WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.200 Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we take your 00:00:02.200 --> 00:00:04.620 intricate stack of sources, the articles, the 00:00:04.620 --> 00:00:07.440 academic research, the personal notes, and turn 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:09.939 complex history into essential understanding. 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:13.720 And today... We have a true giant, an absolute 00:00:13.720 --> 00:00:16.219 icon. We are undertaking a deep dive into the 00:00:16.219 --> 00:00:19.660 life, the music and maybe most importantly, the 00:00:19.660 --> 00:00:21.820 revolutionary politics of Robert Nesta Marley. 00:00:21.859 --> 00:00:24.640 That's right. And this isn't just about revisiting 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:26.579 the hits. You know, it's about getting under 00:00:26.579 --> 00:00:28.960 the hood, understanding the engine that drove 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:31.300 the man. Exactly. When you look at the raw data. 00:00:31.769 --> 00:00:33.869 I mean, we're talking about someone whose sales 00:00:33.869 --> 00:00:37.189 are estimated at over 75 million records, a pioneer 00:00:37.189 --> 00:00:40.909 who fused reggae, ska, and rocksteady and just, 00:00:40.969 --> 00:00:43.969 well, redefined global music. For sure. But our 00:00:43.969 --> 00:00:45.789 mission here is to move past that, you know, 00:00:45.789 --> 00:00:48.090 that poster image of the smiling benevolence. 00:00:48.170 --> 00:00:50.429 We're really unpacking his spiritual life, his 00:00:50.429 --> 00:00:52.710 often incredibly dangerous political stands, 00:00:52.909 --> 00:00:55.429 and the personal complexities that really forged 00:00:55.429 --> 00:00:57.560 the icon. Absolutely. The critical consensus 00:00:57.560 --> 00:00:59.960 backs it all up. Rolling Stone put him at number 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:02.859 11 on their 100 greatest artists of all time. 00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:05.079 As they should. He was born in Nine Mile, Jamaica 00:01:05.079 --> 00:01:08.579 back in 1945. And he so quickly became this. 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:12.200 this symbol of Jamaican identity, the global 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:15.420 voice for Rastafari. Yeah, but to really understand 00:01:15.420 --> 00:01:17.159 the weight of that symbolism, you have to go 00:01:17.159 --> 00:01:19.319 right back to the beginning, to these really 00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:21.819 stark contrasting origins. We have to. We need 00:01:21.819 --> 00:01:23.920 to go back and really excavate the foundations 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:26.939 of the mystic. Let's do it. So Marley's earliest 00:01:26.939 --> 00:01:30.010 environment, it was defined by this. This inherent 00:01:30.010 --> 00:01:31.969 contradiction. He was born in Nine Mile, St. 00:01:32.049 --> 00:01:35.750 Ann Parish, on February 6, 1945. Right. But the 00:01:35.750 --> 00:01:38.750 circumstances around his parents are just, they're 00:01:38.750 --> 00:01:41.129 so stark, and they immediately throw you into 00:01:41.129 --> 00:01:43.730 the whole complexity of race and class in the 00:01:43.730 --> 00:01:47.129 colonial Caribbean. It's the first major internal 00:01:47.129 --> 00:01:49.829 conflict he ever had to navigate. His mother, 00:01:49.930 --> 00:01:52.250 Sadela Malcolm, was Afro -Jamaican, and she was 00:01:52.250 --> 00:01:55.329 only 18 years old. 19. Yeah. And his father, 00:01:55.549 --> 00:01:57.890 Norval Sinclair Marley, was a white Jamaican 00:01:57.890 --> 00:02:01.519 man. with Welsh ancestry. And Norval was about 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:05.099 64 when Bob was born. Wow. So that's a 46 year 00:02:05.099 --> 00:02:07.939 age difference. A staggering difference. And 00:02:07.939 --> 00:02:10.960 Norval's background is just as telling. He was 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:13.539 a private in the British army, but he often called 00:02:13.539 --> 00:02:16.479 himself captain. So there's this hint of like 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:19.620 social climbing or status, even if it wasn't 00:02:19.620 --> 00:02:22.800 quite real. Precisely. But for all that, he provided 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:25.430 almost no tangible support. He was basically 00:02:25.430 --> 00:02:27.550 absent. Right. He was always traveling, barely 00:02:27.550 --> 00:02:29.710 saw them, and offered very little money. And 00:02:29.710 --> 00:02:33.370 then he died when Bob was just 12. And that void, 00:02:33.629 --> 00:02:36.409 you know, that lack of a father figure, especially 00:02:36.409 --> 00:02:39.870 a white higher status father, it absolutely shaped 00:02:39.870 --> 00:02:43.090 Bob's later incredibly fierce commitment to his 00:02:43.090 --> 00:02:45.490 African identity. It's like he spent his life 00:02:45.490 --> 00:02:47.969 asserting the identity that his own father and 00:02:47.969 --> 00:02:50.289 the society around him might have tried to ignore. 00:02:50.389 --> 00:02:52.770 100%. And speaking of identity, there's that 00:02:52.770 --> 00:02:54.710 great little anecdote about his name. We all 00:02:54.710 --> 00:02:56.689 know him as Robert Nesta Marley, but that's not 00:02:56.689 --> 00:02:58.689 how he was born. No, it isn't. He was born Nesta 00:02:58.689 --> 00:03:00.610 Robert Marley. So what happened there? It was 00:03:00.610 --> 00:03:03.469 passport official. Apparently the official thought 00:03:03.469 --> 00:03:06.349 Nesta sounded too much like a girl's name for 00:03:06.349 --> 00:03:09.050 a boy's passport. You're kidding. Nope. So he 00:03:09.050 --> 00:03:11.770 just swapped them. Officially changed it to Robert 00:03:11.770 --> 00:03:15.169 Nesta Marley. It's a tiny bureaucratic detail. 00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:18.419 But it says so much about the casual imposition 00:03:18.419 --> 00:03:21.199 of outside rules on a person's identity. Something 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:23.319 he would spend his entire life fighting against 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:26.979 on a much, much bigger scale. Exactly. So at 00:03:26.979 --> 00:03:30.099 age 12, his whole world just fundamentally shifts. 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:33.639 He and his mother leave that rural quiet of Nine 00:03:33.639 --> 00:03:36.219 Mile and they move to Trenchtown in Kingston. 00:03:36.460 --> 00:03:38.719 And this move was crucial. I mean, Trenchtown 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:40.840 was the absolute heart of the Capitol's musical 00:03:40.840 --> 00:03:43.599 ferment, but it was also the heart of its poverty 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:46.250 and deprivation. A government yard tenement. 