- Jah Rastafari!
Exodus
Movement of Jah people yeah
Jah come to break the oppression
Rule equality
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Wipe away transgression
Set your captives free
Jah
Rastafari
Jah
Rastafari
He used to love singing.
I used to teach him little jingles,
and he used to love them.
And the chief one that he used
to know was...
I had a little donkey that's grey
I feed him in a barn every day
And when he hears me whistle
he knows I have a thistle
He'd rather eat a thistle than hay
Hee-haw hee-haw
Hee-haw hee-haw
And that is all my donkey can say
And then you would see him,
you know, keeping time.
And you would see
that he was enjoying it.
How did it all start?
Had music always been a part of your life
from when you were a little boy?
What part of Jamaica?
- Yeah?
Well, you see,
Bob Marley is my cousin, you know?
- Bob liked to ride the donkey
and, you know,
go to the field with his grandfather
and things like that.
Because he's a country boy, you know.
Nine Mile was a place that...
there wasn't a lot of civilized activity.
Electricity was not available
in those areas,
so you see a lot of "peeny wallies"...
you know, those little fireflies.
And that's the only light at night...
other than the moon
and the stars, you know.
So, as a youth
coming out of Kingston...
that was accustomed
to jukebox and sound system,
it was really something
to get accustomed to.
And do you remember
when you first met Robert?
- Yes. First time I saw him,
I saw this little youth...
cutting up this big chunk of wood
and putting it on his head bit by bit
and taking it away...
I say, that's...
You know, and then...
He was the only little,
what you call it,
red "pickney" in the place,
because everybody else
was black people.
Who was Bob's dad?
He liked
when you call him "Captain."
Yes, but his...
his name is Norval.
I met him right there in Nine Mile,
and then as a white man in the district,
you know, always ride
his horse and things like that.
He and my father
becomes good friends.
Then at that time he see this little girl
and I guess he liked her, and, um,
we finally get together
and that's how it...
that's how it happened.
How old was your sister
when she met the Captain?
- She was, what, 16.
Captain was...
He was about in his 60s.
- So he was an old man?
- Yes.
- My name is Peter Marley.
Bob Marley is my second cousin.
What did you know about
Bob Marley's father?
He rode a horse most of the time.
He was in the British army.
I think he was stationed somewhere
in India in World War II...
when he got shell shock.
I understand he drank
and that he lived a...
What should I say?
A full life.
Did he get teased
for being mixed?
Yeah, sure.
Worse than teased.
Teased is not the word
You call it rejected.
He did everything that
his bigger uncles should be doing...
because it was
their duty to move horses...
and to make sure
that the pigs were fed,
and they left
all of that work for Robert.
He had to earn his every meal.
We went to the same school.
And he had me teaching me the stuff...
of what takes place in the country...
how to ride a donkey, how to ride a horse.
How to do all of this kind of stuff.
And I taught him about music,
'cause...
that was what I was exposed
to prior coming to Saint Ann.
I was accustomed to
building bamboo guitars...
and sardine tin guitars.
Cutting the wire...
the electric wire...
opening it up, taking out those little
fine wires and making our strings.
In a little district on a little island
Where men and pretty gal run wild
Well there's one old crazy
who went much wider
So they call her rider
Rough rider
- Outta that, Robert Marley saw...
a way out.
His guitar.
In high seas or in low seas
I'm gonna be your friend
I'm gonna be your friend
I heard her praying praying praying
I said I heard my mother
She was praying in the night
And the words that she said
The words that she said
They still lingers in my head
Lingers in my head
She said a child is born in this world
He needs protection
Whoa mmm
God guide and protect us
One good thing about music
When it hits
You feel no pain
I say one good thing about music
When it hits
You feel no pain
Hit me with music
Hit me with music now
This is
Trenchtown rock
Don't what's that
We grew up in Trench Town.
We were exposed to everything.
'Cause you have the bad guys there
who eventually turn out
to be the con men.
You have the musicians.
And you have the sportsmen.
Everybody lived just like a block away
from each other.
It's like a melting pot.
- Well, living in Trench Town,
you know, um,
as a young man, surviving was easy.
The only thing that you have to really
look out for was the police, you know,
'cause the police can just get ya,
frame ya.
You go to prison and...
"Look, I come from Trench Town."
Trench Town's that...
Find them say, "Where you from?"
You say, "Trench Town."
You're gone.
You know what I mean?
- No, it was tough.
All of Kingston is like that, you know?
Everybody.
A lot of people don't know, but Bob, me,
all of we, went to bed hungry a lot.
I mean real hungry.
I don't mean like, "He had some,
a little piece of this."
Nothing.
One of the famous lines was,
"Drink some water and go to bed."
You know?
In those days you never have...
You might have one pair of shoes.
One suit of clothes.
So you walk bare feet all the time.
Bob too, you know?
A lot of people don't know that.
That kind of sufferation and struggle...
can make you either go bad or good.
And I guess
that's what he did, you know?
He figured the music would get him out,
so he stuck to it and focused,
you know?
You know, as an individual
they're forced to be creative.
Because that's where
your reggae music born, Trench Town.
Dread natty dread now
Natty dread
Dreadlock Congo bongo I
Natty dread
Natty dreadlock
In Trench Town
we have First Street.
All the way up to 13th Street.
First, Second, Third,
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth,
and so on and so forth.
Him sing about it in "Natty Dread."
Then I walk up the First Street
Natty dread
And then I walk up
the Second Street to see
Natty dread
- He was different, mon.
He was different.
He just loved music.
Music and cricket and football.
Natty Congo I
Natty dread
- One day he just come home
and give me the books and say,
"I'm not going back to school."
And, um, him say have a friend
that he can give these books to.
And he did that,
and then he turned to his music.
I'm a rebel
Soul rebel
I'm a capturer
That's right
Soul adventurer
Yeah mon
I'm a rebel
Soul rebel
Robert keep pounding,
keep pounding, keep pounding.
Telling me that
this is what it should be and, uh...
And I'm saying, "No,
I'm gonna get ready to go to college.
I can't be no music."
He say, "No, it's music."
When did you begin
to get involved in music?
- Well, I was always interested
in music,
but at that time I was learning
a trade, you know,
and meet up
some guys who can sing.
One named Desmond Dekker.
- Desmond Dekker and Bob
used to work as welders...
at the same place.
Desmond Dekker came down,
and I auditioned him.
And we recorded his song.
And after he did that song,
Robert wanted now to record.
So Desmond take him Beverley's.
And he went away
and recorded a song...
to prove to me that if he
could record a song, I could.
Don't you look at me
so smug now
And say I'm going bad
Who are you to judge me
And the life that I live
- I noticed his use of words
in the songs.
"Judge Not"...
it was a revolutionary song...
defending his rights as an individual.
It occurred to me,
"Wow, this guy's really a good poet."
Judge not
Before you judge yourself
- After the recording,
Leslie Kong wanted
to change Bob's name,
because Robert Marley
didn't sound so catchy and easy.
So he wanted to call Bob "Adam."
Adam Marley.
Bob wouldn't have it.
He realizes that a group
would be maybe the appropriate thing,
other than being individual,
solo artists.
We used to listen to groups
like Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers,
The Drifters, The Platters.
So there was a recruitment
process taking place.
Myself and Robert started
to put the group together.
And then here comes this tall, dark,
as they would say,
handsome dude named Peter,
and he has
this guitar knowledge.
And from Robert, you hear Robert say,
"Play guitar? You serious?"
So he goes give him
the guitar right away.
So it's four-string steel,
but Peter tune the four-string,
and he's just like that.
On First Street
is a music street.
We had three or four places
on First Street that we rehearse,
and they were rehearsing
like every day.
At the time,
it was Bob, Peter, Bunny.
We used to call ourselves
"Juveniles." "Brothers in the Ghetto."
Where we used to go to rehearse,
they'd say,
"You come from a wailing environment
where people always bawling.
And, well,
you should be named the Wailers."
This train it is bound to glory
This train
This train is bound to glory
This train
This train is bound to glory
This train don't carry
- As far as the Wailers' harmony,
and the building of the Wailers musically,
Joe Higgs is the responsible person.
Having his own career,
he decided to take the group up
as a project.
His policy was that great stars
sometimes get messed up...
when they get afraid, you know,
when they get nervous on stage.
So he said that...
if we went to the cemetery
at, say, 2:00 in the morning...
and sang for those people,
then we can't be afraid
when we hit the stage.
And we went with Joe,
sat on the graves, played.
Several times we do it until he thought
we were brave enough now.
Gather together
Be brothers and sisters
We're independent
We're independent
Just about the time
of the independence,
the Jamaican musicians
wanted to have a music...
that they can call Jamaican music.
- Well, Jamaica came up
with a unique rhythm.
I didn't think it was deliberately done.
I think it was an attempt to play
something, and it came out that way.
It became known as reggae,
but it started off as ska,
which was putting all the accent...
on a different beat than what is normally
where the accent is.
It would be on the off beat
instead of the on beat.
Ska developed out of American
music that we were exposed to...
on top of our Jamaican
indigenous music,
such as mento, calypso, Kumina.
Simmer down
You lickin' too hot
So simmer down
Soon you'll get dropped
- We were at a bar one evening.
And one of the guys, them says to us,
"Listen to this group."
