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v t e Rastafari
Main doctrines	Jah Cannabis use Dreadlocks Ital Iyaric Lion of Judah Livity Zion
Central figures	Haile Selassie I Jesus Menen Asfaw Marcus Garvey
Key scriptures	Bible Kebra Nagast My Life and Ethiopia's Progress The Promised Key Holy Piby Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy
Mansions	Bobo Ashanti Nyabinghi Twelve Tribes of Israel
Festivals	Shashamane Grounation Day Reasoning
Notable individuals	Leonard Howell Joseph Hibbert Archibald Dunkley Mortimer Planno Vernon Carrington Charles Edwards Bob Marley Peter Tosh
Society	Relation to Judaism Persecution In the United States
Related	Chalice Ethiopian Christianity Ites Gold and Green Rastacap Reggae Roots reggae

Robert "Bob" Nesta Marley OM (February 6, 1945 – May 11 1981) was a Jamaican musician, singer-songwriter and Rastafarian. He was the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for the ska, rocksteady and reggae bands: The Wailers (1964 – 1974) and Bob Marley & the Wailers (1974 – 1981). Marley died nearly thirty years ago, but remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited for helping spread Jamaican music to the worldwide audience.

Marley's best known hits include "I Shot the Sheriff", "No Woman, No Cry", "Exodus", "Could You Be Loved", "Stir It Up", "Jamming", "Redemption Song", "One Love" and, together with The Wailers, ""Three Little Birds", as well as the posthumous releases "Buffalo Soldier" and "Iron Lion Zion". The compilation album, Legend, released in 1984, three years after his death, is the best-selling reggae album ever (10 times platinum), with sales of more than 12 million copies.

Later years

Cancer diagnosis

In July 1977, Marley was found to have acral lentiginous melanoma, a form of malignant melanoma, in a football wound - according to widely held urban legend, inflicted by broadcaster and pundit Danny Baker - on his right hallux (big toe). Marley refused amputation, because of the Rastafari belief that the body must be "whole":

Rasta no abide amputation. I don't allow a man to be dismantled.

— From the biography Catch a Fire

Marley may have seen medical doctors as samfai (tricksters, deceivers). True to this belief Marley went against all surgical possibilities and sought out other means that would not break his religious beliefs. He also refused to register a will, based on the Rastafari belief that writing a will is acknowledging death as inevitable, thus disregarding the everlasting (or everliving, as Rastas say) character of life.

Collapse and treatment

The cancer then metastasized to Marley's brain, lungs, liver, and stomach. After playing two shows at Madison Square Garden as part of his fall 1980 Uprising Tour, he collapsed while jogging in NYC's Central Park. The remainder of the tour was subsequently cancelled.

Bob Marley played his final concert at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 23, 1980. The live version of "Redemption Song" on Songs of Freedom was recorded at this show. Marley afterwards sought medical help from Munich specialist Josef Issels, but his cancer had already progressed to the terminal stage.

Death and posthumous reputation

While flying home from Germany to Jamaica for his final days, Marley became ill, and landed in Miami for immediate medical attention. He died at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami, Florida on the morning of May 11, 1981 at the age of 36. The spread of melanoma to his lungs and brain caused his death. His final words to his son Ziggy were "Money can't buy life." Marley received a state funeral in Jamaica on May 21, 1981 which combined elements of Ethiopian Orthodoxy and Rastafari tradition. He was buried in a chapel near his birthplace with his Gibson Les Paul, a football, a Cannabis bud, a ring that he wore every day that was given to him by the Prince Asfaw Wossen of Ethiopia (eldest son of HIM), and a Bible. A month before his death, he was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit.

Marley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Time magazine chose Bob Marley & The Wailers' Exodus as the greatest album of the 20th century.

In 2001, Marley was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a feature-length documentary about his life, Rebel Music, won various awards at the Grammys. With contributions from Rita, the Wailers, and Marley's lovers and children, it also tells much of the story in his own words.