00:03:46.370 --> 00:03:49.729 Yeah. Dense, crowded, volatile. It really became 00:03:49.729 --> 00:03:52.110 the crucible for his musical awakening and not 00:03:52.110 --> 00:03:54.490 long after his spiritual one. And this is where 00:03:54.490 --> 00:03:56.669 his bond with Neville Livingston, who we all 00:03:56.669 --> 00:03:59.210 know as Bunny Whaler, really deepens. It does. 00:03:59.330 --> 00:04:01.389 And they were practically family already, weren't 00:04:01.389 --> 00:04:03.930 they? Bunny's father, Thaddeus Livingston, and 00:04:03.930 --> 00:04:06.330 Bob's mother, Sadella, actually had a daughter 00:04:06.330 --> 00:04:09.270 together, Claudette Pearl. So that just cemented 00:04:09.270 --> 00:04:11.469 this brotherhood. They were under one roof, sharing 00:04:11.469 --> 00:04:14.430 everything. And that shared experience directly 00:04:14.430 --> 00:04:16.889 fueled their music. They were soaking up everything. 00:04:17.470 --> 00:04:20.399 The local ska. which was Jamaica's first big 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:23.339 genre, and all the R &B they could get from American 00:04:23.339 --> 00:04:25.680 radio stations drifting over the water. And they 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:27.500 were just relentless about starting a group. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:29.959 They went through so many names. Oh, yeah. The 00:04:29.959 --> 00:04:32.420 Teenagers, the Wailing Rude Boys, the Wailing 00:04:32.420 --> 00:04:35.220 Wailers. Before they finally landed on just the 00:04:35.220 --> 00:04:37.240 Wailers. And before they could even properly 00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:41.040 play instruments, their obsession was vocal harmony. 00:04:41.259 --> 00:04:43.540 That is the single most important foundational 00:04:43.540 --> 00:04:47.060 fact. Their harmony work was everything. And 00:04:47.060 --> 00:04:49.100 this is where Joe Higgs comes in. Local legend 00:04:49.100 --> 00:04:51.600 from Higgs and Wilson. Right. He lived nearby 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:54.660 and he basically took this young trio under his 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:58.060 wing, became their first real mentor. And he 00:04:58.060 --> 00:05:00.379 was tough. He wasn't just teaching them to sing. 00:05:00.439 --> 00:05:03.180 He was instilling discipline. He's the one who 00:05:03.180 --> 00:05:05.839 helped them craft those legendary tight harmonies 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:08.500 that define their whole early sound. And he took 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:10.699 the critical next step. He taught Marley how 00:05:10.699 --> 00:05:12.959 to play the guitar. Giving him the tool he needed 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:15.839 to turn the rhythms in his head into actual songs. 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:19.769 And all that training, it paid off fast. In 1962, 00:05:20.250 --> 00:05:23.329 Marley goes and records his first four songs 00:05:23.329 --> 00:05:26.529 for a producer named Leslie Kahn. Just not one 00:05:26.529 --> 00:05:28.910 cup of coffee. She released under a different 00:05:28.910 --> 00:05:31.850 name, right? Yeah, Bobby Martell. But the real 00:05:31.850 --> 00:05:34.269 breakthrough, the game changer, was signing with 00:05:34.269 --> 00:05:37.529 Coxone Dodd at the legendary Studio One. The 00:05:37.529 --> 00:05:40.430 epicenter of early Jamaican music. Totally. And 00:05:40.430 --> 00:05:43.170 under Dodd, the Wailers released Simmer Down 00:05:43.170 --> 00:05:46.910 in 1964. And this wasn't just a hit song. It 00:05:46.910 --> 00:05:49.009 was a cultural phenomenon. It sold, what, an 00:05:49.009 --> 00:05:52.009 estimated 70 ,000 copies in Jamaica alone? An 00:05:52.009 --> 00:05:54.370 incredible number. It made them stars overnight. 00:05:54.750 --> 00:05:57.089 Because Simmer Down was a Scott tune. But its 00:05:57.089 --> 00:05:59.230 lyrics were speaking directly to the rude boy 00:05:59.230 --> 00:06:01.470 problem. The angry, marginalized youth causing 00:06:01.470 --> 00:06:04.110 trouble in Kingston. So even with that infectious, 00:06:04.250 --> 00:06:06.329 upbeat tempo, it was really a social commentary. 00:06:06.649 --> 00:06:08.910 A warning to cool down. A perfect reflection 00:06:08.910 --> 00:06:11.589 of the tension of that moment. And by 1966, the 00:06:11.589 --> 00:06:13.990 lineup was set. Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso, 00:06:14.170 --> 00:06:16.360 Cherry Smith. They all departed. Leaving that 00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:20.160 legendary, powerful core trio, Bob Marley, Peter 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:22.300 Tosh, and Bunny Whaler, ready to take on the 00:06:22.300 --> 00:06:26.079 world. So the late 1960s, this marks a period 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:28.860 of just massive change for Marley, both inside 00:06:28.860 --> 00:06:32.779 and out. Personally, in 66, he marries Rita Anderson. 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:35.160 Right. But then immediately after that, we get 00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:38.100 this really fascinating chapter. His American 00:06:38.100 --> 00:06:40.879 exile. It's amazing. The sources all confirm 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:44.360 he briefly moves to Wilmington, Delaware in the 00:06:44.360 --> 00:06:46.980 U .S. because his mother was living nearby. So 00:06:46.980 --> 00:06:49.740 think about that. This is the future global prophet, 00:06:50.019 --> 00:06:52.699 the voice of the third world, working a totally 00:06:52.699 --> 00:06:55.740 anonymous blue -collar American job. He had just 00:06:55.740 --> 00:06:58.439 become a star in Jamaica with Simmer Down, a 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:00.800 celebrity, and then suddenly he's a lab assistant 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:03.519 at DuPont. Or operating a forklift on an assembly 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:05.620 line at a Chrysler plant in Newark, Delaware. 