Bob Marley

Biography

Bob Marley, Nesta Robert Marley was born on February 6th, 1945 in Rhoden Hall close to Nine Mile in the department to Saint Ann (Jamaica). He will die of a cancer generalized following a tumor with the left big toe which he had not correctly looked after in time, undoubtedly because badly advised, or had with its strong engagement in the Mouvement rastafari.

Born from a mother jamaïcaine black 18 years old, Cedella Marley Booker, born Malcolm, and of a white of origin English and in a remote way Syrian, supervisor with horse of the agricultural work and old father jamaïcain of about fifty years, Norval Marley, which he only knew very little.

The parents of Norval Marley did not accept apparently its connection with a black woman, and Norval, described by Cedella like a nice man, but of weak character, would have been rejected by its family. Bob Marley suffers from the absence of his/her father, who makes it come to the capital to study when it has five or six years. Without news, his/her mother will find it later months in a street of Kingston: his/her son had been entrusted to an old woman, for which it made the races. Cedella sees Norval last once and takes again his/her child.

Period ska

With its adolescence, Bob leaves the misery of the countryside for that of the ghetto of Trenchtown in Kingston. It meets Neville Livingston there says Bunny Wailer and Winston Hubert McIntosh says Peter Tosh, with whom it sings canticles and successes of drunk person American that they hear on the radios of Miami. The singer Joe Higgs gives them courses of song. Bob Marley records for the producer Leslie Kong his the first two titles Judge Not and a resumption of a success of country & western of Claude Gray, One Cup off Coffee in 1962 whereas it is 17 years old. These titles ska do not have any success but Bob continuous to be invested in the music.

In 1963, it forms with Junior Braithwaite, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer the group The Wailers (gémisseurs). They obtain a contract with Studio One and their first pieces of ska, gospel, rhythm and blues and drunk person are produced by the large local producer Clement " Sir Coxsone" Dodd, which has as an assistant in studio Lee " Scratch" Perry (Scratch ensures also promotion). Bob leaves its trade of welder. After the album " The Wailin' Wailers" , the trio separates from Coxsone, which did not pour large thing to them n the other hand hundred titles that they recorded for him (whose several success, like Simmer Down and Could it One ).

Rocksteady period

After its marriage with Rita Anderson at the beginning of 1966, Bob Marley leaves to join his/her mother, remariée with Jamaïcain named Booker with Wilmington, Delaware, with the E. - U.. Bob works with the Dupont hotel, but continuous to write songs. It is temporarily replaced by Constantine " Dream" Walker. In its return after the summer 1966, it is interested more and more in the movement Rastafari, which emerged in the the Thirties in Jamaica, and founds with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston the independent label Wail' N Soul' Mr. Their first own-produced title in the new style rocksteady is entitled Bend Down Low .

In Kingston, it is Mortimer Planno, a rasta jamaïcain of cuban origin which travelled to Ethiopia and met Haïlé Sélassié Ier with the beginning of the year 60 which transmits to him part of its culture rasta. Without the support of a professional distributer, its discs are sold very badly, and Marley is too poor to live downtown with his Rita wife and her two children Cedella and Ziggy. It turns over in its native village in 1967 for a spiritual resourcing, but continuous to record and publish many 45 obscure turns for its small mark Wail' N Soul' m, like the traditional futures Hypocrites and Nice Time which leave under the name of Bob Marley & the Wailers.

Rita, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh meet in January 1968 the American singer Johnny Nash, who is decided to launch the style rocksteady to the United States, and his manager Danny Sims, with whom they sign an exclusive international contract for the discs and editions JAD. Bob provides them quantity of new compositions, of which Stir It Up , which will become soon a success for Nash. Johnny Nash has much success with the rocksteady (tube American " Hold Me Tight" in 1968), but the album of Bob Marley & the Wailers which it financed do not leave (it will be finally published only in 1997 at JAD). Only a new version of Bend Down Low with the American coppers added to New York leaves to France and to Canada (JAD-CBS) in 1968, but without any success. Bob Marley writes in parallel its first piece rasta, Selassie Is the Chapel in 1968. This important recording, in the style nyahbinghi (drums rastas), is financed by Mortimo Planno, which interprets the face B of it, has Little Prayer . Some local producers follow one another, but the vocal trio does not have any more any success since its departure of the bosom of Coxsone Dodd.

