Bob Marley: The Rastaman Vibration Continues

Kate Simon first photographed Bob Marley at the July 1975 gig that kicked off his global career, and in the six short years that remained of his life, she photographed him again and again: at home in London or Jamaica, on the road, with heads of state or among the friends who knew him as a neighbor, not a celebrity. She has some thoughts about the man and how the public perceived him.

“That image of him as the laconic, peace and love guy smoking a joint — that was the antithesis of Bob,” she said the other day. “He was really a hard worker. When people put up a poster of Bob in their dorm room and say, ‘I’m going to smoke a joint,’ what they should be thinking is, ‘How do I realize my potential?’ That’s what Bob was thinking.”

Photo

Bob Marley in Heidelberg, Germany, on the European Exodus Tour in 1977. Marley and the Wailers had just finished their sound check in the big auditorium when he wandered over to the far corner of the hall, where these prosthetic limbs were stored.Credit Kate Simon

Recently, Marley’s family and an American venture capital firm announced a plan to make Marley the face of what they called “the world’s first global cannabis brand.” The makeover of Bob Marley — from the rebel behind anthems like “Get Up, Stand Up” and “Burnin and Lootin” to the face that launched a thousand bongs — would seem to be complete.

“It’s a very reductive view that people have of him,” said the writer Vivien Goldman, who worked briefly as Marley’s publicist and now teaches the course Bob Marley and Post-Colonial Music at New York University.

“It’s a phenomenon I call ‘cuddly dread,’&#8202” she said. “It’s a sanitized version. He got more militant with each record. He wouldn’t be happy to be reduced to a pothead or party guy. I remember him saying of someone, ‘He only smokes herb to get high.’ To Bob it was a sacrament.”

Ms. Simon’s photographs, which she collected in a 2004 book called “Rebel Music: Bob Marley & Roots Reggae” (Genesis House), capture other sides of Marley. There are marijuana and joy, yes, but also Marley as newshound; as constantly evolving musician; and as political peacemaker, inveigling the rival Jamaican politicians Michael Manley and Edward Seaga to shake hands onstage in 1978 (Photo 11), when their parties were engaged in violent clashes that played out in impoverished neighborhoods.

Through all of this, Ms. Simon had uniquely intimate access. “He was always trying to help me,” she said. Where other musicians tested her, insisting that she smoke a spliff before she shot them, Marley approached photography as a collaboration, and welcomed her into his world, she said. “I could go anywhere, and he was, ‘She’s cool.’&#8202”

Photo

“I can’t be sure but I think Neville Garric, the Wailers’ art director, took this shot of Bob and me,” Ms. Simon said. “Whoever it was, I’m glad that they did because it’s the only one I have.” The European Exodus Tour,  Germany. 1977.Credit Photo Courtesy of Kate Simon

Her best-known image of Marley, for the 1978 “Kaya” album, leapt out “because it was one of the only pictures of Bob smiling,” said Ms. Goldman, who was at the shoot. The photo has since made its way around the globe, perhaps unwittingly contributing to the tourism-board image that has grown around Marley (photo below).

Yet there is also a vitality to the image – the sharpness of Marley’s gaze, the wiry strength under the athletic suit — that is harder to possess or cuddle up to, even for a face that has become a global brand. In the frame he is both smaller and larger than his image.

“I was trying to show what a sweet person he was, how much I cared about him,” Ms. Simon said. “I just wanted to give thanks and praise. Jah Bob.”

Photo

One of Ms. Simon's best-known images of Marley, used for his 1978 “Kaya” album cover.Credit Kate Simon

Celebrating Bob Marley, Voice of the Dispossessed

KINGSTON, Jamaica, May 12— For years, Bob Marley's biting reggae was so shunned by Jamaica's elite that it could scarcely by heard on the radio here, even as the singer's popularity abroad began the steep rise that eventually would make him the third world's first global pop star.

But in a concert here on Saturday night that capped several days of commemoration of the 10th anniversary of his death, Jamaican society honored the ghetto tough who made this small island an improbable axis of pop culture for much of the 1970's and 80's and eventually became Jamaica's most famous son.

From such staples of Jamaican culture as the National Dance Theater and the University Singers to foreign acts like London Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra, one group after another paid ringing tribute to Marley. The five-hour concert ended with a performance of some of his songs by the Melody Makers, a Marley family group led by the singer's son Ziggy, who in his singing and appearance bears a strong resemblance to his father. A Song for the Poor

In a touch inherited from his father, whose music celebrated the "sufferers," the 22-year-old Ziggy devoted his final song, "Small People," to the crowds of poor, shaggy-haired Jamaicans, street vendors and taxi drivers, who, unable to afford entry into the theater, watched the concert in an adjacent park, where it was projected live on a large screen.

