Bob Marley was born today 61 years ago, and although he left this earth at the early age of 36, his legacy remains. Bob Marley is one of those people who has meant so much to so many different kinds of people. It's truly amazing when even in the canyons of the American southwest where the Hopi Indians live, the vast cold emptiness of Siberia or villages in isolated Tibetan mountains... Bob Marley is known by the people. He was a messenger, a reggae prophet uttering psalms and putting them to music and words that reach across the ages. Truly a symbol of humanity, born of a black mother and a white man, equally belonging to two groups of people and rising above racial strife. During his lifetime he was beloved by his countrymen the Jamaicans, Africans, Europeans, Americans, and Asians alike, and now he is beloved by younger generations who were born decades after his death. His expressions and his inspiration have been central to the modern Rastafari movement, short of His Imperial Majesty Himself. Yet he was also a mere man, not without his faults or mistakes, teaching us the glory of obedience to JAH and the sufferation and consequences for following temptation.
With honesty, Bob Marley was my first real exposure to Rasta Reggae music. I was a young teenager when I heard his music for the first time, as in really listening to the words, and it hit me. Almost everyone has heard the "Legend" compilation with his greatest hits but I soon found the real rebel tunes, the deeper vibrations that were seldom heard by the masses. It really changed me and the more and more I absorbed the words, the closer it led me to greater appreciation for JAH Rastafari, for Emperor Haile Selassie I, for studying the Bible, for practicing livity. Bob Marley was the step into a world of more artists and music with equally poignant messages, like Burning Spear, Culture, Peter Tosh, Steel Pulse and on and on. Eventually I saw how Bob Marley’s image and music had been commercialized and exploited, and it made me upset… and I took it out on Bob. I would see college kids getting drunk, acting like fools, and listening to Bob. I would see people getting stoned out of their minds without discretion, listening to Bob, their god of ganja. I would see people mockingly say “one love!” and not know the meaning, or “yah mon!”, listening to Bob. Making Bob another hippie, counterculture icon, his poster next to the patchouli oil, bongs, and tie-dye shirts. I declined to be associated with such nonsense after knowing the real deal. I delved deeper into other roots music, referring to Bob sparingly like the fat and sugar at the top of the food pyramid. Next it was hip-hop’s turn to exploit him and I stayed away from those equally misdirected conceptions. I continued to hang on to this philosophy for sometime until I decided to take the time to listen to more Bob Marley again, powerful albums like “Survival” and “Uprising”. I realized that Bob Marley was for everyone, whether I liked it or not, why should I be so selfish. Some people probably will never go beyond listening to “Jamming” and “Is This Love” and bother hearing tunes like “One Drop” or “War”, but that is their loss. Some people may never really understand the Trenchtown sufferation songs, the praises to the Almighty, the cries to liberate Africa from colonialism… but that’s their loss. With my mind made up, I returned like the parable son to the one who first opened the door to a new reality, and opened my eyes to a new vision. Bob was for everyone… is for everyone… and the world is better off of because of his message, and his continued exposure. Even if someone knows little, it allows the opportunity to know more. So I say give thanks to JAH for Mr. Robert Nesta Marley, and may his music continue to be an inspiration to one and all. Rastafari!
JAHsh
Bob Marley
February 6, 1945 - May 11, 1981
"Stiff-necked fools, you think you are cool
To deny me for simplicity.
Yes, you have gone for so long
With your love for vanity now.
Yes, you have got the wrong interpretation
Mixed up with vain imagination."
- Bob Marley "Stiff Necked Fools"
