Robert Nesta Marley (1945-1981), Jamaica’s most famous artist with no shortage of exceptional musicians, is a popular icon who symbolizes more than just his music. Interview with journalist and writer Alain Gardinier, who pays tribute to him in a very well-documented book.
Why is Bob Marley still popular forty years after his death?
He is the most universal of musicians, in every sense of the word. I’m not sure the kids in the suburbs of Lomé or Baghdad listen to Michael Jackson, but they listen to Bob Marley. Forty years after his death he still arouses incredible fervor. It comes from the (apparent) simplicity and the joyful side of his music and his personality. Even if his texts are politicized, his way of bringing them is accessible. There is no need for codes to enter Bob Marley’s music. But if we know the codes and the history, we appreciate it even more.
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Forty years after his death, the reggae legend is still making a success. © Ouest-France infographic
Have we sanctified Bob Marley too much?
He had children with all the women he met (he recognized twelve of seven different women), but he was forgiven. He grew up poor, fought successfully to impose a third world style of music. He survived an assassination attempt, escaped unscathed. This added to his aura of invincibility. He died young (36 years old). Everything justifies the popular myth.
Marley’s end was pitiful. Why did he go to a German charlatan for treatment?
He was afraid of cancer, and I think he was very easily influenced in anything outside his music. His close entourage considered that he could afford this Bavarian clinic, where Dr Issels used drugs banned elsewhere, counterbalanced by a strict diet of fruits and vegetables.
What do you think is Bob Marley’s most important record?
Natty Dread (1974). After Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer left the group, The Wailers became the formation of only Bob Marley. It is his most complete and impactful record, with iconic songs like Lively Up Yourself or No Woman, No Cry. But his live records are incredible, especially the first (Live !), recorded in 1975 in London.
Bob Marley has he been “marketed” to become an artist that everyone likes?
Chris Blackwell, the boss of Island, did not impose anything on him. Marley loved American music. When he was asked to include great musicians in the studio, he realized that this increased the potential of his music. Music that he fully controlled a little later.
Marley’s message sounds more inclusive than tied to a community. Is that his strength?
He didn’t realize it right away. It has simple texts that are easy to capture, but with a lot of content, but not too specific. These are messages that we can relate to. His speech on slavery or colonization particularly struck third world countries, but not only. Marley most often delivers his message positively, without the resentment of the victim. He says we can get out of his condition. He was a Métis himself. And if he lived it badly as a kid, he didn’t fix it.
Has his passion for football helped to make him a popular figure?
Without a doubt. The first thing to do when he got somewhere for a concert, after spotting the venue, was knowing where the soccer field was. I am talking about his match against five Canaries on July 2, 1980, before his concert at La Beaujoire, in Nantes. Nantes won 4-3, but not easily. In his team, Bob had a Jamaican international, and his cook played center-forward in a Jamaican team. It wasn’t kidding.
Among the pleasing details that you unearth, there is his taste for BMWs…
First of all, initially, because BMW is the initials of Bob Marley and the Wailers. A musician sold him his first BMW because he thought it was not moving forward. Bob kept it for years before changing models.
Are there any unpublished discographic treasures left?
I do not believe. Apart from a few live. Marley was not Prince. I think everything that was recorded and could be listened to came out. For the 1983 unreleased album, Confrontation, Blackwell had already thoroughly scraped the bottoms of drawers.
The Marley musical lineage is plethora. Between his children, nephews, grandchildren, several groups claiming the name Wailers …
Apart from one of the boys who devoted himself to motocross, all of them tried a musical career, with varying degrees of success. The one to listen to first is Ziggy, who has the physique and the voice of his father. Not the same charisma, but he has the soul of Marley, his kindness and his sense of sharing.
What did you find out about Marley while preparing this book?
Thousands of things. I checked everything and noticed that a lot of books contained errors, reproduced from book to book. I’m going to tell you something that bothered me since I was a teenager. Sure Natty Dread, three songs were credited to Vincent Ford, while Marley was supposed to have written everything. I understood that he was a friend to whom he had ceded the rights. I didn’t learn the story until much later. It was actually a disabled man (he had lost both legs to diabetes) who ran a soup stall on the street in the Trenchtown neighborhood. For months, if not years, he had offered soups to Marley and the other Wailers when they were kids with no money. When Marley was still entangled with rights issues (hastily ceded to his previous label), he credited the man who had helped him. Which suddenly ended up later with a nice sum of money.
Bob Marley and the reggae legend, Gründ, 208 pages, 19, 95 €.
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