From 1976 – 1978 * Almost Killed to Life in Exile to Movement of Jah People
By M. Peggy Quattro
Opinion
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.
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.
So Bob Seh: “You should know and not believe”
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.
Bob Marley’s Earthday Celebrations Set for Feb. 6, 2021
There are several birthday celebrations leading up to Marley’s 76th Birthday on February 6, including a global virtual birthday celebration hosted by Cedella Marley, Songs of Freedom: The Island Years and a Bob Marley Tribute Livestream
In lieu of the live annual birthday celebration that usually occurs at the Bob Marley Museum every year, Cedella Marley will be hosting a global virtual event for Bob Marley’s 76th birthday on February 6. Inspired by Bob Marley’s most militant album, Cedella, the Marley family, friends, and fans worldwide will celebrate Bob Marley’s 76th Earthstrong under the theme, SURVIVAL.
The virtual celebration will mimic the usual festivities beginning at 7 am ET, including messages from the family, a Miami Performance Mash-up featuring the Marley brothers and third-generation
Bob Marley – mid’70s
Marleys, Survival Cypher performance featuring Skip Marley, Jo Mersa, Tifa, Kabaka Pyramid, Agent Sasco, and Tanya Stephens, More Family Time with Ziggy Marley, Memorial Tributes for Toots Hibbert and Betty Wright.
Also, performances from Papa Michigan, Richie Spice, Beenie Man, and more, plus “In the Marley Kitchen” featuring Chefs Brian Lumley and Kush McDonald, story reading, yoga, a children’s sing-a-long and much more. The virtual celebration will also feature video tribute messages from family, friends, fellow musicians, and artists from around the world.
To watch Marley’s 76th Birthday SURVIVAL festivities on Bob Marley’s official YouTube channel, and for more upcoming content celebrating Bob’s legacy & contributions to the world, click HERE.
Damian “Junior Gong” Marley Interview – Perth, Australia 2011
By Mumma Trees
Ed. Note: In Australia for the 2011 4-day Good Vibrations Fest, Damian Marley, along with his latest collab partner Nas, were featured artists on a stellar festival lineup that included Faithless, Ludacris, Janelle Monae, and Erykah Badu. Prior to the show, Perth radio personality and journalist Mumma Trees caught up with the young Marley in Miami via phone. Featured photo by Jan Salzman. Watch the Damian & Nas video “Nah Mean” below or on our YouTube channel.
Early Days & Inspirations
Damian Marley * Photo Lee Abel
How did you start, Damian, what made you get up there and do what you do?
Well, I mean I think it goes without saying that I have an obvious influence from my family, you know my father, and of course, my older brothers and sisters are all involved in music. But growing up as a child, I used to go to a lot of concerts in Jamaica and watch some of my personal musical heroes, which would be people like Shabba Ranks and Supercat, who are some of the earlier Dancehall artists. I used to watch them perform and that’s really what got me into wanting to perform myself.
That’s interesting because your brothers are singers, but you have chosen the deejay style.
Yeah. And that’s definitely because of that same influence… like the first music I bought for myself was Dancehall music.
Are there any current Dancehall artists who are doing things that you admire?
Yeah, I mean, lots of them, I am a big fan of music in general, you know wha I mean, so I try my best to keep up-to-date with what’s going on, especially in Jamaica. I mean lots of them, you have Mavado, Gyptian, Tarrus Riley, Wayne Marshall, Vybz Kartel, you have loads of them, and I am a fan of their music.
You mention Vybz Kartel, what’s your opinion of the slackness in Dancehall music coming out in the last few years from artists like him?
I mean, the music I bought as a child was slack also. And I am a big advocate of freedom of speech. You have to be free to say something negative, to be free to say something positive. So I am a big advocate of that. And realistically, you know music is an honest way of making a living. You know, somebody could be out there doing something that isn’t…. Music don’t really hurt nobody. So if Vybz Kartel is making an honest living for himself, you have to respect that.
Were you close with your brothers and sisters growing up?
We were very close growing up. Every vacation, summer holidays, I would always go and spend a few weeks with them, and you know, we were very close from when I was a child.
When you have performed with your brothers, it has been as the “Ghetto Youths Crew,” are you still working together on that?
Well, we still are a team, but performing as the Ghetto Youths Crew, we haven’t done that in many years now. But we still definitely work as a team. We have a whole lot of new young artists we are working with and getting ready to release some projects next year.
Collaboration with Nas
Your latest collaboration with Nas has been a huge worldwide hit. Can you tell me about the album title Distant Relatives?
Nas & Damian Marley in Florida *. Photo Alex Broadwell
It’s called Distant Relatives because of different reasons. Nas and myself, being that we are ‘distant relatives,’ Hip-Hop and Reggae as two genres of music being ‘distant relatives.’ Then on a bigger scale now, all of humanity, because the album itself has the concept of Africa intertwined throughout the whole album. We are trying to say that all of humanity comes from the same birthplace, Africa. So, all of us as humanity are ‘distant relatives.’
Speaking of Africa, I have seen videos of you and your brothers performing in Ethiopia. Have you performed in any southern African country?