Reggae

Without resources, Bob sets out again in the United States to join his/her mother in 1969. He works several months of night in an automobile factory Chrysler. His wife and her young children join them. On its return, it founds the discs Tuff Gong, of the name of its nickname of the ghetto (derivative of the nickname of Leonard Howell, the " Gong" founder of the movement Rastafari), and records a resumption of James Brown (Say It Loud) I' m Black and I' m Proud renamed Black Progress in the new style reggae with young brilliant musicians, the Carlton brothers (with the battery) and Aston " Family Man" Barrett (with low) which will not leave it any more. But the independent discs Tuff Gong always do not have any success. Marley will see his/her old friend Lee " Scratch" Perry who at the end of 1969 was to sing in England accompanied by the Barrett brothers under the name of Upsetters. Perry obtained an English success with instrumental the The Return off Django and agrees to produce the vocal trio Bob Marley & the Wailers. They will collaborate until 1977. Perry gives a new color to the group, which records several masterpieces with him, of which Duppy Conqueror , Sun Is Shining , Soul Rebel , Kaya and the (I' ve Gotta) Keep one Moving of Curtis Mayfield. He will publish some of them on the album " Rebels" drunk person; left to England in 1973 at Trojan.

Always without success, Bob Marley & the Wailers engrave ten songs with the team of musicians of Leslie Kong, a producer jamaïcain (Kong had already produced the two first 45 turns solo of Marley in 1962) who has success in England thanks to a his professional able to bore on the British market (Trojan discs in London). It will publish these titles in 1971 under the name of " The Best off the Wailers". Bunny Wailer, superstitious, thinks that their “the best” is still to come and a curse launches to him. Leslie Kong dies shortly after of an heart attack, and the trio does not touch any money. Marley joined the organization rasta of the Twelve Tribes of Israel founded by Prophet Gad, alias Vernon Carrington. They continue to alternate the self-productions for Tuff Gong and the meetings financed by Lee " Scratch" Perry for his Upsetter mark. In spite of the quality of their prolific work, they do not have any local success until their self-production Trench Town Rock (Tuff Gong 1971).

At the request of Johnny Nash which seeks compositions for the band of Swedish film Love Is Not has Game in which he plays the main role, Bob Marley leaves to Stockholm in 1971. It written several pieces there, and collaborates in the band of film. Nash signs then with discs CBS in London where it records the largest success of its career, I Edge See Clearly Now . Marley joined it, and also signs him with CBS thanks to Nash and its manager, with which it is always under contract. Like the album of Nash, the 45 turns Reggae one Broadway leaves in 1972, but Marley does not have any success. The sound and the English musicians brought by Nash are not appropriate to him. Some concerts in London with the Barrett brothers are organized in first part of Nash, but without success. Nash leaves towards glory and gives up its foal. Marley contacts then Chris Blackwell, the owner of the Trojan labels and Island Records. Blackwell distributed already in England the discs Beverley' S of Leslie Kong, and knows the name of Marley. It repurchases the contract of production in Danny Sims, and entrusts money to Bob, which leaves to record in Kingston. To this point hinge of its career, Bob Marley already contributed to at least 350 pieces recorded in studio (of which about thirty approximately as a chorus-singer), including one great part will be revealed with the international public only very tardily, well after his death, in particular in the series of eleven CDs " The Supplements Bob Marley & the Wailers 1967-1972" (Jad) appeared between 1998 and 2003. Marley will re-record thereafter part of these compositions, like Satisfy my Soul , Sun Is Shining or Lively Up Yourself .