Despite the inaccessibility of the theater to the poor, for many local fans of Marley's work Saturday's concert represented a sweet final triumph that belied one of the singer's own musical laments that "a good man is never honored in his own country."

Whereas Marley's long-haired, ganja-smoking Rastafarian sect was long seen by the staid Establishment here as an embarrassing threat to tourism, the Jamaica Tourist Board sponsored the memorial concert. And recently, lyrics from one of the singer's hits, "One Love," were adopted in promotional campaigns for the island's travel industry.

"When you go to places like Eastern Europe, if people know only two words about Jamaica, they are 'Bob Marley,' " said Milberton Wallace, a former editor of The Jamaica Record. "He has done more than anyone else to create interest in our country." Celebrations Are Worldwide

For all of Marley's recent belated local recognition, commemorative celebrations have been far from limited to Jamaica.

Toronto recently proclaimed May 11, the anniversary of his death from cancer at the age of 36, Bob Marley Day, and in London and Paris mainstream media and the music press alike have been filled recently with appreciations of the singer.

In Manhattan, the opening of "Songs of Freedom," a major exhibition of photographs and other portraiture of the artist at the Galerie Mari Hube (26 East 64th Street) was timed to coincide with the anniversary.

Reggae fans, dressed in Rastafarianism's colors, red, gold and green, and wearing their hair, often silky blond, in the closest approximation they can fashion to rastas' tresses, have gathered from all over the world here in recent days.

Speaking in faltering English, one Japanese fan, Papa I-Ya, who leads a fledgling reggae group in Tokyo called Beautiful Rasta, said he had timed a long-desired trip to Jamaica to pay homage to Marley. "He sent the message all over the world," Mr. I-Ya said of the singer. Asked what that message was, he added, "People must unite because judgment time is coming now." Tales That May Be Just Tales

Others, in recent days have swapped sometimes apocryphal sounding stories attesting to the breadth of Marley's popularity.

In one such tale, Roger Steffens, the founding editor of The Reggae and African Beat, a Los Angeles-based music magazine, said: "A friend of mine once visited Tibet just after that country opened itself up to the world and met an old monk with a room carved deep into the mountainside. Inside, playing on an old eight-track player, was a tape of his album 'Natty Dread.' "

However true, Marley's appeal succeeded remarkably in transcending an often-militant lyrical message explicitly centered on the ideal of cultural and spiritual redemption for black people.

However racially based his core message, Marley's dreadlocked look of alienation, and his Old Testament-style prophecies promising the poor that their oppressors would soon "eat the bread of sorrow," carried strong germs of universality that have helped spawn vibrant reggae movements in countries as disparate as Poland and Nigeria.

"He gave the poor a voice in the arena of ideas," said Timothy White, a Marley biographer who is editor of Billboard magazine. "Marley's message was that the individual has intrinsic dignity." The Special Marley Touch

Undoubtedly, Bob Marley's gift for melody and a strikingly original style that made each of his songs sound different, yet immediately identifiable as his own helped too.

At his death, the singer had sold an estimated $190 million worth ofrecords. Ten years later, with two posthumous albums still listed on the Billboard charts, and countless bootleg versions sold throughout the third world, he is thought by many music industry experts to be a top contender for the title of biggest-selling recording artist of all time.

Among Jamaican musicians, even as the late artist casts a long and enduring shadow over all those who continue to mine the vein of reggae, appreciation of Marley seems bottomless.

"The music is not the same without him," said Frederick (Toots) Hibbert, the singer who is widely credited with coining the name reggae in a 1960's hit with his group, the Maytals. "The dance music today just makes you want to do crazy things, but long after it is forgotten people will be listening to Bob because he brings culture."

Insisting more on the simple, pleasure-giving effect of Marley melodies that waft above scratchy, pounding rhythms, Sly Dunbar, a widely recorded drummer and reggae producer, said: "I can't remember a song Bob Marley has written that isn't good. Sometimes when you wake up in the morning and feel down, that is all you need to listen to."

