Bob Marley: A Biography pot

1963 Bob, Peter, and Bunny recorded for Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, who was one of the three bggest producers of Jamacan popular musc on the sland.. Under the name The Walng Walers, the grou

BoB Marley



Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Bography

Louise Krasniewicz and Michael Blitz

Blle Holday: A Bography

Jacke Robnson: A Bography

Mary Kay Linge



Moskowtz, Davd V (Davd Vlado), 1969 –

Bob Marley : a bography / Davd V Moskowtz.

p cm — (Greenwood bographes, ISSN 1540-4900)

Dscography: p.

Includes bblographcal references and ndex.

ISBN-13: 978–0–313–33879–3 (alk paper)

ISBN-10: 0–313–33879–5 (alk paper)

1 Marley, Bob 2 Reggae muscans —Jamaca—Bography I Ttle ML420.M3313M66 2007

782.421646092—dc22

[B] 2007018313

Brtsh Lbrary Catalogung n Publcaton Data s avalable.

Copyrght © 2007 by Davd V Moskowtz

All rghts reserved No porton of ths book may be

reproduced, by any process or technque, wthout

the express wrtten consent of the publsher.

Lbrary of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2007018313

ISBN-13: 978 –0–313–33879–3

ISBN-10: 0–313–33879–5

ISSN: 1540–4900

Frst publshed n 2007

Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881

An mprnt of Greenwood Publshng Group, Inc.

www.greenwood.com

Prnted n the Unted States of Amerca

The paper used n ths book comples wth the

Permanent Paper Standard ssued by the Natonal

Informaton Standards Organzaton (Z39.48–1984).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

v

v

Chapter 2 Out of the Ghetto, nto the Lmelght 11Chapter 3 From Top of the Rock to Top of the World 29

series Foreword

In response to hgh school and publc lbrary needs, Greenwood oped ths dstngushed seres of full-length bographes specfcally for student use Prepared by feld experts and professonals, these engagng bographes are talored for hgh school students who need challengng yet accessble bographes Ideal for secondary school assgnments, the length, format and subject areas are desgned to meet educators’ requre-ments and students’ nterests

devel-Greenwood offers an extensve selecton of bographes spannng all currculum related subject areas ncludng socal studes, the sc-ences, lterature and the arts, hstory and poltcs, as well as popular culture, coverng publc fgures and famous personaltes from all tme perods and backgrounds, both hstorc and contemporary, who have made an mpact on Amercan and/or world culture Greenwood b-ographes were chosen based on comprehensve feedback from l-brarans and educators Consderaton was gven to both currculum relevance and nherent nterest The result s an ntrgung mx of the well known and the unexpected, the sants and snners from long-ago hstory and contemporary pop culture Readers wll fnd a wde array of subject choces from fascnatng crme fgures lke Al Capone to nspr-

ng poneers lke Margaret Mead, from the greatest mnds of our tme lke Stephen Hawkng to the most amazng success stores of our day lke J K Rowlng

Whle the emphass s on fact, not glorfcaton, the books are meant

to be fun to read Each volume provdes n-depth nformaton about the subject’s lfe from brth through chldhood, the teen years, and adulthood

x

A thorough account relates famly background and educaton, traces personal and professonal nfluences, and explores struggles, accomplsh-ments, and contrbutons A tmelne hghlghts the most sgnfcant lfe events aganst a hstorcal perspectve Bblographes supplement the reference value of each volume.

My sncerest thanks go to my wfe, Jen, and our chldren Heather, Lucas, Kate, and Jack Wthout ther boundless patence there would never be enough tme for me to work on projects such as ths Thanks also go to

Dr Walter Clark whose gudance and tutelage have helped me to pursue the research that nterests me most Further thanks to Photofest Inc for ther knd permsson to use the mages contaned n ths book

x

tiMeline: events in the liFe

oF BoB Marley

1945 Nesta Robert Marley, the only chld of Cedella

Mal-colm and Captan Norval Snclar Marley, was born at 2:30 p.m on February 6, 1945 The brth took place on Cedella’s father’s (Omerah Malcolm’s) farm n Nne Mle, St Ann’s Parsh, Jamaca Bob stayed on ths fam-

ly farm untl he was sx

1951 Bob went to lve wth hs father n Kngston, Jamaca

When Cedella arrved the followng year to look n on Bob, she dscovered that he had not been lvng wth hs father but had nstead been stayng wth an elderly woman named Mrs Grey

1952 Once mother and son were reunted, they returned

to-gether to ther rural Jamacan home n St Ann

1955 Bob learned that hs father had ded, hs mother moved

to Kngston (wthout hm) to earn a better lvng

1956 Bob was moved from hs grandfather’s farm to lve wth

hs mother’s sster, for whom he tended a herd of goats

1957 Bob was reunted wth hs mother when he moved to

Kngston to jon her Ths otherwse happy reunon was marred by the fact that they now lved n Kngston’s west-sde ghetto known as Trench Town

1959 After attendng several area schools, ncludng Ebenezer,

Wesley, and St Aloysus, Bob ended hs formal ton when he qut school He spent hs tme playng

educa-x

soccer, hangng out wth other ghetto youth, and ally pckng up musc.

gradu-1960 Together wth hs closest frend Bunny, born Nevlle

Lvngston, Bob began to cultvate hs muscal talents

He and Bunny bult rudmentary nstruments and gether they practced sngng by mtatng Fats Domno, Lous Jordan, and the harmones of Curts Mayfeld’s Im-pressons Also durng ths year, Bob and Bunny began studyng sngng wth the Jamacan recordng artst Joe Hggs Hggs not only provded sngng lessons, but he added Peter Tosh (born MacIntosh) to the group

to-1962 At age 16, Bob was taken to sng for producer Lesle

Kong, who ssued hs frst recordngs, “Judge Not,” “One Cup of Coffee,” and “Terror,” on the Beverley’s mprnt

1963 Bob, Peter, and Bunny recorded for Clement “Coxsone”

Dodd, who was one of the three bggest producers of Jamacan popular musc on the sland Under the name The Walng Walers, the group released the sngle

“Smmer Down,” whch brought them consderable cess n Jamaca

suc-1965 The Walng Walers contnued to have success wth

a seres of sold-sellng sngles By the end of the year,

t was clear that Bob was the natural front man for the group Ths led to frcton that ultmately broke up the orgnal three-member group Early n the year, Bob met Rta Anderson (Alpharta Constanta Anderson), whom he soon marred

1966 Together, Bob and Rta had three chldren, although

Bob had many other chldren outsde hs relatonshp wth Rta Later n ths year, Bob moved to Wlmng-ton, Delaware Bob remaned n Wlmngton for seven months, durng whch tme he worked a varety of odd jobs tryng to make enough money to launch hs own Jamaca-based record company Whle n Wlmng-ton, Bob stayed wth hs mother, who had prevously relocated to the Unted States

1969 Bob, Peter, and Bunny (under the name of the Walers)

recorded a seres of successful sngles for Johnny Nash and Danny Sms’s JAD label In the mddle of the year, Bob was agan n Delaware makng and savng money to open hs own studo n Jamaca

1970 The Walers begn recordng a seres of now classc

sngles for producer Lee “Scratch” Perry n what would

be a legendary lneup: Bob Marley, Bunny Waler, Peter Tosh, and the Barrett Brothers (Aston and Carlton) as the rhythm secton

1971 Bob, Peter, and Bunny, along wth ther rhythm secton

Aston and Carlton Barrett, were n London workng for Nash and Sms on a record deal for CBS records At the end of the year, the group was abandoned n London wth no means to return to Jamaca Bob made contact wth Island Records’ head, Chrstopher Blackwell, who fronted hm the money to get the band back to Jamaca and make an album Ths assocaton quckly made Is-land Records the most mportant reggae musc label

1972 The Walers released Catch a Fire, whch was the frst

album-length recordng of reggae musc The album had modest success and a degree of crossover appeal due to the rock and roll style gutar and keyboard overdubs that Blackwell added to the orgnal tracks In January 1973, the album was released n the Unted States and forever changed the way that reggae musc was packaged and

marketed Catch a Fire was soon unversally recognzed

as the frst genune reggae album n hstory

1973 The Walers launched ther frst offcal tour, whch

ncluded televson appearances on the Old Grey Whistle

Test and Top Gear Also n ths year, the Walers released

ther second record on the Island label, Burnin’.

