Bob Marley
Robert Nesta Marley
1945 - 1981

After the release of the ”Rastaman vibration” album in 1976, the Jamaican government formally banned four songs from the radio (”War”, ”Crazy baldheads”, ”Who the cap fit” and ”Rat race”). And from that time, Bob Marley became more and more politically involved, and with that came several threats on his life. At the December 5th 1976, Bob Marley was supposed to hold a non-political concert at the National Heroes Circle Stadium. A free concert, to thank the Jamaicans for their support of his musikal career, and a gesture that he hoped would bring a rather violent year to an end.

About nine o`clock on the night of December 3rd, six gunmen began firing at Marley´s house, and two of them went inside and fired at anything that moved. Marley´s manager, Don Taylor took four bullets in the back, Bob´s wife Rita was shot in the head, and Bob himself got wounded in the chest and in his left arm. Everyone survived miraculously, but Bob said he was not able to play the guitar on the December 5th concert and would only do one song. But when the day came, he held a mesmerizing 90 minutes long concert, and ended it with showing his bulletwounds to the crowd. ”You can´t kill Jah”, he had sung earlier, now he made some gestures, mimicking a gunfighter, threw back his dreadlocks and laughed, before he left the stage. ”It sounded like a lion´s roar” according to one of the other musicians on stage that night. The very next day he left for London, later to Miami where he setteled with his wife and children.

In 1977 ”Exodus” came out, and became Marley´s best selling album to date. Including the smashhits: ”Jamming”, ”Exodus” and ” Waiting in vain”.

During a soccergame in Paris, he injured his big toe, but he continued touring despite the pain. Later, a doctor in London diagnosed the toe as cancerous, but Marley refused to amputate it. ”Rasta no abide amputation,” he said, and ”I and I don´t allow a man to be dismantled.”
Then came 1978 and the ”Kaya” album, including the incredible song ”Is this love”. Kaya is another slangword for marihuana. In that same year, the ”One love peace concert” was held in Jamaica, that was when Bob Marley persuaded the the two political enemies, Edward Seaga and Michael Manley, to join hands on stage and pledge themselves to peace in Jamaica. Also that year, Marley went on a hugely successful world tour, which resulted in the livealbum ”Babylon by bus”. While in New York that year, Marley received the The third World Peace Medal, from the combined African delegation to the UN. He got this honorable medal on behalf of five hundred million Africans, for his work for equal rights and justice.

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