Nesta spent all of his free time playing guitar and perfecting vocals with one of his best friends Neville “Bunny” O’Riley, who also had a guitar made from a bamboo shoot, electric cable wire and a tin can. They began participating in music lessons taught by Joe Higgs in his Third Street Yard during the evening hours. Higgs would later introduce them to Peter Mackintosh (known as Tosh) while taking voice lessons (Trenchtown).
Joe Higgs, a devoted Rasta and music teacher, was one of Kingston’s famous residents. He was subjected to police brutality. Higgs taught Marley, Bunny, and Tosh to harmonize and started them off on their music careers.
In 1961, at age 16, Marley, Bunny, and Peter Tosh formed a harmony group called the Rudeboys. Their early music was a style called ska, a hybrid of New Orleans rhythm and blues and Jamaican mento, the first of reggae styles. Marley cut his first single without Bunny and Tosh in 1962 for Leslie Kong. It received little commercial success. In 1963 Marley teamed up with Tosh, Bunny, Junior Braithwaite and back-up singers Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith. They called themselves the Teenagers.Nesta acted as the leader, writing most of the material. "It was kinda difficult," said Joe Higgs later, "to get the group precise -and their sound - and to get the harmony structures. It took a couple of years to get that perfect. I wanted each person to be a leader in his own right. I wanted them to be able to wail in their own rights." (3)
The people of Trenchtown were now recognizing Nesta as a musician of some sort. He was also being called by the name Bob.
“He was a very easy-going person. He was never rude or anything. Him never be aggressive. Him was always irie to me, even as a kid coming from school. And although I still get to know him and be around him, him never be rude (3).” Said Pauline Morrison, a Trenchtown resident. "It was always the man and his guitar," Pauline observes. "But it was very rare you could just sit with him and be with him. Because he was a very moody person, the way I see him. Him is very moody. If people were sitting together with him, he would suddenly just get up and go somewhere else. Just to be by himself (3).”
Later, the Teenagers became The Wailing Rudeboys and after that, the Wailers. 1964 brought a lot of changes to the band. They changed their name to The Wailing Wailers and experimented with slowing down the quick dance rhythms of Jamaican “ska” music. They signed with producer Coxone Dodd’s Studio One label and recorded their debut “I’m Still Waiting.” When Braithwaite and Smith quit the band, Marley took lead vocals. At last, the Wailing Wailers released their first single to gain fame, “Simmer Down”. It stayed at number one in Jamaica for 2 weeks, a big success for them. The Wailers produced around 70 tracks for Dodd before leaving his Studio One label including “Let Him Go “Rude Boy Get Gail,” “Dancing Shoes,” “Jerk in Time,” “Who Feels It Knows It” and “What Am I to Do.” Despite Marley’s success in Jamaica, he strove to top the charts in the US.
On February 10, 1966, just 4 days after his birthday, he married Rita Anderson. Rita was a member of the group named the Soulettes and also a member of the I-Threes. The day after their marriage, they left for the US where they would spend the next eight months with Cedella and her new husband.
Marley worked in a factory in Newark, DE, in 1966, the city which his mother moved to just three years earlier. There, he had many different jobs including a lab assistant, a forklift driver, and an assembly line worker at the Chrysler plant in Wilmington, Delaware.
Bob and Rita returned to Jamaica that October. He reformed the Wailers with Bunny and Tosh and they founded their own label, Wail ‘N’ Soul ‘M. “Bend Down Low” was released on it, but after the single was released, their Wail ’N’ Soul ‘M label folded because of their lack of experience.
Around the time of 1967, Marley and his band mates began devoting their time to the teachings of the Rastafari faith.
After converting from Christianity to Rastafarianism, the Wailers recorded a lot of new material for producer Danny Sims, none of it receiving commercial success. The next year however, they found the right producer. While succeeding as songwriters for American singer Johnny Nash, they teamed up with Lee “Scratch” Perry. He was the missing link. Together, the Wailers and Scratch recorded some of the most famous reggae songs of all time; including “Soul Rebel,” “Duppy Conqueror” and “Small Axe.”
Having more of a rock sound, with the addition of Aston “Family Man” Barrett on bass and his brother, Carlton on drums in 1970, the Wailers became Caribbean superstars.