1974 The Walers reached nternatonal exposure due to Erc

Clapton’s cover of the Walers song “I Shot the Sherff.” The song went to number one and sparked an enormous amount of nterest n the reggae style Whle they were experencng the most success they had yet had, the orgnal three-member Walers core dsbanded Bob contnued to use the Walers name for the rest of hs lfe Wthout Peter and Bunny, Bob went on to release

the Natty Dread album at the end of the year.

1975 In January, the orgnal Walers offcally dsbanded The

Natty Dread album was released nternatonally n

Feb-ruary Much of the summer and fall of the year was taken

up by an nternatonal tour n support of the new album Several shows were recorded n England and made nto

the frst Walers concert album, called Live! The album

sold well n the UK and was released n the Unted States n 1976

1976 Bob appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazne

Bob Marley and the Walers released the Rastaman

Vi-bration album then toured for three months to support

the release At approxmately 8:45 p.m on December 3, gunmen broke nto Marley’s house at 56 Hope Road and opened fre Bob and Rta were each shot once and ther manager, Don Taylor, was shot several tmes Everyone survved, but ths forced Bob nto self-mposed exle n fear for hs lfe

1977 In the wake of the assassnaton attempt, Bob released a

flurry of records Exodus was ssued on June 3, 1977.

1978 Kaya album released n early 1978 The Exodus and

Kaya releases both spawned successful tours Bob set up

the Jamacan Peace Concert, whch featured several

mportant reggae acts The concert was produced to help settle some of the volence that had been tearng the

sland apart

1979 Bob and the Walers released the Survival album n

October of 1979 The album was another bg success and led to another nternatonal tour whch was launched n Boston at the end of October

1980 The sessons that produced the Survival materal also

yelded the songs for the album Uprising Uprising was

released n June and was supported by another tonal tour wth dates n the Unted States and Western Europe, durng whch the Walers played for over one mllon people Durng the North Amercan leg of the

nterna-Uprising tour, Bob collapsed whle joggng n New York’s

Central Park It was soon dscovered that he had fered a stroke and the rest of the tour was canceled The last lve show that Bob Marley and the Walers played was on September 23, 1980, at Pttsburgh’s Stanley The-ater In the wake of hs collapse, Bob was dagnosed wth termnal cancer n hs stomach, lungs, and bran At the end of the year, Bob traveled to Bad Wessee, Germany, seekng nontradtonal cancer treatment from Dr Josef Issels Dr Issels was able to extend Bob’s lfe, but could not successfully treat the cancer

suf-1980 On October 4, Amercan popular muscan Steve

Won-der released a trbute to the cancer-strcken reggae perstar The song was reggae-lke n style and was called

su-“Master Blaster (Jammn’).” It went on to be a serous ht on the U.S rhythm and blues charts and topped out

at number fve on the pop charts

1981 At 11:45 on Monday, May 11, 1981, Robert Nesta

Marley, the frst thrd-world muscan who rose to natonal super stardom, ded In death, Bob was treated

nter-as a Jamacan natonal hero He wnter-as awarded Jamaca’s Natonal Order of Mert and gven a state funeral Afterward, Bob’s body was taken to hs St Ann’s brth-place where t remans Snce hs death, Bob’s chldhood home n St Ann and hs house at 56 Hope Road have become places of plgrmage for ardent fans Although there are many albums that have been released after

Bob’s death, the Confrontation album (released n 1983)

was the only posthumous release that was conceved of

by Bob before he ded

1984 The most popular collecton of Bob’s greatest hts,

Leg-end, was released The album went on to become the

hghest-sellng reggae album of all tme

1999 The collecton of Bob’s greatest hts, Legend, receved ts

10th platnum certfcaton, sgnfyng that t had sold more than 10 mllon copes Ths contnues to easly hold the record for the hghest-sellng reggae boxed set

Robert Nesta Marley was the frst and possbly the only superstar to emerge from the thrd world From hs meager rural begnnngs, Bob blossomed

nto a man of such sgnfcant mport and nfluence that hs attempted assassnaton n 1976 was poltcally motvated Bob’s muscal nfluence

s stll felt Hs was the frst reggae act to release a full-length LP, whch

mmedately changed the marketng model that had exsted for 30 years Beyond ts commercal mpact, Bob’s musc has a unversal qualty that transcends race, color, economc class, even language For example, t s known that hs musc s lstened to by such dverse groups as the Maor people of New Zealand and the Hop Indans lvng n Amerca’s Grand Canyon

Although he lved a short lfe, only 36 years, Bob penned an enormous quantty of songs And unlke some songwrters, Bob was nvolved n all aspects of the creaton of hs musc He worked on each of the nstrumental parts, wrote the lyrcs, and had hs hand n the control room whle the

ntal tracks were beng lad down, n addton to beng nvolved n the edtng and overdubbng process that yelded the fnal product Bob’s sound was so characterstc of reggae that t vrtually cornered the “roots reggae” desgnaton Hs rhythm secton poneered the standard roots reg-gae groove, whch they called “one drop” rhythm One drop rhythm was acheved when the drummer accented only the thrd beat of a four beat measure The classcal musc of Western Europe typcally accented the frst and the thrd beat n a four beat measure, and Amercan rock and roll musc emphaszed beats two and four Ths unque reggae rhythm sepa-rated t from the musc from whch t grew and made t dstnctly Jamacan

chapter 1

Country Boy to ghetto youth

1

n character Bob so lked ths style of playng that he wrote a song that

llustrated the rhythm (the song s called “One Drop”) and ncluded lyrcs about the fne qualty of ths rhythm In addton to hs achevements n formng the reggae sound, Bob was also an expert lyrcst The equal of any contemporary hp-hop word slnger, Bob was able to craft emotonally powerful chans of words that are pleasng to lsten to on the surface but that pack a serous punch when ther meanngs are explored He was able

to draw the meanng and the emoton out of each word and then expertly hde them n relaxed “sland”-soundng musc Bob dd ths on purpose If hs musc was too overtly poltcal or venomous, t would not be commer-cal or rado frendly Bob also knew hs way around a good rock and roll song Hs musc s often delvered n the standard verse/chorus form wth addtonal weght added to the chorus materal Ths s a tme-honored rock and roll form wth roots from Elvs to the Beatles

Regardless of Bob’s poverty-strcken chldhood, hs adult lfe taned the trappngs of success At the heght of hs career n the late 1970s, Bob lved n a bg house n downtown Kngston, the captal cty

con-of Jamaca The house contaned all con-of the standard lvng spaces, plus rehearsal and recordng spaces so that Bob and hs band could work where they lved A typcal day at ths house, 56 Hope Road, was to spend the mornng playng soccer and smokng ganja (Jamacan slang for mar-juana), the afternoon conductng busness and meetng wth people who often wanted Bob to gve them money, and the evenng rehearsng and recordng, contnung well nto the nght Bob dd acqure some of the symbols of a wealthy person For example, he drove a BMW, whch was certanly an ndcaton of hs monetary standng However, Bob dd not really care much for such symbols and reportedly bought the car because BMW could stand for Bob Marley and the Walers Lke hs chldhood home n St Ann’s Parsh, the house at 56 Hope Road has been converted

nto a museum The upstars bedrooms are now gallery space that house

tems such as a large map of the world wth push pns markng all of the places where Bob and the Walers toured Bob’s son Zggy’s old room (hs son’s actual name s Davd) has been made nto a busness offce and a lbrary Bob’s master bedroom s also on the second floor and t has been preserved just the way that t was when he ded

