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Bob Marley Movie Review by M Peggy Quattro

Bob Marley: One Love – The Movie. The Man. The Music. The Message.

By M. Peggy Quattro

Like millions around the globe, I eagerly awaited the debut of the Bob Marley: One Love movie. Paramount Pictures took it on! A 70++ million-dollar budget! Wow! Reggae gone Hollywood! Yet, as intriguing and well-put-together as the movie trailers appeared, many fans were left wondering … Wait! What?

I’ve watched One Love four times. Four times! Each time noticing something new, something not true, a disjointed timeline, events that never happened. Judging by the barrage of questioning comments on social, I know I’m not alone. From 1976 to 1978, we’re immersed in Bob’s Hollywood story world. Locations with stories created by screenwriters and coached by the Family.

Bob Marley

Understood, it is not a documentary. On the flip side, it’s a biopic. Claimed to be “based on a true story,” the biopic offers a creative version of a person’s life. An emotional and entertaining portrayal to hopefully engage audiences. Here, there are soppy scenes with mother, father, teen Bob, and Rita, of course.

This movie left me feeling Bob never got the profound radical story he deserved. Perhaps when interpreting a deceased icon’s life, the storyteller should not fabricate stories because they don’t like or don’t accept the truth of that life. Truths should not switch to untruths when it suits the situation.

I get a bit ruffled when I see One Love tagged as a “biography.” It isn’t. A decent biography will contain only facts and tell how the person really was. This story does not do that. Bob Marley fans do not want to see their musical messenger, their Rasta rebel, be made lesser than or greater than he truthfully was. I don’t feel Bob would either. Bob’s life is the story. Sometimes truth is better than fiction. His fans deserve to know what’s fiction and be made aware of it outside the theater.

I’ve seen on social that folks look forward to this review. Jah know, some will like it, some will not. Nuh mattah. I’m a long-time insider and a major Bob disciple.

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Garnet Silk – On Record – A Discography 1995

Garnet Silk on Record

by Lee O’Neill           V13#2 1995

The passing of Garnet Silk is greatly mourned throughout the Reggae community. It is becoming a far too common occurrence for talented artists to needlessly lose their lives. In Silk’s case, the tragedy is compounded by his youthfulness, his vitality and the sense that he hadn’t yet come close to fulfilling his considerable potential.

It’s Growing was Silk’s first album released on VP Records in 1992, although he had been releasing records for at least a couple of years in Jamaica. It’s inconsistent, at best, with a handful of great songs, such as the title track, “Place in Your Heart,” “Commitment” and “I Am Vex.” Some of the other songs, however, sound forced or incomplete, and while Silk has one of the best voices, he hadn’t completely learned to control it or discipline it on It’s Growing. The session was produced by Bobby Digital. Continue reading

Women’s History Month & Int’l Women’s Day 2020

March is Women’s History Month “Valiant Women of the Vote”

The 2020 Women’s History Month theme is “Valiant Women of the Vote.”  The theme honors “the brave women who fought to win suffrage rights for women, and for the women who continue to fight for the voting rights of others.”

Beginning in California in 1978, the Women’s History Week movement grew into the Women’s History Month celebration. The week of March 8 was chosen to tie in with the UN-sanctioned International Women’s Day celebrations (see below). In 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first proclamation declaring the week of March 8th as National Women’s History Week. Continue reading