Bob Marley
The
first major rock artist to come out of a Third World country, Bob Marley did
more than anyone else to popularize reggae around the globe. He was a gifted
songwriter who could mix protest music and pop as skillfully as Bob Dylan, and
his songs of determination, rebellion, and faith became important parts of the
rock and pop canon. Thirty years after Marley's death, hits like "No Woman
No Cry" and "Is This Love" sound as vibrant as ever.
Marley
left his rural home for the slums of Kingston, Jamaica at age 14. When he was
17, Jimmy Cliff introduced him to Leslie Kong, who produced Marley's first
single, "Judge Not," and several other obscure sides. In 1963, with
the guidance of Jamaican pop veteran Joe Higgs, Marley formed the Wailers, a
vocal quintet, with Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingstone, Junior Braithwaite, and
Beverly Kelso. Their first single for producer Coxsone Dodd, "Simmer
Down," was one of the biggest Jamaican hits of 1964, and the Wailers
remained on Dodd's Studio One and Coxsone labels for three years, hitting with
"Love and Affection."
When
Braithwaite and Kelso left the group around 1965, the Wailers continued as a
trio, Marley, Tosh, and Livingstone trading leads. In spite of the popularity
of singles like "Rude Boy," the artists received few or no royalties,
and in 1966 they disbanded. Marley spent most of the following year working in
a factory in Newark, Delaware (where his mother had moved in 1963). Upon his
return to Jamaica, the Wailers reunited and recorded, with little success, for
Dodd and other producers. During this period, the Wailers devoted themselves to
the religious sect of Rastafarianism.
In
1969, the Wailers began their three-year association with Lee
"Scratch" Perry, who directed them to play their own instruments and
expanded their lineup to include Aston and Carlton Barrett, formerly the rhythm
section of Perry's studio band, the Upsetters. Some of the records they made
with Perry, like "Trenchtown Rock," were locally very popular, but so
precarious was the Jamaican record industry that the group seemed no closer
than before to establishing steady careers. It formed an independent record
company, Tuff Gong, in 1971, but the venture foundered when Livingstone was
jailed and Marley got caught in a contract commitment to American pop singer
Johnny Nash, who took him to Sweden to write a film score (and later had
moderate hits with two Marley compositions, "Guava Jelly" and
"Stir It Up").
In
1972, Chris Blackwell—who had released "Judge Not" in England in
1963—signed the Wailers to Island Records and advanced them the money to record
themselves in Jamaica. Catch a Fire was their first album marketed outside
Jamaica, which featured several uncredited performances such as Muscles Shoals'
guitarist Wayne Perkins playing lead on "Concrete Jungle" and
"Stir It Up." (They continued to release Jamaica-only singles on Tuff
Gong.) Their recognition abroad was later abetted by Eric Clapton's hit 1974
version of "I Shot the Sheriff," a song from their second Island
album, 1973's Burnin'. They made their first overseas tour in 1973, but before
the end of the year, Tosh and Livingstone (who later adopted the surname
Wailer) left for solo careers.
Marley
expanded the instrumental section of the group and brought in a female vocal
trio, the I-Threes, which included his wife, Rita. Now called Bob Marley and
the Wailers, they toured Europe, Africa, and the Americas, building especially
strong followings in the U.K., Scandinavia, and Africa. They had U.K. Top 40
hits with "No Woman No Cry" (1975), "Exodus" (1977),
"Waiting in Vain" (1977), and "Satisfy My Soul" (1978); and
British Top 10 hits with "Jamming" (1977), "Punky Reggae Party"
(1977), and "Is This Love" (1978).
In
the U.S., only "Roots, Rock, Reggae" made the pop chart (Number 51,
1976), while "Could You Be Loved" placed on the soul charts (Number
56 R&B, 1980), but the group attracted an ever larger audience: Rastaman
Vibration went to Number Eight pop and Exodus hit Number 20. In Jamaica the
Wailers reached unprecedented levels of popularity and influence, and Marley's
pronouncements on public issues were accorded the attention usually reserved
for political or religious leaders. In 1976 he was wounded in an assassination
attempt.
A
1980 tour of the U.S. was canceled when Marley collapsed while jogging in New
York's Central Park. It was discovered that he had developed brain, lung, and
liver cancer; it killed him eight months later. In 1987 both Peter Tosh and
longtime Marley drummer Carlton Barrett were murdered in Jamaica during
separate incidents. Rita Marley continues to tour, record, and run the Tuff
Gong studios and record company.
Marley
was a pioneer not only because he single-handedly brought reggae to the world,
but because his passionate, socially observant music has become a yardstick
against which all reggae will forever be measured.
Portions
of this biography appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll
(Simon & Schuster, 2001). Evan Serpick contributed to this article.
Read more:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/bob-marley/biography#ixzz23oxnOoGS
Pictures:
Song:
Concert:
Bob Marley & the Wailers 7-21-1979 Live Full Show
Album:
Bob Marley "Babylon By Bus Remastered" (Full Album)
Interview:
