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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Born in rural Jamaica, the son of a Black man and a White man,
Bob Marley moved to the slums of
Kingston when he was only 14, and soon started singing.
When he was still 17, Jimmy Cliff discovered him.
In 1963, Marley formed the Wailers with Peter Tosh (Winston McIntosh) and Neville "Bunny Wailer" Livingston (initially a quintet, then a trio). Simmer Down (1963), their first significant single, and Love And Affection (1965) were the hits that made them famous at home. In Rude Boy (1965), Marley sang for the first time about the actions of the delinquents. In 1966, Marley emigrated to the USA. After three years, returning to Jamaica, he recorded with the band the first reggae album, Best of the Wailers (1970), produced by Leslie Kong, which contains Caution, Stop the Train, Soul Shakedown Party, Soul Captives, etc. At the same time, his anger took on social connotations, and the perfect symbiosis with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry manifested in two albums, Soul Rebels (1970) and the inferior Soul Revolution (1971), and in classic anthems like Soul Rebel (1970), African Herbsman (1970), 400 Years (1970), Duppy Conqueror (1971), Small Axe (1971), Trench Town Rock (1971). The US edition of Soul Revolution adds Trenchtown Rock and Lively Up Yourself. Meanwhile, he had embraced the Rastafarian religion and, as a result, infused his music with spiritual speculations. After reaching the peak of popularity in the Caribbean, despite the arrest of Livingstone and the failure of their independent label, the Wailers began their conquest of England. The sound became harder, thanks to a new rhythm section, and the focus shifted from 45s to 33 rpm records. Catch A Fire (1973) was the album that commercialized the genre worldwide (Stir It Up, Concrete Jungle). Freed from Tosh and Livingston, Marley turned decisively to the white rock audience. This period, filled with songs like the classic I Shot The Sheriff and the revolutionary anthem Get Up Stand Up, both from Burnin' (1973), the funk Lively Up Yourself, and the poignant No Woman No Cry (written by Vincent Ford), from Natty Dread (1974), culminated in a legendary concert in London. He then became world-famous but began to take himself too seriously, releasing dance music albums with the air of a prophet, until his death from cancer in 1981. Among the hits from the commercial period: Positive Vibration by Vincent Ford from Rastaman Vibration (1976), which also contains War by drummer Carlton Barrett, Exodus, overflowing with Rastafarian rhetoric, and a demonic funk like Jamming, from Exodus (1977), which also contains One Love, the sensual Is This Love, and Satisfy My Soul, from Kaya (1978), which also contains Sun Is Shining (perhaps the masterpiece of bassist Aston Barrett), Zimbabwe (1979) from Survival (1979), Redemption Song, an apocalyptic folk-singer ballad, and the dance hit Could You Be Loved, from Uprising (1980).
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Exodus (1977), which came out after an
assassination attempt that wounded him and his wife,
was recorded while Marley and his group were living in London,
and is emblematic of how he fused
the political and the spiritual
(Natural Mystic,
Exodus,
Jamming,
Waiting In Vain,
Three Little Birds,
and especially One Love, an tribute of sorts to Curtis Mayfield).
Exodus was named the most important album of the 20th century by Time magazine, clearly a sign that Time magazine had missed a few thousand albums.
Marley was the official promoter of reggae and Rastafarian culture. Often boring and repetitive, never innovative or brilliant, Marley borrowed riffs, arrangements, and melodies from all commercial genres, both white and black, from spirituals to Tin Pan Alley. Disguised as music of the underprivileged of the Third World, his work was actually just dance music for American teenagers, and its creator was a late, idealistic, and superficial hippie.
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