Brief History
Looking at the brief history of Bob Marley, we find that he born on February 6th, 1945, in Nine miles, Jamaica. He was named Robert Nesta Marley. The father was known as Norval Marley and the mother Cedella Booker. Norval was a Jamaican of great English descent while the wife, Cedella was just a black teenage girl. They had initially planned to get married however Norval left behind Cedella and Bob Marley in Kingstone, Jamaica. Norval died in 1995 having seen his son only once. This led to Cedella solely raising Marley.
Bob Marley knew clearly what he wanted in life. Before his eighteenth birthday, he had already ventured into the singing career with his three friends, Bunny, Tosh, and peter. The formed a group known as Wailers band in 1963. At 21 years, Marley married Rita Marley in February 1966. It is from this marriage that Bob Marley got introduced to the famous Rastafarians. In 1969, Bob together with his three friends, Bunny, Tosh, and Peter had fully embraced Rastafarianism. Rastafarianism, as they believe, it is a religion in which God is referred to as Jah. The religion advocated weed smoking and socialism. The band, Wailers went ahead to do some of the best collaborations with people like Lee Scratch Perry hence producing fine tracks like Soul Rebel, Small Axe, 400 years, and Duppy Conqueror. However, things did not work out clearly since Lee sold out the albums to England claiming they were his, the collaboration ended up bitterly. Unknown to Wailers band, the sale of their music by Lee brought their songs to the limelight. They ended up signing for Chris Blackwell of Islands records.
His Albums
Their first album under Blackwell was known as Catch a fire. It was later followed by the second album “Burnin”. The second album consisted of albums such as “Get Up Stand Up”. The other song, “I Shot a Sheriff”, went ahead to reach the top of music charts in the United States of America. Despite this achievement, the Wailers band split as Tosh and Peter went to work on their solo careers. This split led to the formation of the band Bob and Wailers which featured Marley’s wife as a backup singer. During this period, they produced some innovative albums such as “Rastaman Vibration” and “Natty Dread”.
In 1976, Jamaica experienced political violence. It is during this time that an assassination was attempted on Bob Marley. Due to the insecurity, Marley left Jamaica for England for a period of two years. During his stay in England, he produced the album “Exodu”. The album went ahead to top the British charts for a whole 56 weeks. He also produced another hit album that was known as “Kaya”. Due to his music success, Reggae music was gradually introduced in the western culture.
Bob’s “Wound”
In 1977 he had a big wound on his toe that could not heal even after medication. After diagnosis, it was found to be cancer however he could not be operated on due to Rastafarian beliefs. He later returned to Jamaica in 1978 where he produced the album “survival”. He went ahead to organize music tours and international tours. The most remarkable being in a Zimbabwe during their Independence Day. On September 1980 during his tour in New York, he collapsed. Diagnosis showed that cancer had completely spread to major body organs. He passed away in Miami, Florida on May 11, 1981, while in hospital.
