Reggae Music: How Jamaica Conquered the World! (Part Two)

This is part two of a two-part focus on Reggae music.

The heart of Reggae music has always been politics and spirituality.

In this two part episode, you'll learn about some of the musical and political forces in Jamaica's colorful past that all contributed to the music that we celebrate as reggae today.   From Marcus Garvey, the modern-day prophet who  had a vision for the black people living in the new world, and Ethiopia's Emperor Hailie Salassie, whose formal title included "Lord of Lord, King of Kings, and Conquering Lion of Judah", and claimed to be a direct descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Shebah, to great early reggae musicians like Derrick Morgan, and Desmond Dekker, to the firey Peter Tosh, and the brilliant reggae, who brought reggae to the rest of the world, Bob Marley - they're all here and you'll learn their stories, hear their music, and understand the major forces that fused to create a brand new genre.

In this latest episode, learn the inside story of how Bob Marley came from crippling poverty in one of Jamaica's poorest neighborhoods to became reggae's greatest musical luminary, and how he then faced off against the brutality of systemic Jamaican racism to permanently change his country and the rest of the world. 

In This Episode

Bob Marley and the Wailers
1.  Trench Town Rock
2.  Simmer Down
3.  400 Years
4.  I Shot the Sheriff
5.  Rebel Music (3 0'Clock Road Block)
6.  War
7.  Exodus
8.  Is This Love
9.  Survival
10.  Could You Be Loved

Also in this episode:

Interview with Bunny Wailer, formerly with the Wailers
Interview with Marlon James, Jamaican author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

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Transcript

There’s no way to faithfully talk about reggae without diving into Bob Marley’s life and body of work.  After all, it’s Bob’s name and legend that reaches furthest round the world.  He was the truly first international superstar from the Third World.  In his lifetime, Marley sold more than 20 million records.  

Robert Nesta Marley was born on February 6, 1945, in the tiny St. Ann Parish, village of Nine Miles, a town with no running water or electricity.  There’s a deep cultural connection to Africa in this village, especially in the art of storytelling, we’ve talked about African Griots and their time tested way of sharing the past in other episodes.  This ancient tradition which saturated this town was the rich, fertile soil which first grew the boy, and the ground where the man later drew his songs.

Marley was the son of an 18-year old black mother , named Cedella.  Later in life, Bob named one of his own daughters after her.  His father was mostly absent white man, 43 years Cedella’s senior, named Norval.  By all accounts, Norval was seriously unstable and he died at the age of 70, when Bob was only nine.

Trench Town Rock

In the late 1950s, the Marley’s moved from Nine Miles to Kingston.  They made their home in one of its poorest neighborhoods, called Trench Town, which got it’s name because it was built over a sewage trench.  Like Nine Miles, Trench Town was also a culturally rich community. It was here where Bob's musical talents bloomed.  A lifelong source of inspiration, Bob immortalized Trench Town in his songs “No Woman No Cry”, and “Trench Town Rock”.

Bob’s earliest musical influences were local Jamaican performers and the American sounds he heard streaming out tinny transistor radios and local jukeboxes.  Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino and the Drifters were among his favorite American artists.

He came of age at just the right time, growing up alongside the Rastafarian movement, the rise of the Jamaican record labels, and the spread of the DJs and sound systems that brought the music to everyone.  

As a boy, Bob became friends with "Bunny" (his real name was Neville) O'Riley Livingston. Bunny convinced Bob to learn guitar.  Bob and Bunny spent a lot of time working on their music, and Bob improved his singing voice during those early years.  Here’s Bunny Wailer, remembering his early days with Bob.

Not long later, Marley met Peter McIntosh (who later became Peter Tosh) and Bob, Bunny and Peter formed a band called The Wailing Wailers. 

Judge Not

In 1962, a local record producer, named Leslie Kong, heard Marley singing and asked him to record a few singles, starting with this song, a track called "Judge Not."  

Simmer Down

The Wailing Wailers followed “Judge Not” with the band’s  first single, "Simmer Down".  It went to the top of the Jamaican charts in January 1964.  Surfing this wave, The Wailing Wailers added three more members, Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith.  They were locally popular, but they struggled to make a living and by 1966, Braithwaite, Kelso and Smith quit the band.  With things seeming to be at a dead-end, Bob and his new bride, Rita, headed out for America.  Can you imagine Bob Marley, working as a lab assistant for DuPont, and living in Wilmington, Delaware?  Me neither.  Big surprise…. He thought the work was boring, and another big surprise, the rampant racism of 1960’s America was totally unbearable. After eight pretty shitty months, Bob and Rita were back in Jamaica. 

Apparently, life as a struggling musician was still way better than working for the man.  Marley re-connected with Livingston and McIntosh to re-launch the Wailers (dropping the Wailing part this time).  This was also when he started exploring his spiritual nature, politics, the Rastafarian movement, Marcus Garvey, the Old Testament, and African heritage and culture.  Everything that’s come to be part of the Reggae mystique.  

