The Invisible Mentor

Black History Month: Bob Marley, Singer, Songwriter and the Father of Reggae

February 22nd, 2012 |

Bob Marley sold more than 20 million record albums valued at approximately $190 million before he succumbed to cancer at age 36. “Bob Marley rose from poverty and obscurity to international stardom, becoming the first Third World artist to be acclaimed to that degree.” He is best known for reggae and Rastafarianism.

Name: Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley)

Birth Date: February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981

Job Functions: Entertainer

Fields: Entertainment & Music

Known For: Popularizing Reggae

Quiz (find the answers in the Wisdom of Life Profile for Black History Month)

What was the name of Bob Marley’s first band?
What was the name of the first song he recorded?
What type of music did reggae evolve from?
What is Rastarianism and how did it evolve?
Who is Haile Selassie and what is his connection to Bob Marley?

Bob Marley- Three Little Birds (Avil’s Favourite Bob Marley Song)

Cannot view video? Click here. Uploaded by 21sabiandrummer67 on Jul 10, 2009

Biography

Bob Marley was born on February 6, 1945, in Nine Miles, Saint Ann, Jamaica to Cedella Marley Booker, singer and author; and Norval Sinclair Marley, a British army captain. Norval married Cedella to make Marley’s birth legitimate, but left the day after his wedding. Marley had an unstable childhood being shuffled around to various family members. After his father died in 1955 he went to live in Kingston.

By the late 1950s, Marley was spending much of his time with friends in Trench Town, a tenement yard in Western Kingston. At that time, he was harmonizing with friends after school, and taking singing lessons, practicing his music on his guitar and performing in talent shows. Marley was influenced by “The Moonglows, The Tams, The Impressions, Sam Cooke and Solomon Burker.”

English: Bob Marley live in concert, just a co...

Image via Wikipedia

With Peter McIntosh (Peter Tosh), and Bunny Livingston (Bunny Wailer), Marley formed a group called the Teenagers. When he was sixteen, Marley recorded Judge Not, his first single in the ska (mix of calypso and rhythm and blues) style – a precursor to reggae – under the name Robert Marley. Judge Not demonstrated that Marley was a burgeoning songwriter.

At age 18, his mother Cedella remarried and moved to the United States, and Marley was left to fend for himself. It was at this point in his life that he started to learn about the Rastafarian faith. In 1964, Marley renamed his group to Wailing Rudeboys, which was later changed to Wailing Wailers, and subsequently Bob Marley and the Wailers. Each of the three would later go on to have impressive careers. That same year, in 1964, the trio recorded their first big hit, “Simmer Down,” produced on the Downbeat label.

Their music was a reflection of the turbulence in Jamaica at the time. “In the 1960s, Marley became a key promoter of what was known as “Rude Boy” music, a form of

Jamaican music that spread an anti-racist, anti-colonial, revolutionary message. Eventually, Marley would become the world’s most recognized promoter of the Rastafarian religion and its lifestyles.”

Rastafarianism is the belief that Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia “is the living God who will lead blacks out of oppression and into an African homeland. It was once considered the religion of outcasts and lunatics in Jamaica, but in the 1960s it came to represent an alternative to violence for many ghetto dwellers. Rastafarianism lent dignity to their suffering and offered them the hope of eventual relief. Rejecting the standards of the white world that led many blacks to straighten their hair, Rastas let theirs mat up into long, ropy ‘dreadlocks.’”

On February 10, 1966, Marley married 18 year old Rita Anderson, a member of singing group, The Soulettes. By the late 1960s reggae, which was influenced by the Rasta culture was becoming popular in Jamaica and was much slower that ska. It was adapted from New Orleans rhythm and blues. With the assistance of Leslie Kong, Bob Marley and the Wailing Wailers developed a new sound that was less polished than their previous sound, but more intense.

In the summer of 1971, Marley released “Trench Town Rock,” which stayed on the Jamaican chart for five months. Throughout their career, the Wailing Wailers collaborated with famous reggae producers such as Leslie Kong and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Marley was also gaining international acclaim by this time with the help of American artists such as Paul Simon and Johnny Nash. In fact he toured and recorded with Johnny Nash in the early 1970s.