00:07:06.110 --> 00:07:07.970 And he's doing it all under an alias, Donald 00:07:07.970 --> 00:07:10.350 Marley. It's just an incredible pause in his 00:07:10.350 --> 00:07:13.089 destiny. It shows this powerful pragmatism. He 00:07:13.089 --> 00:07:14.829 was just trying to earn enough money to support 00:07:14.829 --> 00:07:17.189 his family and fund his musical dreams back home. 00:07:17.430 --> 00:07:19.389 Yeah, he wasn't just waiting for fame. He was 00:07:19.389 --> 00:07:21.889 working inside the very system he would later 00:07:21.889 --> 00:07:24.430 call Babylon. And when he gets back to Jamaica, 00:07:24.610 --> 00:07:26.889 that's when the spiritual and musical revolution 00:07:26.889 --> 00:07:30.230 really kicks into high gear. It does. Despite 00:07:30.230 --> 00:07:33.189 his Catholic upbringing, Marley fully converts 00:07:33.189 --> 00:07:36.199 to Rastafari in the 60s. He moves away from his 00:07:36.199 --> 00:07:38.319 mother's faith. And this is when he starts to 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:41.199 grow his dreadlocks. Which are so deeply symbolic 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:44.180 in Rastafari. They represent a covenant with 00:07:44.180 --> 00:07:47.540 God, with Jah. And that spiritual commitment, 00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:50.300 it becomes the lens for everything that comes 00:07:50.300 --> 00:07:52.959 next. And musically, he connects with one of 00:07:52.959 --> 00:07:55.319 the greatest innovators in Jamaican music history. 00:07:55.540 --> 00:07:58.620 Lee Scratch Perry. And the Upsetters. Now, that 00:07:58.620 --> 00:08:01.120 partnership was famously turbulent. It barely 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:03.620 lasted a year, ended in a big fight over recording 00:08:03.620 --> 00:08:06.660 rights. But creatively, it was just explosive. 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:09.829 Absolutely. Many people, and you'll see in the 00:08:09.829 --> 00:08:11.569 sources, they consider the material they made 00:08:11.569 --> 00:08:14.029 together to be the whalers' absolute finest work. 00:08:14.149 --> 00:08:16.550 It's so raw, so militant. Perry, this eccentric 00:08:16.550 --> 00:08:18.730 genius, he helped them strip their sound down 00:08:18.730 --> 00:08:21.230 to the bone. Right, creating these spare hypnotic 00:08:21.230 --> 00:08:23.110 rhythms that were all about the bass and drums. 00:08:23.350 --> 00:08:25.149 And it was during this late 60s period that the 00:08:25.149 --> 00:08:27.430 music itself was changing. It started with fast 00:08:27.430 --> 00:08:30.709 ska, then the slower, smoother rocksteady. And 00:08:30.709 --> 00:08:33.909 now the true reggae sound was being born. So 00:08:33.909 --> 00:08:36.029 what was the defining change? What was the new 00:08:36.029 --> 00:08:39.399 sound? The rhythm. Specifically, the one drop 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:42.379 beat. See, Ska emphasized the second and fourth 00:08:42.379 --> 00:08:45.240 beats, the upbeat. Reggae slowed the whole thing 00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:47.899 down and shifted the accent to the third beat. 00:08:47.980 --> 00:08:50.480 The one drop. The one drop. It created this heavier, 00:08:50.679 --> 00:08:53.919 more meditative, almost loping feel. You can 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:56.539 really hear it on their 1971 album, The Best 00:08:56.539 --> 00:08:59.519 of the Wailers, on tracks like Full Shakedown 00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:02.320 Party. And you hear less of the big horn sections 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:05.080 from Ska. The focus shifts almost completely 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:07.139 to the electric guitar playing that rhythmic. 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:09.679 stank on the off beats. Those hypnotic bass lines. 00:09:09.820 --> 00:09:11.919 Yeah. Which would become the absolute trademark 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:14.100 of the genre. But here's the fascinating tension 00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:16.710 from that time. Even as they're forging this 00:09:16.710 --> 00:09:19.529 definitive Roots reggae sound with Scratch Perry. 00:09:19.809 --> 00:09:22.590 Right. Marley is simultaneously chasing mainstream 00:09:22.590 --> 00:09:25.210 pop success. Yes. The sources talk about him 00:09:25.210 --> 00:09:27.850 recording demos for JAD Records, working with 00:09:27.850 --> 00:09:30.009 a songwriter named Jimmy Norman in the Bronx 00:09:30.009 --> 00:09:32.370 around 1968. And this wasn't Roots music. This 00:09:32.370 --> 00:09:34.509 was a serious commercial effort to break into 00:09:34.509 --> 00:09:36.909 the American market. Oh, totally. Yeah. He was 00:09:36.909 --> 00:09:39.429 explicitly experimenting with whatever was popular 00:09:39.429 --> 00:09:42.549 in the U .S. He recorded doo -wop songs like 00:09:42.549 --> 00:09:46.029 Stay With Me, these 1960s styles. slow love songs. 00:09:46.210 --> 00:09:48.629 So it's a world away from the militant Rasta 00:09:48.629 --> 00:09:50.950 message he was developing back in trench town. 00:09:51.129 --> 00:09:53.870 It's this powerful dichotomy. The revolutionary 00:09:53.870 --> 00:09:56.970 message was always in this push and pull with 00:09:56.970 --> 00:09:59.350 the ambition to be a global recording star. And 00:09:59.350 --> 00:10:01.870 that ambition is what ultimately leads him to 00:10:01.870 --> 00:10:05.570 London in 1972. He lived at 34 Ridgemount Gardens 00:10:05.570 --> 00:10:08.570 in Bloomsbury. There's a plaque there now. He 00:10:08.570 --> 00:10:10.899 was being strategic. He understood that to break 00:10:10.899 --> 00:10:13.659 America, he probably had to conquer the UK first. 00:10:13.860 --> 00:10:16.299 And that London residency turned out to be absolutely 00:10:16.299 --> 00:10:18.879 essential because it set the stage for the one 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:20.860 meeting that would change everything. The stage 00:10:20.860 --> 00:10:24.159 was set, 1972. Marley is touring the UK with 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:26.620 the singer Johnny Nash. Right. And the Wailers, 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:28.580 in what has to be one of the greatest accidents 00:10:28.580 --> 00:10:31.159 in music history, they go looking for Chris Blackwell 00:10:31.159 --> 00:10:33.440 of Island Records. And they're not there to pitch 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:35.240 a new album. They're just there to talk about 00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:38.080 some overdue royalties for old tracks that Island 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:40.789 had licensed. The irony is just incredible. They 00:10:40.789 --> 00:10:43.350 walk in looking for a small check. And Blackwell 00:10:43.350 --> 00:10:46.350 sees a chance to revolutionize his label and, 00:10:46.389 --> 00:10:49.669 really, music history. He was looking for a new 00:10:49.669 --> 00:10:52.129 artist to replace Jimmy Cliff, who had just left. 00:10:52.269 --> 00:10:55.590 But Blackwell... a white Jamaican himself, he 00:10:55.590 --> 00:10:58.009 understood the raw political power that Marley 00:10:58.009 --> 00:11:00.669 represented. He didn't just see a reggae musician. 