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Bob Marley's Birthday
Robert Nesta Marley OM was a Jamaican singer, songwriter and guitarist born on 6th February 1945. For the reasons outlined below, the date of his birth is celebrated by a grounation or bynghi within the Rastafari Movement and as a holiday in both Ethiopia and Jamaica.
Bob Marley, who became a legend around the world, died from cancer at the age of 36 on 11th May 1981. Not only was he a superb composer and musical performer, he almost single-handedly popularised reggae music outside of Jamaica.
Marley was also a devout and committed Rastafari and by those in the Movement is often seen as a Prophet. What is undeniable is that his musical success has had a great influence on the awareness of Rastas in popular culture and the growth of the Rastafari movement around the world.
The fact that Marley was a Rastafari is somewhat surprising. At the time he was born the Movement was almost uniquely black and associated with the wider struggle in Jamaica between the colonial white British and the Afro-Caribbean community. Marley was of mixed race. His father was a white colonial descendant, a former Marine officer and captain working at the time of Marley’s birth as a plantation manager. He was aged 50 at the time, and was rarely at home. Marley’s mother was a young black Jamaican, 30 years her husband’s junior. Norval Marley did, however, support both Cedella and Robert up and until his death in 1955.
Marley and his mother moved from their home in Nine Miles, Saint Ann, to the notorious Trenchtown slum in Kingston after his father’s death. Marley, being of mixed race, was called a "half-caste" or "mulatto" – both derogatory, during his early years and, being small in stature, was bullied and racially abused. He learned self defence and soon gained a reputation for his physical strength and his nickname "Tuff Gong" reflected his ability to be able to stand up to others.
In later life, when questioned about racial matters, Marley had an almost stock reply – that he could not be prejudiced against himself, pointing out that his father was white and his mother black, and that: "…me don’t dip on the black man’s side nor the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side, the One who created me…"
Leaving school at 14, Marley was apprenticed to a welder, and in his spare time he started to play music with a friend called Neville Livingston. Neville was nicknamed "Bunny" and later grew to prominence as Bunny Wailer.
Marley, Livingston and Joe Higgs, a Rastafari friend whom many see as Bob’s mentor and greatest influence, made music together. They subsequently met Peter McIntosh who also had musical ambitions (later, he would achieve fame as Peter Tosh).
In 1962, Marley made his first records for Leslie Kong’s Beverley label. They were released under the name Bobby Martell and were not successful (although later re-issued on albums of retrospective music).
The next year a group called The Teenagers was formed, comprising Marley, Livingston, McIntosh, Beverley Kelso, Junior Braithwaite and Cherry Smith. It was a ska/rocksteady band which changed its name to "The Wailing Rudeboys" then "The Wailing Waiters" and finally just "The Wailers". By 1966 only Marley, Livingston and McIntosh were left, with Marley being the lead singer and main songwriter, as well as handling business matters.
In 1964 The Wailers made some records at Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One for the label of the same name – with "Simmer Down" becoming a Jamaican No. 1 and establishing them as an up-and-coming act, which they built upon with further successes.
By 1966 Cedella Marley was living in the USA, and when Bob married Rita Anderson they moved to be near her in Wilmington, Delaware. After a few months, Marley returned to Jamaica and became a member of the Rastafari Movement, which begat the famed dreadlocks forever associated with him.
Marley then joined Lee Perry’s music operations and The Wailers teamed up with his "house band" The Upsetters. Musically, many say that this was the time of The Wailers' finest work, but after less than a year there were professional disagreements and Perry and Marley split, although they remained firm personal friends and worked on various projects together in later years.
By this time the Wailers had been augmented by Rita. The group re-recorded much of their earlier output in a more commercial style for JAD records between 1968 and 1972. JAD was owned by Johnny Nash, who had had Caribbean-influenced hits in both the US and the UK in the late 50s. Johnny was on the crest of a wave again with "middle of the road" hits at this time on both sides of the Atlantic. Bunny Livingston/Wailer would later argue that these recordings were just demos, although some were released and some DJ copies of songs such as "Send Down Low" by Bob, Rita & Peter are still on file at radio stations around the Caribbean.
The Wailers issued albums in 1973 - "Catch a Fire", which sold well - and then 1974 – "Burnin’". This was the recording which changed things for the group. It contained some good songs, one of which "I Shot The Sheriff" was covered by Eric Clapton and became an international hit, raising Marley’s profile both as a performer and writer.
But "Burnin’" was also the end of The Wailers. Bob Marley kept the name and recorded as Bob Marley and The Wailers, but Bunny Livingston became a solo performer using the name Bunny Wailer and Peter McIntosh became Peter Tosh.
Marley, with a new band line-up including his wife, became internationally known the following year, 1975, when "No Woman, No Cry" became a hit in Europe and the "Rastaman Vibration" album broke through in the USA.
In December 1976 Marley was shot, but not seriously injured, in what many believe was a politically motivated shooting following a free concert organised by Prime Minister Michael Manley. Marley left Jamaica for Britain at this time, and went on to record two more albums including "Exodus", which contained many hit songs including "One Love". It was whilst in London that Marley was arrested and convicted for the possession of a small amount of ganja – cannabis.
Although not as commercially successful as earlier recordings, Marley’s "Survival" and "Uprising" albums were critically acclaimed and over 25 years later are more appreciated in retrospect than when released. The 1983-released "Confrontation" album (which included the hit "Buffalo Soldier") was actually unreleased material and remixes of older issues only previously available in Jamaica.
In 1977 Marley was found to have a malignant melanoma in an old football wound on his right big toe. He refused amputation on two grounds: that it was against the Rastafari belief that the body should be kept "whole", and that it would affect his dancing on stage.
Cancer spread throughout Marley’s body – to his lungs, brain, liver and stomach – and he collapsed whilst jogging in New York’s Central Park during the 1980 "Uprising Tour". The remainder of the tour was cancelled.
Marley’s last performance on stage turned out to be at the Stanley Theater, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 23rd September 1980, at which the live version of "Redemption Song" was recorded.
Marley sought medical advice in Germany, but the cancers had progressed too far. On his was back to Jamaica, Marley was taken ill and the plane landed at Miami, where he died in the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital on the morning of 11th May 1981.
It is said that his final words to his son Ziggy were "Money Can’t Buy Life".
Marley received a state funeral in Jamaica which combined elements of Ethiopian Orthodoxy (into which he had been baptised a few months before his death, taking the name of Berhane Selassie) and Rastafari. He was buried in a crypt near his birthplace.
Marley, as a man, had a colourful life. He had between 14 and 17 children: two or three by his wife Rita, plus two of hers by her previous marriage, plus at least 11 by eight other women over an 18 year period.
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