BOB MARLEY

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BOB MARLEY
By Jack
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Bob Marley was born on 6th February 1945 in Nine
Miles, Jamaica.
The son of a British Naval Officer and Jamaican
women called Cedella. Marley didnt see his
father very often because his mothers family
didnt like him.
By the time he was 16 years old, Marley had
recorded his first single called Judge Not and
in 1963 he formed The Wailers with Peter Tosh,
Bunny Livingstone, Junior Braithwaite and
Beverley Kelso. The band then had their first
Number One in Jamaica with Simmer Down on the
Coxsone record label.
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When Brathwaite and Kelso left the group around
1965, the Wailers continued as a trio. Marley,
Tosh, and Livinstone trading leads. In spite of
the popularity of singles like Rude Boy, the
artists didnt earn much money, and in 1968 they
split up.
After marrying his girlfriend Rita Anderson,
Marley spent most of the following year working
in a factory in Newark in the United States,
where his mother had moved in 1963. When he went
back to Jamaica, the Wailers reunited and
recorded with Coxstone with little success.
During this period, the Wailers devoted
themselves to the religious sect of Rastafari.
In 1969 they began a 3 year association with Lee
Scratch Perry who asked them to play their own
instruments and brought Aston and Carlton Barrett
into the band. Although they had some success in
Jamaica, the band split up when Livingstone was
jailed and Marley had to go to Sweden with
American pop singer Johnny Nash, to write music
for a film.
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In 1972 Chris Blackwell signed the Wailers to
Island Records and gave them some money to
record in Jamaica themselves. They became famous
internationally when they released their first
album Catch A Fire. It was followed a year
later by Burnin which included the songs Get
Up, Stand Up, and I Shot The Sheriff.
Marley expanded the instrument section of the
group and brought in 3 female back-up singers
called the I-Threes, which included his wife
Rita. Now called Bob Marley and the Wailers,
they toured Europe, Africa and the Americas.
They had Top 40 hits with No Woman No Cry
(1975), Exodus (1977), Waiting in Vain (1977)
and Satisfy My Soul (1978).
In 1976 Marley was shot by gunmen during the
Jamaican election campaign, but survived and
continued to get more popular until his 1981
death due to brain, lung and stomach cancer.
Bob Marley was 36 years old.