In 2006, the State of New York renamed a portion of Church Avenue from Remsen Avenue to East 98th Street in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn "Bob Marley Boulevard".

Religion

Bob Marley was a member of the Rastafari movement, whose culture was a key element in the development of reggae. Bob Marley became a leading proponent of the Rastafari, taking their music out of the socially deprived areas of Jamaica and onto the international music scene. Bob Marley was baptized by the Archbishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church in Kingston, Jamaica on November 4 1980. Marley was also a vegetarian.

Wife and children

Bob Marley had 13 children: three with his wife Rita, two adopted from Rita's previous relationships, and the remaining eight with separate women. His children are, in order of birth:

1. Imani Carole, born May 22, 1963, to Cheryl Murray;
2. Sharon, born November 23, 1964, to Rita in previous relationship;
3. Cedella born August 23, 1967, to Rita;
4. David "Ziggy", born October 17, 1968, to Rita;
5. Stephen, born April 20, 1972, to Rita;
6. Robert "Robbie", born May 16, 1972, to Pat Williams;
7. Rohan, born May 19, 1972, to Janet Hunt;
8. Karen, born 1973 to Janet Bowen;
9. Stephanie, born August 17, 1974; according to Cedella Booker she was the daughter of Rita and a man called Ital with whom Rita had an affair; nonetheless she was acknowledged as Bob's daughter;
10. Julian, born June 4, 1975, to Lucy Pounder;
11. Ky-Mani, born February 26, 1976, to Anita Belnavis;
12. Damian, born July 21, 1978, to Cindy Breakspeare;
13. Makeda, born May 30, 1981, to Yvette Crichton.

Discography

Tours

• Apr–Jul 1973: Catch a Fire Tour (England, USA)
• Oct–Nov 1973: Burnin' Tour (USA, England)
• Jun–Jul 1975: Natty Dread Tour (USA, Canada, England)
• Apr–Jul 1976: Rastaman Vibration Tour (USA, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, France, England, Wales)
• May–Jun 1977: Exodus Tour (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, England)
• May–Aug 1978: Kaya Tour (USA, Canada, England, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium)
• Apr–May 1979: Babylon by Bus Tour (Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii)
• Oct 1979–Jan 1980: Survival Tour (USA, Canada, Trinidad/Tobago, Bahamas, Gabon)
• May–Sep 1980: Uprising Tour (Switzerland, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, USA)

Awards and honors

• 1976: Band of the Year (Rolling Stone)
• June 1978: Awarded the Peace Medal of the Third World from the United Nations
• February 1981: Awarded Jamaica's third highest honor, the Jamaican Order of Merit
• March 1994: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• 1999: Album of the Century for Exodus (Time Magazine)
• February 2001: A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• February 2001: Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2004: Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #11 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
• "One Love" named song of the millennium by The BBC
• Voted as one of the greatest lyricists of all time by a BBC poll.
• 2006 A plaque dedicated to him by Nubian Jak community trust and supported by Her Majesties Foreign Office.

Film adaptation(s)

In February 2008, director Martin Scorsese announced his intention to produce a documentary movie on Marley. The film is set to be released on February 6, 2010, on what would have been Marley's 65th birthday. Recently, however, Scorsese dropped out due to scheduling problems. He is being replaced by Jonathan Demme.

In March 2008, The Weinstein Company announced its plans to produce a biopic of Bob Marley, based on the book No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley by Rita Marley. Rudy Langlais will produce the script by Lizzie Borden and Rita Marley will exec produce.