And they punched the jukebox.
And the song was called "Simmer Down."
And no more other tune
play on that box...
the whole time we were there
but "Simmer Down," I tell you.
Simmer down
Control your temper
Simmer down
For the battle will be hotter
- "Simmer Down" went straight
into the number-one position,
and the Wailers were launched.
...that I'm leaving you today
Simmer down
- What was it like working at Studio 1,
where you started, in those days?
Yeah, it was good,
you know, 'cause, you know,
first experience within music.
Working with some good musician
and trying to get the harmonies
and everything. It was great.
I heard you actually...
you personally lived in the studio.
Sometime.
You had Coxsone made you
a room out the back.
Yes.
Well, Coxsone was,
um, a smart guy,
in that he has an ear
for music, good music.
- He might not have been
an instrument player.
He might not even know
if the guitar is tuned,
but he knows when the sound is right.
- He has his own program on the radio.
Has his own record shop.
Has his own sound system.
Has his own studio.
So he's obviously a leader.
- Coxsone was like a father to us,
you know, to be honest with you.
Coxsone was like a father to us.
He cared for us.
Coxsone gave Robbie a little room
round the back of the premises.
I didn't have anywhere
to live neither.
So Robbie and me lived there.
Both of us lived there.
So we became intimate good friends.
He gave Robbie a record player
and a lot of foreign records.
Robbie was a fanatic
in listening to these people...
because he was a serious,
focused man.
Even as a youth.
- Jamaican music developed from
what we call "do overs,"
a version of somebody's song
in America.
Each night
I ask the stars up above
Why must I be a teenager in love
Put me in your milling machine
I never thought you could act so mean
Now I'm wondering what to do
To see if you could love me too
Bob had a good sound
'cause he's singing lead.
And the harmony was tight.
- The harmony Bunny carried,
and Peter was fantastic.
Why must I be a teenager in love
Peter and Bunny was
the most vocal one to say hi,
but Bob was very reserved
and just look.
As he would say, just "cotch and look."
- As much as there was this obvious
love and admiration...
for each other and of each other,
there was always
a deep underlying tension...
that none would be
a "yes man" to the other.
I think the music was the glue
that held them together.
Feel them spirit
Feel them spirit
Feel them spirit
Lord, I thank you
Lord, I thank you
I'm gonna put it on
I'm gonna put it on
- By then he was admiring me.
I got a letter from Bunny,
bringing a letter.
It was him sending his letter
through his friend. Not by himself.
And to say yes, he likes me
and want to talk to me.
I say, "Come over and talk."
And he would stay
on the other side of the road and...
He was very shy. He was very shy.
He was a shy guy.
I'll play your favorite song darling
He had a seriousness,
and he was one
that you could say
was reaching out for love.
- I didn't think,
I liked brown-skin men.
I always dream of a guy...
tall, black, handsome.
Every young girl's dream in Jamaica
is to have a tall, black boyfriend.
They would call Bob an outcast...
because he really don't belong to no...
you're in-between.
You're black and white, so they're...
"You're not even black."
I think he always felt
like an outsider...
because he was a half breed.
And when Mortimer Planno took him in,
well, that automatically
gave him acceptance.
Mortimer Planno was
a Rasta spiritual leader who taught Bob.
- He was like a preacher.
He preached Rastafarianism,
and he had a following.
He hooked up
with Bob as a young boy.
I think that they gelled together.
Bob looked up to him?
- Yes.
Rastafarian were
the only true Afrocentric black people.
Who preached self-reliance,
who preached self-confidence.
But we interpret
the Bible a different way.
Most of these places that they're telling
you about in the Bible is in Africa.
The Garden of Eden is in Africa.
The teaching that we get
from the elders then...
is that we always have to look upon
a black man as God.
For we, somebody
that we can identify with.
Emperor Haile Selassie I
is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
He's our God. Rasta God.
Rasta said the purpose of life
is to be happy.
Everybody's supposed to be happy...
and live in peace, love and unity.
Yeah, mon.
I think when him start take it serious
now as a Rastaman...
was when him start growing dreadlocks.
- Locks meant that you were a Rastafarian
and you've taken a vow...
Nazarite vow not to cut or comb
your hair for a certain length of time,
and it has a significance
and is not to be taken lightly.
- How important are the dreadlocks?
- This? This is my identity, mon.
- Is that part of being a Rasta?
- Yeah, this is my identity.
- Then you go through
all the various rules...
for living as set out by the Bible.
How you eat, how you live,
how you treat other people.
And he believed that, um,
if you practice these things,
well, life will be better.
Not only for you,
but for everyone else.
Got to have kaya now
Got to have kaya now
Got to have kaya now
For the rain is falling
Marijuana's illegal in Jamaica,
but the Rastas say they smoke it
because the Bible tells them to.
The Book of Revelations
says to "partake of the herb."
- The herb was like
a sacramental food to us.
We take it for reasons,
not just to get high.
It put us in a holy, peaceful,
happy, inspirational mood.
Were you born as a Rasta?
When I was born, you know,
and growing,
there was a certain amount
of consciousness...
in the higher self...
that, you know,
it was always a lonely world,
not finding people who might
think like me, you know?
So off I'm going on, and going on
and I come to Kingston,
meet some more people.
Them people is Rasta.
It's after that I find out
it's the same thing I have inside.
It's the same thing.
- How old were you
when this started to happen?
This is about 17, 18, you know?
- I think in the belief or knowledge...
of Haile Selassie,
Bob found his real father,
which he'd never really knew.
- I think he saw himself now.
This is where he found himself, yes.
No more about being
half white or half black.
It's just one... one love.
One love
One heart
Let's join together
and I'll feel all right
One love
One heart
Let's join together
and I will feel all right
Undaunted by the driving rain,
a sea of faces awaited...
at the Palisadoes Airport
the arrival of a living legend.
For some,
he was the King of Kings.
The Lion of Judah...
even a god.
Members of a local cult,
the Rastafarians,
who worship this figure as a deity,
were present in full force.
His Imperial Majesty,
Haile Selassie I,
Emperor of Ethiopia, arrived.
When the plane landed,
thousands ran out and surrounded the plane.
Some of them smoking.
Our police were powerless.
And Selassie came to the door
of the plane, I remember,
and after about 20 minutes
and he just looked and went back in.
It took a long time
to get him off the plane.
So he came off the plane
and he greet, and I say...
I say, "Wait, but this is a little man.
There is this little man they say is God.
Them crazy."
- I sit there on my bicycle,
waiting on him.
And when him come up,
he look right in my face.
It was like him look
into everybody face.
But he look upon everyone.
I remember, I see that.
And he just
turn his head around...
and he was looking straight at me.
And he did like this.
And I look and I look,
and I saw his hand,
and I saw a mark in his hand.
And believe you, my brother,
when I saw that I went crazy.
I run all the way back
to Trench Town.
Take your troubles to Selassie
He is the only King of Kings
King of Kings
King of Kings Selassie
The deeper Bob got
into the faith... the Rastafarian faith...
the more his music
became entwined.
- He was very into the social
commentary side of the music.
Mr. Dodd didn't like that because
it wasn't commercial enough.
So he was a little frustrated
because he couldn't do the music...
the way he really wanted it to be done.
And also at that time,
money was a problem.
Coxsone wasn't the kind of person
at the time to argue money with,
unless you were willing
to go to war.
When you go
and ask him for your money,
he usually like to bring off
some bad boy style.
'Cause he has his thugs around him.
You know what I mean?
Enforcer type of guys.
- It was traditional in those days...
that artists who recorded
never made money...
because the record company
who collected the money...
never gave the artist any money.
- Yeah, we got paid
like minimum wage.
Three pounds a week, that's it.
Each.
- You couldn't live off it.
Could Bob live off it?
- Nah, mon.
That's why Bob had to leave
and start doing his own thing.
So Robert left the group
to go to Delaware,
to the United States.
To migrate.
Gotta hold on to
this feeling we got
We gonna blow blow blow
'Cause we love love love you now
- Yeah, well that was a marriage
that I wasn't invited to, nor Peter.
But because he's our brother
we lived with it.
We got married, like,
on the 11th.
And he left on the 12th of February.
Run for cover
Run for cover
Rain is taking over
Taking over
He came here...
his mother wants him here.
Bob loved his mother.
He got a job at the du Pont Hotel
vacuuming the floor.
Then he got a job at Chrysler.
- When he was working there,
he used to...
I think he used to drive
one of the forklift.
I think he have a song out
of that driving the forklift all night.
I'm working all night
Got to be all right
See I work for my bread
All right
Night and day
All night
Work for my pay
All right
Night and day
No no no no no no
No no no no no no
Can you feel it
No no no no no no
- Well, he was just very humble,
very loving,
and he was very quiet, really.
Was he smoking
a lot of ganja then?
- Yeah, he was growing it too,
man, in his backyard,
and he had a row of herb plants,
I mean towering in the air,
and I couldn't believe it.
'Cause at that time
in Wilmington, Delaware,
man, they were kicking
people's doors in for a little joint.
- I used to go up to his house
and we'd go in the basement.
He'd play his guitar, and I would play
my congas. I played congas.
And we would just jam.
And I didn't really realize
he was such a great musician.
But he never gave up music,
'cause his mummy,
she would write me to say,
"All Nesta does
is stay in the basement...
and play his guitar."