Photo: Bob Marley, who was honored with a concert Saturday night in Kingston, Jamaica, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his death. (Eileen Colton)

Hits, Live Albums and Compilations; Musical Merry-Making, From Raunchy to Reverent

BOB MARLEY: ''Chant Down Babylon'' (Tuff Gong/Island). The basic idea has an undeniable tinge of morbidity, but this assortment of posthumous duets between the Abraham of reggae music and some of his spiritual (and actual) progeny frequently triumphs. Unlike similar studio excavations of Frank Sinatra, this one turns its trickery into hip-hop, a music grounded in historical revision. The talent is top-notch on both sides of the mortal divide. Stephen Marley, who led the project, chose songs that would feel fresh to old Marley fans and revelatory to new ones. His remixes honor hip-hop's link to dub rhythms. And his crew, including Lauryn Hill, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu, Krayzie Bone and Guru, exercise their wits to go beyond idol worship, making these urgent, timeless songs speak anew. ANN POWERS

POP REVIEW; Finding Inspiration In Marley's Memory

WANTAGH, N.Y., June 18— Everyone loves Bob Marley, which may be why so many singers claim him as an inspiration: they're hoping some of that love will rub off on them. Tonight two of his biggest fans, Ben Harper and Jack Johnson, came to Jones Beach Theater here, emulating their hero with mixed results.

The headliner was Mr. Harper, a great rock star who isn't. He looks good onstage, lithe and lively in a denim-and-denim outfit, his dance moves as smooth as his Afro. And he looks good on paper: he has a great voice, he is a virtuosic guitarist and he writes idiosyncratic rock songs that draw from reggae and the blues.

Yet somehow -- infuriatingly -- it doesn't work. Songs meant to be mellow sounded listless instead, and the screaming guitar solos sounded merely self-indulgent.

There were a few bright moments, most notably a hushed version of ''Forever,'' from Mr. Harper's 1994 debut album, ''Welcome to the Cruel World.''

But a marijuana anthem, ''Burn One Down,'' could almost have been a Marley parody: ''Before you knock it, try it first/Oh, you'll see it's a blessing and not a curse.'' And ''With My Own Two Hands,'' from his new album, ''Diamonds on the Inside'' (Virgin), suggests what might have happened if Marley had written children's music: ''I'm gonna make it a safer place/I'm gonna help the human race/With my own, with my own two hands.'' It was a relief when, inevitably, the song faded into a cover of Marley's ''War.''

Many of Mr. Johnson's songs were just as slight, but the presentation was much more appealing: Mr. Johnson accompanied himself with some gentle strumming on an acoustic guitar, and his two-piece backing band played grooves so light they almost drifted away.

Mr. Johnson's new album is ''On and On'' (Moonshine Conspiracy/Universal), and its songs act like well-behaved party guests: they don't make a big noise when they arrive, and then they slip away just as you're getting to know them.

Like Mr. Harper, Mr. Johnson has a tendency toward preachiness, but he has a much lighter touch. On ''Gone'' he balanced the finger-pointing verses with a repetitive chorus that sounded more playful than indignant, murmuring, ''Gone, going/Gone, everything/Gone, give a damn/Gone be the birds if they don't want to sing/Gone people, all awkward with their things/Gone.''

Even Mr. Johnson's cover of Marley's ''Trenchtown Rock'' had a certain shrugging charm; when he sang ''Brutalize me with music,'' it seemed like an admission of his intent to do precisely the opposite.

The audience consisted of virtually nothing but high-spirited fans, collegiate in mindset if not in fact. They whooped and cheered mercilessly, sometimes drowning out the ballads. By Mr. Harper's second encore, things had quieted down a bit because many people had already headed for the parking lot. And then the screams erupted again as Mr. Harper brought out Mr. Johnson for -- what else? -- another Marley cover, ''High Tide or Low Tide.''

Photo: Jack Johnson kept his performance light and gentle for a high-spirited audience at the Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, N.Y. (Kevin P. Coughlin/Photostation Images, for The New York Times)

Reggae Fans Get Up, StandUp for a Birthday

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Feb. 6 - If he had been onstage, Bob Marley would have waved his graying dreadlocks in the air and beseeched black people to continue struggling. In that lilting voice of his, he would have sung of love, of unity, of his beloved Ethiopia.

But Marley was only a memory, albeit a powerful one, at the celebration of the 60th anniversary of his birth on Sunday in the sprawling central square of the Ethiopian capital. So his wife, Rita, his sons, including Ziggy Marley, and numerous other admirers did the singing for the late reggae great, as tens of thousands of people jumped and gyrated to the trademark beat at a daylong concert entitled "Africa Unite." Also performing were the singers Lauryn Hill, formerly of the Fugees; Angélique Kidjo from Benin; and Ethiopian entertainers singing their versions of reggae.

It was a curious scene. Meskel Square, the spot where giant portraits of Marx and Lenin looked down on Ethiopians during the country's Communist days, was decorated with likenesses of Marley. Among the revelers were beggars, prevailing on all the idealists to give them something to eat.

Ethiopia is regarded as the promised land for Rastafarians, the dreadlocked Jamaican spiritualists who gave Marley so much of his inspiration. That special status comes despite the poverty of the place, the regular bouts of starvation, the sicknesses that fell so many Ethiopians. Indeed, many here mock the Rastas.

