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TheOrator.Press Education Page. A Musical Valentines Special Following The Release of The Film ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ This Valentines Day. Our TO.P Ten Marley Moments (Part 2/3). February 2024
A Truly Inspirational Musical Messenger Who Believed The World Could Do Better Through Peace & Love
Perservering On His Musical Journey Ultimately Earnt Him Legendary Status.
Ten Critical Moments, Concerts, And Performances That Help Highlight Who Marley The Man And The Musician Was
The New Bob Marley Film ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ Was Released This Month On Valentines Day, February 14th, By Paramount. So We Were Inspired To Take A Look Back At Various Accounts of Bob’s Life And Times As Told By Those Who Knew Him, Worked With Him, Met Him, Liked Him And Loved Him And Select Ten Pivotal Moments That Powerfully Highlight Who He Was, How His Perseverance Paid off, And What Sealed His Image As A Messenger And A Peacemaker.
Various Sources, Including Two Very Special Documentaries, One From The BBC – And – One From Sky Arts Television, Plus An International Bob Marley ‘One Love’ Art Exhibition Premiered At The Saatchi Art Gallery In London 2022, A Multi-Olivier Winning Musical November 2021-January 2023, A Love Of His Music Through The Years, And Firsthand Observation of His Legendary Status As A National Hero In Jamaica, Help Us Select 10 Special Moments That Highlight ‘Bob Marley’ The Music, The Man, The Messenger, The Peacemaker And Why People Still Love This Unique And Special Reggae Music Legend.
Here Part 2. Part 1 Also In This Valentines Day Special This Month (Seperately). And Part 3 Too (The Film Review).
Both Bob Marley And Haile Selassie Were Visionaries. But The Latter, Whose Christian Name Was ‘Tafari’ Was Hailed God of God’s, King of Kings, And The Embodiment of God. The Former Was Hailed As A Messenger And A Peachmaker And Looked Up To The Latter. And Others Looked Up To Both of Them In One Way Or Another, Especially As Leaders.
By The Mid 70sBob Was Making Political Statements
As A World Citizen Rather Than A Jamaican Citizen.
It Was Even Beyond Racial At This Point.
LLoyd Bradley, Reggae Music Author
The Consumer Industry Took off In The 1950s After The Rationing of World War II And The 1940s. Radios, TVs And Music Stereos And Sound Systems (Along With New Age Fridges & Labour Saving Domestic Appliances) Were All The Rage In America As Postwar Manufacturing Boomed And That Spread To Nearby Jamaica Where They Now Listened To New American Music And Influences.
As They Listened To Popular Sounds From Back Home, American Military Personnel Introduced New Musical Sounds During The War Including Big Bands And Jazz. America And Britain Were Allies, And Jamaica Was Still A British Colony Until (August 6 1962) And Therefore Subject To Much Western Influence Including Music, Style And Fashion, And Even Serving In And Cooperating With The Allied Militaries.
Still Today Americans Regularly Visit Nearby Jamaica And Vice-Versa. Jamaican Record Covers of Popular Western Tracks Remain Very Common And Very Popular.
Ska Was An Upbeat, Youthful, Edgy Sound Consisting of A Caribbean, Calypso, American Jazz, Rhythm & Blues Fusion. That Musical Fusion Was Reflected Socially Too Because It Became Closely Associated With ‘Two-Tone’ Music Which Had Black & White Stylish Clothes As Its Symbolic Wardrobe Worn By People Who Believed In Black & White Social Harmony. A Shared Love of Music Was A Lived Unifying Force.
Honouring His Birthday Last Year The Studio One Records Insta Page @studioonerecords Referred To The Late Clement Seymour ‘Coxsone’ Dodd As:
The Father of Reggae
Jamaican Record Producer Clement Seymour ‘Coxsone’ Dodd Was The Pionnering Owner of Studio One The Seeds To Which Were Sown In 1954 When Aged Just 22 He Spent A Short But Pivotal Time In Nearby America Listening To The Rhythm And Blues of The South. Returning To Jamaica He Began Importing The Tunes And Playing Them Via His Own Sound System (Which He Called Downbeat And Simply An Amplifier, Turntable, And Speakers).
He Literally Made It His Business To Try And Satisfy The High Demand For The Popular Ska Sound, As Well As Rocksteady And Reggae. And Eventually Dub And Dancehall. In 1959 He Launched His Own Record Label. WorldDiscs. In 1963 Just Under A Decade Later His Pivotal Visit To America He Officially Became The First Black Owner of A Recording Studio In Jamaica, Studio One – On Brentford Road Kingston.