400 Years

1970 brought two new members into the Wailers, bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett and his brother, drummer Carlton "Carlie" Barrett.  This set the stage for the Wailers huge break, in 1972, when they signed with Chris Blackwell at Island Records.  

At the time, Island’s top reggae star,  Jimmy Cliff,  had just left the label.  Blackwell saw Bob as the perfect artist to fill that void and to attract a rock audience Blackwell thought was primed for Reggae. Blackwell once said, “I was dealing with rock, which was really rebel music and I felt that would really be the way to break Jamaican music in the American market. But you needed someone who could BE that image. When Bob walked in he really WAS that image.” 

The Wailers first album was the critically acclaimed Catch a Fire.  Immediately after its release, they hit the road to support the album, opening for a total unknown named Bruce Springsteen and after that, for Sly & the Family Stone, who were at their peak – where they wanted to stay.  The Wailers sizzled, blowing away American audiences and, an envious Sly Stone felt like his band was being upstaged. After just four shows, Bob and company were removed from the tour.   So that sucks….  You can learn lots more about Sly and the Family Stone in this past June’s episode on Funk.  Check it out!

Catch a Fire was an incredible first release for any band.  Marley’s strong melodies, supported by a powerful rhythm section, and carrying memorable, political lyrics, helped launch reggae as an international genre.  A few of the albums biggest tracks included this song, 400 Years. Concrete Jungle, Stop That Train, and Baby We’ve Got a Date were also on it, and for a first release, it did pretty well.  Catch a Fire hit #11 on the UK album chart and #51 on Billboard’s R&B Chart.  

This might surprise you – it did me – This album that introduced Jamaican music to the Western world, written and recorded by a Jamaican band, wasn’t available in Jamaica since distribution was through Island, and Island had no distribution rights in Jamaica.  Dat ting a mek me feel sick!

Also in ’72,  the Wailers followed up with their second album, Burnin'.  "I Shot the Sheriff" came from it, and of course, Eric Clapton’s cover went #1 in the US in ’74.

"Rebel Music (3 O'clock Road Block)"

After Burnin’ both McIntosh and Livingston went solo as Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.  In both cases, this was pretty much due to personal conflicts with Blackwell.  Livingston didn’t like his suggestion that the band start playing underground “freak clubs.”  Bunny saw the band as making music was “for children now,” not for gays (his words, not mine guys), or people who were strung out on synthetic drugs. About the move, he said, “I felt good because I wasn’t going to wallow in no shit.”

Tosh, who often referred to Blackwell as “Whitewell” or “Whiteworst left, too;  fed up, as he put it, with “Blackwell’s relentless fuckery.”

The follow up to Burnin’ was Natty Dread.  The album continued to shine a light on the political tensions in Jamaica, which sometimes turned violent.  Marley wrote this song, "Rebel Music (3 O'clock Road Block)" about the time he was stopped by army members late one night before the 1972 national elections. 

War

In ’76, Bob Marley & The Wailers released Rastaman Vibration.  The song  War was on it, and it was a platform for Bob to express his devotion to his faith and his heartfelt passion for political change:  On War, Bob sang  lyrics he took from a speech by Haile Selassie.  The album was a major success in the US.  It made #8 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart, and it went Gold in 1977.  

Marley’s popularity continued to rise throughout the western world, but back at home, his clear stance on black oppression in Jamaica drew strong responses from the opposition party.   On the night of December 3, 1976, a group of gunmen sprayed the studio where Marley and the Wailers were rehearsing.  It was just  two days before a planned concert in Kingston's National Heroes Park.  Bob was shot in the sternum and the bicep.  A bullet grazed Rita’s head.  Miraculously, neither one was severely injured, but their manager wasn’t as lucky. Having been shot five times, it took emergency surgery to save his life.  Here’s where you separate the men from the boys: Most other artists would have canceled the show, but after some heavy thinking, Bob still held the concert.  The day afterwards he and Rita fled Jamaica for England.  

Marlon James is the acclaimed Jamaican novelist, and the author of the prize-winning 2014 novel, “A Brief History of Seven Killings.”  In this interview, James talks about the assassination attempt, and why Marley was politically dangerous (assassination) 

Exodus

The Wailers’ next full album was 1977’s Exodus.  The title track and the album were written and recorded in London.  In it, you’ll hear many of the Rastafarian/ Marcus Garvey ideas we talked about earlier; the analogy between Moses and the Israelites in exile and the situation for black – and indeed all Africans living in the diaspora returning to Africa.  Exodus also had"Waiting in Vain" and "Jamming" on it.  Once released, it stayed on the U.K. charts for more than a year. It’s been called one of the best albums ever made.  If you don’t have this one, you should add it to your collection.  Essential listening!

Marley had a health scare in 1977. He’d gone to see a Doctor about a toe injury, and his physician discovered some cancerous cells.  A simple amputation should take care of it, they said.   The only problem?   The Rastafarian religion prohibits amputation.  Let’s put this thread on hold for a few minutes….