00:11:00.830 --> 00:11:04.450 He saw a potential rock icon. Exactly. He thought 00:11:04.450 --> 00:11:06.830 Marley was the perfect image for what he called 00:11:06.830 --> 00:11:09.750 rebel music, an artist who could translate that 00:11:09.750 --> 00:11:12.669 raw revolutionary energy of the ghetto for a 00:11:12.669 --> 00:11:15.870 global rock audience that was hungry for authenticity. 00:11:16.250 --> 00:11:18.470 And the deal he offered just proved it. A £4 00:11:18.470 --> 00:11:21.370 ,000 advance to record an album. Which was not 00:11:21.370 --> 00:11:24.190 a cheap local reggae contract. That was rock 00:11:24.190 --> 00:11:26.690 band money. It showed Island was all in. And 00:11:26.690 --> 00:11:28.990 the album they made, Catch a Fire, from 1973, 00:11:29.450 --> 00:11:31.730 that is the true watershed moment. It was the 00:11:31.730 --> 00:11:34.029 first time a reggae band got access to the same 00:11:34.029 --> 00:11:35.990 state -of -the -art studio treatment as their 00:11:35.990 --> 00:11:38.509 rock and roll peers. Blackwell acted as the executive 00:11:38.509 --> 00:11:41.070 producer, and he actually restructured Marley's 00:11:41.070 --> 00:11:43.830 original mixes. He deliberately toned down that 00:11:43.830 --> 00:11:46.070 overwhelming bass -heavy sound that you'd hear 00:11:46.070 --> 00:11:48.590 on a Jamaican sound system. Why? To make it more 00:11:48.590 --> 00:11:51.110 palatable for international audiences. To make 00:11:51.110 --> 00:11:53.289 it translate on international stereos and radio. 00:11:53.590 --> 00:11:55.909 He said he was aiming for more of a drifting, 00:11:56.049 --> 00:11:58.909 hypnotic -type feel that would be an easier entry 00:11:58.909 --> 00:12:01.190 point for rock listeners. And the packaging was 00:12:01.190 --> 00:12:03.970 just genius. It was marketed like a rock album, 00:12:04.149 --> 00:12:06.970 famously with that unique cover designed to look 00:12:06.970 --> 00:12:09.629 and open like a Zippo lighter. That wasn't just 00:12:09.629 --> 00:12:12.970 a gimmick. It was a statement. It said, the Wailers 00:12:12.970 --> 00:12:15.360 belong on the same shelf as Led Zeppelin. And 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.240 it worked. The album got major critical buzz. 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:20.600 Then the very next year, they released Burnin', 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:23.039 which includes I Shot the Sheriff, and This Is 00:12:23.039 --> 00:12:26.039 Where It All Explodes. Because in 1974, Eric 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:28.899 Clapton covers that song. And it becomes Clapton's 00:12:28.899 --> 00:12:31.960 first U .S. number one hit. That one cover gave 00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:34.980 Marley instant, massive visibility to this huge 00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:37.139 American rock audience that might never have 00:12:37.139 --> 00:12:39.799 found him otherwise. His credibility as a world 00:12:39.799 --> 00:12:41.940 -class songwriter was just cemented overnight. 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:44.419 But right after Burnin', the internal dynamic 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:48.139 of the band just fractured. By 1974, the core 00:12:48.139 --> 00:12:51.419 trio Marley, Tosh, and Whaler, they disbanded. 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:53.500 Too many differences in vision. Yeah, especially 00:12:53.500 --> 00:12:55.740 over the compromises needed for mainstream success 00:12:55.740 --> 00:12:57.899 and the political direction of the music. It 00:12:57.899 --> 00:13:00.139 just wasn't sustainable. So Marley continued 00:13:00.139 --> 00:13:03.220 on as Bob Marley and the Whalers. He had to rebuild 00:13:03.220 --> 00:13:05.200 the band from scratch, but he did it with this 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:08.120 incredible roster of musicians that, you could 00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:10.870 argue, made the sound even more polished and 00:13:10.870 --> 00:13:13.169 powerful for the big stages. The foundation was 00:13:13.169 --> 00:13:15.870 that phenomenal rhythm section. The Barrett brothers. 00:13:16.330 --> 00:13:19.029 Carlton on drums and Aston Family Man Barrett 00:13:19.029 --> 00:13:21.110 on bass. Family Man is still one of the most 00:13:21.110 --> 00:13:23.110 important bass players in modern music history. 00:13:23.250 --> 00:13:25.549 Absolutely. Then you had Junior Marvin on guitar, 00:13:25.750 --> 00:13:29.169 Tyrone Downey on wire, Linda on keys, Seiko Patterson 00:13:29.169 --> 00:13:31.360 on percussion. which is the powerhouse band. 00:13:31.559 --> 00:13:34.320 And crucially, the iconic backing vocal trio, 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:37.139 the i3s. Judy Mowat, Marcia Griffiths, and his 00:13:37.139 --> 00:13:40.299 wife Rita Marley. They brought this rich spiritual 00:13:40.299 --> 00:13:42.820 harmony that was different from, but just as 00:13:42.820 --> 00:13:45.960 powerful as, the original Wailers. And with this 00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:49.740 new, polished lineup, the global rise just accelerated. 00:13:50.019 --> 00:13:53.519 In 1975, the live version of No Woman, No Cry 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:56.059 from the live album, that became his first real 00:13:56.059 --> 00:13:58.879 international hit. It just captured the raw energy 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:01.539 of his stage show perfectly. Then his traction 00:14:01.539 --> 00:14:04.500 in the U .S. was solidified when Rastaman Vibration 00:14:04.500 --> 00:14:08.100 in 1976 hit the top 50 of the Billboard Soul 00:14:08.100 --> 00:14:11.480 Charts. He was no longer a niche artist. No, 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:13.820 he was breaking into the American mainstream. 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:16.799 And Chris Blackwell solidified that investment. 