This is biography Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley was born on February 6, 1945, in the village of Roden Hall, in the district of St. Ann, on the north coast of Jamaica. It is the result of the relationship between Norman Marley, captain of the English army, and Cedella Booker, Jamaican. “My father was a white, my black mother, I am in the middle, I am nothing” – it was his favorite answer when asked if he felt like a prophet or a deliverer – “all I have is Jah. So I don’t speak for free whites or blacks, but for the creator “.
Some critics, including Stephen Davis, author of a biography, have argued that for many years Marley lived as an orphan and that this condition is the key to understanding an extraordinary poetic sensitivity (in interviews, the singer has always been explicit on the negativity of his childhood).
“I never had a father. I never knew. My mother made sacrifices to make me study. But I have no culture. Just inspiration. If they educated me I would be a fool too.” “My father was … like those stories that you read, stories of slaves: the white man who takes the black woman and makes her pregnant “; “I never had a father and a mother. I grew up with the boys in the ghetto. There were no leaders, only loyalty to one another.”
From these words emerge two fundamental concepts of the Rastafarian creed: hatred towards Babylon or hell on earth, the western white world, the oppressive society in opposition to Ethiopia, the motherland that one day will welcome the people of Jah, the rasta God – and towards the culture imposed by the regime.
It is in the ghetto of Trenchtown, among the Israelites – as the inhabitants of the slums defined themselves by identifying with the twelve tribes of the Old Testament – that the young Marley cultivated his rebellion, even if music is not yet the instrument chosen to convey it.
When Marley discovers provocative rock by Elvis Presley, the soul of Sam Cooke e Otis Redding and Jim Reeves’ country, decides to build one himself guitar. The improvised instrument remains a faithful friend until the meeting with Peter Tosh, who owned old and battered guitar acoustics. Marley, Tosh, and Neville O’Riley Livingston make up the first score of the “Wailers” (meaning “those who complain”).
“I got the name from Bible . Almost on every page there are stories of people complaining. Besides, children always cry, as if they were demanding justice. “It is from this moment that Marley’s music enters into symbiosis with the history of the Jamaican people.
Bob Marley’s exodus at the head of Jah’s people begins thanks to the instinct of Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, the world’s leading reggae exporter.
It was to convey the Wailers reggae outside Jamaica: to do this, it was thought to “westernize” the sound with the use of guitars and rock flavors just enough to not distort the message since, especially for Jamaicans, reggae is a style that wants to lead to the liberation of body and spirit; it is music imbued with, at least as Marley conceived it, a profound mysticism. The roots reggae, in fact, sink into the slavery of the people of Jamaica.
When Christopher Columbus , on his second voyage to the New World, he landed on the north coast of St. Ann and was greeted by the Arawak Indians, a peaceful people with a rich heritage of songs and dances. Bob Marley & The Wailers continued to expand their success first with “Babylon By Bus” (recording a concert in Paris), then with “Survival”. In the late 1970s Bob Marley And The Wailers were the most famous band on the world music scene, and broke record sales records in Europe. The new album, “Uprising”, entered every European chart.
Bob’s health, however, was deteriorating and, during a concert in New York, he almost passed out. The next morning, September 21, 1980, Bob went jogging with Skilly Cole in Central Park. Bob collapsed and was brought back to the hotel. A few days later it was discovered that Bob had a brain tumor and that, according to doctors, he had no more than a month to live.
Rita Marley, his wife, wanted the tour canceled, but Bob himself insisted a lot to continue. So he had a wonderful concert in Pittsburgh. But Rita could not agree with this decision Bob and on September 23 the tour was definitively canceled.
Bob was transported from Miami to the Memorial Sloan-Kettring Cancer Center in New York. There the doctors diagnosed a brain, lung, and allo tumor stomach . Bob was transported back to Miami, where Berhane Selassie was baptized in the Church.
Ethiopian Orthodox (a Christian church) on November 4, 1980. Five days later, in the last desperate attempt to save his life, Bob was transported to a treatment center in Germany. Bob spent his 36th birthday in the same hospital in Germany. Three months later, on May 11, 1981, Bob died in a Miami hospital.
Bob Marley’s funeral in Jamaica, held on May 21, 1981, could be compared to a king’s funeral. Hundreds of thousands of people (including the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition) attended the funeral. After the funeral, the body was brought to its birthplace, where it is still located inside a mausoleum, which has now become a real pilgrimage site for people all over the world.
Discography
CATCH A FIRE- 1970
NATTY DREAD -1974
LIVE! -1975
RASTAMAN VIBRATION -1976
EXODUS -1977
KAYA -1978
BABYLON BY BUS -1978
SURVIVAL -1979
LIVE IN JAPAN -1979
UPRISING -1980
