread (1974)
- Rastaman Vibration (1976)
- Exodus (1977)
- Kaya (1978)
- Survival (1979)
- Uprising (1980)
- Confrontation (1983)
Awards and honors
- 1976: Band of the Year (Rolling Stone).
- June 1978: Awarded the Peace Medal of the Third World from the United Nations.[58]
- February 1981: Awarded Jamaica's third highest honour, the Jamaican Order of Merit.
- March 1994: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- 1999: Album of the Century for Exodus by Time Magazine.
- February 2001: A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- February 2001: Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
- 2004: Rolling Stone ranked him No.11 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[70]
- "One Love" named song of the millennium by BBC.
- Voted as one of the greatest lyricists of all time by a BBC poll.[71]
- 2006: A blue plaque was unveiled at his first UK residence in Ridgmount Gardens, London, dedicated to him by Nubian Jak community trust and supported by Her Majesty's Foreign Office.[72]
- 2010: Catch a Fire inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (Reggae Album).[73]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB! ONE LOVE!
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