00:14:16.980 --> 00:14:19.840 He gifted Marley the property at 56 Hope Road 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:22.159 in Kingston. Island House. Island House. Yeah. 00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:24.960 And it became Marley's home, his office, and 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:27.820 the headquarters for his Tuff Gong Studios. It 00:14:27.820 --> 00:14:30.860 was him planting his flag back in Jamaica, even 00:14:30.860 --> 00:14:33.330 as his star was rising across the world. But 00:14:33.330 --> 00:14:35.149 planting that flag in Jamaica, unfortunately, 00:14:35.230 --> 00:14:38.009 put him directly in the crosshairs of some incredibly 00:14:38.009 --> 00:14:40.529 intense political violence. It did. In December 00:14:40.529 --> 00:14:43.570 1976, just two days before he was set to play 00:14:43.570 --> 00:14:46.629 the Smile Jamaica Free concert, the assassination 00:14:46.629 --> 00:14:49.509 attempt happened right there, inside 56 Hope 00:14:49.509 --> 00:14:51.529 Road. You really have to understand the context 00:14:51.529 --> 00:14:54.789 here. Jamaica in the mid -70s was basically spiraling 00:14:54.789 --> 00:14:56.570 towards a civil war. It was deeply polarized 00:14:56.570 --> 00:14:58.750 between Michael Manley's People's National Party, 00:14:58.850 --> 00:15:00.990 the PNP, which was leaning towards democratic 00:15:00.990 --> 00:15:04.659 socialism. And Edward Sega's Jamaica Labor Party, 00:15:04.820 --> 00:15:07.240 the JLP, which is more conservative and aligned 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:09.879 with the U .S. And Marley, because of his huge 00:15:09.879 --> 00:15:12.799 influence, became unavoidable collateral damage. 00:15:13.159 --> 00:15:15.639 The Smile Jamaica concert was actually organized 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:17.860 by Prime Minister Manley to try and ease these 00:15:17.860 --> 00:15:21.200 tensions. So by agreeing to perform, Marley was, 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:23.519 whether he wanted to be or not, seen as taking 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:26.500 a side. He was seen as supporting the PMP. Which 00:15:26.500 --> 00:15:29.399 made him an immediate political target. Unknown 00:15:29.399 --> 00:15:33.470 gunman stormed his home. Marley, Rita, and their 00:15:33.470 --> 00:15:35.649 manager Don Taylor were all shot and wounded. 00:15:35.809 --> 00:15:38.669 It was a clear message. In this war, neutrality 00:15:38.669 --> 00:15:41.190 is not an option. The defiance that came next 00:15:41.190 --> 00:15:43.950 is just the stuff of legend. Despite having wounds 00:15:43.950 --> 00:15:46.429 in his chest and his arm, Marley chose not just 00:15:46.429 --> 00:15:48.779 to show up two days later. But to perform. In 00:15:48.779 --> 00:15:52.259 front of 80 ,000 people. 80 ,000 people. He reportedly 00:15:52.259 --> 00:15:54.259 said, the people who are trying to make this 00:15:54.259 --> 00:15:56.460 world worse are not taking a day off. How can 00:15:56.460 --> 00:15:58.940 I? It was just this incredible act of high stakes 00:15:58.940 --> 00:16:01.179 political theater. He was showing them that his 00:16:01.179 --> 00:16:03.220 message of unity was stronger than their guns. 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:05.899 But after that, for his own safety, he had to 00:16:05.899 --> 00:16:08.700 leave. The sources are clear. This was a self 00:16:08.700 --> 00:16:11.500 -imposed exile. He left Jamaica for nearly two 00:16:11.500 --> 00:16:14.139 years. After a month recovering in the Bahamas, 00:16:14.220 --> 00:16:16.620 he moved to England. And that period in exile 00:16:16.620 --> 00:16:19.669 turned out to be. unbelievably creative for him. 00:16:19.769 --> 00:16:22.070 This is when he produces the masterpieces Exodus 00:16:22.070 --> 00:16:27.070 and Kaya. Exodus in 1977 was a commercial monster. 00:16:27.269 --> 00:16:30.169 It stayed on the UK charts for 56 consecutive 00:16:30.169 --> 00:16:33.570 weeks. 56 weeks. Musically, it was this profound 00:16:33.570 --> 00:16:36.830 synthesis. He was incorporating blues, soul, 00:16:37.129 --> 00:16:40.059 British rock. It made his sound truly international. 00:16:40.379 --> 00:16:42.600 And Exodus was so much more than just a hit record. 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:44.840 It was this whole narrative of movement and spiritual 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:48.039 quest. It had global anthems like Exodus, Waiting 00:16:48.039 --> 00:16:51.259 in Vain, Jamming, and of course, One Love. And 00:16:51.259 --> 00:16:53.379 One Love is such a fascinating example of cultural 00:16:53.379 --> 00:16:55.440 borrowing because it interpolates the melody 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:57.919 of Curtis Mayfield's classic, People Get Ready. 00:16:58.039 --> 00:16:59.899 So even while he's having all the success in 00:16:59.899 --> 00:17:02.440 London, he's still facing the scrutiny of Babylon 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:04.720 firsthand. He gets arrested. Yeah, arrested and 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:06.559 convicted for possession of a small amount of 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:09.160 cannabis. A pretty clear reminder that no matter 00:17:09.160 --> 00:17:11.920 how famous he was, his religious practices were 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:15.240 still illegal under British law. We also get 00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:17.420 these little glimpses of his celebrity status 00:17:17.420 --> 00:17:20.859 in the UK, like the video for Is This Love, which 00:17:20.859 --> 00:17:23.339 was filmed in London and featured a very young 00:17:23.339 --> 00:17:25.500 Naomi Campbell. Right, before she was famous. 00:17:25.619 --> 00:17:28.460 This exile is what created the global superstar. 00:17:28.940 --> 00:17:31.700 But his heart was always in Jamaica, and eventually 00:17:31.700 --> 00:17:35.890 he had to go back. He returned in 1978 to perform 00:17:35.890 --> 00:17:39.109 at the seminal One Love Peace concert. And this 00:17:39.109 --> 00:17:41.970 wasn't just a concert. It was a monumental political 00:17:41.970 --> 00:17:44.839 statement. At the climax of his performance, 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:48.059 he does what no politician had managed to do. 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:50.539 He physically brings the two warring rivals, 00:17:50.779 --> 00:17:52.640 Prime Minister Michael Manley and opposition 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:55.339 leader Edward Siga, onto the stage together. 00:17:55.579 --> 00:17:57.519 And he makes them shake hands. It's pure high 00:17:57.519 --> 00:17:59.640 stakes political theater. He was asserting the 00:17:59.640 --> 00:18:02.779 power of music and Rastafari unity over the entire 00:18:02.779 --> 00:18:05.700 divisive political system. That photo of the 00:18:05.700 --> 00:18:07.460 handshake is one of the most powerful images 00:18:07.460 --> 00:18:10.559 of modern Jamaica. The raw energy of his shows 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:12.779 from that time was captured perfectly on the 00:18:12.779 --> 00:18:16.640 live album Babylon by Bus. The final track, Jamming, 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:18.720 you can just hear the audience is in an absolute 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:21.819 frenzy. And after his return, Marley's focus 00:18:21.819 --> 00:18:25.549 becomes increasingly Pan -African. His 1979 album 00:18:25.549 --> 00:18:27.809 Survival is defiant. It's politically charged. 