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Robert Nesta Marley (February 6, 1945 Nine
Miles, Saint Ann, Jamaica – May 11, 1981 Miami, Florida) better known as
Bob Marley, was a Jamaican singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He was one
of the most widely known reggae musicians of all time, famous for
popularising the genre outside of Jamaica. Much of his work deals with
the struggles of the impoverished and/or powerless. He has been called
the Charles Wesley of the Rastafari movement for the way in which he
spread the faith through his music.
He was the husband of Rita Anderson Marley,
who regularly performed with Bob Marley as a member of his back-up
singers the I Threes. She had 4 of his 9 acknowledged children,
including David Ziggy Marley and Stephen Marley who together continue
their father's musical legacy in their band the Melody Makers. Another
of his sons, Damian Marley (aka "Jr Gong"), has also started a career in
music.
* * * *
Political
and religious convictions
Marley was well known for his devotion to
the Rastafarian religion. It was his wife Rita who first inspired him in
his faith, and he then received teachings from Mortimer Planner. He
served as a de facto missionary for the faith (his actions and lyrics
suggest that this was intentional) and brought it to global attention.
Through his music he preached brotherhood and peace for all of mankind.
Towards the end of his life he was also baptised into the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church with the name Berhane Selassie.
As a Rasta, Bob Marley was a great defender
of cannabis which he used as a sacrament. On the cover of Catch a Fire
he is seen smoking a large spliff (marijuana cigarette), and the
spiritual use of cannabis is mentioned in many of his songs.
Marley was known to have connections with
the Twelve Tribes of Israel sect of Rastafari, and he expressed this
with a biblical quote about Joseph, son of Jacob on the album cover of
Rastaman Vibration. The tribe of Joseph is Aquarius. Marley also makes
many references to Judah and his tribe, in reference to Haile Selassie,
God incarnate of the Rastafarians.
Early life
Bob Marley was born on February 6, 1945 in
Jamaica to Norval Marley, a Jamaican-born white plantation overseer of
Welsh descent, and Cedella Booker, a black teenager from the north
country. Cedella and Norval were to be married on June 9th, 1944.
Approximately a week before the wedding, however, Norval informed
Cedella that his chronic hernia had begun to trouble him and as a result
he would be changing jobs and moving to Kingston. Norval never really
knew his son because of the white upper class' disdain for mixed race
relationships.
Musical
career
Early
career
Marley started his musical experimentation
in ska and gravitated towards reggae as the music evolved, playing,
teaching and singing for a long period in the 1970s and 1980s. Marley is
perhaps best-known for work with his reggae group "The Wailers", which
included two other celebrated reggae musicians, Bunny Livingstone and
Peter Tosh. Livingstone and Tosh later left the group and went on to
become successful solo artists.
Much of Marley's early work was produced by
Coxsone Dodd at Studio One. That relationship later deteriorated due to
financial pressure, and in the early 1970s he produced what is believed
by many to be his finest work with Lee Perry. This pair also split
apart, this time over the assignment of recording rights. They did work
together again in London, though, and remained friends until Marley's
death.
Marley's work was largely responsible for
the mainstream cultural acceptance of reggae music outside of Jamaica.
He signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records label in 1971, at the time
a highly influential and innovative label. Island Records boasted a
retinue of successful and diverse artists including Free, John Martyn
and Nick Drake. Though many people believe that Blackwell interfered
with what Marley wanted to do with his own music, others think that the
knowledge this producer brought to the scene was critical in Marley's
wish to bring reggae to the world. It was his 1975 hit No Woman, No Cry
that first gained him fame on a wider level.
Shot in election violence
In 1976, just two days before a scheduled
free concert that Marley and the then Jamaican PM Michael Manley had
organized in the run up to the general election, Marley, his wife Rita,
and manager Don Taylor, were shot inside the star's 56 Hope Road home.
