Bob Marley - Reggae

Bob Marley - Reggae

With his superb songs and arrangements, his rapt appearance and charismatic stage personality, Bob Marley and his group, the Wailers, won audiences for reggae all over the world, and influenced countless other musicians. Mr. Marley's concerts were hours-long, almost mystical events, with whole arenas standing and swaying to the insinuating rhythms and reiterated chants of his songs. Phrases such as "get up, stand up, stand up for your rights" - expressing the conviction that God would redeem the world despite its present sufferings - became anthems for his many admirers.

Mr. Marley died of cancer at the age of 36 in 1981. His cancer was diagnosed after the Wailers' final concerts at Madison Square Garden a year before. Critics described those concerts as mesmerizing, and Mr. Marley was hailed for his "spellbinding performance" and "intense singing and electric stage presence."

— John Rockwell

Bob Marley, in full Robert Nesta Marley    (born Feb. 6, 1945, Nine Miles, St. Ann, Jam.—died May 11, 1981, Miami, Fla., U.S.), Jamaican singer-songwriter whose thoughtful, ongoing distillation of early ska, rock steady, and reggae forms blossomed in the 1970s into an electrifying rock-influenced hybrid that made him an international superstar.

Marley—whose parents were Norval Sinclair Marley, a white rural overseer, and the former Cedella Malcolm, the black daughter of a local custos (respected backwoods squire)—would forever remain the unique product of parallel worlds. His poetic worldview was shaped by the countryside, hismusic by the tough West Kingston