Well, I couldn't stand it.
I wasn't doing what I wanted to do.
So I went back to Jamaica,
where I must get more freedom.
Bend down low
Let me tell you what I know yeah
Bend down low
When Robbie came back
from the U.S.,
we decided to start our own independent
label, "Wail'n Soul'm."
So we went in and did
"Bend Down Low."
"Bend Down Low" was a number one.
We started to build our own economy.
We used to ride with our bicycles
and distribute the records to jukeboxes,
sound systems, record stores,
with our bicycles.
- The Wailers' music
dominated the dance halls.
But it was hardly played
on our Jamaican radio stations.
In the music business,
they were just prejudiced.
The first problem is being a Rasta.
And the next problem is that
you're not with the big companies.
So that's a...
that's a heavy load to carry.
These disc jockeys,
when they went on air,
they had their own program sometime.
They had their own
sorts of records from these...
these different companies
that they would have to play.
Sometimes we were not included.
So to be included in that,
we had to get real tough sometimes.
- I used to drive Bob with "Skill" Cole...
- Yeah.
- And Frowser and Tek-Life.
Do you remember them,
these two little gangsters?
- Yeah. Right.
Yeah.
- I used to drive to the radio
station, right? - Right.
- And they'd leave me in the car.
Right?
And they'd go in.
Skill Cole had a baseball bat.
You know they don't play baseball
in Jamaica.
I don't know where
he got a baseball bat.
And Skill Cole was big... A big guy.
- Yeah.
- Right?
They'd go in the radio station.
They'd have me listen
to the radio...
to make sure that they're really
playing the record.
- Right.
And then Coxsone, Studio 1,
Dualcreed, Trojan
and Prince Buster...
decide to form an organization
called "The Big Tree."
Then the Wailers pulled the ax.
If you are a big tree
We are the small ax
Sharpened to cut you down
Well sharp
To cut you down
Lee Perry used to work
with Coxsone.
So when he started doing
his independent business,
we admired him, because he follow
our footstep out of Coxsone.
My experience of "Scratch" is that,
number one,
he's a very innovative producer.
Very creative.
I mean, to the point
that it became an excitement...
to see him come into the studio
with a half flask of white rum...
and sprinkle the four corners
of the studio with it.
Flash.
And then he would go into his little...
You know, he would, like, dance.
He didn't write music scores.
He would say, you know,
"Snap, I want you to play this,"
you know?
And he would just hop
through the music, you know?
And they...
they would follow him.
I would believe that his early
recordings with the Wailers
were the best to my knowledge.
Perry had a lot of influence
on Bob's, uh, career.
These are the words of my master
Why do people like his music
so much though?
- It is mentioned often in the Bible...
that there shall be a music
that all people of all global concerns...
shall play and dance
and sing this music.
It's in the Revelation.
What other music could that be?
Reggae.
- What really changed it to reggae...
was the riff actually with the guitar.
It just basically a rhythm change...
in terms of what the guitar...
the guitar used to play
like cha, cha, cha.
And then it start playing
chaka, chaka, chaka, chaka.
Yes my friend
We're in the streets again
Sometimes some of these things happen
out of just maybe an accident.
Somebody was doing something
and the producer went, "Hey, I like that."
Can set me free again
Coxsone had bought a piece
of equipment from the United States.
And it was in the studio for a long time
and no one knew what to do with it.
They decided to hook it up.
And when it was hooked up,
they realized it was a tape delay.
So when you make one strum,
it comes back at you
at the same time. "Chicka."
And the other studios heard "Chicka"...
and thought it was a guitar
making more sounds.
So reggae, to my mind, actually
developed out of an illusion.
So if you a bullbucka
Let me tell you this
I'm a duppy conqueror
Conqueror
The beats are
bam, bam, bam, bam.
With reggae you got three beats
out of four beats,
and you imagine the next beat.
Feel the next beat.
That's reggae.
Feel. Heartbeat. Feel.
Yeah.
Heartbeats.
Real deal.
- The basic parts of the music
were the drum and the bass.
Because, you know, drums are
the first instruments in music.
So the drum is the heartbeat,
and the bass, it is the backbone.
Well, I think
the drum and bass...
play a very important part
in Bob's music.
It was, you know, "Family Man"
and Carlton... two brothers.
They have their own style.
Stir it up
Little darlin'
Stir it up
Come on baby
Reggae is a concept
of all different type of music.
You got funk.
You got rhythm and blues.
You got soul.
And then very jazzy when it's ready.
It's been a long long time
Since I've got you on my mind
Whoa whoa whoo yeah
And now you are here
I say it's so clear
To see what we could do baby
Just me and you
Come on and stir it up
Little darlin'
Stir it up
Come on baby
Come on and stir it up
Little darlin'
Stir it up
- I was working with a company
called National Dry Cleaners.
And I was in charge of a branch.
And Rita came in one day
with some clothes to,
you know, to be dry-cleaned.
She gave out the clothes
and she said, "Rita Marley."
So I was quite surprised,
because, I mean, the only Marley I know
was the white Marleys.
I call them the white Marleys.
And, uh, so I said, "Who is Marley?"
She said, "Well, that's my husband."
And I said, "Who is his father?"
She said she don't know much about him,
but she know they call him Captain Marley.
And then I said, "That's my father."
My mother used to work
in a boardinghouse,
and my dad would stay there
when he comes from...
from sea or wherever he goes,
and that's how she met him.
And did they have a long
relationship or was it very brief?
- I think it was very brief.
My mother didn't really know
what happened to him.
In Jamaica,
used to have a big company.
Established company
named Marley and Plant.
They did construction,
Marley and Plant.
Most of the construction jobs
in and around the country.
That was the company who did it.
And he always said
those were his family.
- Yeah, I remember one time, I think,
him go to them to try borrow
some money to buy a car,
you know, so they can
deliver the records.
And the story goes,
when he walked in the office,
like the whole staff turned around
'cause he looked so much like them.
- They told us to go away.
They know nothing
about Norval having a baby.
- Knowing my father, as I do, um,
I don't know how strong
the word rejected is.
But he might have
been rejected, for sure,
because, um, a different era
and my father was a disciplinarian,
and he was quite
a stern man in his own way.
In those days Rastafarians weren't
as socially accepted as they are now.
- He said to me, "When all this happened,
it gave me more strength...
because I went to write a song."
You know, write a song.
I said "What song?"
He said, "Try to pick it up."
He said, "The stone the builder refuse.
I'm the stone. I'm the one."
I just wanted to play you a song...
which we were told, Bob,
after he went to see your father
and he felt rejected,
he wrote this song
about that experience.
I'm just very curious to know
what you think of it.
- Really? I'd be interested.
I'd be interested to hear it.
The stone that the builder refused
Will always be the head cornerstone
Sing it brother
- Nice song.
You're a builder baby
Here I am a stone
Don't you pick and refuse me
'Cause the things people refuse
Are the things they should use
Do you hear me
Hear what I say
- I've heard this song before,
but I never placed any significance in it.
But I can see where
what you're saying could be so.
Mm-hmm.
- Am I allowed to talk?
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah, how true that is.
'Cause Bob put the Marley name
in the world, you know?
He filled the world with the Marleys
by all his music and his children's.
And he now becomes the Marley.
You know what I mean?
He now becomes the Marley,
and nobody knows what happened
to the rest that used to be so...
adored and wonderful.
They're in the background now,
and he's in the forefront.
Isn't that amazing?
Yes. Yes. Truly.
The stone that the builder refused
Will always be the head cornerstone
- I think what happened to him...
that rejection...
that is why he was able
to reach the world.
And I think there are so many people
out there that are hurting.
So many people out there that have felt
what I have been through,
and I have a message that can bring change
and transformation.
No woman no cry
No woman no cry
No woman no cry
No woman no cry
'Cause 'cause
'Cause I remember
when we used to sit
In the government yard
in Trench Town
Oba observing
the hypocrites yeah
Mingle with the good people
we meet yeah
Good friends we have
Good friends we've lost
Along the way yeah
In this great future
you can't forget your past
So dry your tears I say
Yeah
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right
Somebody rang me and said,
"By the way,
Bob Marley and the Wailers are in London.
Would you like to meet them?"
I was intrigued to meet them
because, you know,
you'd heard a lot about them by now.
When they came in the office,
they were just really impressive.
Very charismatic.
I just said to go make an album
and asked them how much they thought.
They told me, and I gave them
the money to do that.
We took 4,000 pounds and
did the Catch a Fire album.
I was trying to get across
that this is a black rock act.
That's how I wanted it
to be perceived.
Get up stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up stand up
And don't give up the fight
My sense is that Bob
was ready to give it a try,
and that the others weren't that keen.
The frame of mind that Bob was in,
he didn't mind it.
He said, "I had to start somewhere."
He always said it.
"If you don't start somewhere,
you're not gonna get nowhere."
Get up stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up stand up
Bob wanted it to reach
not just the Jamaicans...
Bob wanted it to reach
the American market.
He wanted it to reach
the European market.
And in order to do that,
you had to flavor it that way.
Stand up for your rights
Get up stand up
And don't give up the fight
Ital.
Irie.
The first record
is easily the most,
for want of a better word, pasteurized.
I added sort of different things into it.
- All those guitars and the keyboards
are all overdubs.