Nearly a quarter of a century after Marley's death, Rastas and other reggae lovers have flocked here from all over the world in recent days to remember him and his powerful litany of lyrics. The Marley fans came from Jamaica, the birthplace of Rastafarianism, and from other countries that have fallen under reggae's spell. Besides celebrating, one of the goals of the gathering was to win over the many people in this conservative Christian and Muslim country who view Rastas with deep suspicion. The concert was organized by the Bob and Rita Marley Foundation, a philanthropic group that works in Ethiopia. It was the first time that the birthday festivities had been held outside of Jamaica since Marley died of cancer at 36 in 1981.

The Ethiopian government sanctioned the concert because it saw the influx of so many visitors as an economic boon. But the arrival of the Rastas was unnerving for some locals, who have trouble grappling with their marijuana use and the belief among many of them that Haile Selassie, the country's deposed emperor, was more deity than man.

"This is our pilgrimage country," said a man who calls himself Jah Eliejah Adanjah, an aging Rasta from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe who was setting foot on Ethiopian soil for the first time. "The feeling is so strong that I can't find words to express it."

Rita Marley gave an indication of the deep ties Rastas feel toward Ethiopia when she said last month that she planned to dig up the singer's remains in Jamaica one day and rebury them in his spiritual home of Africa. Her remarks drew fierce criticism in Jamaica, Marley's birthplace, but she said it had been her husband's lifelong wish to reach the promised land.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

In the raucous, celebrating crowd were some Japanese Rastas who said that Marley's message of black empowerment appeals to anybody who is rebellious inside. "I feel the songs as much as anyone else," said Chihiro Nakamori, 25, of Kyoto, who had fledgling dreadlocks hanging from his head. "When I smoke the herb, I connect with another world." Many Rastafarians believe that smoking marijuana is a sacrament approved by the Bible.

There were Ethiopian Rastas, as well, young people in dreadlocks who said Marley's music spoke to them but that some Rasta beliefs did not. One group of them chewed khat, a popular stimulant here, instead of smoking marijuana.

Rastas named their movement after Haile Selassie, who was known as Ras Tafari before becoming Ethiopia's emperor in 1930. The movement, which came of age at a time when Africa was under white rule, deified Selassie, a black emperor who symbolized an independent Africa. Ethiopians are extremely divided on the merits of Selassie, a man who gave the country's image a boost on the international stage but ruled in an authoritarian manner.

Before he was deposed in 1974, and murdered the following year, Selassie set aside land for those in the black diaspora who sought to help develop Ethiopia. Hundreds of Rastas responded and settled in the remote village of Shashemene, where they continue to worship him.

But the presence of Rastas in their midst has not calmed the concerns of some Ethiopians, who see the way of life of Rastafarians as a bad influence for their children. "There's a hidden agenda here," said Dr. Henok G. Hiwot, an Ethiopian who speaks to parents about dangers young people face if they adopt a Rastafarian way of life: "This is a Bob Marley celebration, but we fear they're trying to attract Ethiopians to their culture. We don't want that."

Critics of Rastafarianism had a message for the many visitors: find another promised land.

During the concert, members of various Protestant churches slipped quietly through the crowd handing out pamphlets that attacked the deification of Selassie by Rastafarians. It was a risky enterprise, as the authorities had detained eight young people who were caught with the pamphlets on the eve of the concert that the government had endorsed.

Many, though, saw no harm. Abuna Paulos, the patriarch of the influential Ethiopian Orthodox Church, of which Selassie and later Marley were members, delivered the celebration's opening prayer. "The church's task is to preach any time to anyone, no matter their hairstyle," said the gray-bearded patriarch, calling Marley his "spiritual son."

At scholarly discussions leading up to the concert, Marley's lyrics were deconstructed and applied to present-day problems. Azeb Mesfin, the wife of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, spoke of how the Marley hit "No Woman, No Cry" inspires struggling women in Africa. When it comes to AIDS, which is taking the lives of so many Africans, she referred to another Marley song: "We should 'get up, stand up' and defeat this terrible scourge," she said.

The revelers who turned out in the beating sun to soak up Marley's music were similarly adapting the lyrics to their own lives. Wouhib Bayou, 29, an Ethiopian who says he finds most Rasta ideology compatible with his Muslim beliefs, said "Waiting in Vain," one of Marley's love songs, perfectly captured his frustration with Ethiopia.

"When you see other countries on TV and you see how advanced they are, you long for that kind of wealth," he said. "I'm waiting for that right here in Ethiopia, but I'm waiting in vain."

bob Marley

Marley, Bob 1945–1981

Contemporary Black Biography | 1994 | Goldsworthy, Joan

COPYRIGHT 2005 Thomson Gale.