Sound samples

• "Simmer Down" (1964)

See also

• Bob Marley Museum
• Aston "Family Man" Barrett
• Junior Marvin
• Al Anderson
• Honorific titles in popular music

Notes

1. EMP|SFM: 2007 Pop Conference Bios/Abstracts
2. ^ "Bob Marley," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2006
3. Doug Miller, "Concert Series: 'No Woman, No Cry'", BobMarley.com, February 26, 2007
4. When Bob Marley joined the Bloomsbury set - This Britain, UK - The Independent
5. http://www.bobmarley.com/songs/songs.cgi?redemption
6. Steffens, Roger. "Bob Marley Chronology 1945-1981". Retrieved 2006-10-26.
7. Brooklyn Street Renamed Bob Marley Boulevard
8. "The Ethiopian Orthodox Church & Bob Marley's Baptism And The Church". Jamaicans.com.
9. "Bob Marley's Baptism in Ethiopian Orthodox Church". Rastafarispeaks.com.
10. Bob Marley (I) - Biography
11. Dixon, Meredith."Lovers and Children of the Natural Mystic: The Story of Bob Marley, Women and their Children" The Dread Library (Accessed 21 June 2007)
12. "The Immortals: The First Fifty". Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone.
13. "Who is the greatest lyricist of all time", BBC, May 23, 2001
14. "London honours legendary reggae artist Bob Marley with heritage plaque". AfricaUnite.org.
15. Winter Miller (2008-02-17). "Scorsese to make Marley documentary". Ireland On-Line. Retrieved 2008-03-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
16. "Martin Scorsese Drops Out of Bob Marley Documentary". WorstPreviews.com. 2008-05-22. Retrieved 2008-05-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
17. Winter Miller (2008-03-03). "Weinstein Co. options Marley". Variety. Retrieved 2008-03-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Further reading

• Farley, Christopher (2007). Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley, Amistad Press ISBN 0060539925
• Goldman, Vivien (2006). The Book of Exodus: The Making and Meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers' Album of the Century, Aurum Press ISBN 1845132106
• Henke, James (2006). Marley Legend: An Illustrated Life of Bob Marley, Simon & Schuster Ltd ISBN 0743285514
• Marley, Rita; Jones, Hettie (2004) No Woman No Cry: My Life with Bob Marley Hyperion Books ISBN 0786887559
• Masouri, John (2007) Wailing Blues: The Story of Bob Marley's "Wailers" Wise Publications ISBN 1846096898
• Moskowitz, David (2007), The Words and Music of Bob Marley, Westport, Connecticut, United States: Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0275989356</ref>
• White, Timothy (2006). Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley Owl Books ISBN 0805080864

External links

• Official Bob Marley website
• The Bob Marley Foundation
• Bob Marley Fan Site Could You Be Loved.com
• Bob Marley News, complete discography, images, everything
• Biblical References in Bob Marleys lyrics
• Bob Marley at Rollingstone
• Transcript of Haile Selassie's 1963 speech addressed to the United Nations, which was made into Marley's famous song "War".
• Marley elected one of the greatest songwriters BBC News, 23 May, 2001
• Roots, Rock, Remixed, first officially approved Bob Marley remix album
• Bob Marley quotes and lyrics
• Thirdfield Bob Marley Community Forums (Unofficial)
• BobMarleyMagazine Bob Marley Magazine (Unofficial)
• Some Wailers Vinyls Release
• Bob Marley, Exodus Tour, 1977: a selection of photographs by Kate Simon
• Bob Marley and the Wailers discography at MusicBrainz
• Bob Marley's publishing catalogue is managed by Blue Mountain Music

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• Living people
• 1981 deaths
• Anti-apartheid activists
• Cannabis culture
• Deaths from skin cancer
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
• Hollywood Walk of Fame
• Jamaican male singers
• Jamaican musicians
• Jamaican Rastafarians
• Jamaican songwriters
• Jamaican vegetarians
• Jamaicans of English descent
• Multiracial musicians
• Pan-Africanism
• Performers of Rastafarian music
• People from Wilmington, Delaware
• People of mixed Black African-European ethnicity
• Reggae musicians
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
• Shooting victims
• UK Music Hall of Fame inductees