Bob Marley
| Videos | |
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| Bob Marley plays 'Concrete Jungle' |
Bob Marley plays 'Jamming' |
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| Bob Marley plays 'Natural Mystic' |
Bob Marley plays 'I Shot The Sheriff' |
| Guitarist Quick-Facts |
| Name: Bob Marley |
| Born: February 6, 1945 |
| Origin: Saint Anne Parish, Jamaica |
| Guitar Gear |
| Guitars: Gibson |
| Amplifiers: Marshall |
| Bands: Past & Present |
| The Teenagers, The Wailers |
Bob Marley was born on February 6, 1945, in Nine Mile, Saint Anne Parish, Jamaica to a white father and a black mother. As a result, much of the youth's childhood was spent dealing with racial prejudice. He once described his views on the subject in an interview, “I don't have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.”
Young Marley did not see much of his father, as he was out of town a lot on business. His father died of a heart attack at the age of 60 when Bob was only 10 years old. After the death of her husband, Marley's mother moved to Kingston's Trench Town neighborhood with her son. In his new neighborhood, Marley befriended Neville “Bunny” Livingston, who would later go by Bunny Wailer. The two friends began to play music together.
At the age of 14, Marley quit school and started to work in a welding shop. During his free time, the youth, along with friend Bunny Wailer, would take informal music lessons from Joe Higgs. It was at one of these lessons that Marley and Wailer met Peter McIntosh, who would later be known as Peter Tosh. The three had similar musical goals and began to play together. In 1961, Marley suffered an accident at the welding shop, getting hit in the eye with a piece of hot metal. As a result of the accident, Marley quit his job at the shop and dedicated his full time to music. Bob, Bunny, and Peter began performing under the name The Teenagers.
The next year, Marley, recording under the pseudonym Bobby Martell, released two singles under the Beverley label, owned by producer Leslie Kong. The songs, “Judge Not” and “One Cup of Coffee”, failed to attract much attention. The Teenagers continued to perform as a group, but by 1963 had added members Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso, and Cherry Smith. The group underwent several name changes. They were discovered by record producer Coxsone Dodd while going by the name The Wailing Wailers. Shortly after, they would shorten their name to The Wailers.
Marley married his girlfriend Rita Anderson in 1966 and briefly moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where his mother was living. Before long, he had moved back to Jamaica and became a member of the Rastafari movement. It was then that Marley began wearing his famous dreadlocks. By this time, the core group from The Wailers early days were all that was left of the band, Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith having left the group.
Around this time, a conflict with Dodd severed the bands relationship with him and The Wailers began to team with Lee “Scratch” Perry's band, The Upsetters. A dispute between Marley and Perry over recording rights lead to the dissolution of that partnership after less than a year, but the two remained friends and worked together afterwards.
The Wailers first commercial album, “Catch a Fire”, was released in 1973. The album was a success and was followed by “Burnin” a year later. That same year, Eric Clapton released a hit cover of the Bob Marley penned track “I Shot The Sheriff” and won additional exposure for The Wailers. They would never capitalize on that exposure however, the band broke up the same year to pursue solo careers.
Marley put together a new backing band, which he called Bob Marley & The Wailers. In 1975, the band recorded what would be it's first hit outside of Jamaica, “No Woman, No Cry”. The success of the track led to the groups breakthrough US market album, “Rastaman Vibration”. The album spent four weeks on the Billboard Top Ten.
In 1976, before a free concert organized to ease tension between two warring political groups, Marley was injured along with his wife and manger by an unknown gunman. Marley received minor injuries and recovered in time to give the concert two days later. His wife and manager, however, sustained more serious wounds, but they too, eventually made a full recovery. At the end of the same year, Marley left for England and recorded his next two albums. While in England, Marley was convicted for possession of a small amount of Marijuana.
In July 1977, Marley was diagnosed with skin cancer on his right big toe. A devout Rastafari, Marley denied amputation on religious grounds. He released three more albums between 1978 and 1980 before succumbing to the cancer on May 11, 1981, at the age of 36. The cancer had spread to his lungs and brain. The final Bob Marley & The Wailers album, “Confrontation” was released from unreleased material in 1983. It contained the hit “Buffalo Soldier”
