Bob Marley Pictures, Biography, Profile, Facts, Discography, Filmography, more.

Bob Marley was a legend in his own time. His music inspired the heart of every person that happened to hear a few bars of his songs. Although he is dead, he is one of the lucky few that will live on forever in the hearts of all that loved him. Bob Marley was a hero figure, in the classic mythological sense. He gave the world brilliant and evocative music; his work stretched across nearly two decades and yet still remains timeless and universal. Bob Marley & the Wailers worked their way into the very fabric of our lives.

It is important to consider the roots of this legend: the first superstar from the Third World, Bob Marley was one of the most charismatic and challenging performers of our time and his music could have been created from only one source: the street culture of Jamaica.

Bob's story is that of an archetype, which is why it continues to have such a powerful and ever-growing resonance: it embodies political repression, metaphysical and artistic insights, gangland warfare and various periods of mystical wilderness. And his audience continues to widen: to westerners Bob's apocalyptic truths prove inspirational and life-changing; in the Third World his impact goes much further. Not just among Jamaicans, but also the Hopi Indians of New Mexico and the Maoris of New Zealand, in Indonesia and India, and especially in those parts of West Africa from wihch slaves were plucked and taken to the New World, Bob is seen as a redeemer figure returning to lead this planet out of confusion.

Bob Marley's Life

Robert Nesta Marley was born 6th February 1945 in a small village called Nine Miles in the parish of St. Ann, Jamaica. His mother was an eighteen-year-old black girl called Cedella Booker while his father was Captain Norval Marley, a 50-year-old white quartermaster attached to the British West Indian Regiment. Bob had only a scant recollection of his father. This was largely due to the fact that the 'well to do' Marley family did not approve of the relationship Norval had formed with Bobs mother Cedella. His father therefore, despite marrying Cedella, was more an occasional visitor. He did not live to witness the success of his son Bob. In 1962 Bob Marley auditioned for a local music entrepreneur called Leslie Kong. Impressed by the quality of Bob's vocals, Kong took the young singer into the studio to cut some tracks, the first of which, called "Judge Not", was released on Beverley's label. It was Marley's first record.

The other tunes - including "Terror" and "One Cup of Coffee" - received no airplay and attracted little attention. At the very least, however, they confirmed Marley's ambition to be a singer. By the following year Bob had decided the way forward was with a group. He linked up with Bunny and Peter to form The Wailing Wailers. It was the time of ska music, the hot new dance floor music with a pronounced back-beat. Its origins incorporated influences from Jamaica's African traditions but, more immediately, from the heady beats of New Orleans' rhythm & blues disseminated from American radio stations and the burgeoning sound systems on the streets of Kingston. Clement - Sir Coxsone - Dodd was one of the city's finest sound system men.

The Wailing Wailers released their first single, "Simmer Down", on the Coxsone label during the last weeks of 1963. By the following January it was number one in the Jamaican charts, a position it held for the next two months. The group - Bob, Bunny and Peter together with Junior Braithwaite and two back-up singers, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith - were big news. "Simmer Down" caused a sensation in Jamaica and The Wailing Wailers began recording regularly for Coxsone Dodd's Studio One Company. The groups' music also found new themes, identifying with the Rude Boy street rebels in the Kingston slums. Jamaican music had found a tough, urban stance.

Bob Marley in America

Despite their popularity, the economics of keeping the group together proved too much and the three other members - Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith - quit. Bob's mother, Cedella, had remarried and moved to Delaware in the United States where she had saved sufficient money to send her son an air ticket. The intention was for Bob to start a new life. But before he moved to America, Bob met Rita Anderson and, on February 10, 1966, they were married.

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Discography:

Trojan Recordings:

Soul Rebels (1970)

Soul Revolution (1971)

Soul Revolution Part II (1971)

African Herbsman (1973)

Rasta Revolution (1974)

Island/Tuff Gong Recordings:

Catch a Fire (1973)

Burnin' (1973)

Natty Dread (1974)

Live!: Recorded at The Lyceum Theatre, London (1975)

Rastaman Vibration (1976)

Exodus (1977)

Kaya (1978)

Babylon by Bus (1978)

Survival (1979)

Uprising (1980)

Chances Are (1981)

Confrontation (1983)

Legend (1984)

Read Detailed Discography on our Bob Marley Discography Page