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)
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