Moon Author's Review
If you mention reggae, Jamaica, Rastafari, or marijuana, chances are the first thought that comes to most peoples' minds is Bob Marley. The man has become synonymous with all things good about Jamaica and its people, carrying the country's cultural torch decades after his death in 1981. There's no way to measure the goodwill this man has brought the country. Even in times of global economic crisis, Jamaica is among the top tourism destinations in the Americas, ranked tenth in the Western Hemisphere in terms of visitor volume, and third in the Caribbean after Barbados and Puerto Rico. The goodwill Bob Marley has brought the world at large through his intoxicating music, full of uplifting messages, is also hard to quantify.
Born Robert Nesta Marley on February 6, 1945, in Nine Mile, St. Ann, to Cedella Malcolm Marley Booker and Norval Sinclair Marley, Bob grew up a country boy in the small agricultural community before moving with his mother to Trench Town, a ghetto of Downtown Kingston. His father, a white English naval officer and plantation overseer, had a scarce presence throughout Bob's childhood, and died in 1955 at the age of 60. Bob's racial mix set him apart from his peers as a boy, often the target of jeering and name calling, but this same heritage afforded him the distance to approach issues of race and justice from an unbiased perspective, and infused his music with a universal appeal.
While his late mother, Cedella, has said in documentaries that Bob could frequently be heard singing as a youth, it wasn't until he reached Trench Town that he teamed up with Peter McIntosh and Bunny Livingston to form the Wailin' Wailers. Trench Town in the 1960s was the creative epicenter of Jamaican music, where fledgling composers and musicians listened attentively to radio broadcasts of American music and reinterpreted classics on their ramshackle instruments, sparking a swing away from traditional Jamaican music, like mento, that led to the birth of ska, rocksteady and reggae. Bob's early career spanned the development and evolution of these three genres, but it was reggae that became the vehicle for his message at the international level.
While Bob's talent was clearly apparent in the early days of the Wailers to producers like Leslie Kong, who recorded his first two singles "Judge Not" and "One Cup of Coffee," and Clement Dodd who later produced "It Hurts to be Alone," and "I'm Still Waiting," it wasn't until Bob traveled to London and recorded his first full album, Catch a Fire, on Chris Blackwell's fledgling label Island Records that he gained international recognition. Blackwell nurtured the Wailers and helped create a sound that had wide international appeal, without watering down the message.
After recording several albums on the Island Records label, Bob established his own label, Tuff Gong, using the pet name he was known by on the street. Tuff Gong remains a symbol of artistic independence, a departure from the days when musicians were paid measly sums to play on studio recordings while the producers reaped the rewards. Bob's larger-than-life persona outgrew the Wailin' Wailers, creating resentment among fellow founders Bunny Livingston, known as Bunny Wailer, and Peter McIntosh, or Peter Tosh, both of whom left the group to pursue successful solo careers. Following the departure of his former band mates, he renamed his band Bob Marley and the Wailers and went on to tour the world, filling stadiums and concert halls, up to his untimely death at the age of 36. Bob's popularity has only grown since his passing, with his posthumous Legend album going platinum several times over. Countless up-and-coming artists aspire to carry on his work, crowning him with immortality.