No sun will shine in my day today
No sun will shine
The high yellow moon
won't come out to play
Won't come out to play
I said darkness
has covered my light
And has changed my day
into night yeah
Where is the love to be found
Won't someone tell me
I had no doubt
that it would succeed.
I had no doubt.
The only thing that
could stop it succeeding...
is if I couldn't get them to tour.
That was my only fear.
Concrete jungle
I say where the living is hardest
They went on this famous tour,
and things went wrong.
Things went sour.
- We did a tour of England
of the Catch a Fire album,
but no one told us that
it was a promotional tour,
so we wouldn't be getting any money.
You're top group in Jamaica now,
and you probably think that going
to England is going to be the same.
Bob was more real.
'Cause he said to me,
"Nobody know the Wailers."
- I think Bob recognized he needed
to get out there and do it,
and I think the others were not sure.
It's like grassroots, you know?
You're on a bus all night,
schlepping up and down the motorway,
eating terrible food.
You know, it's rough.
In the case of Bunny, I think he just
didn't want to be in the cold and the snow.
He just... it just wasn't worth it to him.
Bob wanted success.
Bunny and Peter were more militant.
People wanted to separate them...
because they didn't want
to deal with Bunny and Peter.
- When you say people,
do you mean Island Records?
- Of course.
- The American leg was next.
So I said, "Are we going to get
some money out of this leg?"
Chris Blackwell said, no, because
you're gonna be doing freak clubs.
You know, a place where
all kinds of immoral, mix-up things.
I say, "Chris
you know that we are Rastas.
Why are you exposing us
to them kind of situations there?"
"Well, if the Wailers don't do those clubs,
they're nobody."
So I said, "Yeah?
So I'm not going on this tour.
This leg, I'm coming off."
And my brothers, I thought,
would have done the same...
as the conversation affected them both.
But I was left to look as if
I was the only cold front.
So I hold my position anyway,
and still holds my position.
Stop that train I'm leaving
Stop that train I'm leaving
Peter was
a militant type of guy.
And I think he didn't like
Chris Blackwell too much.
He figured Chris Blackwell
was ripping them off.
- Well, the time came about '74...
when we did two L.P.'s
with Chris "Whitewell."
And the way he intend to handle us...
was like we were unprofessional,
or we were just beginners,
which I did not appreciate.
But after 12 years of being
a background vocalist with the Wailers,
I didn't get much access of saying,
or materializing what was in me.
And that was totally
depreciating my ability.
So I left because I need recognition
and respect.
For us as his children
he wasn't like a lovey-dovey daddy.
You know,
a daddy who would, you know...
"Be careful, Son."
Him was a rough man.
Him was rough, you know?
Rough, rough, rough.
We were always active.
You know, like, we're on the beach.
We're running.
We're racing each other.
It was always about racing
to see who could beat him.
I mean, there was
no let-up in him.
There was no, like, "It's children.
Let me run slow."
The fastest he could run
against us he would.
- And then he would find it hilarious,
and we didn't find it so funny.
Yeah, nobody wanted
their children around...
...us.
"Nasty. Drug heads.
All your parents do
is smoke weed and play music.
And therefore
my kid cannot play with you."
So it wasn't a positive thing.
I would have friends who, like,
basically if they want to sleep over,
they would have to tell their parents
they were sleeping somewhere else.
He said, "You don't need friends.
You have your brothers and your sisters.
And that's all you need.
Don't ever think
you'd need friends."
- I feel Bob worked through
so many different experiences in life...
that I don't think him
trust people so easy.
So it's like, "Who really love me?"
Play I some music
Reggae music
Play I some music
Dis a reggae music
Roots rock reggae
Dis a reggae music
Roots rock reggae
Dis a reggae music
- Well, the harmony didn't change because
then Bob took hold of The I-Threes.
Because he still wanted
to maintain that sound.
I can't refuse it
- And Bob invited us
to do the Natty Dread tour.
Feel like dancing
- From the very first show
it was just...
dynamite.
I
Rebel music
- We sold out everything.
We're just doing clubs.
But like the Paul's Mall in Boston...
we did like something
like six nights straight.
Rebel music
It's that experience in a 400-seater,
The Quiet Knight in Chicago,
another 500.
That was the time to see Bob Marley,
'cause you were as close to him
as I am to you now.
All the way from
Trench Town, Jamaica,
Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Come on!
This concert they did
in London in 1975... the Lyceum...
that was the tipping point.
After that, everybody knew his name.
There was that sense
that he's about to be massive.
Firstly, it was packed.
Over packed.
When you're at a concert
and you've managed to get in,
and there are X hundred people
outside who can't get in,
you already feel great.
And that energy you have
spreads to the band
when they come on stage.
And so they feel something.
And it was one of those things.
It was just... just explosive.
- When he walked on stage and he felt
the crowd moving the theater,
it was like, "Yes."
You know, finally.
No woman no cry
No woman no cry
No woman no cry
No woman no cry
Said said
Said I remember
when we used to sit
In the government yard
in Trench Town
Oba observing the hypocrites
- This was owned by Chris Blackwell.
It was called Island House.
And he had several of his friends
and associates who really lived here.
Not like an apartment building,
but people who knew each other.
You know, they're occupied
downstairs and upstairs.
Chris made this available
for Bob to rehearse.
And eventually, over time,
Bob bought it from Chris.
- Well, Rastas weren't allowed uptown,
and, until Bob moved in,
there were no dreadlocks there.
- A woman said to Bob,
"How come you live at 56 Hope Road,
which is two doors up from King's House
where the governor lives,
and three doors up from Jamaica House
where the prime minister lives?"
And Bob just said,
"Sister, I bring the ghetto uptown."
One of the people who live here
prior to Bob was Cindy Breakspeare.
And she lived there
with her brother Reds.
- I loved the accommodation because I loved
the old house with the wooden floors,
and, you know, it was just lovely.
Cool and breezy, and it was great.
There's always a stream
of people up and down,
and shouting and laughter
and just general carrying on.
You were right in the mix.
The most important thing culturally that
was happening in Jamaica at that time...
was happening right there.
That was the headquarters.
That was the center of it all.
Bob never left 56 Hope Road.
People come from
all over the world to see him.
Did you live at Hope Road
with your dad?
No, we lived probably a couple
of miles from Hope Road.
- Right.
- 'Cause Hope Road was really...
I don't know. It was a spot.
Rasta is an open-door thing.
Nobody not checking your credentials.
So all kinds of people
come in to Hope Road.
Good, bad and indifferent.
Every time you go to
you would see a lot of people
gather with Bob... reasoning,
talking about politics,
talking about God,
talking about history.
You know, talking about everything.
- Bob was very strict.
Him run this thing like an army.
We call him "Skipper."
You see, the thing is, we had
certain strict rules at that time.
Woman supposed to wear dress,
not pants.
So you had those kind...
Don't come in with
what we call war paint.
Lipstick and eye shadow.
And this is a roots saying kinda,
if you wanna come round Rasta,
then you have to throw away
those Babylonian things.
It was a camp
with rules and doctrines...
and tenets to live by,
and it was serious.
Bob was very, like,
health conscious with him foods.
The blender would always be
going with excellent juices.
Irish moss on the fire.
Fish tea going.
You know, everything
to make you strong.
- When I met him,
we started a routine.
My routine was getting up
in the mornings, training,
do a lot of running,
exercise, go to the beach.
So it became an integral part
of our lifestyle.
- The whole Rasta thing
is based on eternal life
and taking care of your body.
It's the temple of the Lord.
And we'd run on the beach
and then up this mountain
to a place called Cane River Falls.
Incredible waterfalls.
I shot some video up there.
'Cause every day we pay the price
with a little sacrifice
Jammin' till the jam is through
We're jammin'
Cane River,
we went up there, really,
to get the waterfall
beat on your back.
It was like the best massage
you can get.
This spot we're standing on now
was a stadium.
This was a football field.
So we had like two goal posts.
You know, like small scrimmage.
The most we ever played
was five-a-side scrimmage.
So you had one there.
Then we had one down the back here.
So, I'd say maybe...
"Wow, that's a small field
when you look at it."
Probably was what, 40 yards?
In everything that Bob does,
very competitive.
So, you know, everything
he really gave it 110%.
- He had a passion.
Everything I did with a ball,
he would try to do it.
He just didn't play
for the fun of it.
This was always part
of the process, you know?
Before he writes a song
he'd burn a spliff.
Then you go run,
so you can lively up yourself.
And then you get more inspired
so the lyrics can come out.
I play everywhere.
Anywhere it is possible, you know?
He began to come and visit.
You just hear these footsteps come
running up the steps in the evening,
always when the football was over
and place kind of quiet down, you know?
And there's nobody to really see
the little moves that you're making.
'Cause in the day the place
is teeming with people,
so you can't be too overt
because you'd be outed instantly.
I went downtown
I went downtown
I saw Miss Brown
Said I saw Miss Brown
She had brown sugar
Had brown sugar
All over her booga-wooga
Over her booga-wooga
Think I might join the fun
Think I might join the fun
But I had to hit and run
But I had to hit and run
See I just can't settle down
In a kinky part of town
Ride on
When did you first meet Bob?
- I see Bob every day.
Bob live on Second Street.
I live on First Street.
