Free Will Music

“The people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off. How can I?”

Bob Marley, 1976, in response to why he gave a concert on behest of Micheal Manley two days after he, his wife and his manager were wounded by gunshot in an assassination attempt at his home.

Today thirty years ago Nesta Robert Marley passed way. He was born Feb. 6, 1945, in Nine Mile, Jamaica. The cause of his death was cancer. The malignant growth started under a toe nail and might have been operable. However, he refused conventional medical care to the very end. Fighting destiny with high-technology medicine ran against his faith. He was a principled man and stood by his believes which found deepest expression in his music. He had not only become a one of a kind icon in his musical genre, but moreover stood for a freedom of expression and way of life new to the former British colonies of the Caribbean at the time. Bob Marley and the Wailers sincerely portrayed the Jamaican people's needs, desires and ambitions, which in the politics of the day were aptly epitomized in Prime Minister Michael Manley's leadership and political writings on the role of Jamaica and her people as an example of a rising independent nation in the region (see "Up the Down Escalator: Development and the International Economy : A Jamaican Case Study").

Bob Marley's life experience, spirituality and power of observation bestowed great conviction and great wisdom (quote from lyricsfreak.com added for Ms. Fenty's sake 12/21/11):

“I don't have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.”

His music reflects the sentiments of the Jamaican people with unsurpassed purity and sincerity. His music and thought have lived on to this day. In Jamaica and the rest of the developing world, the struggle for a better life never continues.

Listen to more Bob Marley and the Wailers at Wolfgang's Vault.

Addendum

• I am looking forward to seeing "Marley", Kevin Macdonald's new documentary on the man and his contribution to be released in August. Listen to Kenneth Turan's critique with the title "'Marley' Has Great Music, Remarkable Personal Story" on National Public Radio's Morning Edition aired today (04/20/2012).