In 1970, to gain an international audience, Marley was confident enough to walk into the office of Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records, and ask for a recording contract. Surprisingly, he got what he wanted, and set up his own Tuff Gong label. Access to the world’s top recording facilities helps a band a lot. The Wailers took advantage of the privileges, and in 1972 they recorded Catch a Fire, their first album released outside of Jamaica. It is commonly known as the first reggae album. They released the Burnin’ LP in 1973 with newer versions of older tracks. One song, “I Shot the Sheriff” was a big hit for Eric Clapton, reaching number one on US single charts.
In October of 1973, after being dumped from the Sly & The Family Stone tour because they were drawing crowds away from the main band, California’s KSAN-FM offered the Wailers a live broadcast. They accepted and performed a mix of songs from Burnin’ and Catch A Fire. The broadcast symbolizes when reggae entered US mainstream.
People of Jamaica thought that an election could be effected if Bob was supporting Prime Minister Michael Manley in his election in 1976. Bob agreed earlier to perform for him in the Smile Jamaica concert, but knew nothing about an election. Marley began to receive death threats.
During the Wailer’s rehearsal, Bob wandered over to the kitchen. Don Taylor, Bob’s manager, came into the room. A gunman appeared in the doorway, and Don Taylor stood walked straight in the line of fire. The gunman was firing many shots in Bob's direction. Taylor took four shots, and a bullet that missed him ricocheted off a wall, brushed Bob's chest and stuck in his left arm. After having the bullet removed, he was quickly driven up to a secluded house high in the Blue Mountains above Kingston.
During the shooting in the rehearsal room, Rita was sitting in her car, starting up the engine. Five shots were fired at her through the car’s rear window. Another went through the door, and the last bullet went through the front windscreen. One bullet hit her in the head, but thankfully the glass seemed to take the impact, so it did not penetrate. Although she underwent surgery to remove the bullet from her scalp, she was not seriously injured.
Despite his injury, Bob still performed that night, giving his best performance yet, delivering the most energetic performance of his lifetime. He opened the 90-minute show with the song “War,” and at the end, he did a ritualistic dance and reenacted parts of the shooting that nearly took his life.
Two years later, he was emitted to a hospital again after injuring his toe while playing soccer on the Exodus tour. He refused to get his toe treated because of his Rastafarian beliefs.
Many concerts and tours went by, but during an American tour in late 1980, he collapsed on stage, and rushed to a hospital. Doctors discovered that his toe injury had become cancerous and it spread to his brain, lungs, and stomach. He didn’t have long to live (Bob Marley Biography).
In Miami, Bob was baptized Berhane Selassie in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (a Christian church) on November 4, 1980, his final wish.
In a last attempt to save his life, he was flown to Germany to receive treatment. There he celebrated his 36th birthday. He was then flown back to Miami.
He died on May 11, 1981 at age thirty-six, in a hospital in Miami. His burial was in Nine Miles, Jamaica, the place of his birth. He was awarded Jamaica’s Order of Merit, the nations third
highest honor, for his humanitarian efforts and his contribution to the country’s culture (Hauler, Joe).
“His message was a protest against injustice, a comfort for the oppressed. He stood there, performed there, his message reached there and everywhere. Today's funeral service is an international right of a native son. He was born in a humble cottage nine miles from Alexandrea in the parish of St.Ann. He lived in the western section of Kingston as a boy where he joined in the struggle of the ghetto. He learned the message of survival in his boyhood days in Kingston's west end. But it was his raw talent, unswerving discipline and sheer perseverance that transported him from just another victim of the ghetto to the top ranking superstar in the entertainment industry of the third world,” said the Jamaican president upon Marley’s death.
Before Marley’s death, the prophet Gad demanded to become the owner of the ring Jah Rasafari. Oddly enough, the ring disappeared and nobody has seen it again. Cedella, Bob’s mother, says that the ring went back to the place of origin.
Nesta Robert Marley was a very successful person. He accomplished his goals and never gave up. He applied himself to spreading his political message throughout the world. Because of this, his music is associated with the movement toward black political independence. Though his shows were sometimes tear-gassed or discouraged by a political figure, he still got on stage and gave it his best. His music was an escape from poverty and violence in the ghetto of Kingston. There is some sort of magic to his music that attracts people, and makes them want to dance. He has influenced many musicians including Stevie Wonder and Eric Clapton. He will always be remembered.
