FREE ESSAY ON BOB MARLEY

BOB MARLEY

Bob Marley (Robert Nesta Marley) was born on 6 February 1945 in Nine Miles in the parish
of St. Ann, Jamaica. His father (Norval Sinclair Marley) was a English marine-officer and
his mother (Cedella 'Ciddy' Malcom)was a native Jamaican who lived in Rhoden Hall. After
Bob was born, his father left his mother.
When Bob was five, his father took him to Kingston. Oneyear later Bob saw his mother
again. A couple of years later Bob and his mother moved to Trench Town (West-Kingston)
because his mother was looking for a job. Bob Marley loved the fast life in the big city,
as well as the music of Fats Domino, Ray Charles he heard. Not much later Bob got his
nickname Tuff Gong. Meanwhile Jamaican musicians were working on their own style of
music. They invented ska and this music became very popular in Jamaica.
At age 16 Bob wanted to record an album. Like other Jamaican kids he saw the music as an
escape of the though reality. Jimmy Cliff, a local musician (only 14 years old), had
already made a few (hit) singles and introduced Bob to producer Leslie Kong. Bob made his
first single Judge Not in 1961, but this record and the next one One More Cup Of Coffee
(1962) didn't do well. Bob left Kong after he didn't received a paycheck of Lesly Kong.
In 1964 Peter (McIn)Tosh, Bunny Livingstone (alias Bunny Wailer), Junior Braithwaite,
Beverley Kelso, Cherry, Constantine 'Dream Vision' Walker and Bob Marley formed the band
The Wailers. Cherry and Junior left the band after a few recording sessions. By the
recording of their songs they used ska musicians of Coxsone Dodd's Studio One. Bob Marley
acted as the leader of the band and he wrote most of the material. The Wailers became
very popular in 1965: they played full houses. On the Coxsone-label they recorded several
hits: Simmer Down, It Hurts To Be Alone, Rule Them Rudie.
It was 10 February 1966 when Bob Marley married Rita Anderson. The day after, Bob went to
the United States to visit his mother and her new husband. During Bob's stay in the
States, Beverly Kelso left The Wailers and Rita and her cousin Dream joined the band. The
Wailers changed their music from ska to rocksteady. The next year (the same year Bob's
first child, Cedella, was born) the band left Coxsone and set up their own record label
Wail 'N Soul 'M Record, also known as Wailing Souls, Wail 'M Soul 'M. Their first single
from this label was Bend Down Low/Mellow Mood. At the end of that year, that same label
was put an end to.
In 1968 Bob's first son, David (better known as Ziggy) was born. That same year Bob met
Jonny Nash. The Wailers recorded songs for the record company JAD Records. In 1970 The
Upsetters joined The Wailers: Aston 'Family Man' Barret played bass and his brother
Carlton played the drums. The band set up a new label Tuff Gong and the first single on
that label was Run For Cover. It went uphill with the band and their own label. They made
hit after hit.
In December 1971 Bob went to Chris Blackwell of Island Records and he asked Chris if the
band could get a record deal. Chris gave them 8,000 pounds (in advance) to make an album.
It was a revolutionary move: for the first time a reggae band had access to the best
recording facilities and they were treated in much the same way as, say, a rock group.
Before The Wailers signed to Island it was considered that reggae sold only singles and
cheap compilation albums. This way The Wailers made the first reggae-album Catch A Fire.
The band makes successful tours through the U.K. and the States. The follow-up album at
Island was Burnin' and it included some of the band's older songs together with tracks
like Get Up Stand Up and I Shot The Sheriff.
The Wailers and Bob Marley became more popular after Eric Clapton recorded I Shot The
Sheriff. His version hit number one in the U.S. Singles Chart. With the release of Natty
Dread the band lined up as Bob Marley & The Wailers. In the summer of 1975 the band were
touring through Europe. Among the concerts were two shows at the Lyceum Ballroom in
London. These two concerts are remembered as highlights of the decade. The shows were
recorded on Live and it made the charts. The, on this album appearing, live-version of No
Woman No Cry became a very big hit in the whole world. By that time Peter Tosh and Bunny
Livingstone had officially left the band to pursue their own solo careers. Lead-guitar
player Al Anderson and keyboard player Bernard 'Touter' Harvey joined the band; these two
guys were succeeded by Junior Marvin (1977) and Tyrone Downie.