Ride on
See I just won't settle down
Ride on
Everybody
I would take no notice of him...
because he would bother me,
and I would go and tell my mother.
How old were you?
- Sixteen.
Take me away
Kinky reggae now
What did he do
when he paid you attention?
Like stuff like,
"Don't give it away. I'm growing you."
"Remember, don't have
any boyfriend before me."
Stuff like that.
Was he charming?
- Yes.
- Why were so many girls attracted to him?
- My God.
You don't know Bob.
That's a handsome guy.
I went down to Piccadilly Circus
- People have visions of women
beating down the door to get at Bob Marley.
- Je...
- Grabbing clothes.
- Is it like that?
- No.
Why was he so successful
with women?
- Because he was shy.
Bob is not the womanizer...
that people make him out to be.
I think more, the women came at him.
That why they say
Nice one
- Was he faithful?
- To whom? God?
To Jah? Yes, he was faithful to Jah.
Faithful to any one woman?
No.
Why? Somebody own him?
What is fidelity?
Western ideology, you know.
A ring on your finger,
a ring through your nose?
That's for Western men, man.
They can only handle
one woman at a time.
Bob could handle more.
One day a lady
came to me and she said,
"Didn't anyone tell you
that Bob was married?"
And I didn't know.
- For a time there I never knew
that he was legally married.
I did come to know.
Eventually, his mom told me.
Did he see Rita
at all at that time?
- Sure. I mean,
they worked together, you know.
Toured the world together.
- When we were on tour,
Rita had her own room.
She was not with Bob.
She would see everything that goes on.
But she had maximum respect
for the work.
- How did you cope
through all the years
that you were married together,
and Bob was having these relationships
with other women?
- I became his... his guardian angel.
And then by that time,
I was past the surface
of being just a wife.
Because of the importance
of who I knew Bob is.
I didn't see it as a fun trip.
We were on a mission.
It was like an evangelist campaign...
to bring people closer to Jah.
They had this...
this bond, you know?
I wouldn't...
I mean, you know,
if that was my husband,
I wouldn't.
We never fought about women.
We would never get into that.
He would come and say to me,
"Rita, I did this,"
or "This is what happened."
I was the one that he would call
to get women out of his dressing room...
when it get to that stage.
"Come up for my room.
Come and get these people out for me."
And I would do that gracefully.
"Come on, ladies. It's bedtime.
We have a show tomorrow, so..."
- She wouldn't get upset, you know,
but...
there were times when, you know,
you knew she was hurting.
Hurt all of us.
And that's what he didn't like.
He didn't like it when, like,
we knew that she was hurt,
and it showed on us.
That's when, "Okay,
we're going for ice cream.
We're going for burgers.
What do you want?"
Do you think
that he was being selfish?
- Yes. It's not fair to no woman.
That is not fair at all,
but we still couldn't hate him for it.
In the capital of Kingston
there are rival shantytown ghettos...
where whole communities
are divided along sectarian lines.
These zones are controlled
by the prime minister's
People's National Party,
who are accused
of being communists,
or by the opposition
Jamaica Labour Party,
who are accused of being fascists.
- Politics in Jamaica at that time...
was like an East-West confrontation,
which was scary.
You have one side which is kind
of more ultra-conservative, right wing,
which is Seaga,
who was like Reagan's man
in the Caribbean.
And then Manley
was trying to work a system...
called democratic socialism,
which other parties say,
"That's just a disguise for
saying you are a communist."
Sometimes it's only insults
or stones and bottles...
thrown from one side to the other.
But often it's bombs and bullets,
and almost every day the newspapers
carry fresh reports...
of the previous day's killings in Kingston.
The whole thing became
like a gangster thing.
Political gangster.
- These were the guys
who kept things in line
for the M.P.s, you know.
So you find that in some areas,
the real power is enforcers.
- You like this girl...
that's both of us.
You like her, and I like her.
We start to fight over her.
It's like that.
He like P.N.P. You like J.L.P.
You wanna fight for your P.N.P.
- Bob was friends
with all of those guys.
All of the bad guys from
the Labour Party was Bob friend.
Likewise, all the bad guys
from the P.N.P.
These are guys
that come from...
the same neighborhood
he grew up with.
These are really bad guys.
'Cause you might see some guys, yeah,
and then tomorrow you'd take up
the Jamaican paper,
you'd see the 10-most-wanted list...
four of the guys that were on it
are already dead.
There are now five.
Some of them actually
love the music, you know,
but their main thing is, you know...
warfare and badness, you know.
- Bob did a concert
with Stevie Wonder in Jamaica,
and they actually performed
two songs together.
I think very "Superstitious,"
which Bob knew,
and "I Shot the Sheriff."
I shot the sheriff
But I did not shoot the deputy
Stevie made a gesture
by giving, I think,
half of his pay for the show...
to the Salvation Army
blind school in Jamaica,
and I think Bob
was moved by that.
And Bob said,
"Well, we'll give a free concert."
They took that idea
to Michael Manley,
who was just down the road...
the prime minister...
and they were, like,
enthused about it.
Bob Marley, the world's
leading exponent of reggae music,
has agreed to appear in a major
free concert to be held for the benefit...
of the Jamaican people in Kingston
on Sunday, December 5.
The announcement was made at
a press conference held at Jamaica House...
by Marley, his manager Don Taylor...
and the parliamentary secretary
in charge of cultural information,
Arnold Bertram.
Well, I think
he got tricked into it,
'cause he rang me and asked me
if I thought he should do the concert.
I said, "Well, if it's the prime minister,
then you're doing it for the country.
But if there's going to be
an election soon,
then you're doing it for him
rather than the country."
Two weeks following
that announcement on November 22,
Jamaica's prime minister,
Michael Manley,
called new general elections
for December 15.
- If we knew that election was going
to happen in that space of time,
we'd have never done that concert.
So with the upcoming election,
you don't really want to think about
or care who wins?
- Remember, Bob is becoming
very popular,
and whoever side Bob seems to be on,
that's the side people gonna be on.
- Hell, Bob had a lot of control
down there in Jamaica, man,
you know?
And them politicians didn't like that.
- Bob, I think, had overexposed
himself on the political side,
and that was bound to draw
the anger of some others...
because he had friends
on both sides.
- The thing was, like,
you have to be on one side.
You have to be on some side.
You can't be in the middle,
or you can get hurt.
We'd feel a little kind
of tension,
but, you know,
the politics kind of getting hot.
There were people saying
that they heard...
that they were gonna
shoot up the concert.
People in the group, you know,
the musicians and The I-Threes...
every day, as it would get closer
to this day of the concert...
...people was feeling hesitant
about doing it.
They had a fear for it.
Every night there would be
rehearsal at 56 Hope Road...
for the concert.
We usually had two guys...
from equivalent to the Secret Service.
They call them the Protective Service.
They, like, protect the prime minister
and stuff.
And they used to come every night,
but they never came that night.
- We had took a break, so everybody
was kind of floating around.
Don Taylor, Bob and myself...
was in the kitchen.
- I was in the car, you know,
getting ready to come out.
I see some men going up the steps.
- The gunman approached
from the side here...
and kind of pushed his gun
through here.
- Well, you see a black glove
with a gun in it pointing up,
you know... there was nowhere else
to go in the kitchen...
'cause we just, like, at the wall.
- And then I heard the gunshots.
- Then they turned the gun on the car.
I felt the warmest of blood running down,
and then I realized I was shot.
- The cat just kept on shooting, man,
till he ran out of bullets.
- The one hold a gun to my head,
and one said to the other one,
"Everybody dead?"
And the other said, "Yeah, man,
everybody dead. Everybody dead."
- Next thing I see
Don Taylor come out, man,
and, like, blood pouring out of him
like ketchup, man.
And then he finally collapsed
right there on the floor.
I'm, like, "Man!"
- And I'm shouting out for Bob,
and then I heard a voice...
who I recognized as Carly Barrett...
coming from.
He said, "Bob is all right.
Bob is all right."
He had a burn right...
the bullet traveled right here...
and actually lodged in his arm.
- It's just a miracle, man,
that nobody died from that, man.
So, it wasn't really
a professional hit?
- Well, as professional as Jamaica is.
They watch a lot of movies.
Here now is
a special item of news.
Entertainer and reggae star,
Bob Marley,
Rita Marley and the manager
of The Wailers, Don Taylor,
are now patients
in the University Hospital
after receiving gunshot wounds...
during a shooting incident tonight.
- That's one thing for sure...
that they was trying to stop
that concert from happening.
- The whole thing about whether
the concert was gonna happen or not,
there was so much pressure,
there was pressure from everywhere.
- I was just scared Bob
would get assassinated.
In the twilight
inside the arena,
the crowd is fenced off...
and armed police are positioned
all around the park.
Five hours after the concert
was due to begin,
the star, Bob Marley,
is still not there.
Some were trying to say,
"Bob, don't go.
They didn't get you.
They may try for you again."
- Everyone saying,
"You really wanna do it, boss?"
And he was saying... he said, "Yes."
- I said, "Hey, you know,
I'm with you, man.
If you wanna do it, let's do it."
The police came for him
and took him down,
and we were in the car
right behind the police vehicle.
- When I got there, I couldn't
believe the situation, man.
This is at night in Kingston.
You got, like, 80,000 people, man.
You know what I mean?
