When most people hear the word reggae they think about Jamaica, the beach, and most importantly Bob Marley. On February 6, 1945 Robert Nesta Marley, otherwise better known as Bob Marley, was born in St. Ann, Jamaica to Captain Norval Marley and Cedalla Booker. Throughout much of Marleys childhood he rarely saw his father due to the unfortunate fact that he walked out on his family shortly after Bob was born. Being a son of a single parent mother, they moved constantly searching for employment. Eventually they ended up settling down in a big city called Trenchtown. There Marley was exposed to the ever evolving Jamaican music and started to follow his dreams of becoming a musician at the age of 16. His first record producer was Leslie Kong, and after two failed singles Marley left her because she wouldn’t pay him. The next year, Marley and a few friends formed the band Wailing Wailers where they recorded their first song “Simmer Down” that did fairly well in Jamaica. On February 10, 1966 Marley married Rita Anderson and they left for the United States the next day to visit his mother. When they came back to Jamaica, the Wailing Wailers’ music started to have more of a rock style and less ska. Their record company didn’t like what was taking place so the band left them and renamed themselves the Wailers. They then formed their own label called Wail ‘N’ Soul. In the spring of 1973 the Wailers had their first three month tour of Britain following with 17 shows that took place in the States. One show they had was in San Francisco where there was a concert broadcast for a radio station. This broadcast helped boost their popularity enormously in North America.
On December 5, 1976 Marley decided to give a free concert at Kingston’s National Heroes Park to send a peaceful message against the ghetto wars that were occurring in Trenchtown at the time. Right after this concert, the band left for the UK. During this European tour, the band did shows at the Rainbow Theatre located in London. Right before the shows, Marley hurt his toe playing football, and came to find out that it was diagnosed as cancerous. The doctor told him that he would have to have his toe amputated if he wanted the cancer to stop spreading but Marley didn’t think it was a big deal. Throughout the years his cancer started to spread throughout his body without a clue that it would become deadly. The day after a show in New York Marley went running in Central Park where he collapsed and was taken to the hospital. There the doctors gave him one month to live, and during that time had treatment done that helped him live a little bit longer. Less then a year later he passed away on May 11, 1981 in a Miami hospital during a trip for a show. Thousands of people mourned for Marley and attended his funeral including the Jamaican President and the Leader of Opposition. After his death he was awarded Jamaica’s Order of Merit.
Many may have seen Bob Marley just as a marijuana loving, free spirited reggae artist, but now after reading this what do you see him as?
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