The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Bob Marley’

This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, Black History Month – Bob Marley, Singer, Songwriter and the Father of Reggae, and Gary Vurnum, Author.

Adventures in Learning

I have never given museum curation much thought, and I first learned about online curation in the fall of 2010 from Social Media Examinerin their post How to Grow a Following With Other People’s Popular Content. However, during Social Media Week Toronto, I attended an excellent session titled Curation vs. Curation, where the panel compared curation in the context of museums with curation online. The big question is, are online “curators” true Curators?

Image via Wikipedia

Idea of Curation: Museum Curator vs. Online Curator 

Booked for Mentoring

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier was published in 1938. Though it’s an excellent book, it bugged me a lot because the heroine, who is the narrator does not have a name – all we know is that she has a lovely and unusual name – in the story until she gets married, and you do not know her age, you are told that she is young and essentially naïve. However, the book is excellent because it’s a story about a woman coming of age. You see a nameless woman, who is quite timid getting married and ultimately evolving into an assertive person when she faces a major challenge in her life.

Booked for Mentoring: Book Review – Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Wisdom of Life Profile

Bob Marley- I Shot the Sheriff

Cannot view this video? Click here. Uploaded by ethioma on Jan 29, 2008

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.

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

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured author Gary Vurnum. A big message from Vurnum is to focus on being happy instead of becoming a millionaire. The life and death of his son who was born with multiple disabilities forever changed his life and added more depth and meaning to it. Here are Part I and Part II of Gary Varnum’s interview.

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.

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)

1. What was the name of Bob Marley’s first band?
2. What was the name of the first song he recorded?
3. What type of music did reggae evolve from?
4. What is Rastarianism and how did it evolve?
5. 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.”

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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

Related articles

• Bob Marley: The Black Prince of Reggae (midnightraverblog.com)
• Bob Marley and me by David Meerman Scott
• Jamaica premiere for Marley tribute (timesofmalta.com)

My mind wandered back to several years ago when I was feeling down, and as if all my efforts were in vain. During that period, one day I was in a Hallmark store and was led to the poem Don’t Quit. It was the first time that I had seen that poem. The poem gave me the answer I needed, and I felt comforted. I felt like the universe was telling me that I needed to continue what I was doing, and to keep the faith. Have you ever felt that way? If yes, what do you do to keep going? What do you do when things are taking much longer that expected? What do you do when nothing seems to be going right?

I am not sure why this popped into my mind because I have no intention of quitting, neither do I feel the urge to quit. I know that I am on the right path, yes I have taken detours at times, but it has made for a more colorful life.

The image to the right gives a great perspective with the graying out of the words so that the focus is on DO IT, instead of Don’t Quit. Maybe I am led to write this post because this is a message that you need to hear today. Perhaps you need comforting. So, take a break, read the poem below and listen to the Bob Marley song Three Little Birds (Don’t worry about a thing, cause every little thing is going to be alright.) More importantly is that I have learned to trust my instincts, so I am writing this post because it needs writing.

Don’t Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown

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Video Credit: You Tube

Next week I will have two interviews. I am experimenting with something new, so stay tuned!