If somebody wanted to try to get you,
here's, like, a perfect situation.
But it was a special night, man.
It was a special moment, man.
Come on, people!
We got a band to see play tonight.
Come on!
- Whoo!
Yeah.
Bob was not afraid.
Bob knew that if anything happens
while he's doing his work,
he know that the almighty God
is protect him.
Children
In Jamaica
In Jamaica yow
- If you lacked faith before then,
you could not deny it after that, man.
Almighty
Almighty
Lord, help us
Tonight
Cast away evil
The evil spell
Throw some water in the well
And smile in Jamaica
In Jamaica, yow
In Jamaica
In Jamaica yow
In Jamaica
In Jamaica yow
In Jamaica
In Jamaica yow
- After the shooting, he was...
I wouldn't say scared, but just hurt.
Too hurt to face Jamaica.
- I was the one who escaped with him
out of Jamaica after the shooting.
Yeah... me and him.
He didn't say a word
the whole way through.
We went to Nassau first,
and then he went on to London.
Don't worry
About a thing
'Cause every little thing
Gonna be all right
Singing don't worry
About a thing
'Cause every little thing
Gonna be all right
I think he just wanted
to take a break.
He wanted to not be
looking over his shoulder.
He wanted not to be dealing
with the problem,
not dealing with the controversy.
He just wanted some
free head space to work,
to make music, to tour.
Singing sweet songs
- We moved immediately
into Chelsea area.
Oakley Street.
It was a great experience because
we're all together...
in this house.
- Well, on each floor
there was a different musician.
There was, uh, Tyrone Downie
on one floor,
Carlton Barrett on another floor,
"Family Man" Barrett on another floor,
Alvin "Seeco" Patterson on another floor.
Neville Garrick, I think,
was in the basement sharing with somebody.
- We were a stone's throw
from Battersea Park Bridge.
Once we went over the bridge,
then you had a football field.
We even played against
some National Front guys.
We whupped them a couple of times.
Did he feel like
he was in exile?
- Yeah, man.
But Bob was, like, deeply
into creation of music.
That's how I think
he satisfied his soul.
Bob's life was spared,
and he was very happy to be alive.
See, Jah gave him another chance.
He was also confronted
by his mortality.
And when you think that these might be
your last opportunities to do anything,
you place a greater value
on every moment,
every second of every moment
of every day.
There is no time.
We've got no time to lose.
He slept basically
about four hours a day.
And he was always writing a song.
You know, you'd be up all night writing,
and then he'd go...
I'd say, "Bob.
I've gotta go get some sleep now."
He'd go, "Just half an hour more."
Half an hour would turn into
four hours, you know.
Bob liked to write
early in the morning.
Come the morning,
him have this gravelly voice, you know,
like kind of Rod Stewart-ish
kind of thing.
He would be working out
the melody, working out the melody,
and then the lyrics
would come after.
Would that leave you there
There's something I have to play
It's that way every day
Children mark my word
It's what the Bible say
And Miss World 1976...
is Miss Jamaica!
And the Royal Albert Hall
is in uproar.
Incredible! Cindy Breakspeare.
The 21 -year-old health club operator
gets the sash.
I think she's as overwhelmed as anyone.
- At the time I won Miss World,
Bob was not yet
a household name in England.
But because he was now tied to me,
and Miss World was
definitely a household name,
we kind of... we complemented
each other very nicely.
Cindy completely overwhelmed
by the emotion of the moment.
And Wilnelia Merced
crowns the new Miss World 1976.
It was considered quite...
Outrageous?
- Yeah, that's a good word.
"Outrageous" works.
But Bob loved the achievement, you know?
He loved the achievement.
I don't think there's a man alive
who doesn't want to get "the girl."
And so...
Would he have liked it
if you had become a Rasta?
Um, yes, I think
he would have liked it.
Things would always come up.
How you present yourself
as a woman.
What's appropriate wear,
cover your hair, this, that.
Here I am on the train coming in
from all parts out of London,
and, you know, they've got
this tiny little triangular sink
in the bathroom on the train,
and I'm washing all the make-up off.
Anyway, one night
I wasn't able to do that,
and I came home in full regalia...
red nails, fur coat, fully made up.
And no sooner than I walked
through the front door and closed it,
he walked in behind.
I turned around, he looked at me and said,
"I catch you."
I wanna love you
And treat you right
I wanna love you
Every day and every night
We'll be together
With a roof right over our heads
We'll share the shelter
Of my single bed
We'll share the same room
Yeah
For Jah provide the bread
Is this love is this love is this love
Is this love that I'm feelin'
Is this love is this love is this love
Is this love that I'm feelin'
Exodus was huge.
That was our biggest album
ever there.
Just mash up Europe,
and it's tearing down America.
They're waiting for us.
- And then the American tour
was canceled...
because Bob was having
problems with his toe.
- Somebody stepped on it
with their spike boots.
And then it started to get infected...
because Bob would still play football
the next day on it...
and the next day.
- And that went on for some time...
before they realized what it really was.
- They came up with a definitive
diagnosis of melanoma.
- And they tested
and they found out that...
that was more like
a white person sort of sickness.
It wasn't coming from a black source.
It was the whiteness in him
that allowed it to get this bad.
What did they recommend
he should do about it?
- They recommended
disarticulation at the hip.
In other words,
remove the entire leg.
The doctor in England
told him he had to cut his whole leg off.
Was that...
Do you remember that?
- No.
Had to cut off his... his toe.
It was definitely not his leg.
- A lot of people told Bob
that once you cut your toe off...
your big toe especially...
you won't be able to dance anymore.
- He loved football, so...
I think the thought
of having his toe amputated
was just unacceptable to him.
- So, this other doctor
we saw in Miami said,
"No, it's not necessary.
We can just take off a portion of it.
We don't have to remove the whole toe.
You can just take off the whole nail bed,
and you know,
it wouldn't be necessary."
He got very bad advice
from the people that was around him.
Until the philosophy
Which hold one race superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned
Well everywhere is war
Me say war
And until there's no longer
First-class nor second-class citizens
Of any nation
Until the color of a man's skin
Is of no more significance
Than the color of his eyes
I've got to say war
War in the east
War in the west
War up north
War down south
This a war
War
War
War
There was a movement
to bring Bob back...
because it was felt
that he had the potential...
to heal the very strong
division that existed.
- The government was begging...
because they said Jamaica
is lost without Bob Marley.
We can't say, "Bob is in exile."
So they got one of their main leader,
Claudie Massop,
to speak to Bob.
- This guy, he was from
the other side of the party...
Claudie Massop.
And the next one named Tek-Life.
I don't remember his right name,
but we call him Tek-Life.
They went up to England to pursue Bob
to come down, back to Jamaica.
- Bob sent for them, in a way,
to come up, and so they would be on...
away from Jamaica,
away from that political influence,
and they could reason
among themselves.
The two guys who went up there
for him was on the opposition.
So I would represent the other side,
so if he say "I don't come,"
then he ain't coming back to Jamaica.
So I have to go to England.
Of those people,
how many are still alive?
- One.
The one you're speaking to.
We Jah people
Can make it work
Come together
And make it work yeah
I'm singing that we
Can make it work
Bob started doing that song
which is,
"We, Jah people, shall come together
and make it work."
Then they decided to have a concert,
they'd just have a peace concert.
- Last month a truce was arranged...
between the rival political factions
in Kingston, Jamaica.
A peace conference was arranged,
to be preceded by a peace concert...
for the people in a very large park.
They expect over
a hundred thousand people there.
Bob Marley was invited to headline
this peace concert.
Marley has accepted...
and will return to Kingston, Jamaica.
Bob, why are you
returning to Jamaica?
- Well, my life not important to me.
Other people life important.
My life is only important
if me can help plenty people.
If my life is just me and my own security,
then me don't want it.
My life is for people, as many is.
Busloads of people
went out to the airport.
They stormed the runway.
When the plane landed,
they jumped over the barriers
and ran towards the plane,
which was similar to what happened
when Haile Selassie came to Jamaica.
It was amazing to see
this stadium of 30,000 people.
People who were opposed politically...
were sitting beside each other.
I wanna jam with you
I really wanna jam it with you
I wanna jam with you
I really wanna jam it
I really wanna jam
I wanna jam with you
Whoa
I hope you like jammin' too
Well, oh, well-well
Well
I wanna jam it with you
Yeah
Ooh. Just let me
tell you something else.
Yeah.
Hope you like jammin' too
To make everything come true,
we got to be together.
Yeah. Yeah.
I wanna jam it with you
And to the spirit of the most high,
His Imperial Majesty,
Emperor Haile Selassie I,
from writing to...
leading people...
of the slavery to be here...
to shake hands.
Show the people that you love them right
Show the people that you gonna unite
Show the people that we're all right
Show the people
that everything is all right
I actually played
a wrong note.
He started singing,
"Whoa, watch what you're doing."
Watch watch watch
watch watch watch watch
Watch what you're doing
- Everybody thought he was trying
to tell the people out there,
"Watch what you're doing."
But he was really talking to me.
- He was very spiritual.
This was like, "Hey."
I'm trying to say
Could we have...
Could we have up here, on stage here,
the presence of Mr. Michael Manley
and Mr. Edward Seaga?
Whoa
I just want to shake hands
and show the people...
that we gonna be all right.
