Music Legends - Featured Artist Bob Marley

themagus (68)in #music • 8 years ago

Arguably the first international music star to emerge out of the so called Third World, Robert “Bob” Marley (06 February 1945) was born in St. Ann Parish, Nine Miles Jamaica. His mother, a teenager at the time, and his father an older man who supported them but was away most of the time.

Bob and his friend Neville Livingston learnt to play music while at Stepney Junior School Bob Marley moved to Trench Town, Kingston with his mother when he was 12 years old. Marley’s mother and Neville’s father got together and had a daughter together. As the two friends, Bob and Neville now lived together, their music collaboration and appreciation grew in tandem until finally in 1963 they formed the band The Wailing Wailers, along with Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite, Cherry Smith and Beverley Kelso. At this time they were signed to the Coxsone label, producing their first seven single called “Simmer Down” in early 1964.

Simmer Down…The Wailing Wailers went to #1 on the Jamaican charts. Bloody hell Marley’s voice had hardly broken {grin}

Shortly after this success the band changed their name to The Wailers and started recording for Studio One. By 1966 only the core trio of Marley, Bunny Waller and Peter Tosh remained.

Rude Boy with Bunny Waller on vocals, recorded with Studio One.

Although raised as a Catholic, Marley once away from his mother’s influence converted to Rastafarian and started growing his hair. The band approached Lee Perry in 1970 to record an entire album, which was to be their first released outside of Jamaica. This album was Soul Rebels and many consider this the best The Wailers album produced.

Soul Rebels…. At this stage, Bob Marley has clearly started finding his voice

Cornerstone

In 1966 Bob Marley married Rita Anderson, moving to live near his mother in Delaware in the States. They were only there a short time before returning back to Jamaica.

Since Jimmy Cliff, Island's top reggae star, had recently left the label, Blackwell was primed for a replacement. In Marley, Blackwell recognised the elements needed to snare the rock audience: "I was dealing with rock music, which was really rebel music. I felt that would really be the way to break Jamaican music. But you needed someone who could be that image. When Bob walked in he really was that image."[37] The Wailers returned to Jamaica to record at Harry J's in Kingston which resulted in the album Catch a Fire. source

Slave Driver (Catch a fire) from the 1973 Catch a Fire album, their first for Island Records

Stir it Up, also from Catch a Fire.

Catch a Fire was not a great commercial success but did get Marley some recognition. The next album ‘Burnin’ was a more trenchtown type style and was both a reggae and rock success. One of the tracks “I shot the Sherriff” was covered by Eric Clapton, topping the US billboards.

I shot the Sheriff …The Wailers

In 1974 the album Natty Dread was released, and for the first time the recording artist was named as “Bob Marley and the Wailers”, and the first recorded without Peter Tosh and Bunny Waller who both left to pursue solo careers.

No Woman No Cry possibly the best known from the album was written in memory of growing up poor in Trenchtown, the lyrics credited to V. Ford a friend of Marley

Bob Marley released an album a year from 1976, starting with Rastaman Vibration, then Exodus(1977), Kaya(1978),Survival(1079), Uprising(1980) and then Confontation in 1983.

In 1977 Marley was diagnosed with malignant melanoma under the nail of his big toe. For religious reasons he refused amputation, instead having the toe nail and the melanoma removed. Continuing to tour he was finally forced to quit in September 1980 due to failing health. Bob Marley passed away on 11 May 1981 while returning to his beloved Jamaica

Exodus

One Love

An excerpt from the official Bob Marley website

Bob Marley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994; in December 1999, his 1977 album “Exodus” was named Album of the Century by Time Magazine and his song “One Love” was designated Song of the Millennium by the BBC

I believe that it is fair to say that his music lives on and that Bob Marley was a true ambassador for reggae music

I leave you with one of my favorite Marley numbers … Redemption Song from the Uprising album.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfill the book.

I hope you enjoyed the read and listen !!

Credits:
http://www.biography.com/people/bob-marley-9399524#synopsis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Marley
http://www.bobmarley.com/history/
www.youtube.com