As Well As Marley, Coxsone Also Worked With Big Names Like Producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Renowned Romantic Reggae Artist John Holt, Ken Booth, Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott, Freddie McGregor, Alton Ellis & Burning Spear. The I Threes (Bob’s Backing Singers) Were Also On The Studio One Label. And There Was Also A Studio Band.
In Honour of His Pioneering History Brentford Road Was Renamed Studio One Boulevard On May 1st 2004 (40 Years After His Pivotal Trip To America).
Comparisons Were Made Between Coxsone Dodds Owning Studio One In Jamaica And Berry Gordy Owning Motown, In Detroit America.
Ultimately Coxone Closed Studio One In Jamaica In The 1980s And Returned To America To Relocate His Operations There. That Was Afterall, Where His Love Affair With The Music Business Was Born.
The Second Half of TO.P’s Top Ten Moments of Marley Magic:
After A Sailing Accident British-Jamaican Chris Blackwell (of The Crosse & Blackwell Food Dynasty) Was Rescued By Rastafarian Fisherman When He Was A Young Adult, Which Left Him With An Affinity For The Rasta Culture. He Was Just 22 When He Formed Island Records In 1959 With Capital From His Parents (The Same Year Coxsone Formed World Discs). @islandrecords
Eric Clapton, Also Signed With Blackwell, Released A Cover of ‘I Shot The Sheriff’ In 1974 As Island Records Remained Keen To Explore A Rock And Reggae Sound – In Order To Appeal To A More Mainstream Audience. It Reached No.1 In The American Charts And Was Bob’s First International Hit Outside of Jamaica. The Fact That This Success Happened For English Rock Blues Guitarist Clapton In America But Not For The Original Jamaican Writer In Jamaica Is Very Interesting.
There’s A Similar Scenario With The Ever Popular Country Singer Dolly Parton And The African-American Soul Singer Whitney Houston And Her Phenomenal No.1 Success With ‘I Will Always Love u’. It Was Written & Performed By Parton But Did Not Get Her To No.1 Nor Achieve The Resounding International Success As It Did For Houston.
Yet Also, Consider The Recent Phenomenon of Tracey Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’ Reaching No.1 When Sung By A White Male Country Singer But Not By Her, The Original Black Female Songwriter. And Similarly Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road Only Being Acceptable To The Country Music Charts Once He Re-Recorded It With Billy Ray Cyrus (Father of Milley).
Bob Marley & The Wailers Seminal Performance of No Woman No Cry, Lyceum, London, 1975
Nevertheless, Marley’s Successful Performance At The Lyceum July 17th & 18th 1975 Was Recorded Live And Released As A Live Album December 5th 1975. The Recording Was Reportedly Made On Mick Jagger’s Mobile Studio. The Concert Was Hyped Up, So The Great And The Good of The Fashion And Music Scene Were In The House That Evening, And It Has Gone Down In Music Folklore History.
The ‘No Woman No Cry’ Single Release The Next Month Made Marley A Household Name. The Concert, Scheduled To Build On The Positive Publicity From Clapton’s 1974 No.1 Worked A Treat. Blackwell Timed It Perfectly. Bob Performed Phenomenonally.
Bob Marley’s Harmony Singers, The I-Three, Were Musicians In Their Own Right. Both As A Group And As Solo Singers. Marica Griffifths @marciagriffiths_queenofreggae, Rita Marley @officialritamarley And Judy Mowatt @judymowatt_odJoined The Band In 1974 After The Wailers Bunny Livingston And Peter Tosh Left Due To Creative Differences.
Legally It Was Agreed The Name Bob Could Still Perform Under The Name Bob Marley And The Wailers. However Marley Never Made A Will And It Led To A World of Problems Following His Recall To Heaven In 1981. (Photo Above: The I-Three Wearing Jamaica’s National Custom As Featured On An Album Cover Produced Under Tuff Gong Records – TuffGongRecords.com).
When He First Came To Britain He Had Medium-Sized Loose Natural Twists (See Main Photos Above).
By The Time of The 1976 ‘Rastaman Vibrations’ Album He’d Been Married To Rita For Ten Years, Fully Committed To Rastafarianism , And Had Full, Long, Thick, Dreadlocks. His Committment To Rastafarianism Spurred A Desire To Sing In Africa, But Island Records Resisted That As A Commerically Non-Viable Propostion.
But Bob Stood His Ground And Eventually Sang In Africa. However The Africa Sessions Were Complex With Mixed Outcomes. The Band Play A Celebration Concert In Zimbabwe After The Country Finally Achieved Independence On From Colonial Britain On April 18th 1980.
Sadly He Soon Discovered That The Late Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Was Dictotorial, Something Incompatible With His Values.