We gonna unite
We're gonna make them right
We got to unite
He didn't plan it at all.
It was spontaneous.
- I'm waiting.
I'm waiting.
Lord oh Lord
Help us out I pray
Anything could have
happened at that point.
I was just praying that the people didn't
get foolish and start shooting again.
There were no preachment
or anything like that.
He just took our hands and said
a few words, held it up above his head.
And at that moment,
everybody was one.
- Love.
Prosperity.
Be with us all. Jah.
Rastafari. Selassie.
He was able to do that.
He was able to bring people
together in that way.
The same half uptown, half downtown,
half black, half white.
It's that marriage of everything.
He just embodied it
all in one person.
As his career grows,
so grew a better education,
and a better car,
and a bigger house with more rooms.
But my father would always
take us back to Trench Town.
Sometime Bob would go
down the ghetto and, you know,
pass through and thing like that
and would never lock his car up.
'Cause that's like saying
you don't trust people.
Have you made a lot of money
out of your music?
- Money.
I mean, what is a...
How much is...
How much is a lot of money to you?
- That's a good question.
Have you made, say, millions of dollars?
- No.
- Are you a rich man?
- When you mean rich, what you mean?
- Do you have a lot of possessions,
a lot of money in the bank?
- Possession make you rich?
I don't have that type of riches.
My riches is life forever.
Hope Road
was always swarming with people,
and for the same reason...
looking for an opportunity,
looking for some money,
looking for a handout, need a job...
"My children's school fees,"
on and on and on.
You have lines every day
at Hope Road.
People from all walks...
They bring the baby, they bring the kids.
You have long lines,
and he just hand out...
He doesn't just give, like, pittance,
you know.
He give you enough that
you can start something, you know.
A couple of years ago,
no one would have believed...
that this raggle-taggle
tribe of Jamaican musicians...
would be packing
Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens.
It's a sign of reggae's
growing acceptance...
in the international pop music scene.
And it's also catapulted this man,
Bob Marley, to superstardom.
We don't need no trouble
No no no no
- Bob once made a statement.
He said they ask him,
"How big you think this music will get?"
Bob says, "You know, this music
will get bigger and bigger and bigger...
till it reaches right people."
Which, to me, is the whole world.
- Yes, you know, come a long way.
Lively up yourself
And don't be no drag
Lively up yourself
For reggae is another bag
I watched from 200-seaters...
to a thousand, and then I saw 80,000.
I saw a hundred thousand.
'Cause I said so
What you gonna do
You rock so you rock so
We tore up Europe.
We played to, like, maybe
two million people in six weeks.
We broke everybody's record over there.
The Rolling Stones...
You skank so
You skank so
Yeah
You come so
You come so
Come alive today yeah
And lively up yourself
- Yeah!
He did a concert in Tokyo...
Everybody's totally Japanese.
Singing every song word for word.
Most of them could not
even understand.
They spoke a different language.
But they felt the music and
they knew what he was saying.
Lively up yourself
In the morning time Lord
The media lied and said
that Bob smoke a pound a day.
And so everywhere we went,
the police was on our heels,
and they would search our belongings
with a fine-toothed comb.
You would see police
with dogs on the bus, searching.
But every time they searched,
they never found anything.
So, they didn't bother with us again.
Towards the latter years,
they're more, like,
"You have any posters?" like.
So we basically just came out
with the passports,
a whole bunch of records and posters,
and they didn't even look,
they just stamped.
- One of his main concern was
that he wasn't reaching the black people.
You know, he's noticed all his shows
are all white, all white, every show,
so that kind of was puzzling to him.
- I was in Nigeria and came back
and told him about the response...
of the people to him in Nigeria,
who had never seen him,
but just the music.
And he couldn't believe it.
I said, "Yes, I'm serious."
I said, "Africa is really waiting for you.
As a matter of fact, if you go to Africa,
you really might not come back."
Check out the real situation
Nation war against nation
Where did it all begin
Her father was
the president of Gabon.
We didn't know he was a dictator
when we went, but we found out.
It was, like, "Okay, we're here.
It's too late. Let's just play."
And his daughter
was in love with Bob.
To Bob, Africa is
the motherland, you know,
and he loved Jamaica,
but he was in transit.
Africa was his destination.
And everything is just for a while
It seems like total destruction
The only solution
You don't die and go to heaven.
You have to live in heaven.
Africa is our heaven because
that's where we come from.
- Everywhere we went, the kids
were running beside the bus...
and waving and hollering,
"Bob Marley! Bob Marley!
Ganja! Ganja!"
We said, "-oh."
- Bob asked me to find out
from Pascaline...
how much money
we were actually paid.
And what she told me was a lot more money
than what Bob was told by Don.
- He kick him down.
Leapt across the room
and kick him down.
- Yeah, I saw him kick his ass.
In fact, we questioned him
for almost three hours that night on tape.
- We were on the 23rd floor,
and they kind of held Don
outside the window for a minute.
- Bob would ask him the same question,
like, maybe half an hour later,
and he answered different,
and Bob said, "Garrick, rewind."
Ding! Play.
And then, "Wasn't you said that, boy?"
Slap him couple of times.
Shit!
Hey!
It was the policy
of keeping Africans in their place,
which, by 1965,
made Rhodesia illegal
in the eyes of the world.
- I don't believe in black majority rule
ever in Rhodesia.
Not in a thousand years.
Bob wrote a song
called "Zimbabwe."
"Natty mash it in-a Zimbabwe.
I 'n' I liberate Zimbabwe."
And when the song got to Zimbabwe,
the freedom fighters
embraced that as their anthem.
- They got their independence.
Finally, they got their independence,
and they sent representatives
here to Jamaica...
to ask Bob to perform.
- They wanted him to come,
and when they saw the cost,
they said they couldn't afford it.
- And so Bob Marley used his own money...
and shipped equipment, I think,
from London to Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe
Africans a-liberate Zimbabwe
You had dignitaries
from all over the world.
You're right you're right
you're right you're
- I, Robert Gabriel Mugabe,
do swear that I will well
and truly serve Zimbabwe...
in the office of minister
of the government,
so help me God.
Midnight, the exact moment
of independence.
As Prince Charles, Governor Soames
and hundreds of visiting
heads of government...
and V.I.P.s from around
the world watched,
the new flag was raised,
Robert Mugabe's government assumed power,
and Zimbabwe was born.
Exodus
Lord
Movement of Jah people
It was the first time
anybody in Zimbabwe...
had heard anything like this.
But when the first song started,
the 90,000 people outside,
who couldn't get in,
decided to come in.
Men and people will fight you down
When you see Jah light
Let me tell you if you're not wrong
It was the freedom fighters...
heard Bob Marley inside the stadium,
and they are locked out,
not being able to go in,
and they just flattened the fence.
So, being there, on stage,
I remember I was the first person
to smell something unusual.
It was tear gas.
There was this strange sensation
that was burning our throats,
and it felt as if we were gonna die.
We didn't know what it was,
and we felt that we're gonna leave Jamaica,
and come all the way to Zimbabwe
to leave our kids and just die here.
So, Rita, Marcie and I,
we ran off the stage,
and the musicians
were coming off one by one.
But Bob was still
in his element, and he...
I guess he didn't even realize
what was happening.
- That just open my eyes to know
that this man was ready
to go down with his people.
Whatever the reason was,
Bob didn't run nowhere.
So when we got back on stage with Bob,
this is what Bob said to us:
"Now I know who are
the true revolutionaries."
Well well well well
Jah come to break oppression
Rule equality yeah
Wipe away transgression
Set the captives free
Set the captives free now
Set
Set the captives free yeah
And I think that was
one of his highlights of a dream.
He was at home.
Thank you very much. Zimbabwe!
Freedom!
Did Bob want to reach
a black audience in America?
- Of course he did.
Bob, until he died, he did.
The last concert in New York
was to try to get...
African American,
R & B airplay in America.
Bob had a cult following in America,
and when you go to a Bob Marley concert,
it was sold out,
but it was white.
Yeah, the black people
in America were not responding.
It was always a big thing.
We always talked about it.
We always wondered why.
So, Frankie Crocker,
the number-one jock in the country...
said that I got a concert
with The Commodores.
"We'll guarantee you
three months of airplay...
if Bob would open
for the Commodores."
We said, "You gotta be crazy.
The Commodores should be opening
the show for Bob Marley, not in reverse."
I went back to Bob,
and Bob said, "No problem."
Could you be loved
And be loved
Could you be loved
And be loved
Don't let them fool ya
No
Or even try to school ya
No
When we did
the Madison Square Garden show,
that night was history.
If what you're thinking is not right
Love will never leave us alone
Every single one
that was in the audience...
stood on their feet
to acknowledge this man.
Whoa-ho
Could you be loved
And be loved
Could you be loved
And be loved
Could you be loved
Could you be could you be loved
I think the doors of America
was opened to Bob right there.
Marley! Marley! Marley!
Marley! Marley! Marley!
Marley! Marley!
Marley! Marley! Marley!
Marley! Marley! Marley!
The next day,
we were out in Central Park jogging,
and we was going up this hill,
and all of a sudden he...
he stumbled,
and we went and we laid him down
on the side of the trail,
and he... he started shaking,
and he had foaming at the mouth.
