Jamaican singer, musician and songwriter Bob Marley sold more than 20 million records throughout his career and didn’t just conquer Jamaica with his talent; he conquered the world.
Each year, Jamaica’s streets are festooned with Rastafarian flags and bunting on and around the 6th February - without fail. This year is no different, with the island readying itself for an influx of reggae-tourists to celebrate musical icon Bob Marley’s birthday - 2020 would have been his 75th year.
Bob Nesta Marley came from humble beginnings born on 6th February 1945 at the farm of his maternal grandfather in Nine Mile, Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. His parents Norval Sinclair Marley and Cedella Malcolm had no inkling that their son would introduce reggae music to the world; and grow to be a man who even after death remains one of the genre's most beloved artists. Not every reggae musician has been able change cultural landscapes like Marley did and continues to do more than 30 years after his death. Every song he wrote had a message – be it love, hope, peace or political uprising. He reached out to the poor and disfranchised and, by doing so, touched the world. Nothing says Bob Marley, peace and Jamaica like his iconic One Love. Originally released from Marley’s 1977 album Exodus, the track captured the hearts of the people around the globe. Since then, the song has been featured in Jamaica Tourist Board television advertisements since 1994. Stephen Marley and Richard Branson re-recorded the song in 2007 in Jamaica to promote Branson's Virgin Airways flights to Jamaica.
Today Marley’s best-loved anthems provide an uplifting, audible backdrop of positivity across Jamaica, from city neighbourhoods to tiny, rural villages and glitzy beach resorts. Around any special Bob Marley anniversary, posters adorn Trench Town – the neighbourhood in Kingston where a young Marley developed his love of music, listening to rhythm and blues on American radio stations. Flags will fly around the hotel properties owned by Chris Blackwell of Island Records fame who signed Marley in the early Seventies. It was through Blackwell that Marley gave his songs an international audience and helped bring Jamaica, and the Caribbean, to the world. Through his music, Bob Marley continues to tug on the heartstrings of scores of reggae fans, many too young to have seen his charismatic, loose-limbed stage presence live on stage. That his lyrics continue to stand the test the time to promote his “One Love” philosophy is testament to Bob Marley’s ability to message through music. Today Marley is immortalised throughout the island of Jamaica in bronze monuments, plaques and attractions, including the Bob Marley Museum, housed in the singer’s former home in Kingston. His music can be heard everywhere - an instantly recognisable rhythmic boom-boom bass of reggae, the unmistakable beat-bouncing musical genre so synonymous with the island’s dreadlocked maestro. Marley’s death from cancer in 1981 at the age of 36 hasn’t diminished his musical and spiritual influence - a calendar of events across Jamaica provide a fitting tribute year-round. Posthumously released live recordings remind us of his incredible lyrical creativity, the star’s landmark Legends album (the best-selling album by a Jamaican artist and the best-selling reggae album in history) was honoured on its 30th anniversary by the launch of Ben & Jerry’s special-edition Bob Marley ice-cream flavour“Satisfy My Bowl” – a mouth-watering concoction of banana ice cream beats, a mashup of caramel and cookie swirls and a chorus of chocolatey peace signs dedicated to a man whose music practiced togetherness and harmony. How many musicians can boast that?
Marley was buried on the island with full state honours in 1981 to the sound of “One Love” – surely the world’s most soulful pacifist reggae anthem. In Jamaica today, the song plays to visitors at the Bob Marley Museum and Tuff Gong studio and it is what the many Marley pilgrims choose to sing when they venture out to his birthplace and final resting place in the mausoleum in Nine Mile. Here Marley’s most prized processions can be found - nothing flashy, just simple items that reflect his daily life, such as his hammock, brightly-painted frescoes, herb garden and the much-loved battered Land Rover he drove around the island. In one single day alone, more than 40,000 people filed past his coffin in Jamaica’s National Arena – a touching reflection of the place Bob Marley holds in the heart of his Caribbean homeland.
One Love
One love
One heart
Let's get together and feel alright
(hear the children crying)
One love (hear the children crying)
One heart (sayin')
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright (sayin')
Let's get together and feel alright
(whoa whoawhoa whoa)
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 sinners
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own (believe)
One love (what about one heart)
One heart (what about love)
Let's get together and feel alright (as it was in the beginning)
One love (so shall it be in the end)
One heart (alright)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright
Let's get together and feel alright
(one more thing)
Let's get together to fight this Holy Armageddon (one love)
So when the Man come, there will be no no doom (one song)
Have pity on those whose chances grows thinner
There ain't no hiding place from the Father of creation (sayin')
One love (what about one heart)
One heart (what about love)
Let's get together and feel alright (I'm pleading to mankind)
One love (what about one heart)
One heart (oh oh)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright
Let's get together and feel alright
(give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright)