As well as the attracton that Bob’s musc had, he also had a very netc personalty Bob was descrbed as open, honest, and approachable, especally to hs ghetto brothers and ssters However, when deceved by a busness assocate or cornered by an ntervewer, Bob could become qute nasty; he would quckly gve the person a serous look that made everyone understand that he should not be taken for granted Another way that

mag-Bob separated hmself from the Western world was n hs speech Whle Englsh s the offcal language of Jamaca, most Jamacans actually speak

a pdgn verson of the language ncludng words adopted from varous Afrcan languages and a great deal of slang So, f Bob wanted to be un-derstood he spoke n plan Englsh, but f he wanted to confuse the person

he was talkng to or wanted to purposely obscure hs meanng, then he swtched nto a thck Jamacan accent that was completely unntellgble

to anyone who was not from the sland

As a professonal performer, Bob presented a knd of front that fested tself n the way he acted and the way he looked He favored denm shrts and pants, boots, and stockng hats (called tams) On stage he often fell nto a trance-lke state whle sngng He would keep hs eyes closed and flal hs arms whle swngng hs long dreadlocks All of these compo-nents together created Bob Marley the legend

man-Bob’s mpact was felt durng hs lfe and contnues to be felt today Snce 1991, Bob Marley and the Walers have sold n excess of 21 mllon records (these statstcs dd not begn to be collected untl 10 years after hs death) Further, Bob has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he was

nducted nto the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he receved the Grammy Lfetme Achevement Award, and he was awarded the Jamacan Order of Mert Regardless of these (and many other) awards, the true test of Bob’s worth s tme Twenty-fve years after hs death, the musc of Bob Marley and the Walers s as popular, mportant, and pertnent as t was the day

t was released

Jamaica

Jamaca s one of the larger Carbbean slands and s located about two hundred mles south of the slands at the southern tp of Florda (the Florda Keys) The sland tself s lttle more than a mountan stckng

up through the surface of the ocean; however, due to ts clmate Jamaca

s an sland paradse The low-lyng coastal areas contan the majorty of the sland’s populaton, and the majorty of the people lvng n the nte-ror have tradtonally lved off the land In fact, much of the Jamacan economy has been based on the exportaton of ther crops, such as coffee, sugarcane, bananas, coconuts, ctrus fruts, and pmento The populaton

of the sland s sparse n ts nteror, but qute dense n the ctes of ton (the captal), Montego Bay, Negrl, and Ocho Ros An nterestng dualty on the sland s the great dsparty between the wealthy and the poor Jamaca s stll part of the thrd world as many of ts nhabtants do not have runnng water, electrcty, or telephone servce Conversely, the

Kngs-sland’s ctes are as modern as any n the Unted States Ths economc dvde also creates an unstable envronment that s often marked by po-ltcal unrest and volence It was nto these crcumstances that Nesta Robert (the order of hs names was later reversed) Marley was born at 2:30 p.m on February 6, 1945.

Birth in nine mile

Bob was born n the rural nteror of the sland n a parsh called

St Ann Jamacan parshes are vaguely equvalent to countes n the Unted States Bob was born to a black Jamacan mother, Cedella Malcolm, and a whte Jamacan father, Captan Norval Snclar (or Sant Clar) Marley The two were an odd par as Cedella was only 18 and Norval, a member of the Brtsh army, was n hs early sxtes Bob’s brth took place

on hs maternal grandfather’s farm Omerah Malcolm was a

landown-ng black man who was a respected nhabtant of the vllage called Nne Mle Bob’s brthplace s a small rural communty that s located hgh n the nteror mountans of the sland Bob’s mother and father had met on Omerah’s farm, and the two were marred there on June 9, 1944 The weddng was not the usual happy occason, as Captan Marley announced that he would be departng Nne Mle the followng day He had been of-fered a government job n Kngston and had no ntenton of returnng to

St Ann The captan dd return, however, on the occason of Bob’s brth After a week’s stay, the captan agan returned to Kngston and gradually lost touch wth hs wfe and son

Because the captan was not takng fnancal responsblty for hs new famly, Cedella had to support her son Her father allowed her to open a small grocery store on the famly property where she could sell the crops that she helped grow There s some dsagreement about Cedella and Bob’s care durng hs early lfe Stephen Davs noted n hs bography of the reg-gae superstar that Captan Marley left Omerah wth enough money to buld Cedella and Bob a small cabn to lve n and startup money for the grocery store Regardless, Cedella and Bob were poor and barely scrapng

by at ths tme Whle Bob was stll a baby, the captan contacted Cedella

to request that she send Bob to Kngston to lve wth hm Bob’s mother wanted no part of ths separaton from her chld; however, the captan dd not let the ssue drop completely

Bob began hs formal educaton at age four when he began attendng the Stepney School Stepney was a basc school and provded Bob wth rudmentary educaton n letters and numbers Durng hs early edu-caton, Bob was sngled out by hs teacher as beng a brght chld and

a fast learner When Bob was sx years old, hs father reappeared n Nne Mle and agan tred to convnce Cedella that Bob would be better off

n Kngston Ths tme, hs father added that Bob’s educaton would be better served at the bgger, better Kngston publc school Cedella and Omerah consdered the captan’s request and decded that t was n Bob’s best nterest to attend school n Kngston Further, Cedella could not af-ford Bob’s school clothes and lunches All ths havng been consdered, Bob went to Kngston to lve wth hs father and attend publc school.Cedella and the captan corresponded durng her separaton from her son and she was always reassured that Bob was dong well After sx months, Cedella planned to rde the bus nto Kngston to vst her son The captan put her off, sayng that Bob was away on a school trp and ths evason foreshadowed Captan Marley’s decet After a full year had passed, Cedella had had enough of the captan’s stallng She had learned from a frend that Bob was not n fact lvng wth the captan at all She had also been told that Bob was unhappy wth hs Kngston arrangements and was watng for hs mother’s assstance

In early 1952, Cedella arrved n Kngston to reclam her son Ths sented a problem as she no longer knew where the captan or Bob lved Cedella had receved word that Bob was lkely lvng on Heywood Street,

pre-so she went there and began askng about her pre-son Soon she learned that Bob had been lvng wth an elderly woman named Mrs Grey, and as Cedella searched out Mrs Grey’s house, around the corner came Bob Reunted wth hs mother, Bob took her to meet Mrs Grey, who nformed Cedella that Bob had been lvng wth her snce hs arrval n Kngston The captan’s plan was that by lvng wth Mrs Grey, Bob would become her her when she ded Wth the captan’s plan exposed and foled, Bob and Cedella returned to St Ann

Back n hs rural brthplace, Bob agan studed at the Stepney School Whle not studyng, Bob helped hs mother run the grocery store Whle workng at the store Bob began to exhbt hs sngng talent Hs mother reported that Bob sang tradtonal Jamacan vendor songs that he had learned whle he was lvng n Kngston In 1955, Bob learned that hs father had ded In the same year, Bob was agan separated from Cedella The meager earnngs from the grocery store were not enough to support the two of them Rural Jamacan lfe was and s very dffcult, and although slavery was abolshed n the 1830s, the sland stll has undertones of slavery Because she could not support Bob and herself, Cedella opted to take a job

as a housekeeper n Kngston She left Bob on Omerah’s farm and agan took the bus to the captal cty Ths tme, nstead of searchng for her son she was searchng for the fnancal means to properly care for hm

When Bob was aged 11, Omerah moved Bob to Cedella’s older sster’s property, about ten mles away from the famly farm Here Bob was n charge of a herd of goats that he had to care for and look after Lackng any real supervson, Bob and hs cousn, Sledger, were constantly n trou-ble These troublemakng ways got the par sent back to Omerah’s farm, and Bob spent the next two years under hs grandfather’s watchful eye.

In 1957, Cedella had acheved the fnancal stablty to allow for her

to call for Bob However, stablty and prosperty are qute dfferent Bob arrved n Kngston to fnd that hs mother had been lvng n the cty’s west-sde ghetto Whle rural Jamacan lfe s hard, the west Kngston ghettos were a testament to the underprvleged n the thrd world Open sewers, malnourshed chldren, dsease, and volence were the character-

stcs of the place that Bob came to know as Trench Town Bob and hs mother were spared the harshest part of the ghetto, however, and nstead lved n the publc housng projects called the “government yard.”