And I said... when I looked at him,
he looked real strange.
And the guys gathered around him,
they said something in patois.
And he hollered "Rastafari"
and jumped up off the ground.
Scared me to death. I mean,
he was there, shaking and foaming.
Next thing I know, he done...
he just jumped up.
We took him to the hospital
next door to my house.
The doctor told Alan and me...
that Bob Marley had cancer
and that it had spread.
- He had cancer all over his body...
lungs, brain, all over the place.
It was incredible that
he was able to keep working.
But the doctor told us
that we shouldn't do anything,
that we should just let him
stay on the concert tour,
that he was so strong and powerful,
that one day he was gonna walk out on stage
and he was gonna fall dead.
But that he could not be treated...
and he could not be helped.
How did he take the news?
- Bad.
He took the news bad.
I knew he'd had a problem
with his toe before that,
but...
I'd forgotten about it.
I think everybody seemed
to have forgotten about it...
because if he'd been going
to regular checkups,
you know, he might...
he might be around today.
But...
- He just didn't go to his checkups?
- No.
The next stop was Pittsburgh,
and we were waiting for Bob
to come on the bus...
for all of us
to drive to Pittsburgh.
And we never saw Bob.
- Finally, he arrived,
and he was looking very,
very stressed, I remember,
and we went to do a sound check,
and I remember
we did the sound check...
with one song...
and we did that song
for maybe two or three hours.
"I'm Hurting Inside."
It's the longest sound check
we have ever had.
It just felt like, "Why?"
We didn't understand.
- We had a meeting before the show,
half an hour before the show,
and we were told by Alan Cole that this was
gonna be our last concert.
And, of course,
we were all, like, in shock.
Before we went on stage,
he said to me,
"I want you to stay pretty close
in case anything should happen."
I'm saying, "Nothing's gonna happen to you.
Everything's gonna be all right."
But he just said, "Stay close, in case."
Just in case he got a seizure.
I wanna love you
I wanna love and treat
Love and treat you right
He put on the show,
but it wasn't the same.
He didn't have the same energy.
But the people kept him
pumped up 'cause this...
so many people in the audience,
and they were, "Bob! Bob!"
They called for an encore,
and we were saying,
"Lord, I wonder if he can do it."
And he went out, and he did
the encore. He did about four songs.
And they called for another encore,
and I'm saying,
"Jesus, I wonder if he's gonna fall out
on this one."
But he did it.
He did it.
And that was the last time
we performed on stage together.
Thank you very much,
Pittsburgh! Yeah.
If you keep jumping like this,
we'll have to come here every year!
Every week, every month!
Thank you.
I was with him the whole time
in New York...
when he was being treated
at Sloan-Kettering.
I was with him every day.
I was with him when he was getting chemo,
and his locks fell out.
The weight of the locks
was just too heavy.
The few hairs that were still holding
was beginning to be really uncomfortable,
and he decided to cut it.
That was quite a night.
It was myself, Rita...
a group of us women.
We lit candles, and we were reading
from the Bible.
We were reading the Book of Job,
and, uh, we cut.
- I said to him, um,
"You going for the Rude Boy look?"
And he laughed. It was funny.
But it was really, really sad.
About the saddest thing
I can ever remember.
- That was the first time I saw him,
like, without his hair.
You know, he looked, like, so tiny.
Him say, "Listen,
we're gonna fight it. All right?
Regardless of what the doctors might say
or what they might do,
we're gonna fight it.
'Cause a Rasta never give up."
- Left to me, I would have said,
"Bob, come home to Saint Ann
and come eat roast fish
and callaloo every day.
Smoke the biggest spliff if you like,
drink fish tea, just do what you want.
And if you end up in the same place
at the end of it all,
at least you will have had some comfort
in your last months on this earth...
and being in a place that you really,
really wanted to be in."
But we girls didn't have much talk
in those days, you know.
The men made the decisions.
Old pirates yes they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom
'Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs
Redemption songs
He was living
in a house just down the road.
It was actually in walking distance
from the clinic.
But I mean, you had to put boots on halfway
up your thigh to get through the snow.
I'm telling you, I had to wear
dark glasses because it was so white.
The lake was frozen three feet deep.
You could drive a car over it.
I said, "This is a fridge
where they keep people alive."
No, Rottach-Egern...
I'll never forget that.
Dr. Josef Issels
was the ultimate...
in holistic therapy at that time.
But what made him more interesting,
he was the only doctor...
who had actually cured
a melanoma on the planet Earth.
- I went to Germany for his, uh,
Rita was there.
Cindy was there.
His mom was there.
It was kind of frustrating in a sense...
because I know the type of person Bob is.
Him didn't want us
to see him in that state.
Bob had a stroke,
I think, on the left side.
So he was frustrated
he couldn't finger a guitar.
So when you left him,
you thought he might get better?
- Yeah.
I was definitely hoping...
Well, he was trying to tell me that...
that he's gonna beat this thing.
You know?
Gonna beat this thing.
I think people then started
going after his wealth.
I think that it was...
it had become...
a bloodthirsty-type situation,
where people knew he was gonna die,
and they was just...
they just surrounded him.
- That's why Bob never write a will,
I feel.
Bob will never want to give up.
It seems like when you write a will,
it's like you say,
"Well, you know, I'm checking in."
So I think that was
one of the reasons.
I think one of the reasons, too,
is he's not the type of person
who would say,
"Now, okay.
I leave this for Ziggy, Cedella."
You know, like, divide up.
And "Okay, what should I leave for Seeco...
and Neville and Carly and..."
That's not Bob.
Where the Bob I know,
by leaving it open like that,
everybody reveal
who they really were.
You get me?
- Who really did love him,
who fighting over the money.
Yeah, man. Him does say,
but that's how he is. Bob left it open.
The doctor said that
he couldn't do anything more for Bob,
and if we were going to leave,
we'd have to do it within 48 hours.
- So I said, "I'm on my way back.
I'm coming back to Germany this week."
And he said, "No, don't come."
He's coming to Miami.
- We decided, you know, that...
we'd just rent a plane, you know.
Bob wanted to know if it's a Concorde.
I said, "No.
No Concorde."
So I brought up all the kids
from... who was in Jamaica.
Some of them my kids.
Some from other mothers.
So I gathered everyone and said,
"Come. Daddy want to see you all."
- I remember me and Ziggy
were sitting outside,
and some preacher guy
came from Jamaica,
another one came from
the Ethiopian Church,
and I'm telling Ziggy, "Ziggy,
he's gonna be all right, you know?
'Cause, I mean, look...
look how many people are praying."
- My memory was going to
the intensive care unit,
doing "peep," going like this,
looking through the window,
you know, like, going...
And him lay down there,
and him kind of see me, and him go...
him go, "Come."
So I went in, I went beside him,
and him say, you know,
"What up, young Bob?"
You know, "What's up, young Bob?"
And, um, "I've a song for you."
You know, him say,
"I have a song for you."
And him... him sing a couple
of lines of the song,
"On your way up, take me up.
On your way down, don't let me down."
- You know, like the one time
you're kinda hoping...
you can have him for yourself...
And it wasn't supposed
to happen again, you know?
Haile Selassie
Is the chapel
Power of the Trinity
Trinity
Trinity
Build your mind
On this direction
Serve the living God
And live
Livin' God
Livin' God
And live
Take your troubles
To Selassie
He is the only
King of Kings
King of Kings
King of Kings is he
Conquering lion
Of Judah
Triumphantly
We all must sing
All must sing
All must sing
I search and I search
Splendid book of man
In the Revelations
Look what I find
Haile Selassie
Is the chapel
Get up stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up stand up
Don't give up the fight
Get up stand up
Get up stand up now
Stand up for your rights
Ooh-ooh
Get up stand up
Get up stand up now
Don't give up the fight
Get up stand up
Whoa whoa whoa
Stand up for your right
One more time
Get up stand up
Don't give up the fight
Don't give up the fight
Don't give up the fight
Don't give up the fight
Why
'Cause I never give up the fight
'Cause I never give up the fight
'Cause I never give up the fight
'Cause I never give up the fight
Don't give up the fight
Don't give up the fight
Children don't give up the fight
Jah Jah children
Don't give up the fight
One love
One heart
Let's get together and feel all right
Hear the children crying
One love
One heart
Give thanks and praise to the Lord
And I will feel all right
Sing it
Let's get together and feel all right
Whoa yo-yo-yo
Let them all pass
all their dirty remarks
One love
There is one question
I'd really love to ask
One heart
Is there a place
For the hopeless sinner
Who has hurt all mankind
Just to save his own
Believe me
One love
What about one
One heart
What about
Let's get together and feel all right
As it was in the beginning
One love
So shall it be in the end
One heart
All right
Let's send praise to the Lord
And I will feel all right
Let's get together
And feel all right
I'm sayin'
One love
What about the one heart
One heart
What about the
Let's get together and feel all right
I'm pleading to mankind
One love
Lord whoa
One heart
Give thanks and praise to the Lord
And I will feel all right
Let's get together and feel all right
Give thanks and praise to the Lord
And I will feel all right
Don't worry about a thing
'Cause every little thing
gonna be all right
Singin' don't worry about a thing
'Cause every little thing
gonna be all right
Singin', don't worry
about a thing
'Cause every little thing
gonna be all right
I won't worry