cannthropology
WORLD OF Cannabis PRESENTS
Bob Marley Herban Legend
leafmagazines.com
44 5 8
When it comes to the great global icons of Cannabis culture, few figures loom as large as the immortal king of reggae himself, Bob Marley. RISE & SHINE Born February 6, 1945, in the small Jamaican village of Nine Mile, Robert Nesta Marley was the only child of Captain Norval Marley (a 60-year-old British plantation manager) and a 17-year-old Jamaican girl named Cedella Malcolm – who he reportedly seduced, impregnated, then largely abandoned. After Norval died in 1955, Cedella and her son moved in with her boyfriend Thaddeus Livingston and his son, in Kingston’s notorious Trench Town tenement yard. There, tweenage Bob and his new stepbrother Neville RASTAMAN VIBRATION (nicknamed “Bunny”) started hanging with a During Marley’s absence, Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, who Rastafarians local street gang called the Rude Boys, who worshipped as the new messiah, famously visited Jamaica – inspiring a masnicknamed him “Tuff Gong” and turned them sive surge in the popularity of Rasta culture. By the time Bob returned to the on to the hot new sound known as ska. island in early 1967, his wife and bandmates had all converted to Rastafari Around the age of 14, Marley dropped out and he quickly followed suit – embracing the faith’s rituals of growing the hair of school to pursue his passion for music. out into dreadlocks and smoking ganja as a sacrament. Under this new Rasta He and Bunny started singing together and influence, the popular ska and “rocksteady” genres morphed into a mellower, were soon taken under the wing of a famous more political musical style with an offbeat “riddim” known as reggae … and Debut album from the clean-cut Jamaican singer named Joseph Higgs. Later the clean-cut vocal trio transformed into the rebel rude boys we know today. looking Wailing Wailers. regarded as the “Godfather of Reggae,” it was Reflecting this rebirth, Bunny changed his last name to Wailer and the band Higgs who taught the duo how to sing and shortened its name to The Wailers. play guitar, as well as introduced them to two pivotal figures in their lives: producer Clement “Coxsone” Dodd and a young guitarist CATCH A FIRE known as Peter “Tosh” McIntosh. After numerous lineup and name After a falling out with Dodd, the group teamed changes, their group solidified as The Wailing Wailers – a vocal trio up with producer Lee “Scratch” Perry to produce comprised of Marley, Livingston and Tosh. The group recorded over two albums: “Soul Rebels” in 1970 and “Soul 70 songs for Dodd’s Studio One label, which released their eponyRevolution Part II” in 1971. Then in 1972, The mous debut album in 1965. Wailers hooked up with soul singer Johnny Nash It was during those sessions that Marley met his first love, Rita Anfor a European tour. But when the tour fizzled out derson – a teenage mom who sang in a group called The Soulettes. and left them stranded in London, they decided to The two were married in February 1966 … but just days after the meet with Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, wedding, Bob left Jamaica to live with his mother in Wilmington, who sent them home with £4,000 to record a new Delaware (where she’d moved four years earlier). album. The result was “Catch a Fire” – the first
feb. 2022