Jamaca had earler enjoyed a tme of greater prosperty and economc stablty Pror to the sugarcane cutters’ strke n 1938, the sland’s prosperous sugar and banana ndustres provded a decent lvng for most

of ts nhabtants However, ths age of prosperty was forever lost due

to the strke An outgrowth of the strke was the creaton of the frst macan labor unons, and from the two strongest unons came the two Jamacan poltcal partes When Jamaca declared ndependence from Brtan on August 6, 1962, these rval partes became locked nto a conflct that contnues today

Ja-The two partes are the Jamacan Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s Natonal Party (PNP), and snce the early 1960s each electon year has been marked by volence between the two sdes The two partes are com-pletely opposed n membershp and msson The JLP was founded by the rght-wng labor organzer Alexander Bustamante, who went on to be-come Jamaca’s frst prme mnster Bustamante’s party represented the whte Brtsh and Anglo-Jamacan colonal class, the mercantle mddle class composed of Chnese and Lebanese busnessmen and storeowners, and the elte black Jamacans who worked for them The PNP represented the rest of the sland’s populaton, that s, the rural and urban underclass The PNP was begun by Norman Washngton Manley, who also went on

to become a Jamacan prme mnster

After Bob arrved n Kngston, he and hs mother moved several tmes, fnally settlng n an apartment at 19 Second Street Whle Cedella was

at work n the houses of Kngston’s wealthy, Bob attended several schools

ncludng Ebenezer, Wesley, and St Aloysus Although Bob remaned

a strong student, he lost nterest n school and stopped attendng by the

tme he was 14 He then spent hs days playng soccer, hangng out wth hs frends n the ghetto, and gettng nto trouble He also began to get

nterested n musc Another famly that lved n hs tenement yard had a son named Nevlle O’Rley Lvngston (b 1947), who went by the name Bunny Together, Bob and Bunny began sngng cover versons of songs that they had learned on the rado and eventually even fashoned make-shft nstruments out of found materals Ther przed possesson was a gutar made of copper wre, a sardne can, and a pece of bamboo

An offshoot of Jamaca’s ndependence was the country’s collectve search for a new natonal dentty Ths search created an envronment

n whch a true Jamacan sound emerged Untl ths tme, Jamacan musc had conssted of mento (a ragged Jamacan calypso) and the Amercan rhythm and blues that was broadcast from Lousana and Florda The de-velopment of a unquely Jamacan sound happened fast and took several forms The frst style that developed was called ska Ths style has a fast beat, shufflng rhythms, and a combnaton of elements from mento and rhythm and blues Ska also had an assocated dance, whch was a sort of charade n whch the dancers acted out everyday domestc chores such

as cleanng Although ska was soon replaced by rock steady, whch was a slower, more electrc nstrument drven style, t dd not dsappear In fact, there have been several ska revvals Ska’s second wave flourshed n the Unted States and the Unted Kngdom n the late 1970s and the 1980s and featured bands such as the Englsh Beat, Madness, the Selector, and the Specals The md-1990s saw the rse of ska’s thrd wave, wth bands lke Less than Jake, the Urge, Sublme, No Doubt, and Reel Bg Fsh

At the dawnng of the ska era, Bob and Bunny were most nterested n the Amercan rhythm and blues sound Bob partcularly lked Fats Dom-

no, Huey “Pano” Smth, and Earl Kng He was also nfluenced by Lous Jordan’s jump band style and the close vocal harmones of the Drfters and the Impressons Curts Mayfeld, the leader of the Impressons, had a specal nfluence on Bob Whle Bob rarely covered other people’s songs,

he actually ncorporated Mayfeld’s song “People Get Ready” nto hs own song “One Love.” Once Bob embraced the sngng style of the Drfters and the Impressons, he knew that he wanted to form a sngng group and take a run at musc stardom

Whle Bob dreamed of becomng a famous snger, Cedella worred about her hgh school dropout son She managed to help Bob get a job n

a weldng shop where he could learn a trade that could support hm Whle Bob never became a welder, the connectons that he made n the weldng shop altered the course of hs lfe One of the other welders was a bud-dng muscan named Desmond Dekker Dekker led the already modestly

successful sngng group the Aces and he was connected to the Jamacan recordng ndustry In fact, by the end of the 1960s, Dekker’s group had an

nternatonal ht wth the song “Israeltes.”

Grew Up wailinG

Bob followed hs mother’s wshes and worked n the welder’s shop for

a tme, because he knew that n order to become a good snger he needed tranng He needed to learn the rudments of how to sng properly and the theory behnd the constructon of musc The man that was able to provde hm wth both of those sklls lved just around the corner from Bob and Bunny’s Second Street yard Joe Hggs (1940–1999) was half of the suc-cessful pre-ska sngng duo Hggs and Wlson He had had success n the early 1960s and was a well-respected member of the Jamacan musc scene However, unlke other successful artsts from the ghetto, Hggs choose not

to move out of Trench Town Instead, he converted hs Second Street yard

nto an mpromptu musc school where asprng sngers were welcome to partcpate n sngng classes Hggs had perfect ptch and was an expert at sngng n close harmony so he was a perfect match for Bob’s desres More

mportantly, Hggs conducted hs classes for free and took all comers

Bob, Bunny, and peter

Bob and Bunny began frequentng Hggs’s yard and soon were

learn-ng how to slearn-ng n harmony wth each other Hggs also ntroduced the par to a tall, slghtly older ghetto youth named Peter MacIntosh, who would soon go by the name Peter Tosh (1944–1987) On Hggs’s sugges-ton, Peter joned Bob and Bunny, makng the group a tro Also, Peter had the dstncton of beng the only ghetto youth n Hggs’s yard to have

a factory-made gutar, whch he soon taught Bob how to play Together, the tro formed a sngng group called the Teenagers The group also n-cluded two female sngers, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smth, and soon added a fourth male snger n the form of Junor Brathwate The group worked well together to create vocal harmony as each snger’s voce was n

a dfferent range Bob sang tenor, Bunny sang n a natural-soundng hgh falsetto, and Peter sang bass The group dd covers of those who had nflu-enced them, ncludng Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, and the Impressons.Along wth ther sngng tutelage, Hggs also taught Bob how to con-struct a song Bob learned that there were three man song sectons, the verse (where the story of the song unfolded), the chorus (a secton that repeated the song’s most catchy materal), and the brdge (often composed

of a gutar solo) These sectons worked n a specfc order n the ton of a popular song The verses and the chorus alternated untl about two-thrds of the way through the song, when the brdge was nserted After the brdge, there were typcally repettons of the chorus materal untl the song ended Ths s the standard verse/chorus song form that was

construc-as popular then construc-as t s now

In 1961, Bob began wrtng hs own songs and the next natural step was

to try to get them recorded Decdng to try to be a solo snger, Bob proached Lesle Kong (1933–1971), who was a Chnese-Jamacan studo owner and who refused to record the Teenagers The Jamacan recordng

ap-ndustry was n ts nfancy n the early 1960s There were only a few dos and the studo owners dd not want to waste money on a recordng that was not a guaranteed moneymaker Also, the three man studos had

stu-mmedately cornered the market n Jamacan recordng, so together Ken Khour (Federal Studos), Duke Red (Treasure Isle Studos), and Clem-ent “Coxsone” Dodd (Studo One) were already governng the style of Jamacan popular musc Havng been turned away by Kong, Bob enlsted the help of hs weldng shop coworker Desmond Dekker Dekker already had an n at the studos and scored a ht for Kong’s Beverley’s label wth hs song “Honour Your Mother and Father.” Dekker took Bob back to Kong and he audtoned agan Ths tme, Bob sang for Kong’s most recent sensaton, the 14-year-old snger Jmmy Clff Clff was suffcently m-pressed by Bob’s sngng to persuade Kong to record a few of Bob’s songs

Solo Singles

Bob recorded “Judge Not,” “One Cup of Coffee,” and “Terror” n 1962

on Kong’s Beverley’s label Kong released these songs as 45-rpm sngles, but wthout any marketng or rado play the sngles were not successful

