It was in Higgs’ yard, on one of these occasions, that Bob had his first encounter with that natural resource with which he was to become associated in the public mind, and which allowed him to empathize with jazz. “After a while I smoke some Ganja, some herb, and get to understand it. Me try to get into de mood whar de moon is blue and see de feelin’ expressed.” “Joe Higgs ‘elped me understands that music. ‘E taught me many t’ings.”- Bob Marley, (White, Timothy. Catch the Fire: The Life of Bob Marley.) Numerous singles emerged from these sessions, and the songs were packaged by Higgs into Two LPs, Soul Rebel and Soul Rebellion. Classic singles emerged from the LPs that set the future course of reggae.
The Jamaican Government found bands like Bob Marley and the Wailers offensive. They were referred to as rude boys. Bands like this emerged from the worst ghettos in Kingston. In 1965 living conditions in western Kingston got progressively worse. In late August of that year an eruption of violence broke out in Trenchtown and many of the surrounding communities. This violence was blamed on the “Ruddies,” which included the Wailers. Rude boys were youthful street anarchists who celebrated criminal life and hatred of authority as the only freedom that was left to them under the racist structures of the colonial system. The term “rudie” also referred to bands such as the wailers who expressed ideas that rejected traditional colonial religion and morality.
“Rude Boy,” recorded in late 1965, established Marley and the Wailers as the ultimate champion of the rude boys. “Rude Boy” was recorded as a fast moving Ska song. In this song Bob showed the prideful restlessness of the rudie. The bridge in this song consists of timeless Jamaican country aphorism. This is a classic song about deprived people lusting after what they know the government will not let them have. “Rude boy” was a huge hit with the people of Jamaica. The government found not only this song extremely threatening, but also had fear that the band had too much political influence with the lower class people of Jamaica.
“Rude boy” is a perfect example of how Bob’s homeland and its political power influenced his musical style and messages he sent through the music he cultivated. Growing up in this environment transformed him into a revolutionary artist, who felt the need and passion to express the unjust he and many others faced as poor youths and adults just trying to get by in a country that didn’t care for its lower class citizens.
As times changed so did Bob’s musical sound. Ska faded into “rock steady”, ska’s distinctive trombones, trumpets, and tenor saxes were blended into the background, the electric bass took on a down-stroking prominence, the guitar asserted itself to punctuate the hiccupping cadence and solo vocals were more frequent. Marley was on target when he linked James Brown with this transition, since R&B was to ska what soul was to rock steady. And when Jimmy Hendrix and Sly Stone arose to add their own style to soul, Bob and the Wailers were prepared to do as much for rock steady.
In 1976 Bob agreed to perform at the Smile Jamaica concert. Bob was invited by the government to play; the last thing he wanted to do was play a show sponsored by the government in which he did not support. To some extent Bob had his arm twisted. He was repaying a debt to Tony Spaulding, the Minister of Housing, who had set Bob’s family up in their new home in Bull Bay. Marley agreed to perform at the event if there would not be any political overtones. A week after press releases about the concert went out, Prime Minister Michael Manley called an election.
Marley was co-opted; there was no way that the JLP supporters would not now see this concert as a case of Bob performing for Manley. It was felt in Jamaica that the results of the election could be swayed by an endorsement from Bob. Soon after Marley began to receive death threats.
One night while rehearsing for the concert, Bob was standing in his kitchen when Don Taylor, his manager, came into the room. Bob’s manager walked straight into the line of fire of a gunman who had appeared in the doorway, and was firing shots randomly in Bob’s direction. Taylor took four shots in the groin; the gunman was firing from one of the lower steps in the doorway leading to the kitchen. A bullet that had missed Taylor ricocheted off the wall, grazed Bob’s chest and lodged in to his left arm.
Bob’s wife Rita was sitting in her car, about to start it when shots were fired at her. Five shots were fired through her rear window. Another through her door, and a final bullet went through the front windshield. Although at least one bullet hit her in the head, the glass appeared to take the impact so that the bullet did not penetrate.
Surprisingly, no one was killed in this raid. However, Don Taylor and Bob’s friend, Lewis Griffith were critically injured. Rita underwent surgery to remove the bullet lodged in her scalp; Bob’s wound was treated and he was released on his own recognizance. Bob was quickly driven up the treacherous roads to a secluded encampment high in the Blue Mountains above Kingston. This senseless act made an even stronger figure in his homeland.
Now that Marley was physically stable, the question on his and everyone else’s mind was would he perform at the Smile Jamaica concert. If the gunmen had been trying to stop the music, they would still have accomplished what they set out to do if Bob did not play the next night. Marley decided he had to show the nation’s people and the government that he had overcome this tragic event.
Bob arrived at the venue to play for an audience of eighty thousand people. Once on stage Bob offered a different tribute to the sea of faces, “When me decided ta do dis yere concert two anna ‘alf months ago, me was told dere was no politics. I jus’ wanted ta play fe da love of da people.” –Bob Marley, “Catch the Fire”: The Life of Bob Marley. White , Timothy.
Unable to play his guitar because of his arm injury, Marley said that he would sing “one song.” He there after played what would end up being a ninety-minute tour de force opening with “War.”
By opening with the song “War” Bob took a song that was originally an anthem for non-violent protests against oppression, and used the song to exemplify the violence that was taken on him.
A few weeks after the show Bob and the Wailers flew to London, where they would take up residence for a short period of time. Marley’s presence added the collective energy in a city whose artistic life was undergoing a profound shift through the channel of punk.
While in London Bob had changed his mind; after hearing the Clash for the first time, he saw the importance of the punk movement. He admired their spunky courage and anger in the face of England’s social stratification and class-based economic oppression.
He also admired the help that the Clash and other punk bands were giving to East and West Indians, who were being haunted in the streets by disciples of the neo-fascist National Front. The East and West Indians were also victimized by the bobbies’ brutally racist application of the “sus laws,” edicts dating back to the Napoleonic wars that allowed police to strip search and harass anyone judged to be “loitering with intent.”(Lazell, Barry. Marley 1945-1981.)
After the social movements he experienced in London Bob went on to record “Punky Reggae Part”, this becoming the definitive celebration of the punk-reggae fusion that was taking place in 1976.
In this tiny eleven year period of time Bob proved to be a true rebel, a visionary, an uncompromising victor of human rights. Bob Marley rose from the slums of Trenchtown, Jamaica, to make reggae music and his own message of rebellion, self-determination, and the power of the individual, a spiritual and political force throughout the world.