Success

With the suggestion of Blackwell, the first two albums for Island are remixés in London, where solos of guitar are added, as well as parts of keyboards which bring a sound more accessible to the general public. They leave to Island under the name of the Wailers in 1973, but after an English round Bunny Wailer leaves the group, replaced by Joe Higgs for the following round (album " Talking Blues"), then it is Peter Tosh which from goes away, leaving Bob to its career solo. The female vocal trio the I Three with Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt deals with the choruses. The name of Wailers will be from now on that of its guides, among whom the brothers Barrett (low and battery), the clavierists Earl " Wire" Lindo and Tyrone Downie, the guitarist Earl " Chinna" Smith, the harmonicist Lee Jaffee and the Alvine percussionist " Seeco" Patterson. Its first album is the masterpiece “Natty Dread”, in which it incorporates a blues influence with American guitarist Al Anderson. Another guitarist American soloist, Junior Marvin, is then committed. Will follow the “Live! ” recorded on July 18th, 1975 in London, which contains its first international success No Woman No Cry where it comforts a woman affected by the violence of the ghettos, then " essence; Rastaman Vibration" (1976) which will be the disc of Bob more sold of alive sound, and its first American success.

December 3rd, 1976 with Kingston, little before the great concert in the open air " Jamaica" spalls;, Bob Marley escapes a shooting started in its residence by six armed men. It receives a ball in the arm, one in the chest and five in the thigh while an other touches Rita with the head. Gift Taylor, their American manager, leaves there very seriously wounded six balls. Among the attackers, members of Wailers recognize Jim Brown, a killer close to the right party pro-American, the JLP.

Two days after the attack, courageously Bob Marley takes part as envisaged in the concert Smile Jamaica with Kingston. Family Man Barrett, hidden in the hills, is replaced this day by Cat Coore de Third World. Bob shows its bindings with crowd. It does not feel safe any more in Jamaica and share in exile in January 1977. It makes stopover with Nassau, then takes refuge with London. It records there the albums with success “Exodus” and “Kaya” as well as individual the Punky Reggae Party with Lee Scratch Perry, which seals a rebellious pact with the English punk movement in full rise. The titles Jamming , Waiting in Vain in particular are world tubes. Its relation with Jamaïcaine Cindy Breakspeare, Miss Monde 1976, contributes to project it with the one of the media.

In May 1977, a wound with the big toe made while playing Football is reopened at the time of a friendly match to the Hilton hotel of Paris. The doctor suggests analyzes to him. The diagnosis is carried out in London: Bob Marley suffers from a Mélanome malignant (Cancer of the skin), undoubtedly due to a too long exposure to the sun. One prescribes a to him urgent Amputation of the toe, but a mixture of superstition of its entourage and pressure in full European round where it meets finally its public contribute to delay the operation.

In April 1978, Bob Marley & the Wailers make a triumphal return in Jamaica. At the time of One Peace Concert Coils, Bob manages to bring together on scene the two political enemies who dispute the capacity, Edward Seaga (JLP) and the Prime Minister Michael Manley (PNP). It is the top of its career. Without stop in round, Bob Marley & the Wailers record the album in public " Babylon by Bus" with the House of Paris of the door of Puppet in 1978. Bob then makes build its studio, Tuff Gong, where it records the album " Survival". Successes multiply. They will play until in Zealand News, where they are accommodated cordially by the Maoris.

In 1980, after a loss of consciousness, Bob Marley passes an examination to the X-rays where five tumors are seen, three to the brain, one with the lungs and one with the stomach. He does not say anything to his entourage and plays a last recorded concert with Pittsburgh. Bob leaves then for a private clinic Bavaria where it follows an original treatment with a former doctor Nazi, the doctor Josef Issels who prolongs his life at the price of hard sufferings. Cancer spreads.

At the end of its life, Bob Marley converts with the Ethiopian orthodoxe Church, whose more high ranking authority was fire the emperor of Ethiopia Hailé Sélassié Ier ( Jah Live ), considered by the rastas as being the reincarnation of Jesus announced in the Apocalypse (" the king of the kings, lord of the seigneurs"). It wished to finish its days in Jamaica but dies with Miami on May 11th, 1981, too weak to make the voyage by plane until Kingston.