Bob Marley 1945–1981

Reggae singer, songwriter, guitarist

At a Glance…

Wailers Gained Worldwide Popularity

Assassination Attempt Followed by Exile

Legal Battles over Estate

Enduring Cultural and Musical Legacy

Selected discography

Sources

In his brief life, Bob Marley rose from poverty and obscurity to the status of an international superstar—the first Third World artist to be acclaimed to such a degree. Were it not for his charisma and ambition, reggae music might still be confined to Jamaica’s ghettoes where it originated. Loved by millions for his musical genius, Marley was also a heroic figure to poor and oppressed people everywhere because of his passionate articulation of their plight and his relentless calls for political change. As Jay Cocks wrote in Time, “His music could challenge the conscience, soothe the spirit and stir the soul all at once.”

Robert Nesta Marley was born to Cedella Malcolm when she was barely nineteen years old. The child was the result of her clandestine affair with Norval Marley, the local overseer of crown lands in the rural parish where she lived. Captain Marley, a white man more than twice Cedella’s age, married the girl to make the birth legitimate, but he left the countryside the day after his impromptu wedding in order to accept a post in the city of Kingston. He had virtually no contact with his wife and son for several years, and Bob grew up as the pet of his grandfather Malcolm’s large clan. He was known as a serious child and had a reputation for clairvoyance.

When Bob was about five years old, Cedella received a letter from her estranged husband, who asked that his child be sent to Kingston in order to attend school. Bob’s mother reluctantly agreed and put her young son on the bus to Jamaica’s largest city. Captain Marley met the child, but, for reasons unknown, he took him to the home of an elderly, invalid woman and abandoned him there. Bob was left to fend almost entirely for himself in Kingston’s ghettos, generally considered some of the world’s most dangerous. Months passed before Cedella managed to track down her child and bring him back to his country home. Before long, however, mother and child had returned to Kingston, where Cedella believed she had a greater chance of improving her life. She and Bob were joined by Bob’s closest friend, Bunny Livingston, and Bunny’s father, Thaddeus.

Jamaican society held very few opportunities for blacks at that time. Bob and Bunny grew up in an environment where violent crime was glorified by many young people as one of the few ways of getting ahead. Music was seen as another means of escape. Like most of their contemporaries, the two boys dreamed of becoming recording stars, and they spent their days coming up with songs and practicing them to the accompaniment of makeshift guitars, fashioned from bamboo,

At a Glance…

Born Robert Nesta Marley, February 6, 1945, in Nine Miles, Saint Ann, Jamaica; died of cancer, May 11, 1981, in Miami, FL; buried in Nine Miles, Saint Ann, Jamaica; son of Norval Sinclair Marley (a British Army captain) and Cedella Marley Booker (a shopkeeper, and later, a singer; maiden name, Malcolm); married Alpharita Constantia Anderson (known as Rita; a singer), February 10, 1966; children: (with wife) David (Ziggy), Cedella, Stephen, and Stephanie; (other legally recognized children with seven different women) daughters Karen and Makeda Jahnesta, and sons Rowan, Robbie, Kimani, Julian, and Damian, Religion: Rastafarian.

Worked as a welder, Kingston, Jamaica, briefly in 1961; lab assistant at Du Pont, forklift driver in a warehouse, and assembly-line worker at Chrysler, all in Delaware, 1966; owner of a record store, Wailin’ Soul, Kingston, Jamaica, beginning 1966; formed Tuff Gong recording label, 1970; recording artist, 1962-81; founding member, with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, of musical group the Wailers (originally known as the Teenagers, then as the Wailing Rudeboys, then the Wailing Wailers), early 1960s.

Awards: Special citation on behalf of Third World nations from United Nations, 1979; Jamaica’s Order of Merit, 1981; May 11 proclaimed Bob Marley Day in Toronto, Canada.

sardine cans, and electrical wire. By 1963, Marley’s dream had come true—he’d released his first single, “Judge Not.” Soon he and Bunny had teamed with another singer, Peter Macintosh (later known as Peter Tosh), to form a group known as the Wailers. Through talent shows, gigs at small clubs, and recordings, the Wailers became one of the most popular groups in Jamaica.

