Bob Marley - Ambush In The Night voL#4

Bob Marley was born on Feb 6th, 1945, in a small little shack, in Rhoden Hall, which is in the northern part of Jamaica. His mom at the time was an 18 year old Jamaican native, and his dad was a 50 year old white navel captain. The couple got married in 1944 a year before Bob was born. Norval Marley, that was his dada's name, never really saw his son because his family did not accept the marriage. So after about the age of five or maybe six Bob Marley never saw his father again. A couple years after that Bob Marley was sent to a private school to get away from the "rude boy" gangs that were running rapant in the Jamaican streets, although he got away from it in school, when at home he learned the ways of a rude boy, one of his first and greatest songs "Simmer Down" showcased how Bob was also known as a rude boy, and would fight back if ever pushed.

Bob Marley has been a great influece in the lives of many present day musical artist, poets, actors, and other performers. Some of the people he grew up listening to in the trenches of Jamica are, the legendary Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Curtis Mayfield,the Drifters, and the likes of Louis Jordan. Early on in his career he tried to somewhat imate the styles of this singers, by following the same style of singing as them.

Bob Marley would put his first record out on wax in Febuary of 1962, the song was called "judge not." If you ever have heard the song before you'll notice how loud and scratchy the song sounds, but at the time that was what popular music sounded like, fast paced, with a ska beat in the background, and something to dance to. When it came out it was an instant hit locally, but his international fame would not spread for a couple of years.

Now lets skip to the really good stuff in the career of Bob Marley! Why are we skipping to the good parts, because there is a lot of somewhat boring details, and I don't want the attention deficit people to leave, and because it is my page, I can do what I want!! OK, in 1969(skipped a little)the Wailers first tape was recored, they were sent to England and released on Trojan records, it was Bob Marley and the Walers first album, it was called Soul Rebels and included classic tracks like, Soul Almighty. This album was only released in Jamica and England, the album sold well. In the early seventies Bob Marley and the Wailers were already pretty popular throughout the Caribbean region, but there music had not hit pay dirt in America and would just begin to travel to Europe. There first commerical start would come in the form of Catch a Fire, which would be released by their new record company(Oh I forgot to mention in the parts I skipped the Wailers were signed by Maroon records, and then CBS) Island. This album would be the new standard of what reggae music would be like, and was thought to be the new music sound that would sweep the world, rave reviews by the press didn't hurt them too bad either!

Excuse me while I skip a couple years! To coin a song, after the release of Catch a Fire, numberous hits followed like, Burnin', Natty Dread, and then the Famous live concert at Lyceum, where Bob's most world famous song, No Woman No Cry, was recorded. In 1976 Rastaman Vibrations was released and the album cracked the American charts. At this point it seemed like Marley was unstopable, and nothing could tare him down, then like a movie script, things started going bad for him.

In December of 1976, an Assassination attempt took place at his house, A gang of sorts tried to take the entertainer out for reasons that are still unclear till this day, Marley was shot, but of course it was not a deadly wound. A even bigger album than Rastaman Vibration came out called, Exodus, this would stay on the European charts for 56 weeks, and again everything seemed alright, but of course like a movie script things went wrong, in May of 1977 during the Exodus tour he was playing football with a french team and he injured his toe, for a second time. The injury never healed, and he never got it treated and continued on his tour. He finally got it checked out, and the doc said it needed to be amputated, but that of course is a Rasta no-no! In 1978 the chart topper Kaya came out, and the band saw success once again, but this joy would not last to long for Marley. In the same year he traveled to Ethiopia to only find out that his God Rastafari was dead and buried in an unmarked grave. The next year Survival was released, this album was a pro-Africa album, and had songs relating to what was happening in Africa at the time. Time however was runnign out for Bob Marley, and he new it as well as I know there is time running out on this page!

In 1980 Uprising was released and was an instant hit,on a personal note this was the first Bob Marley album I ever heard, around 83' or 84.' In 1980 a tour with Stevie Wonder was being planned and was going to be the biggest of his career. Unfortunatly that little soccer injury that had hurt him so much in the past had came back in the form of Cancer, it was spreading throughout his entire body now, and Bob new it looked grim. His last concert would be in Pittsburgh on Sept. 23, 1980 at the Stanley Theater. He would undergo many diffrent treatments to keep him alive longer, but on May 11th, 1981, Bob Marley died, age 36. Although he was dead his music was not, in 1983 the third part of a triology of cd's called Confrontation. The first two cd's in the triology made by Marley started out with Survival and then Uprising.

Although Bob has been dead for years, his music lives on through the music of diffrent artist including,Ziggy(now a one name figure also), Julian Marley, Damian Marley, Wyclef Jean, and plenty of other artist who have sampled his classic material. Bob Marley not only was one of the greatest musicans in the history of music, he is also one of the greatest men in the history of the world, through his music he not only touched the life of his fellow countrymen, he has influenced the lifestyles, attitudes and feelings of people all over the world, and I am one of the many that have been touched and affected by his powerful message!