"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, "Oh, 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" "Oh" "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 licking' 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." "Oh simmer down Oh 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?" " Oh, 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?" " Ah." "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." "Oh, 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 Oh 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, "Oh, 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, "Eh, 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." "Uh, you know, a daddy who would, you know..." ""Oh, 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, 500-seater at the Roxy." "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 56 Hope Road, 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?" " Oh, yes." "Why were so many girls attracted to him?" "Oh, 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." "Oh children" "In Jamaica" "In Jamaica yow" "If you lacked faith before then, you could not deny it after that, man." "Almighty" "Almighty" "Oh, 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, "Oh, 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." "Uh, 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, "Ah, 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 Oh, 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." "Oh 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" "Oh yeah" "You come so You come so" "Come alive today yeah" "And lively up yourself" "Yeah!" "He did a concert in Tokyo..." "4,000 people." "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, "Uh-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" "Oh 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" "Oh, no" "Or even try to school ya" "Oh, 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" "Oh" "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, 36th birthday." "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?" " Hmm." "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 Oh 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" "Oh 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"