Bob Marley Essay Research Paper In 1944

Bob Marley Essay, Research Paper

In 1944, a fifty year old British military man named Captain Norval Marleymarried an eighteen year old black Jamaican girl named Cadella Booker.They had a son, Robert Nesta Marley, later known as Bob. He was bornFebruary 6, 1945 in Nine Miles, Jamaica. Captain Marley seldom saw hisson, although he provided some financial support for the family. When Bobwas five years old, he was kidnapped by his father and taken to Kingston,Jamaica s capital. He was reunited with his mother about a year later. Boband his mother lived in one of the most dangerous slums of Kingston. Theseliving conditions later inspired Marley to write a song called ConcreteJungle , which likened the living conditions and poverty in the slum tothe shackles of slavery. Bob s father, Norval Marley, died when Bob wasten years of age. Bob only saw his father for the year that he waskidnapped, and this is what he said many years later in 1978. .my father, was a guy coming from England, yunno, the kind of guy likeduring the slave period: the white who catch a black woman and make her ababy. An English man . I think. Because I only saw him once, yunno. Mymother. My mother is an African While Bob lived in the shanty part of Kingston, there was another familywith a boy Bob s age. His name was Bunny. Bunny became a brother for Bob.They sang together everyday after school. They made their own instruments.With their adolescence voice, Bob and Bunny began in 1960 to build whatone day became the Wailer s music.In Kingston, musicians were developing a new sound, a new mixture of mento(a kind of calypso) and rhythm and blues. The result of this mixture wascalled Jamaican Ska. Bob and Bunny were fascinated with America s rhythmand blues singers such as Fats Domino, and Louis Jordan. The Drifters ,and particularly the Impressions had the most impact on them.Bob, like may other Jamaican teenagers, found music a relief from therealities of ghetto life. All youths were looking for a way out of theendless cycle of poverty. Crime was a solution for some, know as rudies ,but it almost certainly ended in an early death on the violent Kingstonstreets.When Bob attended school, he dreamed of music. However, schoolworkprepared him for big dreams, which would only result in empty solutions.The life he was destined for in Trench Town had nothing to do with mathand science. By the time he was fifteen, he had quit school, and became awelder s apprentice. At least this way he could bring some money into thehousehold.Ska spread like a fever through the restless teenage masses, and Bob waseasily distracted from his welding work as he concentrated on masteringthe new ska harmonies. While welding one day, a piece of burning hot metalflew into his eye and ended his welding career. He told his mother that hewas actually relieved, because it meant he could spend more time on hisrecording career. Noone took him too seriously, because at that time everyone wanted to be arecording star.The people Bob grew up with in the Kingston slums were drawn towards aparticular Rastafarian named Joe Higgs. Bob realized that he couldn t makeany progress with his music without the help of someone else. He neededsomeone who could teach him techniques, like how to project his voice andto hold harmony. Joe Higgs held free music clinics at his home in theghetto, only a street away from Bob s home. So Bob and Bunny attended hisclasses just about every single day.At 16, Marley was desperate for his first album. Little did he know thathis recording career would lead him on a spiritual journey and make himthe Third World s first international superstar.In 1962, Bob Marley released his first album Judge Not with Bunny andanother friend Peter McIntosh. That year, after Bob released that album,he formed the Wailing Wailers. They consisted of Bunny Livingstone, PeterMcIntosh, Joey Brathwaite and Bob Marley himself. The group was named theWailers because in those days we were always crying The Jamaican ska music had changed by slowing down and becoming a littlemore sexual. Bob and the Wailers called the results rude boy music. Someof the first songs of this type were Stir it Up , and Back out ( backout .and shut your mouth .making thing go slow ) Also, the rude boythemes of earlier songs changed to those of social and spiritual issues asthe group became more focused on Rastafarianism.On February 10, 1966, Bob Marley married a woman named Rita Anderson. Thenext day, Bob was on a plane to visit his mother in Deleware. Prior tothat, his mother had written him several times asking him to come visither in the United States. She wanted him to settle there, but he wasimpatient to get back to the Wailers in Jamaica. He worked in America justenough to be able to finance his music, and then he returned to Jamaicaseven months later.In Jamaica, the Rastafarian way of life was taking over many individuals.Bunny had been a Rasta since 1963, and now Bob and Peter allowed theirhair and beards to grow in the Rasta fashion. In 1967, the Wailers decidedto try forming their own record label Wail n Soul , after being pushed

around by producers and conflicts over their developing Rastafarian image.In mid-1967, Bob and Rita, still newlyweds, moved back to Nine Miles. Itwas a time of contemplation and insight for Bob. He spent a great deal oftime reading the Bible and working the land. He was returning to his rootsfor some answers.Their first child, Cadella, was born that