A man whose music is inspirational and life changing, his music sends beams of love to all his listeners, Bob Marley, the Natural Mystic, is still impacting the world today. He is a "Musical Prophet", his music is relatable to any person in any situation. He sang with emotion and feeling, he sang of truth, love, happiness, sadness, and with an understanding of what he was sending out to people. He went on a mission to send his message of love and peace across the globe.
Bob Marley made his first record with his song "Judge Not" in 1962 when he was still a teen. Eventually he formed a group with his friends, Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith, called The Wailing Wailers. The group produced their first record "Simmer Down" in the final weeks of 1963. Although the group was growing quite popular, they broke up and went their separate ways. After the band split Bob decided to join his mother, Cedella, in America for 8 months to earn enough money to finance his goal to become a musician.In 1967 Marley's music reflected much of his religion, Rastafari; along with singing of his religion he sang of spirituality and social issues; this chapter of his musical career was just the cornerstone for his true legacy.
Bob reunited with the old band and they decided to re-form with an updated name, The Wailers. They constructed classic songs such as "Soul Rebel", "400 years", "Small Axe", and "Dubby Conquerer" which were defined to be the future generation of reggae music. The group was later described as a different kind of jamaican music "A whole new style of Jamaican music has come into being. It has a different character, a different sound. . . what I can only describe as International Reggae. It incorporates elements from popular music internationally: rock and soul, blues and funk. These elements facilitated a breakthrough on the international market."~ reggae dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. In 1975 Bunny and Peter quit the band to create their own solo careers, thus the band name changed to Bob Marley and The Wailers.
In December, 1976 Bob Marley was going to put on a free concert to promote the need for peace in the slums of the city, (Kingston, Jamaica) which shockingly brought assassins to Bob Marley's house and shot him. He was only wounded, but was hastily taken to safety. He went on with his concert of peace, and played a brief set in defiance to the gunmen. Shortly after the concert he left Jamaica for 18 months, spending most of his time in London. There he recorded his most powerful records, "Exodus", "Waiting in Vain", "Jammin", and then the album that put him number 4 on European charts," Kaya".
After his European tour, he flew to American, after putting on 2 shows, he fell extremely ill. Bob Marley fought his cancer for 18 months, until May 1, 1981, he died at the age of 36, although his body died, his soul lived on. Bob Marley is a legend, he has forever left his mark on this world. You can find his face painted on the sides of buildings in big cities, his face is on billboards, his soul is inside all of us. Bob Marley is not dead, and I don't believe he will ever truely be gone.
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