Bob Marley

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.