Is This Love

Between 1978 and 1980, Marley and the Wailers wrote and released three more albums, Kaya, which used ‘love’ as the albums theme and produced two hits: "Satisfy My Soul" and "Is This Love".   Bob Marley and the Wailers released Survival the next year, in 1979.  Survival called for both greater unity and an end to oppression on the African continent.  In 1980, the band released Uprising, which had two classics on it, "Could You Be Loved" and the song that opened today’s episode, "Redemption Song".

Once again, the band hit the road to support the new release.  Their international stature was never higher.  They played for massive crowds in Europe before moving on to America.  But the American tour was cut short.  They were only able to play their first three shows - two at Madison Square Garden and one at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, before Marley became ill.   The cancer they’d discovered four years earlier had spread throughout his body.  Now, in 1981, he traveled to Germany for unconventional treatments, which did buy him a few more months, but it was soon clear that he was out of time.  In the end, Marley, who had hoped to die in Jamaica, passed away in his sleep, at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, in Miami.  It was May 11, 1981.  He was only 36 years old.

Before passing, Bob received the Order of Merit from the Jamaican government as well as the Medal of Peace from the UN in 1980.  30,000 people attended his memorial service, held at the National Arena in Kingston, Jamaica. The Wailer’s performed at the ceremony, backed as always by Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt.

Bob left quite an enduring legacy.  He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.  In December, 1999,  TIME magazine named the album Exodus as album of the century and the BBC designated his song One Love as song of the millennium  More personally, his wife, Rita, and their children, "Ziggy", Stephen, Cedella and Sharon, all played together for years as Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers.  In 2000, Bob received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the next year, he was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone named him one of the greatest artists of all time. In 2006, a stretch of Church Avenue in Brooklyn, NY - between Remsen and east 98th, was co-named Bob Marley Boulevard.  In 2010, The Wailers’ album, Catch A Fire was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2012, Los Angeles declared August 7th as "Bob Marley Day.  Still more honors are likely to follow.  We’re currently waiting for the release of the album Africa Unite, a collaboration between Marley’s estate and a number of African musicians.  The release date is scheduled for August 4 – so less than a week from this writing.

In this commercial world, Bob Marley is still big business!  This might be another way to measure the mammoth sized crater he left behind.  There is one hell of a lot of swag out there with his picture on it.  A gazillion ways for legions of Marley fans to show their tribal membership:   T-shirts, hats, posters, tapestries, skateboard decks, headphones, speakers, turntables, bags, watches, pipes, lighters, ashtrays, key chains, backpacks, scented candles, room mist, soap, hand cream, lip balm, body wash, coffee, dietary-supplement drinks, and cannabis (whole flower, and oil!) that all have sort of official connection to his estate. Other items, like lava lamps, iPhone cases, mouse pads, and fragrances don’t. In 2016, Forbes calculated that Marley’s estate brought in twenty-one million dollars, making him the year’s sixth-highest-earning “dead celebrity” that year. Elvis was number one.  Its estimated that unauthorized sales of Marley music and merchandise might be as high as half a billion dollars a year.

In “So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley”, the reggae historian and collector Roger Steffens estimates that at least five hundred books have been written about Marley. There are books interpreting his lyrics and collecting his favorite Bible passages, illustrating his connection to the Rastafarian religion and celebrating his status as a “postcolonial idol” Other books reconstruct his Jamaican childhood or tell conspiracy stories about how his death was the result of a C.I.A. plot. Bob’s mother and his wife have each written memoirs about their time with him, and so have the touring musicians who were only a little while in his orbit. Bob has inspired countless works of fiction and poetry.

In this month’s episode, we’ve taken a long look at the cultural and political fabric that reggae sprang from.  We’ve talked about how these roots were expressed in the music, and we’ve gotten to know a bit about Bob Marley.  Of course, there are, and will continue to be, many musicians who continue the sound and spirit that Marley, Tosh, and other musicians started back in the 1960’s.  Today, over 40 years since Marley’s passing, Reggae is still a vital force in many parts of the world.  It gives people hope, because it is so interwoven with the message of social change.  We still need change since corruption, racism, oppression, and poverty are still with us.  Reggae gave legitimacy to the Rastafarian religion, and you can see the faith reflected in lyrics about Jah (God), and Babylon (oppressive authorities). With a canon of songs like Peter Tosh’s “Equal Rights and Justice, Reggae paints a picture of how life could be for blacks living in and outside of Africa where lives are pock-marked by poverty, limited access to resources, political exclusion, and religious oppression.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode, and that you’ll be back for more!  Already, there are more than 30 episodes in this series, and many more are planned.  If you’d like to dig deeper into any of the topics we covered today, you’ll find my complete list of sources on the American Song Podcast Facebook page.  When you go there, I hope you’ll reach out and say hello!  Let me know what you think of the series, and what you’d like to see me to do more of!

For the American Song podcast, I’m Joe Hines.  Thanks for listening, and I’ll catch up with you next time!  Bye!