Bob Marley

BIOGRAPHY

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• Robert Nesta Marley was born 1945, February 6, in Rhoden Hall, Nine Mile, St. Ann, Jamaica.
• Robert lived with his mother (Cedella Booker) in Nine Mile, Jamaica. He attended the Stepney School. It was there that Robert and Neville O'Riley Livingston became friends.

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• Robert and his mother moved to Kingston, Jamaica in 1952. Robert's mother and Neville's father were both single parents. In Kingston they lived together and had a daughter (Claudette "Pearl" Livingston).

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• Robert recorded his first single "Judge Not" (produced by Leslie Kong) in 1962.
• Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, Winston Hubert "Peter" McIntosh, Neville O'Riley "Bunny" Livingston and Franklin Delano Alexander "Junior" Braithwaite learned breath control, harmony techniques, music theory and songwriting from Jamaican singer / arranger / composer Joe Higgs. Higgs gave free music lessons at his yard on Third Street in Trench Town, Jamaica. He was a devout rasta.
• Bob, Peter, Bunny, Junior, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Green joined to start "The Teenagers" vocal group in 1963. The group was renamed "The Wailing Rudeboys", "The Wailing Wailers" and last "The Wailers".
• Robert married Alpharita Constantia "Rita" Anderson in 1966, February 10.
• Bob left The Wailers temporary in 1966, February. He moved to the United States to live with his mother and work in a factory.
• Bob rejoined The Wailers in 1966, October. He moved back to Jamaica.

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• The Wailers signed a deal with Chris Blackwell's Island Records and recorded the album "Catch A Fire" in 1972. "Catch A Fire" was the first international Reggae album.

Classic Albums: Catch A Fire

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• Bunny and Peter left The Wailers in 1973.
• The I-Threes (Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt) joined the Wailers in 1974.
• Bob was shot at 56 Hope Road in 1976, December 3. Gunmen entered Bob's house and shot him and his friends. Don Taylor was in the line of fire of the gunman that shot Bob. He was critically wounded. Bob's chest and left arm were wounded. Rita was shot in her yellow VW Beetle. She required surgery to remove a bullet lodged in her scalp.
• Bob and the Wailers (including Rita) performed at the Smile Jamaica Concert in 1976, December 5.
• Bob moved to London, England in 1976.
• Bob injured a toe playing football in London in 1977.
• Bob and the Wailers performed at the One Love Peace Concert in Jamaica in 1978, April. Bob brought together the hands of Prime Minister Michael Manley (People's National Party) and opposition leader Edward Seaga (Jamaican Labour Party) onstage. Political violence was very high in Jamaica in the 1970s. Gunmen of both the PNP and the JLP fought each other for control of urban constituencies.

One Love
Life with Bob Marley & The Wailers
Words & photographs by Lee Jaffe

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• Bob and the Wailers performed at the Independence Ceremony of Zimbabwe in 1980, April.
• Bob was diagnosed brain, lungs and liver cancer in 1981. The cancer began in his toe in 1977.
• Bob was treated by Dr. Joseph Issels in Bavaria, Germany for 8 months in 1981. Issels' treatment was controversial and non-toxic.
• Bob died of cancer in a Miami hospital in 1981, May 11. He was going back to Jamaica.