00:18:28.049 --> 00:18:31.269 It's less about the smooth rock fusion and more 00:18:31.269 --> 00:18:34.349 about militant solidarity. With songs like Zimbabwe, 00:18:34.549 --> 00:18:37.430 Africa Unite, Wake Up and Live. He's explicitly 00:18:37.430 --> 00:18:39.430 supporting the liberation struggles happening 00:18:39.430 --> 00:18:42.150 all across the African continent. His opposition 00:18:42.150 --> 00:18:44.829 to apartheid in South Africa was loud and clear. 00:18:45.369 --> 00:18:48.410 He spoke at the Amandla Festival in Boston, echoing 00:18:48.410 --> 00:18:50.690 the anti -war message of his earlier song, War. 00:18:50.970 --> 00:18:53.529 And he saw that fight in Africa as the central 00:18:53.529 --> 00:18:56.230 fight for the soul of the entire diaspora. Which 00:18:56.230 --> 00:18:58.289 is why it was the ultimate validation for him 00:18:58.289 --> 00:19:00.470 when he was invited to perform at Zimbabwe's 00:19:00.470 --> 00:19:03.670 Independence Day celebration on April 17th, 1980. 00:19:03.990 --> 00:19:06.549 To perform for a newly liberated African nation. 00:19:06.609 --> 00:19:08.549 For him, that was the fulfillment of the Marcus 00:19:08.549 --> 00:19:11.410 Garvey philosophy that he lived by. Yeah. And 00:19:11.410 --> 00:19:13.670 his final studio album, released in his lifetime, 00:19:13.890 --> 00:19:17.289 Uprising. It shows this shift back toward more 00:19:17.289 --> 00:19:20.190 personal spiritual themes, maybe a reflection 00:19:20.190 --> 00:19:23.009 of his failing health. It's incredibly religious, 00:19:23.089 --> 00:19:25.970 with the acoustic anthem Redemption Song and 00:19:25.970 --> 00:19:29.029 the devotional Forever Loving Jaw. Marley's identity 00:19:29.029 --> 00:19:32.730 was this complex mosaic, but at its very core 00:19:32.730 --> 00:19:35.849 were the unbreakable beliefs of Rastafari. He 00:19:35.849 --> 00:19:38.690 converted back in 1966. Right, moving away from 00:19:38.690 --> 00:19:40.950 the Catholicism he was raised in. And the central 00:19:40.950 --> 00:19:43.609 belief for him was the conviction that Hail Selassie 00:19:43.609 --> 00:19:46.430 I, the emperor of Ethiopia, was the incarnation 00:19:46.430 --> 00:19:49.109 of God, or Jah. And that belief, it anchored 00:19:49.109 --> 00:19:51.630 his entire worldview. It gave him the spiritual 00:19:51.630 --> 00:19:54.369 basis for Pan -Africanism and for rejecting the 00:19:54.369 --> 00:19:56.569 colonial power structure, which Rases called 00:19:56.569 --> 00:19:59.539 Babylon. This conviction also directly informed 00:19:59.539 --> 00:20:02.420 his view on cannabis or ganja. He wasn't just 00:20:02.420 --> 00:20:05.440 a casual user. No, not at all. He was an ardent 00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:07.500 supporter of its legalization, but he saw its 00:20:07.500 --> 00:20:10.480 use as a sacrament, an aid to meditation, a pathway 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:12.619 to a deeper spiritual connection. It was an act 00:20:12.619 --> 00:20:14.480 of worship for him. There's that famous quote 00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:16.900 where he says, when you smoke herb, herb reveal 00:20:16.900 --> 00:20:19.519 yourself to you. Herb make you meditate. It's 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:21.759 only a natural thing. And his arrest back in 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:25.079 68 for possession just shows this was a deeply 00:20:25.079 --> 00:20:27.730 held belief he was willing to suffer for. not 00:20:27.730 --> 00:20:30.730 just some fashionable stance. What's really fascinating, 00:20:30.930 --> 00:20:33.089 given how committed he was to Rastafari his whole 00:20:33.089 --> 00:20:35.529 life, is the spiritual shift we see at the very, 00:20:35.549 --> 00:20:37.950 very end. Right. The sources note that shortly 00:20:37.950 --> 00:20:41.210 before he died, on November 4th, 1980, he was 00:20:41.210 --> 00:20:43.970 baptized into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church by 00:20:43.970 --> 00:20:47.210 an archbishop, and he took the name Burhan Selassie. 00:20:47.470 --> 00:20:49.309 Which isn't seen as a rejection of Rastafari, 00:20:49.410 --> 00:20:51.529 right? It's more of an embrace of the institutional 00:20:51.529 --> 00:20:54.349 church that Hale Selassie Cerf, his god incarnate, 00:20:54.369 --> 00:20:57.109 had led. Exactly. Perhaps a way of seeking a 00:20:57.109 --> 00:20:59.569 closer spiritual alignment in his final months. 00:20:59.769 --> 00:21:02.390 And beyond his personal faith, his politics were 00:21:02.390 --> 00:21:04.849 just explicitly Pan -Africanist. He believed 00:21:04.849 --> 00:21:07.230 fiercely in the unity of African people everywhere. 00:21:07.609 --> 00:21:09.970 He drew so much inspiration from the Jamaican 00:21:09.970 --> 00:21:12.910 political activist Marcus Garvey, who championed 00:21:12.910 --> 00:21:15.170 a black self -reliance in the early 20th century. 00:21:15.450 --> 00:21:17.779 There's a direct link, isn't there? The lyrics 00:21:17.779 --> 00:21:20.200 of Redemption Song are heavily influenced by 00:21:20.200 --> 00:21:23.660 a speech Garvey gave in 1937. A direct link. 00:21:23.859 --> 00:21:26.500 He was constantly singing about fighting Babylon 00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:29.480 and celebrating African independence in songs 00:21:29.480 --> 00:21:33.619 like Africa Unite and Zimbabwe. He blended spiritual 00:21:33.619 --> 00:21:36.380 belief, political action, and music into one 00:21:36.380 --> 00:21:39.109 seamless thing. His personal life, much like 00:21:39.109 --> 00:21:42.009 his background, was also very complex. He married 00:21:42.009 --> 00:21:45.789 Rita Anderson in 1966. And his family was large 00:21:45.789 --> 00:21:49.549 and nontraditional by Western standards. The 00:21:49.549 --> 00:21:52.390 official Bob Marley website acknowledges 11 children. 00:21:52.529 --> 00:21:55.250 That's three with Rita, two adopted from Rita's 00:21:55.250 --> 00:21:57.450 previous relationships, and then six more with 00:21:57.450 --> 00:21:59.369 six different partners outside of his marriage. 