Inspired by the visit to the Bob Marley Museum. Who was Bob Marley?
I ended my previous post (https://steemit.com/travel/@qeysolutions/one-love-one-heart-visiting-the-bob-marley-museum-in-kingston-jamaica) with a quote of Bob Marley “Live for yourself and you will live in vain. Live for others, and you will live again.”
Many knew Bob Marley as “The king of reggae” or “the first Third World superstar”. But who was Bob Marley and how did he live?
Robert (Bob) Nesta Marley was born on February 6, 1945. His father was a Jamaican of English ancestry and that is why the family of his father did not approve the union with Bob’s mother. Bob’s father died when he was only 10 years old and Bob had seen him only a few times during his life.
Bob Marley grew up in a neighbourhood of Nine Miles. In this community the people have kept many traditions of their African ancestry alive e.g. storytelling, proverbs, fables.
In 1963 Bob Marley formed a group called the Wailers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livinston, this where his career started. In 1966 Bob married Rita who introduced him to Rastafarianism. Peter and Bunny also became a Rasta.
The Wailers.
The Wailers collaborated with Lee Scratch Perry and produced the tracks “Soul Rebel”, ”Duppy Conquerer”, “400 Years” and “Small Axe”. The collaboration did not turn out that well because Perry sold the tracks of the Wailers in England without their permission. However due to this incident Chris Blackwell, owner of Island Records, noticed the Wailers’ music. Blackwell signed the Wailers right away and their film album “Catch a Fire” was produced. Their next album “Burnin” contained the famous songs “Get Up Stand Up” and “I Shot the Sheriff”. Eric Clapton covered the track “Get Up Stand Up” and the song became a number #1 hit in the USA.
In 1974 Peter Tosh and Bunny Livinston left the Wailers to start their solo careers. So Marley formed the band “Bob Marley and theWailers”. His wife Rita was one of the backup singers.
In 1976 there was an attempt to put an end to Bob Marley’s life. This was a period of a growing political violence in Jamaica. The Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley organised a free concert “Smile Jamaica” attempting to relieve the tension between the two warring political groups. During the assault Bob Marley, his wife Rita and his manager Don Taylor were injured. Despite he was injured, the concert proceeded two days after the attack and Bob performed although he had two wounds. When they asked him why he was doing that, Bob responded:”The people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off. How can I?”
After this concert Marley left for England for two years. In England he produced the album “Exodus” which remained on the British charts for 56 weeks and had hits such as “Exodus” “Wating in Vain”, “Jamming” and “One Love”. The next album was “Kaya”. This is how reggae music was introduced to the western world and Marley’s international significance began.
In 1977 the doctors diagnosed that Marley had cancer. But his illness was not revealed to the public and Marley continued to work on his projects.
In 1978 Bob Marley returned to Jamaica and performed at another political concert the “One Love Peace Concert”. Marley was making another effort to calm the political parties at war. When the concert was coming to his end, Bob requested the two competing political leaders Micheal Manley and Edward Seaga to come on stage and take each other’s hand and they did.
A mural of the great moment when Bob united the to political leaders during his concert in 1978.
The next year Bob produced “Survival” and he had a very successful European tour. 1980 was a time of great success for Bob Marley as he participated in the independence ceremony of Zimbabwe, where he was the only international artist. Later on in that year he had an American tour in the USA. He had two concerts at the Madison Square Garden, but on September 21, 1980 he collapsed while jogging in Central Park New York. The cancer had developed itself.
Everyone who knows about Bob Marley knows he was a Rasta man. But what many people don’t know is that before he died he was baptised as a Christian.
Bob Marley died in a Miami hospital on May 11, 1981 at the age of 36.
Even though Bob Marley departed this life at a very young age, his memory lives on forever, not only in Jamaica but all over the world. His songs are still being played nowadays, what makes you wonder what is so special about his songs ...
