Bob Marley

Bob Marley, born Robert Marley on February 6, 1945 in Nine Miles (Jamaica) and died May 11, 1981 in Miami (United States), is a reggae singer and Jamaican musician. He achieved worldwide success during his lifetime and remains the most well-known reggae musician, while being considered the one who enabled Jamaican music and the Rastafarian movement to reach a global audience. He sold more than 200 million records worldwide.

Bob Marley began his musical career in 1962. In 1963, he formed with Bunny « Wailer » Livingston and Peter Tosh a vocal trio, The Wailing Wailers. With Simmer Down in 1964, which called for an end to struggles between ghettos and unity against poverty, The Wailers achieved their first real local success in Jamaica. Many others followed until 1968. Meanwhile, Bob Marley became Rasta starting in 1966, following the visit to Jamaica of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, and under the influence of important figures (such as Mortimer Planno) of the Rastafarian movement, then flourishing in Jamaica. In the documentary Marley, Rita Marley, his wife, says she saw the stigmata of Christ in the hands of the Emperor as he greeted the crowd. It was on that day that Bob and Rita became Rasta. Also, his visit took place on a day of heavy rain, which suddenly stopped when the imperial plane landed in Kingston. These events recounted by those who lived them recall the Bible and the coming of Christ.

Between 1968 and 1971, the Wailers began with producer Lee « Scratch » Perry a very fruitful collaboration that generated four albums synthesized in 1972 by the Trojan label on the album African Herbsman. Lee Perry also produced the mythical album Soul Rebel, which also marked the end of this brilliant collaboration. Indeed, Perry reportedly « requisitioned » the musical rights of the Soul Rebel title, producing and publishing other singers on this Riddim, which reportedly angered Bob Marley and thus ended their collaboration. Early 1973, released under the band name The Wailers Catch A Fire, then Burnin' in April 1973, both on Island Record, the label founded by Chris Blackwell. Following the English Burnin' Tour 1973, Bunny Livingston then Peter McIntosh left the group in late 1973.

Bob Marley, now solo, relies on the remarkable rhythm section composed by Aston « Family Man » Barrett (bass) and Carlton « Carly » Barrett (drums) to establish himself under the name Bob Marley & the Wailers. To this core, are added the keyboardist Touter (replaced from Rastaman Vibration by Tyrone Downie and Earl « Wya » Lindo), American guitarist Al Anderson and the vocal trio The I-Threes composed of Rita Marley (Bob Marley's wife), Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths. In 1974, the album Natty Dread was released, which marked the beginning of Bob Marley's worldwide success, notably through the cover of the title I Shot the Sheriff by Eric Clapton. The album was a success around the world.

Followed by the album Rastaman Vibration (1976) which definitively made Bob Marley a worldwide star and the greatest spokesperson for reggae. A few months after the release of this album, Bob Marley survived in December 1976 an assassination attempt at his home in Kingston, Jamaica during the election campaign, which led him to settle in London.