00:21:59.569 --> 00:22:02.069 It says a lot about Jamaican cultural norms around 00:22:02.069 --> 00:22:04.789 family and also just the reality of his life 00:22:04.789 --> 00:22:06.559 on the road. For example, one of the adopted 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:09.039 children, Stephanie, was born to Rita and another 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:11.160 man. But Marley adopted her and she was entitled 00:22:11.160 --> 00:22:13.240 to his estate. It showed a real commitment to 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:15.019 the children who were in his life, regardless 00:22:15.019 --> 00:22:17.900 of biology. And that musical dynasty just continues 00:22:17.900 --> 00:22:20.079 today through his grandkids, like Skip Marley 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:23.119 and YG Marley. But the man wasn't just, you know, 00:22:23.140 --> 00:22:25.640 theology and hit records. We have to talk about 00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:30.619 his other great passion. Football. Soccer. He 00:22:30.619 --> 00:22:32.779 played constantly. Not just occasionally, but 00:22:32.779 --> 00:22:35.380 like an obsession. He'd play pickup games in 00:22:35.380 --> 00:22:38.119 parking lots, in fields, even inside the recording 00:22:38.119 --> 00:22:41.140 studios. He saw it as a spiritual release, a 00:22:41.140 --> 00:22:43.700 way to connect. He was a huge fan of the Brazilian 00:22:43.700 --> 00:22:46.819 club Santos Pelé's team and Tottenham Hotspur 00:22:46.819 --> 00:22:49.480 in England. He was so serious about it, he hired 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:52.359 a Jamaican international footballer, Alan Skill 00:22:52.359 --> 00:22:55.119 Cole, to be his tour manager. That famous quote 00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:57.619 says it all. If you want to get to know me, you 00:22:57.619 --> 00:22:59.519 will have to play football against me and the 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:02.059 Whalers. It shows that competitive, collaborative 00:23:02.059 --> 00:23:05.140 spirit. And one last just wonderful humanizing 00:23:05.140 --> 00:23:07.480 detail that cuts against the image of the militant 00:23:07.480 --> 00:23:11.490 ascetic. His cars. The BMWs. He owned a couple 00:23:11.490 --> 00:23:14.130 of BMWs. He claimed it wasn't for the luxury, 00:23:14.250 --> 00:23:16.049 but because he insisted the initials stood for 00:23:16.049 --> 00:23:18.109 Bob Marley and the Wailers. It just shows that 00:23:18.109 --> 00:23:19.910 playful side, you know, rejecting the status 00:23:19.910 --> 00:23:22.309 symbols even as he was acquiring them. The story 00:23:22.309 --> 00:23:24.890 of Bob Marley is just so intrinsically tied to 00:23:24.890 --> 00:23:27.750 how short his life was, cut tragically short 00:23:27.750 --> 00:23:31.869 by illness. In July 1977, he gets the diagnosis 00:23:31.869 --> 00:23:35.549 that would define his final years. A crowd lentiginous 00:23:35.549 --> 00:23:39.700 melanoma. A rare form of skin cancer found under 00:23:39.700 --> 00:23:42.839 the nail of his right big toe. And it is absolutely 00:23:42.839 --> 00:23:45.279 essential. We clear up the myth here. This was 00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:47.380 a symptom of a cancer that was already there. 00:23:47.500 --> 00:23:49.859 It was not caused by a football injury, which 00:23:49.859 --> 00:23:52.119 is what you so often hear. The injury just drew 00:23:52.119 --> 00:23:55.430 attention to the lesion. And worse. This type 00:23:55.430 --> 00:23:57.910 of melanoma, while it's the most common type 00:23:57.910 --> 00:24:01.130 in people with dark skin, it wasn't widely recognized 00:24:01.130 --> 00:24:03.369 in medical textbooks at the time. Which led to 00:24:03.369 --> 00:24:05.390 a critical delay. The sources say he had to see 00:24:05.390 --> 00:24:07.490 at least two doctors before they even did a proper 00:24:07.490 --> 00:24:10.150 biopsy to confirm what it was. It just highlights 00:24:10.150 --> 00:24:12.509 this terrible disparity in medical awareness, 00:24:12.750 --> 00:24:15.529 and it cost him crucial time. And then came the 00:24:15.529 --> 00:24:18.130 fateful defining choice. The doctors advised 00:24:18.130 --> 00:24:20.710 him to immediately amputate the toe to stop the 00:24:20.710 --> 00:24:23.210 cancer from spreading. And Marley refused. He 00:24:23.210 --> 00:24:26.069 rejected it on religious grounds. He felt that 00:24:26.069 --> 00:24:28.390 amputation would violate the Rastafari belief 00:24:28.390 --> 00:24:31.509 in keeping the body whole as a temple. And he 00:24:31.509 --> 00:24:33.569 worried that disfigurement would compromise his 00:24:33.569 --> 00:24:36.029 role as this symbol of strength to his followers. 00:24:36.329 --> 00:24:39.029 So instead, he opted for a much less effective 00:24:39.029 --> 00:24:41.650 surgery, just removing the nail and nail bed 00:24:41.650 --> 00:24:43.869 and covering it with a skin graft. This choice 00:24:43.869 --> 00:24:47.049 to prioritize his symbolic role over a potential 00:24:47.049 --> 00:24:49.789 cure just highlights that tension between the 00:24:49.789 --> 00:24:51.990 man and the mission. And despite how serious 00:24:51.990 --> 00:24:54.460 this was, He just kept touring relentlessly. 00:24:54.660 --> 00:24:57.279 He completed the whole European leg of the Uprising 00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:00.039 tour. He played his biggest concert ever to 100 00:25:00.039 --> 00:25:03.140 ,000 people in Milan, Italy. His final outdoor 00:25:03.140 --> 00:25:05.920 show was in Dublin in July of 1980. Then the 00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:07.940 tour moved to the U .S. He played two packed 00:25:07.940 --> 00:25:10.680 shows at Madison Square Garden. But the end was 00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:13.279 clearly getting near. On September 21, 1980, 00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:15.440 he collapsed while he was jogging in Central 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:18.599 Park. Scans revealed the devastating truth. The 00:25:18.599 --> 00:25:21.160 melanoma had spread. It was in his brain, his 00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:23.710 lungs, his liver. His final concert was just 00:25:23.710 --> 00:25:26.809 two days after that collapse, September 23, 1980, 00:25:27.009 --> 00:25:29.450 at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh. And then 00:25:29.450 --> 00:25:31.190 he canceled the rest of the tour. He went to 00:25:31.190 --> 00:25:33.450 Bavaria, Germany, to seek an alternative treatment 00:25:33.450 --> 00:25:35.710 at a clinic there. He spent eight months, but 00:25:35.710 --> 00:25:37.839 the cancer was just too advanced. The treatment 00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:40.019 failed. He decided to fly home to Jamaica one 00:25:40.019 --> 00:25:42.720 last time, but his condition got so much worse 00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:44.519 on the flight that they had to divert to Miami. 