Their early success was based on popular dance hits in the “ska” music style. As time passed, they added social commentary to their lyrics and were instrumental in transforming the light, quick ska beat into the slower, bass-heavy reggae sound. The three men also came under the influence of Rastafarianism. This complex set of mystical beliefs holds that the now deceased Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (whose given name was Ras Tafari) was the living God who would lead blacks out of oppression and into an African homeland. It was once considered the religion of outcasts and lunatics in Jamaica, but in the 1960s it came to represent an alternative to violence for many ghetto dwellers. Rastafarianism lent dignity to their suffering and offered them the hope of eventual relief. Rejecting the standards of the white world that led many blacks to straighten their hair, Rastas let theirs mat up into long, ropy “dreadlocks.” They follow strict dietary rules, abhor alcohol and drugs, but revere “ganja” (marijuana) as a holy herb that brings enlightenment to users. The Wailers soothed ghetto tensions with lyrical messages of peace and love, but at the same time, they warned the ruling class of “imminent dread judgement on the downpressors.”

Wailers Gained Worldwide Popularity

For all their acclaim in Jamaica, the Wailers saw few profits from their early recording career, as unscrupulous producers repeatedly cheated them out of royalties and even the rights to their own songs. That situation changed in the early 1970s, after Marley sought an alliance with Chris Blackwell, a wealthy white Jamaican whose record company, Island, was the label of many major rock stars. At the time, reggae was still considered unsophisticated slum music that could never be appreciated by non-Jamaican audiences. Blackwell had a deep interest in the music, however, and because he felt that the Wailers were the one group capable of popularizing reggae internationally, he offered them a contract. He handled the marketing of their first Island album, Catch a Fire, just as he would have handled any rock band’s product, complete with slick promotional efforts and tours of Britain and the United States. Slowly, the Wailers’ sound began to catch on beyond the borders of Jamaica. An important catalyst to their popularity at this time was Eric Clapton’s cover of Marley’s composition, “I Shot the Sheriff,” from the Wailers’ 1973 album Burnin’. Clapton’s version became a worldwide hit, leading many of his fans to discover the Wailers’ music.

As their popularity increased, the original Wailers drew closer to a parting of the ways. Bunny Livingston (who had taken the name Bunny Wailer) disliked leaving Jamaica for extended tours, and Peter Tosh resented Chris Blackwell’s efforts to make Bob the focus of the group. Each launched solo careers in the mid-1970s, while Marley released Natty Dread in 1974, which was hailed by Rolling Stone reviewer Stephen Davis as “the culmination of Marley’s political art to this point.” The reviewer continued: “With every album he’s been rocking a little harder and reaching further out to produce the stunning effect of a successful spell. Natty Dread deals with rebellion and personal liberation.… The artist lays his soul so bare that the careful listener is satiated and exhausted in the end.” Rastaman Vibration was released in 1976 to even more enthusiastic reviews. It was full of acid commentary on the worsening political situation in Jamaica, including a denouncement of the CIA’s alleged involvement in island politics—a bold statement that brought Marley under the surveillance of the CIA and other U.S. intelligence organizations. His prominence in Jamaica reached messianic proportions, causing one Timereporter to exclaim, “He rivals the government as a political force.”

Assassination Attempt Followed by Exile

Marley regarded all politicians with skepticism, considering them to be part of what Rastafarians call “Babylon,” or the corrupt Western world. In the election for Prime Minister of Jamaica, however, he was known to favor Michael Manley of the People’s National Party—a socialist group—over Edward Seaga, candidate of the right-wing Jamaican Labour Party. When Manley asked Bob Marley to give a “Smile Jamaica” concert to reduce tensions between the warring gangs associated with the two parties, the singer readily agreed.

Shortly before the concert was to take place on December 3, 1976, Marley’s home was stormed by seven gunmen, suspected henchmen of the Jamaican Labour Party. Marley, his wife, Rita, and their manager Don Taylor were all injured in the ensuing gunfire. Yet despite the assassination attempt, the concert went on as scheduled. An audience of 80,000 people was electrified when Marley, bandaged and unable to strum his guitar, climbed to the stage to begin a blistering ninety-minute set. “At the close of his performance, Bob began a ritualistic dance, acting out aspects of the ambush that had almost taken his life,” reported Timothy White in Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley. “The last [the audience] saw before the reigning King of Reggae disappeared back into the hills was the image of the man mimicking the two-pistoled fast draw of a frontier gunslinger, his locks thrown back in triumphant laughter.”

Immediately after the “Smile Jamaica” concert, Marley left the country, beginning a long term of self-imposed exile. After a period of recuperation, he toured the United States, Europe, and Africa. Reviewing his 1977 release, Exodus, Ray Coleman wrote in Melody Maker: “This is a mesmerizing album… more accessible, melodically richer, delivered with more directness than ever.… After an attempt on his life, Marley has a right to celebrate his existence, and that’s how the album sounds: a celebration.” But Village Voice reviewer Roger Trilling found that Exodus was“underscored by deep personal melancholy, a musical echo of the rootless wanderings that followed [Marley’s] self-exile from Jamaica.”