At 16, Bob was a Jamacan recordng artst, although not a successful one

At the tme of the release, t was assumed that the three songs were all orgnals wrtten by Bob However, Chrstopher Farley has subsequently dscovered that “One Cup of Coffee” was actually a cover of a song by Claude Gray, an Amercan snger/songwrter

One aspect of the Jamacan musc scene n the 1960s was the rse of the talent contest Lke the modern Battle of the Bands, varous Jamacan bus-nesses sponsored talent contests to try to fnd the next bg ht Bob sang

n several of these contests n the early 1960s and had a modest amount of success Even as hs career was begnnng to take off, however, Bob’s per-sonal lfe was dffcult Bob’s mother and Bunny’s father had an affar that yelded a baby grl whom they called Pearl Because ths created an even

more dffcult monetary stuaton, Cedella decded to marry a more stable man In late 1962, Cedella marred Edward Booker, who was already estab-lshed n a small Jamacan communty n Wlmngton, Delaware Cedella and Pearl relocated to Delaware wth Booker, and Bob stayed n Jamaca Cedella dd not have enough money for all of them to go; however, she dd get Bob a passport and t was at ths tme that hs frst and mddle names were reversed Now homeless, 18-year-old Bob was squattng n varous spots around Trench Town By early 1963, Bob was lvng n the corner

of a ktchen on Frst Street wth hs frend Vncent “Tartar” Ford Poor and desttute, Bob and Tartar often sang to keep ther mnds off of beng hungry Quckly runnng out of optons, Bob rejoned the other members

of the Teenagers and abandoned all hope of beng a solo snger

Another musc tutor entered the pcture when the Rastafaran hand drummer Alvn “Seeco” Patterson began teachng the Teenagers the n-trcaces of muscal rhythm Patterson was already a professonal muscan and had deep connectons to the Jamacan musc ndustry In the summer

of 1963, Patterson took the Teenagers to audton for Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, the owner of one of the best studos on the sland Dodd’s studo was called the Jamacan Recordng and Publshng Company Lmted, but everyone n Trench Town knew t as Studo One Patterson had already been talkng the band up to Dodd, and the producer knew the sngs that Bob had cut for Kong The group performed one orgnal and three cover songs, but Dodd dsmssed them, sayng that they needed more practce Peter, the most aggressve member of the group, told Dodd that they had another song he should hear The group performed Bob’s orgnal com-poston, “Smmer Down,” and Dodd told them that he would record the song “Smmer Down” was a tmely ghetto anthem that warned the youth

to control ther tempers or the volence n the west Kngston ghetto would only get worse

For the recordng sesson, the band needed to decde on a name that they could stck wth, and they chose the Walng Walers based on a pas-sage n the Bble As was the custom n the Jamacan recordng ndustry, the group was backed by a collecton of studo nstrumentalsts that n-cluded some now legendary players such as Ernest Rangln on gutar, Rco Rodrquez on trombone, Arkland “Drumbago” Parks on drums, and Clu-ett Johnson on bass The product of the sesson was a fast ska verson of

“Smmer Down” that was domnated by horn lnes All nvolved were convnced that the song would be a ht The song was released n tme for Chrstmas 1963 and by early 1964 t had soared to number one on the Jamacan charts The song sat at the top of the chart for two months and the Walng Walers were nstant stars

Wth the success of “Smmer Down,” the Walng Walers became a ture at Studo One The recorded regularly and Dodd even allowed Bob

fx-to lve at the studo The Walng Walers followed up ther early success wth two more hts n 1964 The songs “It Hurts to Be Alone” and “Lone-some Feelng” were both emotonal songs about the pan of loss and lone-lness In 1965, “I’m Stll Watng” was the next Walng Walers ht The song was recorded wth the close harmones of the Amercan doo-wop style Another Walng Walers manstay was to cover Amercan hts and

nfuse them wth sland style They dd ths wth songs by the Drfters, Aaron Nevlle, and others Although the group never got reproducton rghts from the orgnal songwrters, they never had legal problems be-cause ther covers were never popular outsde Jamaca

From Ska to rock Steady

Lvng n Dodd’s studo gave Bob the opportunty to practce the gutar for hours It also allowed hm to lsten to Dodd’s rhythm and blues and soul records Bob mmersed hmself n the Motown sound and spent hours lstenng to the products from the soul studos of the Amercan southeast

As Bob was learnng Amercan muscal style, the Jamacan ska style was gvng way to rock steady In rock steady, the beat speed s less than half as fast as n ska Also, the ska horn lne s gone and s replaced by keyboards The gutar s emphaszng the second and fourth beat of a four beat mea-sure and the bass s emphaszng beats one and three The Walng Walers

chapter 2

out oF the ghetto,

into the liMelight

11

adopted ths style change and slowed ther songs down to accommodate the new style.

In addton to ther studo tme, the Walng Walers spent the 1960s playng lve They appeared on Vere John’s “Opportunty Hour” and the Ward Theater’s “Battle of the Bands.” Growng up n the ghetto, Bob had been gven the nckname “Tuff Gong” for hs no-nonsense street atttude Bob dsplayed hs temper after losng one of these talent contests

md-to a group called the Unques Upon the announcement of the wnner, Bob flew nto a rage and challenged a member of the wnnng band to a fght

An aspect of the new rock steady style was a subset of songs that were assocated wth the “rude boy” lfestyle Jamacan rude boys were the ghetto youth who survved on ther wts and were often prone to short tempers and volence Bob often njected that rude boy swagger nto hs songs Addtonally, rude boy rock steady allowed the bass and drums to domnate the song and dd not use the typcal ska horns The Walng Walers created a ghetto anthem wth ther 1965 sngle “Rude Boy.” The song glorfed the rude boy atttude and ts lyrcs were flled wth boastng and rude boy slang Agan, Bob and the group had a bg ht Even wth ths orgnal musc success, the Walng Walers contnued to cover other artsts’ songs wth Tom Jones’s “What’s New Pussycat” and the Beatles’

“And I Love Her.” It was also at ths tme that Bob began the practce, whch lasted the rest of hs lfe, of nsertng Bblcal quotatons or para-phrases nto hs songs

The end of 1965 also marked the end of the Walng Walers Junor Brathwate left the group to move to Chcago and Kelso and Smth also departed for greener pastures Reduced to the core three members, the Walng Walers also shortened ther name to just the Walers Ths al-teraton of the group sze foreshadowed the constantly changng lneup that marked the entre exstence of the Walers band

In early 1965, Bob met the female snger Rta Anderson (b 1950) Rta was the head of a female vocal tro called the Soulettes She was also a Sunday school teacher, church snger, and respected member of the ghetto communty Lke Bob, Rta also ganed access to Studo One and aspred

to be a recordng artst Rta convnced Bob and Peter to arrange for an audton for her group Dodd lked what he heard, but n hs shrewd bus-ness manner told the grls that they needed more work He brought them

n on probaton and made Bob ther sngng coach and manager

At frst, Bob was very strct wth the grls and they were scared of hm Soon, though, Bob softened and even admtted that he was attracted to Rta Bob expressed hs feelng for Rta by wrtng her love notes that

he asked Bunny to delver for hm The par soon grew closer and the resultng love affar lasted the rest of Bob’s short lfe At the same tme, Bob tred of lvng n Dodd’s studo Seeng no other soluton, Rta took Bob n to lve wth her, her nfant daughter Sharon, and her aunt and uncle However, her aunt and uncle were not agreeable to the stuaton and threw the par out Cooler heads soon prevaled; a small shack was bult behnd Rta’s aunt and uncle’s house, and Bob, Rta, and Sharon all lved there Bob spent the rest of 1965 workng for Dodd, gettng closer to Rta and Sharon, and tryng to advance hs fledglng musc career At the end of the year, the Walers learned ther frst mportant lesson about the record ndustry When they went to collect your annual royaltes for ther record sales from Dodd, they were put off and told that ther lvng allow-ance was ther royaltes A fght ensued and Dodd fnally relented, gvng the three sngers £60 to splt Wth ths, Bob’s dstrust of record producers began; t contnued to grow worse for the rest of hs lfe.