00:25:44.759 --> 00:25:47.599 And he died there at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital 00:25:47.599 --> 00:25:51.460 on May 11th, 1981. He was only 36 years old. 00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:54.859 His final words to his son Ziggy were just heartbreaking 00:25:54.859 --> 00:25:58.319 and so instructive. On your way up, take me up. 00:25:58.339 --> 00:26:00.619 On your way down, don't let me down. His funeral 00:26:00.619 --> 00:26:03.660 on May 21st was a massive state event. And it 00:26:03.660 --> 00:26:05.980 beautifully combined his complex spiritual life. 00:26:06.180 --> 00:26:08.900 It had traditions from both Ethiopian Orthodoxy 00:26:08.900 --> 00:26:11.599 and Rastafari ritual. He was buried in a chapel 00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:13.720 near where he was born in Nine Mile. And the 00:26:13.720 --> 00:26:15.740 items in his casket are just the ultimate symbol 00:26:15.740 --> 00:26:18.619 of his identity. His red Gibson Les Paul guitar, 00:26:18.819 --> 00:26:21.960 a Bible open to Psalm 23. And a stock of cannabis, 00:26:22.180 --> 00:26:24.920 placed there by his wife Rita. The eulogy from 00:26:24.920 --> 00:26:27.660 Prime Minister Edward Siga really captured his 00:26:27.660 --> 00:26:29.670 place in the nation's heart. He said his voice 00:26:29.670 --> 00:26:32.630 was an omnipresent cry and that such a man cannot 00:26:32.630 --> 00:26:35.309 be erased from the mind. He is part of the collective 00:26:35.309 --> 00:26:37.930 consciousness of the nation. And his posthumous 00:26:37.930 --> 00:26:41.190 recognition just confirms that status. The Jamaican 00:26:41.190 --> 00:26:43.410 Order of Merit, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 00:26:43.410 --> 00:26:46.490 in 94. Time magazine called Exodus the album 00:26:46.490 --> 00:26:49.269 of the century, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement 00:26:49.269 --> 00:26:52.089 Award in 2001. Commercially, the engine never 00:26:52.089 --> 00:26:55.019 stopped. The compilation legend from 1984 is 00:26:55.019 --> 00:26:57.279 still the best -selling reggae album of all time. 00:26:57.400 --> 00:26:59.460 And his message continues to resonate in the 00:26:59.460 --> 00:27:01.920 most amazing places, like among Native American 00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:05.500 tribes, the Hopi. And the Havasupai. But we have 00:27:05.500 --> 00:27:07.579 to integrate that critical perspective from the 00:27:07.579 --> 00:27:09.640 author Dave Thompson, who worried that all this 00:27:09.640 --> 00:27:12.700 commercial success sort of emasculated Marley. 00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:15.000 Right. His fear was that the global marketing 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:17.940 machine stripped away the ghetto kid who dreamed 00:27:17.940 --> 00:27:20.819 of Che Guevara and the Black Panthers and replaced 00:27:20.819 --> 00:27:23.700 him with this sanitized, easy to digest image 00:27:23.700 --> 00:27:26.750 of smiling benevolence. It's that tension again, 00:27:26.869 --> 00:27:29.009 isn't it? The conflict between the militant spirit 00:27:29.009 --> 00:27:31.609 and the demands of being a global rock star. 00:27:31.809 --> 00:27:34.670 Exactly. While that commercialization made sure 00:27:34.670 --> 00:27:37.710 his message reached billions, Thompson's argument 00:27:37.710 --> 00:27:41.009 is that it dulled the revolutionary edge. And 00:27:41.009 --> 00:27:44.410 his story, in all its complexity, from his mixed 00:27:44.410 --> 00:27:47.769 race heritage to the political danger, It continues 00:27:47.769 --> 00:27:50.150 to be explored, not just in documentaries, but 00:27:50.150 --> 00:27:53.089 in major literary works like Marlon James's novel, 00:27:53.309 --> 00:27:56.670 A Brief History of Seven Killings, which fictionalizes 00:27:56.670 --> 00:27:59.170 the violence around that 76 assassination attempt. 00:27:59.490 --> 00:28:01.589 It's just an endlessly fascinating and powerful 00:28:01.589 --> 00:28:04.289 story. So we've really tracked the full, intense 00:28:04.289 --> 00:28:06.910 arc of his life, from the contradictions of his 00:28:06.910 --> 00:28:09.009 birth and the poverty of Trenchtown, through 00:28:09.009 --> 00:28:11.609 the musical innovations, the strategic leap to 00:28:11.609 --> 00:28:13.849 global stardom, and the intense political battles 00:28:13.849 --> 00:28:16.579 he fought and barely survived. He achieved a 00:28:16.579 --> 00:28:19.220 level of fame that few ever do, but he remains 00:28:19.220 --> 00:28:22.019 so profoundly anchored in his spiritual and Pan 00:28:22.019 --> 00:28:24.700 -African beliefs right until his life was cut 00:28:24.700 --> 00:28:27.180 short by that rare aggressive cancer. Marley 00:28:27.180 --> 00:28:29.400 didn't just popularize reggae. He really did 00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:31.539 transform it from a local Jamaican sound into 00:28:31.539 --> 00:28:34.440 a universal language of liberation. His genius 00:28:34.440 --> 00:28:37.720 was that ability to fuse his very specific personal 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:41.299 struggles, Trenchtown, Rastafari, with these 00:28:41.299 --> 00:28:44.660 huge universal human themes of freedom and unity. 00:28:45.319 --> 00:28:47.940 He wasn't just a musician, he was a genuine political 00:28:47.940 --> 00:28:50.460 and spiritual revolutionary who happened to wield 00:28:50.460 --> 00:28:52.740 a guitar instead of a gun. And his dedication 00:28:52.740 --> 00:28:55.420 to maintaining that image, that role, right up 00:28:55.420 --> 00:28:58.180 until his final breath is so central to his whole 00:28:58.180 --> 00:29:01.220 mythos. It is. We talked about how he famously 00:29:01.220 --> 00:29:04.079 rejected the advice to amputate his toe, choosing 00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:06.119 a less effective path based on his religious 00:29:06.119 --> 00:29:08.640 need to remain whole, to maintain his image of 00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:10.980 relentless strength as a Rasta leader. So considering 00:29:10.980 --> 00:29:13.559 his tireless commitment to perform, to embody 00:29:13.559 --> 00:29:16.440 the movement, how did that dedication to being 00:29:16.440 --> 00:29:19.079 a living physical symbol, rather than just a 00:29:19.079 --> 00:29:21.000 recording artist who might prioritize survival, 00:29:21.289 --> 00:29:23.509 How did that shape the intensity, the brevity, 00:29:23.549 --> 00:29:25.809 and ultimately the eternal legacy of his career? 00:29:26.029 --> 00:29:28.170 And what is the true ultimate price of maintaining 00:29:28.170 --> 00:29:30.910 that image of uncompromising strength? Something 00:29:30.910 --> 00:29:32.789 to think about as you listen again to those anthems 00:29:32.789 --> 00:29:33.109 of revolution.