Marley received minor injuries in the arm and chest. Don Taylor took
most of the bullets in his legs and torso as he accidentally walked in
the line of fire. He was in a serious condition after he was rushed to
the hospital, but fully recovered later. Rita also recovered from the
shot to the head she received that night. It is generally believed that
this shooting was politically motivated, due to Jamaican politics being
somewhat violent at the time, especially so close to election day. The
concert was seen as being in support of the progressive prime minister
of Jamaica, Michael Manley. It is widely held that he was shot by
supporters of the conservative political party of Jamaica, the Jamaica
Labour Party. However, there is little evidence to support this. Though
the police never caught the gunmen, Marley devotees later "caught up"
with them on the streets of Kingston.
Later
career
Bob Marley left Jamaica at the end of 1976,
and went to England, where he recorded both Exodus and Kaya, and where
he was famously arrested for possession of a joint of marijuana. He
released "Africa Unite" on the Survival album in 1979, and was then
invited to perform at the Zimbabwe Independence Day celebrations on
April 17, 1980.
Rastaman Vibration made big waves in the US
charts on its release. The success got reggae and Marley more mileage
besides a recognition for his peace efforts. “War” brought the message
of H.I.M. Haile Selassie loud and clear to the young generation. Stevie
Wonder in the album Hotter than July paid a rich tribute to Bob Marley
with the hit track Master Blaster (Jammin).
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Battle with
cancer
Diagnosis
In July 1977, Marley was found to have a
wound on his right big toe, which he thought was from a soccer injury.
The wound would not completely heal, and his toenail later fell off
during a soccer game. It was then that the correct diagnosis was made.
Marley actually had a form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma, which
grew under his toenail. He was advised to get his toe amputated, but he
refused because of the Rastafarian belief that doctors are samfai,
confidence men who cheat the gullible by pretending to have the power of
witchcraft. He also was concerned about the impact the operation would
have on his dancing; amputation would profoundly affect his career at a
time when greater success was close at hand. Still, Marley based this
refusal on his Rastafarian beliefs, saying, "Rasta no abide amputation.
I and I don't allow a mon ta be dismantled." [Catch a Fire, Timothy
White] He did have surgery to try to excise the cancer cells. The cancer
was kept secret from the wider public.
Collapse
and treatment
The cancer spread to his brain, his lungs
and his stomach. While on tour in the summer of 1980, while trying to
break into the US market, he collapsed jogging in NYC's Central Park.
This was after a series of shows in England and at Madison Square
Garden. The illness made him unable to continue with the large tour that
was planned. Marley sought help, and decided to go to Munich in order to
receive treatment from controversial cancer specialist Josef Issels for
several months, but it was to no avail.
Death
A month before his death, he was awarded
Jamaica's Order of Merit. He wanted to spend his final days in Jamaica
but he became too ill on the flight home from Germany and had to land in
Miami. He passed away at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami, Florida on
May 11, 1981. Before his death he was baptised into the Coptic Orthodox
Church. and took the name Berhane Selassie (meaning the Light of the
Holy Trinity in Coptic). His funeral in Jamaica was a dignified affair
with combined elements of Ethiopian Orthodoxy and Rastafarianism. He is
buried in a crypt at Nine Miles, near his birthplace.
Posthumous
reputation
Bob Marley's music and legend have gone
from strength to strength in the years since his early death and
continue to produce a huge stream of revenue for his estate, whilst also
bringing him a nearly mythic status in music history similar to that of
Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and Bob Dylan. He remains enormously popular
and well known all over the world, and particularly so in Africa. In
1993, Marley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Controversy
over burial place
In January 2005, it was reported that Rita
Marley is planning to have her late husband's remains exhumed and
reburied in Shashamane, Ethiopia. In announcing the decision to move
Marley's remains to Ethiopia, Rita Marley said: "Bob's whole life is
about Africa, it is not Jamaica." There is a great deal of resistance to
this proposal in Jamaica. The birthday celebrations for what would have
been his 60th birthday on February 6th 2005 were celebrated in
Shashamane for the first time, having previously always been held in
Jamaica.
Awards and
honors
-
1976 - Band of the Year (Rolling Stone)
-
June 1978 - Awarded the Peace Medal of
the Third World from the United Nations
-
February 1981 - Awarded Jamaica's third
highest honor, the Order of Merit
-
1999 - Album of the Century (Time
Magazine) for Exodus)
-
February 2001 - A star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame
-
February 2001 - Awarded Grammy Lifetime
Achievement Award
* * * *
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