I have performed in Ethiopia and Ghana, but those are the only places in Africa I have visited so far. But for sure, my father’s song is the national anthem of Zimbabwe. So, that’s definitely a place I want to go and visit.
You had a couple of big tunes a few years ago produced by Baby G, The Mission and One Loaf of Bread. Are you planning to do any more work with Trevor Baby G?
It’s funny you say that because he is actually here in Miami. We have been doing some work together over the last few weeks. We’re trying to get a few Dancehall tracks together, so actually, I have a few tracks with Baby G being released in the next few weeks.
You are coming to Perth as part of the Good Vibrations festival, a great national festival, what can we expect from your performance here with Nas?
Nas & Damian Marley, Pompano Beach, FL *. Photo Alex Broadwell
You can expect the best of both worlds. You can expect a great coming together of two genres of music. We do some of the tracks together that we have on the album, then the both of us give a little bit of our own catalogue of music. You gonna get a nice mix of Hip-Hop and Reggae.
Do you have a message for the Perth people?
Yeah man, tell dem Love and we will be there soon. Respect.
Nas & Damian “Zilla” Marley – “Nah Mean” from 2010’s Distant Relatives LP
On Thursday, October 9, 1986, Rita Marley, member of the I-Three; [and] Ziggy, Cedella, and Steve Marley of the Melody Makers, hosted a press conference at their Marcus Garvey Drive head office to review their successful “Hey World” tour and discuss plans for the future.
I-Three – Judy, Rita & Marcia
The tour, which featured the Melody Makers, the I-Three, Nadine Sutherland, and the 809 Band, covered some 22 North American cities with a unique blend of Reggae tradition, experience and youth they will not forget for a long time to come.
One newspaper review, in fact, said that “he (Ziggy) and three acts from the Tuff Gong label… carried the people with them on a journey through the Reggae world, which the elder Marley carved for his own.” Continue reading →
When asked to recall the first time he heard Third World’s music, Damian “Junior Gong” Marley, who has known many of the legendary band’s members since he was a baby, briefly paused before responding. “It’s hard to say the exact moment because I was so young,” Damian said, “but it must have been at Cat’s house (Third World guitarist/cellist/vocalist Stephen “Cat” Coore, the father of Shiah Coore, Damian’s lifelong friend and bassist in his band). I remember Cat would come home from the studio where he was working on an album and play the music, I remember seeing album covers, the plaques the band had received. Really, Third World’s music has had a presence throughout my whole life.”
For several years, Damian had wanted to produce an album for the band with the intent of introducing their music to a younger demographic. However, with their respective hectic schedules, finding a mutually convenient time frame to write and record proved somewhat challenging. But the outstanding result, More Work to Be Done (out on the Marley family’s Ghetto Youths International imprint), was well worth the wait. “Third World had many songs they were working on; because they are top-notch musicians, they were all good songs, but those songs wouldn’t have accomplished my goal of moving them into this new generation of music,” Damian, a four-time Grammy winner, told Billboard on the phone from his Miami studio. “We had discussions about re-approaching some of the songs, even the songwriting, so we almost started the album from scratch halfway through working on it. We had songwriting sessions together, came up with ideas and developed what was most attractive to us. That’s what you are hearing on the album.”
In the beginning… was Robert Nesta (Bob) Marley and a new music form was brought forth… An international sound destined to educate and liberate the people from thousands of years of mental slavery. There followed a son… David Robert Nesta Marley… Brought forth to carry on the age-old musical crusade… a youth reaching out, touching hearts, of a new courageous and wise generation. “This is a new time and a new system,” declares the younger Marley, “my father was like the Old Testament… I am the New Testament.”
A strong, powerful and confident young man, 19-year-old Ziggy (a name given him by his father at an early age) is also warm, intense and somewhat shy. As good friend Judy Mowatt has said “Ziggy is the complete replica of his father…possessing that command like ‘I am here!’” His quick bright smile and soft, yet earnest eyes, displace any trace of egotism.
Serious, soulful Ziggy – NYC interview with MPQ 1987
It did my heart good to catch up with Ziggy in New York at the conclusion of recording Virgin Records’ Melody Makers debut album.
What follows is an interview and overview:
MPQ: So Ziggy, when and where were you born?
Ziggy: Trenchtown, inna mi yard, 1968, October 17.
MPQ: Are you still single, attached, looking?
Ziggy: No (laughs) mi free still… Me nuh look still, but me all right. Continue reading →
With the release of “Mind Control,” the debut chart-topping CD from the second son of Reggae’s original lion, Stephen Marley raises the bar and sets the standard for the future of Reggae music. Not bothered by the inevitable comparisons of looks and sound to his famous father, Stephen is honored by the resemblance and proud to deliver the same message of love, unity, and awareness that made Bob Marley a household name.
Personally, this is one CD I cannot listen to enough. From first hearing the title track, you know that this is going to be a breakthrough album. Each song that follows is a musical journey that permits the listener to become intimate with its creator. Stephen is fearless in displaying his political and social consciousness, as well as exposing a personal vulnerability seldom witnessed in Reggae music. Continue reading →
