Bob Marley is more than a singer or even a musician. He is an icon. He created a legacy that continues to resonate with people worldwide. He sang love songs, anthems for peace, political statements, inspirational ballads, and unifying lyrics.
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Raised in the poverty of Nine Mile, Jamaica, without a father, Bob Marley was exposed to music by homemade instruments played by his friends and community members. In school, he met Neville Livingston and began playing and singing music. Football and music were Marley’s two great loves. Let’s look at five fascinating facts about Bob Marley before he found fame.
1. Marley’s First Guitar Was Made From A Sardine Can
Marley had a homemade acoustic guitar made from parts at hand. An old discarded neck was connected to a sardine can, and Livingston took electrical wires apart to retrieve the metal insides to provide strings. Marley sang and tried to figure out where to put his fingers. His neighbor showed him some chords and how to play some calypso songs.
In 1957, Livingston and his father moved to the Trench Town section of Kingston to look for a better life. The Marleys followed shortly after. The public yards were gathering places where people played cards, music, football, etc. Crime was rampant, and the youngsters had to watch their backs.
Neville, known more widely as “Bunny,” continued playing music with Marley. They listened to the gospel, soul, pop, and R&B music they could pick up from American radio stations and put it through their calypso filter.
Marley got a job at a welding shop, where he met Desmond Dekker, who immediately spotted the talent in the young singer—a piece of metal lodged in Marley’s eye. As the injury healed, Marley was sure he wanted to concentrate on music moving forward.
2. Singer Joe Higgs Taught Marley
Joe Higgs was a successful Kingston musician who often taught guitar to youngsters. He took a liking to Marley and Livingston.
“Bunny” remembered, “We looked up to Joe Higgs. He was something like a musical guardian for us. He was a more professional singer because he was working for years with a fella named Roy Wilson as Higgs & Wilson. They had a lotta hits, and they had the knowledge of the harmony techniques, so he taught us them. And he helped in the studio to work out our different parts.”
Marley said, “Joe Higgs helped me understand that music. He taught me many things.”
3. Marley Made His First Record At 16
Higgs helped the teenager record his first song. Marley reflected on the words his grandfather taught him from the bible, “Judge not If you’re not ready for judgment.”
The ska beat provides the backdrop for the teen. You get a hint of what is to come in the following years, but it’s hardly “Could You Be Loved.”
The song received radio play, but it did not become a hit.
Don’t you look at me so smug
And say I’m going bad.
Who are you to judge me
And the life that I live?
I know that I’m not perfect
And that I don’t claim to be.
So before you point your fingers,
Be sure your hands are clean
Marley and Livingston were in the yard a short time later when Peter Tosh showed up. He would become part of the group first known as The Teenagers, then The Wailing Rudeboys. They became The Wailing Wailers and then, finally, The Wailers.
4. The Wailers Auditioned For A Record Deal Under A Mango Tree
Coxsone Dodd founded the first black-owned recording studio in Jamaica. Studio One Records was looking for talent when The Wailers auditioned for the studio owner. They were led to the backyard and performed five songs under a mango tree. When the band got to the song “Simmer Down,” Dodd stopped them before they could finish. He asked them to return the following day to record the song. Marley wrote it as a warning to Trench Town’s people about the violence around them. The Wailers recorded their first album for Studio One Records.
5. Marley Became A Rastafarian
Livingston’s father and Marley’s mother had a child together. Shortly after, Cedella Marley moved with the newborn to Wilmington, Delaware, to live with relatives. Bob stayed in Trench Town and moved in with the Livingstons. After a while, he began to feel unwelcome and sometimes slept in the yard. There, he encountered a homeless man named Georgie, who was a Rastafarian. This was a religion that Marley was somewhat familiar with. Joe Higgs also shared the same belief that the body is a vital part of spirituality. The central themes are Regular exercise, healthy food, and peaceful attitudes toward other living things. Rastafarians do not cut their hair as it is considered a source of power and inner strength. Marijuana or Ganja helps them to increase their spiritual awareness.
As a child, Marley cut his toe on a piece of glass while playing football. It became infected and took a while to heal. A cousin brought the child some natural medicine consisting of herbs. Years later, while playing football again, someone stepped on the same toe and injured it. It was later revealed that a form of skin cancer was spreading. Doctors advised amputation, but Marley resisted as he feared not being able to play football. The cancer spread, eventually killing the singer on May 11, 1981.
Music allowed the young Marley to escape the poverty he was born into. Not only did it save him, it brought salvation to many others.
Won’t you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
‘Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs
All I ever have
Redemption songs
These songs of freedom
Songs of freedom
(Photo by Mike Prior/Redferns)