In 1978, Marley injured his foot during an informal soccer game. The painful wound was slow to heal and finally forced the singer to seek medical help. Doctors informed him that he was in the early stages of cancer and advised amputation of his damaged toe. He refused, because such treatment was not in keeping with Rasta beliefs. Despite worsening health, Marley continued to write and perform until September, 1980, when he collapsed while jogging in New York’s Central Park during the U.S. leg of a world tour. Doctors determined that tumors were spreading throughout his lungs and brain. He underwent radiation therapy and a controversial holistic treatment in the Bavarian Alps, but to no avail. After his death on May 11, 1981, he was given a state funeral in Jamaica, which was attended by more than 100,000 people. Prime Minister Edward Seaga remembered Marley as “a native son… a beloved and departed friend.” “He was a man with deep religious and political sentiments who rose from destitution to become one of the most influential music figures in the last twenty years,” eulogized White in Rolling Stone. He was “an inspiration for black freedom fighters the world over.… When his death was announced, the degree of devastation felt… was incalculable.”

Legal Battles over Estate

Throughout his life, Marley had always remained a man of the street. Even after earning millions of dollars, he would frequently return to the neighborhood where he grew up, leaving his BMW automobile unlocked at the curb while he visited old friends. His casual disregard for money and material possessions endeared him to the masses but gave rise to a monumental legal tangle after his death. Though his estate was worth an estimated $30 million at the time he passed away, he had scoffed at the idea of a will, believing that such a document showed an inappropriate concern with earthly matters.

Under Jamaican law, half of the estate of a man who dies intestate goes to his widow, while the remainder is divided equally among his children. When the court advertised for heirs, hundreds stepped forth claiming to be Marley’s offspring. Marley’s widow, Rita, became locked in a ten-year battle with the court-appointed administrator of the estate, a conservative lawyer who had not liked Marley when he was alive and who, after the singer’s death, sometimes seemed bent on taking as much as possible from those who had been closest to the deceased. The administrator attempted to evict Marley’s mother from a house her son had given her—on the grounds that the title had never been legally transferred; in a similar fashion, he tried to have property seized from Rita and accused her of illegally diverting royalty money that should have become part of the contested estate.

That royalty money represented a considerable sum. At the time of his death, Marley had sold about $190 million worth of albums and had an average annual royalty income of $200,000. Posthumous releases of his work were ranked high on Billboard’s music charts ten years and more after his death, pushing the annual royalty income to $2.5 million and leading many industry experts to rank Marley as one of the largest-selling recording artists of all time. Control of the rights to his music was as hotly disputed as the division of his estate, with rival record companies trying to wrest control from Rita Marley and Island Records.

Eventually, Rita Marley admitted in court that she had forged her husband’s signature on backdated documents that transferred ownership of some of his companies to her. Showing a disregard for legalities similar to her husband’s, she calmly told a Newsweek reporter that she had been acting on her lawyers’ advice. Firm in her belief that Marley would have wanted her to protect herself and his rightful heirs—which were eventually determined to include his and Rita’s four children, as well as seven other offspring with various women—she asked, “How can I steal from myself?” She was dismissed as an executor of the estate for this transgression but charged with no crime. The battle over Marley’s fortune was finally settled late in 1991. The Jamaican Supreme Court ruled in favor of Rita Marley and Chris Blackwell’s Island Logic Ltd., a company that had controlled the estate since 1989. Under the terms of the court ruling, the estate would be managed by Island Logic for ten more years before passing into the hands of Marley’s widow and his 11 legally recognized children.

Enduring Cultural and Musical Legacy

Bob Marley’s artistic output was so great that previously unreleased work of his has continued to appear on the market years after his death. In 1992, a 78-song package entitled Songs of Freedomwas released, tracing his career from his first single, “Judge Not,” to a version of his haunting“Redemption Song” recorded at his final concert in 1980. The tenth anniversary of his death was marked by several days of commemorative celebrations in Kingston, and New York Times writer Howard W. French noted that “whereas Marley’s long-haired, ganja-smoking Rastafarian sect was long seen by the staid Establishment [in Jamaica] as an embarrassing threat to tourism, the Jamaica Tourist Board sponsored the memorial [events].” Once shunned, Marley is now acknowledged as the person who, more than any other, has generated lasting interest in his native country.

Marley’s musical legacy can be seen in the continuing popularity of reggae and its pervasive influence on mainstream music. The Melody Makers, arguably the most popular modern reggae group, was formed by Marley himself years ago; its members are his children, led by his oldest son, Ziggy. Yet no one, not even his son, has been able to touch Bob Marley’s position as the undisputed “king of reggae.” French commented on the musician’s lasting popularity: “Marley’s appeal succeeded remarkably in transcending an often-militant lyrical message explicitly centered on the ideal of cultural and spiritual redemption for black people. However racially based his core message, Marley’s dreadlocked look of alienation, and his Old Testament-style prophecies promising the poor that their oppressors would soon ‘eat the bread of sorrow,’carried strong germs of universality.”