Bob planned a moneymakng trp to Delaware for early 1966 However,

he lad down one condton; before he left he wanted to marry Rta On February 10, 1966, Bob and Rta were marred Frends of the par her-alded the weddng as the unon of the two most promsng sngng groups

on the sland Just has hs father had done, Bob left Rta the day after the weddng to fnd work n the Unted States

BoB and raStaFarianiSm

Bob’s stay n Delaware lasted for seven months Durng ths tme, Bob worked a varety of menal jobs He was a laboratory assstant for the Du Pont Chemcal Company and he had part-tme jobs as a parkng lot at-tendant, fork lft drver, and dshwasher The rest of Bob’s tme was spent wrtng new songs He dd not partcularly care for the fast pace or the clmate n Delaware and looked forward to returnng to Jamaca and Rta Also whle n Delaware, Bob began hs converson from Catholcsm to belef n Rastafaransm Hs mother was appalled by the change, but was powerless but to watch as Bob’s har grew nto dreadlocks and as he talked ever ncreasngly about Hale Selasse and Ethopa

The wearng of dreadlocks s one aspect of the belefs of Rastafaran herents Sportng these uncombed locks of har has not been unversally adopted by members of the group, but Rastas fnd precedents for ths habt

ad-n passages from the Bble Rastas beleve dreadlocks to be supported by Levtcus 21:5 (“They shall not make baldness upon ther head, nether shall they shave off the corner of ther beard, nor make any cuttngs n

the flesh”) and the Nazarte vow n Numbers 6:5 (“All the days of the

vow of hs separaton there shall no razor come upon hs head: untl the days be fulflled, n whch he separateth hmself unto the LORD, he shall

be holy, and shall let the locks of the har of hs head grow”) One reason ths harstyle was adopted was to contrast the knky har of black men wth the straghter har of whtes Ths vsble separaton was also a part of the Amercan cvl rghts movement when black Amercans worked ther har nto large Afros

Rastafaransm s one of the many syncretc relgons found n the rbbean; others nclude Santera n Cuba and Voodoo n Hat Relgous syncretsm s the combnng of two dsparate relgous belefs, n ths case the combnng of Catholcsm and elements of varous Afrcan relgons The Rastafarans, and ultmately the Marley famly, beleved the then emperor of Ethopa, Hale Selasse I (hs name s translated as “Power of the Trnty”), was n fact a rencarnaton of Jesus sent to earth to rescue them from ther oppresson Hale Selasse was baptzed Tafar Makonen

Ca-and was gven the ttle/rank of ras, whch loosely translates to duke or

head He was a descendent of an old bloodlne that traced ts orgns back

to Menelk, who was the frst son of Solomon and Makeba the Queen

of Sheba He was beleved to be the 225th descendant of ths bloodlne and was varously referred to as Neguse Negest (Kng of Kngs), Lord of Lords, Conquerng Lon of the Trbe of Judah, Elect of God, Lght of the Unverse, and Emperor of Ethopa The pan-Afrcanst and leader of the Unversal Negro Improvement Assocaton, Marcus Garvey, found a bass

n the Old Testament for the belef that Hale Selasse was a rencarnaton

of Jesus and was the one who orgnally professed Selasse’s defcaton lasse dd nothng durng hs lfe to dscredt ths noton and perpetuated ths belef among Rastas all over the world

Se-Bob returned from Wlmngton n October wth plans to jump start hs Jamacan recordng career The Jamaca to whch he returned was dra-matcally changed from the one he had left less than a year earler In hs absence, Hale Selasse I had vsted the sland and ths vst was heralded

by many as the comng of the Redeemer Even Rta went to vew Selasse

as he passed by n a motorcade Upon hs return, Rta told Bob that she had seen the marks left on Selasse’s hands from beng hung on the cross, the stgmata

In addton to the Rastafaran fever grppng Jamaca’s underclass, the musc of the sland had also changed Whle Bob was n Delaware, the Soulettes had scored a ht wth ther Studo One release “Ped Pper” and the Walers had contnued to perform The group had success wth the sngles “Who Feels It,” “Dancng Shoes,” “Rock Sweet Rock,” “The Toughest,” “Let Hm Go,” “Dreamland,” and others

On Bob’s return, the Walers were also the frst Jamacan group to wardly adopt the look of adherents of Rastafaransm Bob’s har was already startng to knot nto locks, and Peter had stopped shavng and cuttng hs har; Bunny had been nterested n Rastafaran belefs earler than the other two Addtonally, the group began followng other tenets

out-of Rastafaransm They adopted the strct Ital det, and engaged n actve Bble readng and aggressve ganja smokng Rasta sentments also began appearng n ther musc wth Hale Selasse themed songs and Rasta ph-losophy njected nto lyrcs

The Rastafaran use of ganja (marjuana) has been a pont of ton wth the Western world snce Rastafaransm began Rastas do not smoke ganja for the hgh; the drug s as llegal n Jamaca as t s n the Unted States and smokng ganja has led to many Rastas beng jaled Instead, Rastas consder ganja the “wsdom weed” of Rastafaransm and smoke t to gan wsdom It became part of ther relgous rtes (rtuals)

conten-as a means for brngng oneself closer to Jah (God) Rconten-astconten-as found a bconten-ass for the use of ganja n the Bble Psalm 104:14 stated: “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the servce of man.” Smokng ganja became a sacrament of Rastafaransm It was used at ther relgous meetngs, called grounatons, and has been descrbed as the “healng of the [Afrcan] naton.” Further, Rastas have a ceremonal approach to smokng ganja through the use of a “chalce” (a rudmentary water ppe that cools and flters the smoke) Ganja s not the only herb used n Rastafaransm; there are numerous others used for medcnal and detary purposes

Another change that occurred wth Bob’s return from Delaware was that the Walers splt wth Dodd’s Studo One Frcton between Bob and Dodd had long been gettng worse and the Walers’ Rastafaran ways dd not ft wth Dodd’s mage for the studo Also, the Walers had released over a hundred sngles on the Studo One mprnt, fve of whch had reached the Jamacan top 10 However, they had seen very lttle money from all of ther record sales Also, Dodd had been sellng Walers sngles for ressue n England and makng a healthy proft None of ths money was gven to the Walers, and whle Dodd was gettng rch the Walers contnued to struggle for subsstence

Bob then replaced Dodd wth hs new sprtual gude, a Rastafaran elder named Mortmer Planno Planno dd not just ad Bob n understand-

ng the ways of Rastafaransm; he also became the Walers’ manager As Bob’s fath grew, so dd hs famly Rta was pregnant and Bob decded to move hs growng famly to the Malcolm famly farm n St Ann The Marley famly stayed n St Ann untl 1970 Durng ths perod, Bob only

traveled to Kngston to conduct occasonal busness The famly lved by subsstence farmng and soon Rta delvered a baby grl named Cedella Throughout ths perod, Bob contnued to wrte songs.

