SOD: Bob Marley "Roots"

I have a spiel on Bob Marley. I find him to be an incredible story. His effect on music and the world when it was his time is the stuff of well, Legend.

I remember a conversation I had with my mother once. I argued that the album Exodus(1977) was the biggest album of that decade, and by far the most influential. Bob Marley, before this time even, was on his way to becoming one of the biggest pop stars in the world. And he was from the Third World. To date, that hadn't happened before on this level. He brought the music of the impoverished Jamaican poor, to the entire world. Reggae was now truly on the map. Exodus was created after Marley went into self imposed exile to recover from an assassination attempt. Time Magazine actually voted it "Best Album of the 20th Century," which seems a bit much, but I get it. I do. The impact of Marley's music on the international scene must have been quite great at such a political time.

They called Bob "Tuff Gong," because he was a strong for a little guy. He was small and also of mixed race, his father being a white jamaican of british decent. Surely this led to a lot of agitation towards him and garnered him nicknames like "half caste." But this poor little Jamaican boy, with a little help along the way, would become one of the greatest Rastafari symbols in the world.

As said in his Eulogy by Jamaican PM Edward Seaga,

            His voice was an omnipresent cry in our electronic world. His sharp features, majestic looks, and prancing style a vivid etching on the landscape of our minds. Bob Marley was never seen. He was an experience which left an indelible imprint with each encounter. Such a man cannot be erased from the mind. He is part of the collective consciousness of the nation. 

He left a stamp on this world like none other. It was the man, the music, the message; all those combined created the legacy of Bob Marley. He lived a devoted and passionate life of which, his music was the driving force. He predicted his music would live on past his death, and it has. The posthumously released album Legend, is by far reggae's best-selling album at 10x Platinum (or "Diamond") in the U.S. It was a staple cassette in the boom box when I was growing up. Summer time meant Bob Marley. I knew of his legend (both the album and man), long before I even knew what he was singing about. For the music he made over 40 years ago, to still have relevance and prevalence in our lives today, is simply amazing. Everyone's heard of Bob Marley, and I think a great many more generations will continue to know him as well.