David Fricke summarized in Rolling Stone: “Since Jamaica’s favorite musical son succumbed to the ravages of cancer, the search for a worthy successor—a ‘new Marley’ with comparable vision, personality and musical nerve, not to mention the magic crossover touch—has yielded only flawed contenders. . . But looking for a new Marley is as pointless as looking for a new [Bob] Dylan or [Jimi] Hendrix. Bob Marley, like those other two originals, revolutionized pop music in his own singular image, transforming a regional mutant product of Caribbean rhythm, American R & B and African mysticism into a personalized vehicle for spiritual communion, social argument and musical daring.”

Selected discography

Soul Rebel, Trojan, 1971.

Catch a Fire, Island, 1973.

Burnin’, Island, 1973.

African Herbsman, Trojan, 1973.

Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Studio One, 1974.

Natty Dread, Island, 1974.

Rasta Revolution, Trojan, 1974.

Live! Bob Marley and the Wailers, Island, 1975.

Rastaman Vibration, Island, 1976.

Birth of a Legend, Calla, 1976.

Reflection, Fontana, 1977.

Exodus, Island, 1977.

Kaya, Island, 1978.

Babylon by Bus, Island, 1978.

In the Beginning, Psycho, 1979.

Survival, Island, 1979.

Bob Marley and the Wailers, Hammer, 1979.

Uprising, Island, 1980.

Crying for Freedom, Time-Wind, 1981.

Chances Are, Cotillion, 1981.

Soul Revolution, Part II, Pressure Disc, 1981.

Marley, Phoenix, 1982.

Jamaican Storm, Accord, 1982.

Bob Marley Interviews. . ., Tuff Gong, 1982.

Confrontation, Island, 1983.

Legend, Island, 1986.

Rebel Music, Island, 1986.

Bob Marley, Urban Tek, 1989.

Talkin’ Blues, Tuff Gong/Island, 1991.

One Love, Heartbeat, 1992.

Songs of Freedom (three-disc retrospective), Tuff Gong/Island, 1992.

Sources

Books

Blackbook: International Reference Guide, 1993 Edition, National Publications, 1993, pp. 62-63.

Davis, Stephen, Bob Marley, Doubleday, 1985.

Davis, Stephen, Reggae Bloodlines: In Search of the Music and Culture of Jamaica, Anchor Press, 1979.

Goldman, Vivian, Bob Marley: Soul-Rebel—Natural Mystic, St. Martin’s, 1981.

White, Timothy, Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley, Holt, 1983.

Whitney, Malika Lee, Bob Marley, Reggae King of the World, Dutton, 1984.

Periodicals

Black Stars, July 1979.

Crawdaddy, July 1976; August 1977; May 1978.

Creem, August 1976.

Down Beat, September 9, 1976; September 8, 1977.

Encore, January 1980.

Essence, January 1976.

First World, Number 2, 1979.

Gig, June-July 1978.

Guitar Player, May 1991, p. 82.

Interview, August 1978.

Jet, December 30, 1992.

Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1990; July 16, 1991.

Melody Maker, May 1, 1976; May 14, 1977; November 18, 1978; September 29, 1979.

Mother Jones, July 1985; December 1986.

Newsweek, April 8, 1991, p. 57.

New York Times, May 13, 1991; September 3, 1992; December 13, 1992.

New York Times Magazine, August 14, 1977.

People, April 26, 1976; December 21, 1992.

Playboy, January, 1981.

Rolling Stone, April 24, 1975; June 1, 1978; June 15, 1978; December 28, 1978; January 11, 1979; March 18, 1982; May 27, 1982; June 4,1987; March 7,1991.

Sepia, March 1979.

Spin, June 1991.

Stereo Review, July 1975; September 1977; February 1982.

Time, March 22, 1976, pp. 83-84; December 20, 1976, p. 45; October 19, 1992, pp. 77-78.

Village Voice, June 27,1977; April 17,1978; November 5, 1979.

Washington Post, August 25, 1991.

Obituaries

Jet, May 28, 1981.

Maclean’s, December 28, 1981.

Newsweek, May 25, 1981.

New York Times, May 12, 1981; May 21, 1981.

Rolling Stone, May 28, 1981; June 25, 1981.

Time, May 25, 1981, p. 76.

Variety, May 20, 1981.

Marley’s life and musical career are chronicled in the documentary Time Will Tell, released in 1992 in combination with his retrospective CD package.