Snce the Walers had splt wth Dodd, they were n need of a record label The group opted to form ther own label, whch they called Wal’N Soul’M The Walers released “Selasse Is the Chapel” and “Ths Man Is Back.” For ther work n the studo, the Walers began employng the pro-ducer Clancy Eccles (1940–2005) They then released the sngles “Nce Tme” and “Str It Up.” For a bref perod everythng went well However,

at the end of 1967, the stampng machne that actually made the ers sngles broke and the Wal’N Soul’M mprnt folded The group’s bad experence wth Dodd and the trouble wth ther recorded stamper fore-shadowed the dffcultes that they would have for the rest of the band’s exstence

Wal-The year 1968 dd not treat the band much better Peter was arrested for takng part n a protest aganst the whte supremacst government n Rhodesa, Afrca, and Bob and Bunny were each temporarly jaled for marjuana possesson Bob served a month n jal, but Bunny was sen-tenced to a year because he was caught wth a sgnfcant quantty of the drug The group turned ths opposton nto the materal on whch they based ther songs, makng a postve out of a negatve stuaton Also, the Marley famly ended the year on a hgh note when Rta gave brth to a son that they named Davd Although he was named Davd Marley, he quckly earned the nckname Zggy and that s how he s known to the world today

The end of the 1960s was a tumultuous tme for Bob and the ers The group pad careful attenton to the cvl rghts movement n the Unted States and dentfed wth the statements made by Martn Luther Kng, Jr They also deepened ther fath n Rastafaransm Planno took Bob to vst a Rasta enclave n Jones Town where he learned of a group of Rastas who held themselves to an even strcter doctrne and set of prac-tces The members of the group called themselves the Twelve Trbes of Israel and spent long hours n grounatons that were flled wth prayng, drummng, chantng, and smokng ganja Bob gradually became closely assocated wth the Twelve Trbes Because he was born n February, Bob became part of the trbe of Joseph Through the Twelve Trbes, Bob met the Afrcan Amercan pop snger Johnny Nash Nash had an nterna-tonal ht wth ths song “I Can See Clearly Now,” and through hs con-nectons, Nash helped the Walers reach a larger audence

Wal-Nash and hs busness partner, Danny Sms, began operatng a record label n 1964 The orgnal label, called JoDa, was unsuccessful However,

wth ther growng connectons n the Carbbean, Nash and Sms opened the Cayman Musc label The label was based n the Cayman Islands and due to the relatve cheapness of makng recordngs n the Carbbean, Nash and Sms’s new company prospered The par also realzed that they could make sgnfcant money exportng Jamacan musc to the rest of the world Bob and the Walers audtoned for Nash and Sms and a recordng agreement was reached However, the group could not go drectly nto the studo because Bunny was stll n jal.

The Walers were excted about the prospect of workng wth Nash and Sms, as the par wanted to promote the band on an nternatonal level Wth the negotatng help of Planno, the Walers and Cayman Musc entered nto an agreement n whch the band members were hred as song wrters for the label Wth Bunny’s release from prson n September of

1968, the group began recordng for Cayman Musc and over the next four years cut more than eghty sngles

In early 1969, Sms launched the JAD Records label and used t to record more early Walers sngles, such as “Mellow Mood,” “Put It On,” “How Many Tmes,” and “There She Goes.” These songs all fell nto the rock steady style and dd not dsplay the Rastafaran lyrcs that the group would become known for Early 1969 brought another change to the Jamacan popular musc style The rock steady beat slowed down even further and rock steady became reggae The group Toots and the Maytals ushered n the new sound wth the song “Do the Reggay,” and soon the sound swept the sland Concdentally, as the sound that the Walers would become famous for was startng to gel, the band was beng gven greater freedom from the constrants of ther Cayman and JAD contracts

Wth ther freedom from Cayman and JAD, Bob and the Walers turned to the studo of Bob’s frst producer, Lesle Kong Wth Kong, the Walers recorded enough materal for an album The Walers used Kong because he was recognzed as one of the hottest producers on the nland

re-at the tme and he was also fosterng the new reggae sound The newly recorded songs ncluded “Soul Shakedown Party,” “Stop That Tran,”

“Cauton,” “Go Tell It on the Mountan,” “Soon Come,” “Can’t You See,” “Soul Captve” “Cheer Up” “Back Out,” and “Do It Twce.” Kong then ssued these songs as sngles n Jamaca and England, but none of them was commercally successful Kong then nformed the group that he

planned to release the materal as an album called The Best of the Wailers

Ths news sent the Walers nto a rage as they all beleved that ther best materal was yet to come Aganst the group’s protests, the album was re-leased However, before Kong could reap any benefts, he ded of a massve heart attack at age 38

lee “Scratch” perry

Agan dsllusoned by the Jamacan record ndustry, Bob planned other trp to Delaware to make enough money to launch hs own record label and thereby retan control over the Walers’ musc In the sprng of

an-1969, Bob agan went to lve wth hs mother Ths tme Bob worked at

a Chrysler automoble plant n addton to holdng down several other jobs When he returned to Jamaca several months later, the money that

he had made went to supportng hs famly Nevertheless, Bob was ready

to return to the studo and took the Walers back to Studo One to work for Clement “Coxsone” Dodd The second seres of recordngs wth Dodd was even better than the frst, as Dodd had employed a new sound eng-neer, Lee “Scratch” Perry (b 1936)

The unon of the Walers and Perry proved to be a good one and gether they produced a unque sound The producton was rougher than

to-t had been wto-th Kong, Bob’s vocals were left raw, and the bass and the drum were the lead nstruments The gutar played offbeat chocked-chord chops and the sounds was more remnscent of the Walers’ rude boy days The backng band was Perry’s studo group called the Upsetters (the Up-setter was another of Perry’s ncknames) Two members of ths band ended

up playng wth Bob untl he ded The Barrett brothers, Aston (“Famly Man”) on bass, and Carlton (“Carle”) on drums, became the rhythm sec-ton for the Walers

In late 1969 and early 1970, the Barrett brothers, Perry, and the ers worked n the studo to create the classcs “Duppy Conqueror” and

Wal-“Mr Brown.” Both songs were released as sngles wth ther own dub versons on the B-sdes The Jamacan practce of dubbng referred to makng a sngle that had the orgnal song on the A-sde and the song wthout the lyrcs on the B-sde Ths was done so that a DJ at sound system partes could “toast,” or supply hs own words, over the lyrc-less sde to whp the crowd nto a frenzy and then turn the record over and play the song n the complete verson The sound systems were gant moble stereos that were used at partes around the sland

At the begnnng of the 1970s, the Walers agan launched ther own record label Called Tuff Gong, after Bob’s nckname, the new label faled

as fast as the Wal’N Soul’M mprnt had Perry, who had separated hmself from Dodd and opened hs own record shop and label, nvted the Walers

to work on hs new Upsetter mprnt The materal created by the Walers wth Perry was some of the band’s best early materal, ncludng “Small Axe,” “Corner Stone,” “Don’t Rock My Boat,” and “It’s Alrght.” The Walers/Perry collaboraton lasted through the early part of the 1970s and

yelded over a hundred tracks Mature Walers/Perry materal reflected the group’s Rastafaran nterests wth songs such as “Lvely Up Yourself,”

“Kaya,” and “400 Years.” “Trench Town Rock” was released n 1971 and agan put the Walers on the Jamacan charts

In 1971, the Walers fnshed ther work wth Perry The group was

look-ng for another creatve outlet Bob learned that Nash was golook-ng to work

on a move soundtrack n Sweden and Nash asked Bob to come wth hm

On the way, Bob dropped Rta and the chldren off at hs mother’s, and Rta found work as a nurse n a Delaware hosptal

After Bob and Nash’s work on the Swedsh flm score was complete, the par traveled to London, where Nash was tryng to broker a recordng contract wth the CBS When the deal was struck, Bob brought the rest of the Walers to London, where he beleved that Sms was workng a smlar deal for the Walers The Walers recorded n the CBS studos, where they worked as Nash’s backng band Whle a separate deal dd not materalze for the Walers, they dd get more recordng experence and returned to Jamaca wth hgh hopes for future Englsh success

Back n Jamaca, the Walers recorded at Harry J’s studo and Dynamc Sounds For Harry J’s owner Harry Johnson, the Walers recorded at a vg-orous pace for four months At ths tme, the Walers ncluded Bob, Peter, and Bunny plus the Barrett brothers and a 15-year-old keyboard player named Tyrone Downe An unoffcal member of the band was added n the form of Alan “Skll” Cole Cole was one of Jamaca’s most talented soccer players and he was a great ft as Bob’s traner and confdant.The success of “Trench Town Rock” created a great demand for the Walers around the sland It also marked the end to songwrtng that was not of substance Also, for the frst tme the Walers made sgnfcant money from one of ther hts Wth Bob’s share, Bob and Rta establshed Tuff Gong Records, a record shop where they sold Walers releases In ad-dton to the money from “Trench Town Rock,” Perry was stll releasng Walers sngles and cuttng the band n on the profts Bob agan ren-vested hs share and opened Tuff Gong Productons, whch was meant to keep up wth the demand for Walers materal There followed another perod of productvty that produced songs such as “Satsfy My Soul,”

“Mr Chatterbox,” “Natural Mystc,” “Concrete Jungle,” and “Reggae on Broadway.”

