Today, 2022 Feb 6, would have been Bob Marley’s 77th birthday.
As the world commemorates the Reggae icon’s birthday in the year that simultaneously marks his 41st death anniversary, The Sauce honors a fallen but ever-present musical figure.
Born Robert Nesta Marley OM, the Jamaican native continues to transcend times and generations as his timeless music and undeniable influence rules the globe all these years later. Marley gave Jamaica and its rich cultural aesthetic incomparable visibility until the time of his death. Worth noting, just about 5 years to his demise, Marley survived a politically-charged assassination attempt in 1976.
Here are other facts about the Rastafari culture proponent you may or may not be abreast with:
1. He infamously championed for the legalization of marijuana in Jamaica. With the drug being commonly associated with the reggae music genre, he remains synonymous with fighting for its decriminalization. He also constantly advocated for Pan-Africanism.
2. His distinctive songwriting and singing style set him apart from his contemporaries. He fused elements of ska, rocksteady that gave him a lasting identity.
3. He is, to this day, considered a Rastafari icon who popularized the lifestyle. Portraits of him sporting bulky locs abound everywhere.
4. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994
5. Rollingstone listed him on #11 on its list of the greatest artists of all time
6. His posthumous album ‘Legend’ released in 1984 is hitherto the best-selling reggae album of all time.
7. He succumbed to acral lentigimous melanoma in Miami in 1981, that he was initially diagnosed with in 1977. Urban legend had it that the lesion was primarily caused by an injury he got while playing football, but that was not the case. He would thereafter be accorded a funeral state in Jamaica.
8. In 2001, he posthumously received a Grammy Lifetime Achivement Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Here are some of the legend’s smash hits:
WAR
The song first appeared on Bob Marley and The Wailers’ album Rastaman Vibration – his only top ten album in the US. The song pays homage to Haile Sellasie 1 while qoting one of his most famous speeches calling for abolition of racial inequality and advocating international justice.
REDEMPTION SONG
Widely considered one of his greatest records, some of its lyrics are derived from a speech by orator Marcus Garvey titled ‘The Work That Has Been Done.’ By the time he wrote the song, he had already been diagnosed with cancer and the song’s theme s believed to have been prompted by his state.
ZIMBABWE
Marley wrote the record in support of the revolution going on in Zimbabwe from 1964 – 1979, which became an anthem for the Zimbabwean freedom fighters in the last year of the war. He sings of hope and affirms the people that God will restore and liberate them.
BUFFALO SOLDIER
The song’s lyrics refer to the US cavlary regiments ‘buffalo soldiers’ that fought in the American Indian wars in 1866. He links the war to a fight for survival .
ONE LOVE
One of his biggest songs and a reggae cult classic. It has been included in subsequent Marley and The Wailers compilation albums.
On May 21 ’81, the then Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga hailed Marley saying: ”His voice was an omnipresent cry in our electronic world. His sharp features, majestic looks, and prancing style a vivid etching on the landscape of our minds. Bob Marley was never seen. He was an experience which left an indelible imprint with each encounter. Such a man cannot be erased from the mind. He is part of the collective consciousness of the nation.” To cap it all off, no truer words. None.
