 Robert Nesta Marley was born in Nine Miles (Rhoden Hall, Saint Ann) a small town north of the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean Sea. He was the son of Cedella Booker, Jamaican black 18 years and Norval Marley, captain of the British army, white, 50 years old, who left his son, for fear of being left without inheritance money. At the end of the fifties, Bob moved with her mother to Kingston, the capital. It was the city where the rural dwellers went towards improving their economic situation. Unfortunately for most, their destination was poor neighborhoods.
It was precisely in Trenchtown where the young Robert Nesta Marley was exposed to bebop music and modern jazz. Despite this being one of his first musical influences then admitted: "I could not understand it," "I do not quite understand." However, in 1960 began taking part of the afternoon meetings music led by Joe Higgs.
While working as a welder in Kingston, Bob formed his first band, The Rudeboys, which since 1963 is called The Wailing Wailers along with Neville O'Riley Livingstone (Bunny Wailer) and Peter Tosh. Together they began playing, influenced by the music of Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Brook Benton and Curtis Mayfield. That year launched a first album to reach the top of the Jamaican lists. Marley became one of the first to write songs about young offenders in the Kingston ghetto.
 In 1966, Bob Marley married Rita Anderson and left a few months to live with her mother, who was living in the United States with her new husband. Upon his return to the island, the belief in the Rastafarian religion grew up in Bob, after being his wife witness to the divinity of Haile Selassie on his visit to Jamaica on April 21, 1966. She infused this belief in him and this is reflected in his new songs.
With his friends Bunny and Peter, create a new group, 'The Wailers'. Because of the kind of spiritualism that emanated from his songs, had trouble finding representatives. In the early seventies, get together with Lee Perry, a producer who revolutionised his work, resulting in some of his best works, as Soul Rebel, Small Axe, 400 Years, and so on.
In late 1972 the group released its first album, Catch a Fire, which had great success, which led to a tour to England and the United States. In 1973 came to light them new album, Burnin', with new versions of the old themes.
Bunny and Peter left the group to go about their solo careers. Get to the group Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt. The group was renamed Bob Marley & The Wailers. In 1975 conducted Natty Dread and a disc of their live songs: Live!.
In 1976 introduced Rastaman Vibrations, arriving at charts and is regarded as the clearest example of the beliefs of Bob. The themes of his songs range from love, through social criticism, even calls for a spiritual and political revolution.
 On December 5, 1976, Bob was preparing to give a free concert in Kingston, as a vindication of peace and the rights of citizens from their homeland. But unknown persons attacked him before the concert wounded in the left arm by a gunshot. After this attack, Bob Marley left Jamaica and moved to London, multiplying their tours throughout the United States, Europe and Africa.
The following year he edited the album Exodus (1977), which became a best in England. That same year he released Kaya, a new success with songs of love and tribute to marijuana. Following the publication of the disc Babylon By Bus (1978), the fruit of a tour of Europe and America, Bob visited Africa, a fact that inspired him a new album, Survival, tribute to the African motherland.
In 1980, during the violent election campaign in Jamaica, Bob intervened to obtain a public truce between political rivals Michael Manley and Edward Seaga. Edited Uprising (1980), whose success was overwhelming, fostering a new European tour which broke all records for attendance. But at the end of this European tour, Bob fell seriously ill with cancer of unknown origin. Doctors advised in 1978 that left foot amputated, but he refused to do so, apparently because of his Rastafarian beliefs.
On May 11, 1981 Bob Marley died in a hospital in Miami at 36 years old, one month after he received the "Order of Merit" in Jamaica for his contribution to Jamaican culture. His body was moved to his hometown, Nine Mile, which lies in a mausoleum. Robert Nesta Marley received a large funeral given by the people of his village. At the same also attended by the prime minister of Jamaica and other senior figures in the world. |
The message in the lyrics of Bob Marley is truly revolutionary, ahead of his time. His compositions show the romantic, rebel and solidarity spirit that present and future society needs to escape the clutches of alienating Babylon.