People like us - passionate music lovers - speak often of the power of music. How it can heal, how it can unite, but the story of Bob Marley is one of a legend, who’s really put this power to practice.
I was too young to really catch up on his story, while he was among us, but of course I didn’t miss some of his biggest hits and the impact it had on stars I did get into later, like The Fugees; Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill in particular.
I’m also among one of the many people, who thought “No Woman No Cry” meant that if you had no woman, you’d have no hurt, but, later, found out it meant “no woman, don’t cry”. It’s just a classic example of the poetic use of language that he was a master of.
To many, he’s a musical hero, which is so right. He’s put reggae on the map worldwide and paved the way for many artists to follow and subgenres to emerge like today’s dancehall, just to name one.
His words were what opened doors for him. They were universal. Even though they were Jamaican English, and the ethnic backgrounds couldn’t have been any more different, he sang the words everyone could relate to.
He, himself, reinvented the traditional Jamaican reggae sound by mixing it with the new and upcoming Ska and other musical influences, which he borrowed from Europe. It’s one of the key factors for him to rise above all the others in Jamaica. And rise, he did.
As a son of an English white sea captain and a Jamaican black mother, he lived in sheer poverty for most of his early years. Even moving straight into the ghetto, Trenchtown.
His dad, always out on sea, died when he was 10, so all he really had was his mother. The interracial relationship of his parents caused for problems for his mom and himself. It was unusual, to say the least, in those days.
His background is one of the things that made him a mix of everything, but his mother has often explained in interviews, that he was wise beyond his years. A lot of people who knew him, have said, he was a born leader with great charisma.
Religion and spirituality has played a major part in his life and music, but also politics and a deep patriotism. He believed in Africa like no other and used his fame, music and influence even to get the impossible to happen. During the political civil war in Jamaica, he managed to get two political enemies to literally join hands during a peace concert. Marley, himself, and his manager, got shot just before this concert, in an attempt to prevent him from performing at all.
Marley was the first artist from a third world country to make it worldwide and he had the heart to give back to his country. At the height of his success, he owned a recording studio, a label and a vinyl record pressing service, which provided many people employment. Altogether, it’s predicted about 4,000 people were actually living off of his success in Jamaica in one way or another.
As much as the world needs good musicians like Bob Marley, the world also has a desperate need for entrepreneurs and leaders like him.
If you ever think that you, alone, cannot make a difference, think of Bob Marley, because he literally had nothing and changed a nation. So can you.
