Bob Marley Essay Research Paper Jamaica has

Bob Marley Essay, Research Paper

Jamaica has produced an artist who has touched all categories, classes, and

creeds through innate modesty and profound wisdom. Bob Marley, the Natural

Mystic who introduced reggae to European and American fans still may prove to be

the most significant musical artist of the twentieth century. Bob Marley gave

the world brilliant music and established reggae as major forces in music that

is comparable with the blues and rock&rolls. His work stretched across

nearly two decades and still remains timeless. Bob Marley & the Wailers

worked their way into all of our lives. "He’s taken his place with James

Brown and Sly Stone as pervasive influence on r&b", said Timothy White,

author of the Bob Marley biography "Catch A Fire". It is important to

think of the roots of this legend: the first superstar from the Third World, Bob

Marley was one of the most charismatic and challenging performers of his time.

His music reflects only one source: the street culture of Jamaica. Later, in

1930, Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia. Tafari claimed to be

the 225th ruler in a line that went back to Menelik, the son of Solomon. The

Garvey followers in Jamaica, who consulted their New Testaments for a sign,

believed that Haile Selassie was the black king that Garvey had said would

deliver the black race. It was the start of a new religion called Rastafari,

which Bob was into heavily. Fifteen years after, in Nine Miles deep within

Jamaica Robert Nesta Marley was born. His mother Cedella Booker was an

eighteen-year-old black girl while his father was Captain Norval Marley, a

50-year-old white man working for the Jamaican Forestry Commission. The couple

married in 1944 and Norval left Cedella to legitimize their unborn child. Then

Bob was born on February 6, 1945. Norval’s family applied constant pressure to

Bob and, although he provided financial support, Norval seldom saw his son who

grew up in St. Ann to the north of the island. Bob Marley, barely into his

teens, moved to Kingston (Trench Town) in the late Fifties. His friends Were

other street youths, also not happy with their place in society. One friend

Neville O’Riley Livingston was known as Bunny, Bob met Bunny when his mom took

work taking rooms behind a rum bar owned by Toddy Livingston Bunnys father. Bob

took his first musical steps with Bunny. They were fascinated by the music they

could pick up from American radio stations. Especially Ray Charles, Fats Domino,

Curtis Mayfield, and Brook Benton. Bob and Bunny also paid close attention to

vocal groups, such as the Drifters, who were popular in Jamaica. Bob quit school

and seemed to have one ambition, music. He took a job in a welding shop, but

spent all his free time with Bunny working on their vocal abilities, with the

help of one of Trench Town’s famous residents, singer Joe Higgs. Higgs held

informal lessons for aspiring vocalists. At one of those sessions Bob and Bunny

met Peter McIntosh, who also had musical ambitions. In 1962 Bob Marley

auditioned for Leslie Kong. Impressed by the quality of Bob’s vocals, Kong took

Bob into the studio to cut some tracks; the first was called "Judge

Not" and was released on Beverley’s label. It was Bob’s first record. The

other songs – including "Terror" and "One Cup of Coffee" -

received no airplay and attracted little attention. However, they confirmed

Bob’s ambition to be a singer. The following year Bob had decided to form a

group. He joined Bunny and Pete to form The Wailing Wailers. The new group had a

mentor, a Rastafarian hand drummer Alvin Patterson who introduced them to

Clement Dodd, a record producer in Kingston. In the summer of 1963 Dodd

auditioned The Wailing Wailers and pleased with the results, agreed to record

the group. The Wailing Wailers released their first single, "Simmer

Down", during the last weeks of 1963. The following January it was number

one in the Jamaican charts, where it stayed for the next two months. The group -

Bob, Bunny and Peter together with Junior Braithwaite and two back-up singers

were big news. "Simmer Down" caused a sensation in Jamaica and The

Wailing Wailers began recording regularly. The groups’ music identified with the

Rude Boy street rebels in the Kingston slums. Jamaican music had found a tough,

urban stance. Despite their popularity the group broke apart and Bob’s mother

remarried. She then moved to the U.S and wanted Bob to come to start a new life,

but before they left Bob met a girl named Rita Anderson and they wed on February

10, 1966. Marley joined up with Bunny and Peter to re-form the group, now known

as The Wailers. Rita, too, had started a singing career, having a big hit with

"Pied Piper", a cover of an English pop song. Jamaican music however,

was changin

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