Marley sought an alliance with Chris Blackwell, a wealthy British businessman, whose record company, Island Records, was the label of many major rock stars. In the early 1970s, reggae was not that popular outside of Jamaica. However, Blackwell had an interest in the music, and offered the trio a contract and marketed their first Island Records album, Catch a Fire.

The group toured and started to gain in popularity in Britain and the United States. Marley and his group toured Europe and the United States, opening for Bruce Springsteen, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Jackson Five. However, the impetus for their worldwide acclaim, and acceptance of reggae, was after Eric Clapton’s 1976 remake of “I Shot the Sheriff”, from their 1973 album, Burnin’ which was their follow-up album to Catch a Fire.

Eric Clapton – I Shot the Sheriff

Cannot view the video? Click here. Uploaded by JPetch on Mar 3, 2007

Bob Marley With I-Threes – I shot the sheriff (Live)

Click here (http://youtu.be/nrnZSLwfzVs) to view the video the embedding is disabled. Uploaded by keciko on Nov 26, 2005

As with many musical groups, as their popularity grew, in 1974, tension rose among the trio which led to a breakup of the group. Bunny Wailer didn’t like to leave Jamaica for extended tours, and Peter Tosh resented Blackwell for making Marley the focus of the group. Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer each launched solo careers.

Marley built on the distinctive sound the Wailers had created, adding female vocals supplied by the I-Threes, which included his wife, Rita, Marcia Griffith and Judy Mowatt. He also added electric guitars that appealed to the rock and roll audience. In 1975, Marley released Natty Dread, which solidified his status as a world-class entertainer and was now seen as peer to people like Mick Jagger and John Lennon.

In that same year, Marley performed at LA Roxy Theater where the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell and other celebrities were in attendance. He followed up with other albums such as Rastaman Vibration, Exodus, Jammin’, Survival, and Uprising, with hit singles – “Redemption Song” and “Could You Be Loved.”

“On June 15, 1978, Marley was presented with the Third World Peace Medal by all the African delegations to the United Nations for his work on human rights.” Marley used his fame to spread knowledge of the Rastafarian faith, which he followed. He refused cancer treatment because of his religious beliefs, and succumbed on May 11, 1981. He was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit while on his deathbed.

Following his death, a compilation of Marley’s hits, Legend, became the best-selling reggae album of all time. In 1994 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2001 he was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bob Marley’s Steps to Success

When he was a teenager he harmonized with his friends after school.
Made a guitar using a bamboo staff, fine wires from an electric cable and a large sardine can.
Took singing lessons, practiced on his guitar and performed in local talent show.
Wrote about his life experiences, as well as what was occurring in Jamaica.
Collaborated with others.
Kept on recording music.
Was opening acts for more popular singers to get known.
Experimented with his music to garner a wider audience.

Why Bob Marley’s Contribution Matters

Bob Marley was a champion of human freedoms and used his music to take a stand. He also left behind a body of work that others have built on.

Lessons from Bob Marley

Bob Marley had a tough childhood and faced abandonment, yet he made a name for himself. It’s not where you start out in life that matters; it’s where you end up.
Kept on working on his art and created a substantial body of work.
He studied others and followed their techniques until he created a unique sound for himself.
In the early days, Bob Marley and his group got ripped off financially by unscrupulous managers, but he never let that stop him, he continued to create amazing music.

Ideas That Matter

Persistence pays.
You become better at what you do by practicing.
Seek out opportunities to master your craft, that’s the only way to experience sustainable success.

Why would Name make a good invisible mentor?

Marley popularized reggae and created a body of work that others could learn from.

Interesting Tidbit

The Anglican Church in Jamaica added some tunes from reggae stars Bob Marley (One Love) and Peter Tosh to its hymnal.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Sources Cited/Referenced

Encyclopedia of World Biography

Encyclopedia of Latin American History & Culture

Contemporary Musicians, June 15, 1990

St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture

Contemporary Authors Online, 2004

Ramirez, Rauly. “Bob Marley: higher than ever.” Billboard 19 Feb. 2011: 46. Gale

Biography In Context. Web. 3 Feb. 2012.

Christian Century, September 18, 2007, p7