He Also Visited Gabon, Also Dictotorial. But Also Visted By Various Musicians. He Reportedly Developed A Relationship With ‘Pascaline’ The Daughter of The Late Gabon President, Omar Bongo. Gabon Was Eventually Ruled By Her Brother. She Is Said To Have Visited Him In Germany When He Travelled There For Treatment. Notably Germany Is Where He Had The Original Football Accident.
Bob Was Walking Through The Playground With His Guitar.
It Was A Though His Eyes Met Mine And He Just Looked At Me And Said…
“Mi’ Know Man.
Mi Know.
George Dyer, The Late Bespoke Tailor
In The Same Year That The Single ‘War’ Was Released From The Rastaman Vibration Album (April 1976) A State of Emergency Was Declared In Jamaica (June 1976) Following Political Violence Between The Democratic PNP (People’s National Party) Supporters of PM Michael Manley And The Right Wing JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) Supporters Led By Alexander Bustamante.
As A Peacemaker Bob Was Sought After By The Jamaican Ministry of Culture To Appear At A Free Music Concert For The People (Funded By Them) To Try And Ease Political Tensions. Bob Agreed And Wrote ‘Smile Jamaica’ For The Occassion. The Smile Jamaica Concert Was Scheduled For December 5th 1976 At The National Heroes Park, Kingston, Jamaica, With An 80, 000 Capacity.
On December 3rd Although He Was Politically Neutral, Marley, His Wife Rita And His Manger Don Were Shot Whilst Rehearsing At His Studios In Hope Road. All Survived But Bob Was Devastated That His Own People Could Do Such A Thing When Everybody Knew He Stood For Peace.
He Actually Went Ahead With The Concert Just Days Later Nonethess To Stand His Ground And Make A Point. He Was Commited To Helping Create Peace In The World.
Manley Won The Election, Also Undettered By The Opposition Gunmen.
Bob Retreated To Strawberry Hill, Blue Mountain, Jamaica, After The Assassination Attempt, Which Made International Headlines. Blackwell, Also A Property Mogul, Bought The Hotel Resort In 1972 (It Had A Long History Dating Back To Colonialism When The Land Was Gifted By The British Crown To Horace Walpole, Related To Lord Nelson. Blackwell’s Own Father Was An Army Man Attached To The British Army Jamaican Regiment.).
The 1977 ‘Exodus’ Album Reflected Bob’s Need To Leave Jamaica AltogetherAndTake A Sabattical. After Strawberry Hill, Blackwell And Island Records Looked After Him In The Bahamas For A Month Before Putting Him Up In London’s Chelsea, Where He Stayed For A Couple of Years And Recorded The Famous Album. It Included ‘Exodus’‘Natural Mystic’‘Jamming’ ‘Wait In Vain’ ‘Turn Your Lights Down Low’ And Another New Re-Recording of ‘One Love’ (From The First Ever Wailers Album).
Marley Was Not A Glutton For Punishment But Rather A Persistent Pursuer of Peace And So He Performed Another Concert In The Midst of Political Turmoil In 1978 Undeterred By The Assassination Attempt Two Years Earlier. It Was Called ‘The One Love Peace Concert.’ This Time It Was Representatives of The Two Main Warring Factions Who Approached Him Directly For Help At Street Level.
Both Michael Manley And Edward Seaga (The New Leader of The JLP) Appeared On Stage At The End With Marley, Who Joined Their Hands Together And Raised Them Aloft With His. This Seal ed His Image As A Peacemaker, For Which He Is Known All Around The World.
Tragically Jamaica Itself However Has Continued To Suffer Political Violence, Crime Waves And States of Emergency Despite Marley’s Legendary Efforts.
Other Jamaican Legends Have Emerged Over The Years In Different Ways, Including Living Legends The Charismatic Olympians Shelly Anne Fraser-Pryce And Usain Bolt. Sharp, Stylish And Edgy Jamaican Songstress Grace JonesAlso Came Up During The Early Studio One And Chris Blackwell Era And In Addition To Her Iconic Music She Will Forever Be Associated With The Bond Film Franchise Having Played ‘Mayday’ A Bad Guy Bond Girl Girlfriend To Christopher Walken’s Bond Villain (Max Zorin) In A View To A Kill (With Roger Moore) 1985.
Blackwell’s Mother, Was known To Be Ian Flemming’s Lover. The Former Secret Service Agent Turned 007 Creator Also Lived In Jamaica, Like Blackwell. He Actually Bought Flemming’s Private Luxurious Residence Known As ‘Golden Eye’ In Orcabessa, Jamaica (goldeneye.com).
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