In the year 1976 the reggae-mania boomed in the States. Rolling Stone Magazine named Bob
Marley & The Wailers 'Band of the year' in their February issue. Rastaman Vibration,
cracked the American charts, but didn't do too well in The Netherlands. The album
included a track called War of which the lyrics were taken from a speech by Emperor Haile
Selassie of Ethiopia. On 3 December 1976 a tragedy happened. Six armed man shot at Bob
Marley, his wife, the Wailers manager Don Taylor and Don Kinsey. Two days later Bob
performed at the Smile Jamaica concert in Kingston, after which he flew to the U.K. The
Wailers followed Bob and they recorded Exodus in 1977. With this album Bob Marley's
international statusm of superstar was established. In the U.K. Bob Marley had an
audience of prince royal Asfa Wossan (grandchild of Emperor Haile Selassie) at which Bob
received a very important ring: Jah Rasafari (owned by the Ethiopian emperor). In May of
the same year Bob found out that he had cancer. A toe had to be amputated, but Bob
refused because that would have been against his believe of the Rastafari. On 20 July
1977 the remaining concerts of the Exodus Tour were canceled.
The following year the band capitalized on their chart success with the release of Kaya,
an album which hit number four in the UK Chart the week of release. The album showed Bob
in a different mood: love songs and homage's to the power of ganja (marijuana). The
rastafari smoke ganja to come closer to Jah (God). In April 1978 Bob Marley returned to
Jamaica to perform on the One Love Peace Concert in front of the Prime Minister Michael
Manley and Leader of the Opposite Edward Seaga. Bob arranged a meeting on stage between
the two rivals. Later that year Bob got the Piece Medal of the Third World from the
United Nations. He also visited Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe) for the first time
in his life.
Bob Marley & The Wailers continued their popular status with Babylon By Bus (registration
of a concert in Paris) and Survival. At the end of the seventies Bob Marley & The Wailers
were the most important band on the road and they broke the festival records on the
European continent. Their new Uprising album entered every chart in Europe. The band was
even planning a new American tour, with Stevie Wonder, for the winter of 1980. Bob's
health went downhill but he had the doctor's approval to start the American tour, which
started in Boston in September. During a concert in New York Bob Marley almost fainted.
The next morning, on 21 September 1980, he went jogging with Skilly Cole in Central Park.
Bob collapsed and was taken back to the hotel. Several days later it became clear that
Bob had a brain tumor and he had, according to the doctors, not even a month to live.
Rita Marley wanted the tour to be canceled, but Bob wanted to continue the tour. So he
played a marvelous show in Pittsburgh. But Rita couldn't agree with Bob's decision to
continue and on 23 September the tour was canceled.
Bob was transported from Miami to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
There, the doctor's diagnosed cancer in the brain, lung and stomach. Bob was transported
back to Miami, were he was baptized Berhane Selassie in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (a
Christian church) on 4 November 1980. Five days later, in a last attempt to save Bob's
life, he flew to a controversial treatment center in Germany. In February 1981 Bob had
his 36th anniversary in the German clinic. Three months later, on 11 May 1981, Bob died
in a hospital in Miami.
Bob Marley's funeral in Jamaica on 21 May 1981 could be compared with one of a king.
Hundreds of thousands of people (including the Prime Minister and the Leader of the
Opposition) visited the funeral to celebrate the fact that Bob Marley was a real 'Jah
Rastafari' after all. After the funeral Bob Marley's body was taken to his birthplace
were itrests in a mausoleum. The mausoleum became a real place of pilgrimage in the years
after.
A month before Bob's death, he was awarded Jamaica's Order Of Merit, the nation's third
highest honor, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the country's culture.
The prophet Gad insisted (before Marley's death) to become the owner of the ring Jah
Rasafari. The ring, however, disappeard miraculously and nobody has seen the ring again.
Bob Marley's mother says that the ring went back to the place of origin.
In Montego Bay, Jamaica, a Bob Marley (Performance) Center had been set up. For a couple
of years the Sunsplash Festival has been held here.
In the spring of 1983 the Confrontation album had been released. It contained unreleased
songs, reshaped songs and songs that had only been released in Jamaica. The song Buffalo
Soldier became a posthumous hit. In 1984 Legend was released. Thanks to the hit One
Love/People Get Ready this beautiful album became a worldwide bestseller. Bob Marley &
The Wailers were 'back to live'. After Bob Marley's dead a special concert took place in
Kingston to commemorate Bob Marley. Several artist, among which Ziggy Marley & The Melody
Makers and the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra performed and raised money to establish a
Bob Marley Entertainment Complex in Kingston.