80 years of Bob Marley: The pop star of the reggae

With reggae anthems such as “Get Up, Stand Up”, “I Shot the Sheriff” or “No Woman, No Cry”, Bob Marley (1945-1981) became an international superstar in the 1970s. His dramatically early cancer in 1981 left a gaping gap – and plenty of space for myth formation. Even if the musician did not sort the reggae alone, he is still considered the epitome of this extremely decelerated music style, which developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s.

The fact that he would make it to the world in his life was anything but foreseeable when he was born in the British colony at the time. Robert Nesta “Bob” Marley was born on February 6, 1945 in the small Jamaican village of Nine Miles as the son of an 18-year-old dark-skinned singer and a 60-year-old white captain of the British army.

The unequal relationship between the two was not a good star from the start. The fact that the captain married the pregnant mother was a scandal and finally led to the father’s departure. After he soon left the scene again, the young Bob Marley had a childhood and youth in bitter poverty. Because of his comparatively light skin, his dark -skinned playmates only called him “White Boy” for a long time.

After spending his early year in the small town of Rhoden Hall, he moved to Trenchtown, the poor district of the Jamaican capital Kingston at the age of twelve. After demolishing his school training, the young Marley initially worked as a mechanic in a bicycle repair workshop for a few years before starting his musical career.

Life in Trenchtown was characterized by hopelessness and violence, for most residents the music was the only way to escape the dreary of everyday life at least for a while. With his friends Bunny Wailer (1947-2021) and Peter Tosh (1944-1987), Bob Marley founded his first ska band with the talking name The Teenagers in 1963, which was later to be renamed the Wailers.

The musical formation quickly became an insider tip, her first single “Simmer Down” became a number one hit in Jamaica in February 1964. On the cover of the single, the young Marley with his colleagues still poses well with his colleagues with a chic black suit, fly and on a high -gloss polished lincer shoes.

The iconic rastas and more casual outfits, for which the musician is known today, only came into play after the christened Christian’s movement, to which he converted in 1967. In the program of this political-religious belief, which has been committed, among other things, the liberation of the oppressed black and rejection of western industrial society, in addition to wearing dreadlocks, the ritual consumption of marijuana (Ganja) also plays a not insignificant Role.

At the end of the 1960s, especially under the influence of the influential Jamaican musician and producer Lee Scratch Perry (1936-2021), the brand new music genre of the Reggae developed from the rapidly played SKA and Rocksteady, Bob Marley was at the forefront with his band. In 1972 the Label Island Records, founded by the British Chris Blackwell (87), took the band under their wing and thus also initiated the international breakthrough of the Wailers.

The albums “Catch a Fire”, “Burnin” or “Natty Dread”, which were created in the early 1970s, already delivered a large part of the super hits still well known today such Sheriff “or” No Woman, No Cry “. At the latest after the blues musician Eric Clapton (79) had climbed the top of the US charts in 1974 with a cover version of “I Shot the Sheriff”, Bob Marley finally became the world star.

With a newly established band, the musician, which has now moved to London, launched other pioneering albums such as “Rastaman Vibration” and “Urprising” in the next few years and went on extensive tours through Europe and the USA. The basic principle of reggae, supported by Bob Marley, also brought a breath of fresh air to the mid -1970s stagnating rock music. Numerous trendy acts such as Blondie, The Police or The Clash gratefully took up the new sound and landed big hits in turn.

Nothing seemed to be able to stop the breathtaking career of the Jamaican superstar – until she surprisingly brought a tragic stroke of fate to a sudden end. In autumn 1980, Marley went on a big tour through the USA with the Soul icons The Commodores and Lionel Richie (75). Only shortly after the beginning of this tour he collapsed at the jogging in New York Central Park, in the clinic the doctors later attested him a serious tumor attack on the lungs, the liver and brain. His concert on September 23, 1980 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania should remain his last.

After the shocking cancer diagnosis, the musician made a last desperate attempt to fight against the disease. In his need, he turned to the controversial German doctor Dr. Josef Issels (1907-1998), who became known in the 1970s through his alternative medical therapy concepts for cancer. During treatment in winter Bavarian Rottach-Egern, where he spent his last weeks of life, he lost his iconic dreadlocks as a result of chemotherapy.

When the situation became increasingly hopeless, Bob Marley started the return trip to Jamaica with the last strength to die in his Caribbean homeland. But this last wish should no longer come true. On the return flight, his condition deteriorated in such a way that he was taken to the hospital during a stopover in Miami, where he died on May 11, 1981 at the age of only 36.