Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican reggae singer-songwriter, musician, and guitarist who achieved international fame and acclaim.[1][2]
Starting out in 1963 with the group the Wailers, he forged a
distinctive songwriting and vocal style that would later resonate with
audiences worldwide. The Wailers would go on to release some of the
earliest reggae records with producer Lee Scratch Perry.[3] After the Wailers disbanded in 1974,[4] Marley pursued a solo career that culminated in the release of the album Exodus in 1977, which established his worldwide reputation and produced his status as one of the world's best-selling artists of all time, with sales of more than 75 million records.[5][6] He was a committed Rastafari who infused his music with a sense of spirituality.[7]
Robert Nesta Marley was born on the farm of his maternal grandfather in Nine Mile, Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica, to Norval Sinclair Marley (1885-1955) and Cedella Booker (1926-2008).[8] Norval Marley was a British-born European-Jamaican from Sussex England, whose family had Syrian Jewish origins.[9][10][11] Norval claimed to have been a captain in the Royal Marines,[12] though at the time of his marriage to Cedella Booker, an African-Jamaican then 18 years old, he was employed as a plantation overseer.[12][13] Though Bob Marley was named Nesta Robert Marley, a Jamaican passport official would later reverse his first and middle names.[14][15]
Norval provided financial support for his wife and child but seldom saw
them as he was often away. Bob Marley attended Stepney Primary and
Junior High School which serves the catchment area of Saint Ann.[16][17] In 1955, when Bob Marley was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack at the age of 70.[18]
Marley and Neville Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer)
had been childhood friends in Nine Mile. They had started to play music
together while at Stepney Primary and Junior High School.[19] Marley left Nine Mile with his mother when he was 12 and moved to Trenchtown,
Kingston. Cedella Booker and Thadeus Livingston (Bunny Wailer's father)
had a daughter together whom they named Pearl, who was a younger sister
to both Bob and Bunny. Now that Marley and Livingston were living
together in the same house in Trenchtown, their musical explorations
deepened to include the latest R&B from American radio stations
whose broadcasts reached Jamaica, and the new Ska music.[20] The move to Trenchtown was proving to be fortuitous, and Marley soon found himself in a vocal group with Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Beverley Kelso and Junior Braithwaite. Joe Higgs, who was part of the successful vocal act Higgs and Wilson,
resided on 3rd St., and his singing partner Roy Wilson had been raised
by the grandmother of Junior Braithwaite. Higgs and Wilson would
rehearse at the back of the houses between 2nd and 3rd Streets, and it
wasn't long before Marley (now residing on 2nd St), Junior Braithwaite
and the others were congregating around this successful duo.[21]
Marley and the others didn't play any instruments at this time, and
were more interested in being a vocal harmony group. Higgs was glad to
help them develop their vocal harmonies, although more importantly, he
had started to teach Marley how to play guitar — thereby creating the
bedrock that would later allow Marley to construct some of the
biggest-selling reggae songs in the history of the genre.[22][23]
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