Whle Bob was busy makng records and runnng the producton pany, he was kept n balance by Cole who had hm on a schedule of exer-cse that ncluded a great deal of soccer playng and physcal actvty Bob was also a full-fledged Rastafaran and ate only accordng to the Ital det Ital was the Rasta det of organc foods, no meat other than fsh, no salt,

com-and no alcohol Durng ths perod of extreme actvty, the bond of the orgnal three Walers, Bob, Peter, and Bunny, started to fray.

It was also at ths tme that Bob began hs long and tumultuous latonshp wth the Jamacan poltcal scene He dd ths by gvng the Walers’ backng to the People’s Natonal Party (PNP) At ths tme, the PNP was led by Mchael Manley, who had been workng to create all-ances wth the underclass and the Rastafarans Manley was the one who brought Hale Selasse I to Jamaca and some of Manley’s popularty wth the Rastas came from hs relatonshp wth the Ethopan ruler As a show

re-of support, Bob and Rta rode on the PNP Muscal Bandwagon, on whch they played and sang songs Ths showed everyone on the parade route that the Walers were supportng the PNP n the 1972 general electon

iSland recordS and chriS Blackwell

In the fall of 1971, Bob and the Walers returned to England to tnue the pursut of a CBS contact for the Walers Wth Nash’s help, Bob and the Walers launched a three-week CBS-sponsored tour The tour was successful, but dd not lead to record sales for the Whalers Matters were complcated when Nash and Sms dsappeared unexpectedly Ths left the Walers stranded n England wth no ncome or plans In the face

con-of ths bad stuaton, Bob took matters nto hs own hands and went to meet wth the head of the London-based Island Records Company, Chrs-topher Blackwell Blackwell already had a sold roster of talent ncludng Steve Wnwood’s group Traffc, Cat Stevens, Free, Kng Crmson, and Jethro Tull Although Blackwell specalzed n rock and roll bands, he had

a deep nterest n the Carbbean musc scene and he was already aware of the Walers’ musc

In the wake of Bob and Blackwell’s meetng, the record producer fronted the band £8,000 sterlng, whch was enough money to get back

to Jamaca and return to the studo Blackwell’s deal wth the Walers was that they would produce a full-length reggae album n exchange for the money Rta and the chldren returned from Delaware and wth everyone back n Jamaca, the Walers went back nto the studo

catch a Fire

The 1972 recordng sesson yelded the Catch a Fire album “Catch

a Fre” was Jamacan slang for someone gettng n trouble or “catchng hell.” The album was recorded at Dynamc Sound, Harry J’s, and Randy’s studos The result was a collecton of nne songs ncludng “Concrete

Jungle,” “Slave Drver,” “400 Years,” “Stop That Tran,” “Baby We’ve Got

a Date,” “Str It Up,” “Knky Reggae,” “No More Trouble,” and “Mdnght Ravers.” The album tself was groundbreakng n format Up to ths tme, reggae songs had been released as sngles wth an A and B sde Wth

Catch a Fire, the format changed to the long-playng record, whch

al-lowed greater coheson n the release of blocks of songs

The orgnal pressng of the album reflected the Walers’ creatve sprt The frst vnyl edton of the album depcted a large stanless steel Zppo lght wth the ttle engraved on t The album jacket was hnged

on the left-hand sde and revealed a cardboard cutout of the trademarked Zppo lghter wndproof mechansm wth a flame shootng out of ts top Illustratve of the album’s ttle, these flames also foreshadowed the Wal-ers’ rse to nternatonal stardom The Zppo lghter jacket was unque, but also expensve to produce As a result, the Zppo lghter edton was held to only 20,000 unts Subsequent pressngs of the album were re-leased wth a tradtonal package that dsplayed a large pcture of Bob takng a ht off a large cone-shaped splff (Jamacan slang for a marjuana cgarette)

For ths album, the Walers were Bob, Peter, Bunny, Aston and Carle Barrett, and a varety of Jamacan studo nstrumentalsts Addtonal vo-cals were added by Rta and her frends Judy Mowatt and Marca Grffths The collecton of three female backup sngers would later become known

as the I-Threes Wth the basc recordng done, Bob took the master tapes

to London for mxng and overdubbng At Blackwell’s request, rock and roll style overdubs were added by gutarst Wayne Perkns (who was fa-mous for hs work at Muscle Shoals studos) and keyboard player John

“Rabbt” Bundrck (who was also well known for hs work wth Johnny Nash and the rock bands Free and The Who) Overdubbng s the process

of addng new tracks to an already “complete” recordng Wth Perkns and Bundrck’s overdubs, the record took on a more manstream rock sound, whch Blackwell thought would allow t to reach a larger aud-ence Blackwell’s nstncts were correct and although t was not a bg com-

mercal success, Catch a Fire brought the Walers to the manstream and

changed the way that reggae musc was made and marketed

Also n 1972, Rta gave brth to another son, whom the Marleys called Stephen Wth ths new addton, the famly moved out of Kngston to a small house n Bull Bay, east of the cty Ths move sgnaled a change for the Marley famly; they had made t out of the ghetto and would never lve there agan Sgnfcantly, Bob often preferred to stay n Kngston,

at Blackwell’s house at 56 Hope Road, nstead of returnng to Bull Bay wth Rta and the chldren each nght Ths tme spent apart from Rta

afforded Bob the opportunty to begn hs strng of extramartal affars Through hs adult lfe, Bob fathered chldren wth several women other than Rta, though the couple remaned marred untl Bob’s death In the early 1970s, Bob fathered chldren wth Patrca Wllams (a son named Robbe), Janet Hunt (a son named Rohan), and Janet Bowen (a daughter named Karen) The year 1972 also saw the electon of Mchael Manley

as the prme mnster of Jamaca and wth hm came hopes for a brghter future for the Jamacan underclass

Part of Bob’s deal wth Blackwell was that the Walers retaned all the Carbbean rghts to ther recordngs Ths left Bob free to ssue sngles

from Catch a Fire on the sland through hs Tuff Gong record shop

Al-though hs success was stll modest compared to what t would be by the end of the decade, Bob was now recognzed everywhere he went on the

sland Further, wth the release of Catch a Fire, t dawned on the

Wal-ers that they were now professonal muscans who would no longer have

to work other jobs to make a lvng In the wake of ther frst full-length album, the Walers prepared to mount a tour of England and the Unted States For ths, they needed a full-tme keyboard player, as Downe was stll too young to travel wth the band The group found ts new keyboard player n the Now Generaton band wth the successful recrutment of Earl “Wya” Lndo

CatCh a Fire toUr

The Catch a Fire tour began n Aprl 1973 wth the group’s arrval n

London Amazngly, the Walers found another release credted to them

for sale The African Herbsman album was a collecton of several of the

group’s more popular songs that had been recorded for Lee “Scratch” Perry Perry had lcensed the materal to Lee Goptal, who had subse-quently released the album wthout the approval of the band The record

ncluded the songs “Lvely Up Yourself,” “Small Axe,” “Duppy queror,” “Trench Town Rock,” “Afrcan Herbsman,” “Keep On Movng,”

Con-“Fussng and Fghtng,” “Stand Alone,” “All n One” (a medley of “Bend Down Low,” “Nce Tme,” “One Love,” “Smmer Down,” “It Hurts to be Alone,” “Lonesome Feelng,” “Love and Affecton,” “Put It On,” and

“Duppy Conqueror”), “Don’t Rock My Boat,” “Put It On,” “Sun Is

Shn-ng,” “Kaya,” “Rdng Hgh,” “Bran WashShn-ng,” and “400 Years.” Although the release of ths album was not sanctoned by the Walers, t dd help

to mantan nterest n the band n between ts frst and second Island Records releases Whle n England, the Walers played 19 shows at clubs and unverstes