The heritage

Bob Marley made discover in the world the reggae, a rich person derived from the blues which influenced the Western popular music considerably, and this good more than it is generally allowed (the remix, or dub, and the rap result directly from the reggae). Its music touched all the public ones, transcending the kinds, as a broad worship testifies some, still in full expansion in the whole world at the end of the twentieth century. The dimension of Bob is much broader than that of the simple singer able to produce popular successes as Is This Love or Could You Be Loved . Expressing in the beginning the assertion of dignity and the valorization of a African identity for its people ridiculed by centuries of slavery ( Slavic Driver , Redemption Song ), of colonialism ( Music Lesson , Crazy Baldhead ) and of economic oppression ( Revolution ), it incarnates with the movement Rastafari ( Positive Vibration , War ) the awakening of humanity to a spiritual revolution against an oppressor whom it initially describes as being the fruit of a Christian imposture ( Get Up Stand Up ), even pagan ( Heathen ), capitalist ( Rat Race ), corrupted, racist and hypocritical ( Who the Cape the FIT ) at the same time. With were an authenticity and a force undoubtedly unequalled since, it the first (and last?) true superstar come from a poor country. Remarkable lyric writer able to adapt himself with naturalness of the formulas of the popular speech, not hesitating to approach the most universal topics, Bob Marley remains initially a symbol of emancipation and freedom. He also became one of the universal symbols of the dispute ( Soul Rebel ), even of the self-defense ( I Shot the Sheriff ), often supplanting in the unconscious collective of the politicians as Che Guevara (it near cuban revolution marked Marley), Jamaïcain Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Leon Trotsky, Nelson Mandela or Thomas Sankara. Its message is initially of a nature spiritual and cultural, and coated with a proselytism to consume hemp (the ganja), a ritual rasta ( Kaya , Easy Skanking ).

Mirror of the rebellious spirit of the oppressed people, heroes, example and model at the same time, Bob Marley is regarded by several generations already as the spokesperson late but privileged the underprivileged ones. It is before all the first musician to be incarnated and to assume fully and naturally this identity of spokesperson protestor, a statute that other musicians as James Brown (whose it recorded several compositions), Bob Dylan or John Lennon approached but never completely obtained or assumed for various reasons. While denouncing the falsification or the omission of the African cultures and Afro-Americans by the Western religions and the historians colonialists ( Zion Train , Music Lesson ), and with spiritual and cultural ingredient essence rasta ( Forever Loving Jah , Rastaman Song ), Bob Marley followed a way which is not limited to the protest of social order.

It wished to confront humanity with an approach of the history and bible until there primarily ignored, and more and more largely studied and taken again since. Its theological approach Rastafari enne, relayed by its celebrity, is the subject thus of Marley of a certain number of reflections of hagiographic nature. Many sees in him a kind of apostle or " prophète" multi-media ( Time Will Such ), without forgetting that he is the son of a White and Black, sign of a unifying planetary interbreeding whose future depends of good part of a better knowledge on the past. As wrote it the New York Times in a way perhaps as ironic as prophetic fifteen years after its disappearance, in 1996, when the old third world occupies and colonizes the old super powers, Bob Marley will be commemorated like a saint.

His/her children

Bob recognized thirteen children. Sharon was adopted with her marriage with Rita in 1966. Ziggy, Stephen and Cedella were generated by Rita, and the eight others by various mistresses. Damian Marley says Junior Gong is the fruit of its loves with Cindy Breakspeare. The majority undertook a musical career, and successfully for Ky-Mani Marley, Damian Marley, Ziggy Marley and Stephen Marley in particular. Rohan Marley, associated with the singer of hip hop Lauryn Hill (Fugees), is a former champion of American football.

Imani Carole, born the May 22nd 1963, with Cheryl Murray;
Sharon, born the November 23rd 1964, resulting from a former union of Rita;
Cedella Marley born the August 23rd 1967, with Rita;
David " Ziggy", born the October 17th 1968, with Rita;
Stephen, born the April 20th 1972, with Rita;
Robert " Robbie" , born the May 16th 1972, with Stalemate Williams;
Rohan, born the May 19th 1972, with Janet Hunt;
Karen, born in 1973, with Janet Bowen;
Stephanie, born the 17 August 1974; according to Cedella Booker it is the girl of Rita and a man called Ital with which Rita have an adventure; however it was allowed like the girl of Bob;
Julian, born the June 4th 1975, with Lucy Pounder;
Ky-Mani, born the February 26th 1976, with Anita Belnavis;
Damian, born the July 21st 1978, with Cindy Breakspeare;
Makeda, born the May 30th 1981, with Yvette Crichton.

Discography

the discography of Bob Marley and the Wailers

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