Music

10 things about bob marley that don’t include weed or ‘one love’

February 6, 2013

Happy Birthday Bob Marley! The rock-steady legend would have been 68 today and we’ve been Jammin’! (sorry:/). Jammin’ so much we were inspired to learn a little bit more than what’s common-over-saturated info filling the web. Learn a little bit (more) about the LEGEND!

1. DID YOU KNOW Bob Marley’s father was a white British naval captain? 

2. DID YOU KNOW Bob’s real name is actually Nesta Robert Marley? Bob’s father, Norval Marley insisted on the first name of “Nesta”, but the origin of this moniker remains unknown. His original middle name Robert, was adopted as his first name when a Jamaican immigration official suggested that “Nesta” sounded too much like a girl’s name.

3. DID YOU KNOW Bob never won a Grammy while he was alive? He wasn’t honored with an honorary until 2001. 

4. DID YOU KNOW in 1976 the DAY after Bob had an politically-motivated assassination attempt, Bob gave a free concert  for 80,000 attendees. Bab was shot in the arm, and his wife Rita was seriously injured. The Wailer decided to go into hiding for a while, but the very next day Bob took the stage and proclaimed: “the people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off. How can I?”

5.  DID YOU KNOW Bob spent  great deal of time in the US in addition to Jamaica. At the age of 21 he lived with his mother in Delaware for seven months. The song “Night Shift” was based on his experience working at a Chrysler plant, and he was even employed as a laboratory assistant for DuPont Chemical

“America is pure deviltry, dem t’ings dat go on there. Dem just work with force and brutality. Dem lock out the punk thing because they see something happening. So the oppressors bring another man to blind the youth to the truth, and dem call him-John Tra-vol-ta.” – Bob Marley

We didn’t say he LIKED it, tho.

6. DID YOU KNOW although Bob was a Ratafarian prophet, his religious rooms are based on devotion of the Old testament. The distinctive dreadlocked look of Rastas is a reference to Leviticus 21:5: “They shall not make baldness upon their head.” Their notorious celebration and promotion of ganja is sourced from Psalm 104:14, that says: “He causeth . . . herb [to be grown] for the service of man . . . .” and Rastafarians even keep kosher.

7. DID YOU KNOW despite his rasta lifestyle, Bob drove a BMW? He said it stood for “Bob Marley and the Wailers)

 

8. DID YOU KNOW Marley opened a week of gigs for Bruce Springsteen in 1973. Sly Stone invited the band along with them on a 17 city tour as a follow up later that year, Unfortunately, four shows in Sly let them go. The reason: “they were too good and crowds went away talking too much about the opening act.”

9. DID YOU KNOW Bob was an exceptional soccer (fine, footbol) player and could have even played professionally.

10. DID YOU KNOW Bob Marley suffered from a form of skin cancer called “acral lentiginous melanoma”, a form of cancer that is very uncommon within black people. Diagnosed in 1977, he continued to write, record and perform until his death on May 11, 1981. Marley was buried in a crypt with a guitar, a soccer ball, a cannabis bud, and a Bible.

RIP Bob, you left us too soon.

Related